Software versions for Powerwall 2?

[astrothad]

When my Powerwalls were first installed in mid-July, the app displayed software version 1.3.3. This is also visible in some of the screen shots of the app elsewhere in the Tesla Energy forum here.

This past weekend, it looks like there was an upgrade to 1.5.1. This isn't for the app; this is what shows for the software for the Powerwalls themselves.

I did a cursory search on tesla.com for information about Powerwall software, but didn't find anything.

Does anyone know where to find what functionality we gain with updates to the Powerwall software? This documentation exists and can be located for updates for Tesla vehicles, but I'm not sure where it is for the Powerwalls. Maybe it's less of a concern since we don't drive Powerwalls around?

Pushing 1.5.1 out to the units must have improved or fixed something. I'm curious as to what it is.

 

[Cpaces]

I noticed that too. curious myself. +1

 

[zanary]

Ca you confirm if "Time of Use" is support yet? This means that we charge at the lower 11pm to 6am rate and use the powewall to power the house while the rates are much higher.

I'm hearing conflicting results, some say that it's not yet supported and may come out by end of year, others say it's already in there.

 

[dhu1]

My understanding is that time of use management software won't be available until later this year. This is what my energy advisor told me

 

[zanary]

My Powerwall were just upgraded from 1.5.1 to 1.6.0. No Time of Use Load Shifting just yet. I'm curious what changed between 1.5.1 and 1.6.0

They don't publish any change lot that I'm aware of. That's a shame!

 

[Louv]

My new Powerwall2 install (Sept 21, 2017) upgraded itself to v1.7.0

 

[SRO-Sean]

some say that it's not yet supported and may come out by end of year, others say it's already in there.

I was told load shifting was available for solar installations, but not for backup (Powerwall only) installs. We're still waiting. The last three software updates have added virtually no functionality I can see. Our Powerwalls are working great, but it's going to get rough manually hitting the breaker twice a day when winter hits

 

[ElectricTundra]

My guess is the these are; BMS changes to improve battery life, internal logging/reporting, or back-end bits for future app functionality. All good stuff even if no new buttons, sliders, or blinky lights.

 

[SRO-Sean]

I won't complain about back end improvements. I'm sure the engineers have solid priorities. And I don't need blinky lights. The Tesla App is pretty basic, so I wrote my own to graph our usage, rate and TOU savings.

It would just be nice if that one major item at the top of every brochure and whitepaper that sold us on Powerwalls in the first place (Load Shifting) was more of a priority. Conceptually, it's just a software switch and settings to schedule time on/off and battery reserve level. In an installation without solar, there's really not much more to it than that.

 

[Shygar]

I won't complain about back end improvements. I'm sure the engineers have solid priorities. And I don't need blinky lights. The Tesla App is pretty basic, so I wrote my own to graph our usage, rate and TOU savings.

It would just be nice if that one major item at the top of every brochure and whitepaper that sold us on Powerwalls in the first place (Load Shifting) was more of a priority. Conceptually, it's just a software switch and settings to schedule time on/off and battery reserve level. In an installation without solar, there's really not much more to it than that.

I would normally agree but I think there is more to it than that. The second you hit 11pm you don't want thousands of powerwalls out there hitting the grid. So I'm guessing they're trying to come up with an intelligent way to do this. Theoretically they would already have this problem with EV charging, but I don't have my model 3 yet so I don't have any experience charging them.

 

[miimura]

I would normally agree but I think there is more to it than that. The second you hit 11pm you don't want thousands of powerwalls out there hitting the grid. So I'm guessing they're trying to come up with an intelligent way to do this. Theoretically they would already have this problem with EV charging, but I don't have my model 3 yet so I don't have any experience charging them.

If the intent is to re-fill the battery during the off-peak period, the PowerWall could just look at its SOC and calculate the charging current required to fill the battery over the full time window. Replacing 12kWh in 8 hours is only 1,500W. That's not very significant impact on the grid.

What I really want from TOU software is for the PowerWall to avoid all discharge during the Off-Peak 11pm-7am window. If it can collect some solar before 7am, that's fine, but the house will probably use those few Watts anyway.

 

[eml2]

I had my 2 Powerwalls installed a week ago. At first it showed 1.7.0, a few days later, it was downgraded to 1.6.0!

As far as I can tell, with 1.7.0, when I connect locally to the Gateway's web UI, it shows the Powerwall output/input power (kW), like those for solar/grid/home. No long shows it with 1.6.0.

 

[Parzival]

I commissioned mine two days ago. They came out of the box on 1.5.0-GF and I updated them to 1.7.0 during commissioning. They're still on 1.7.0 today.

 

[Bigtanuki]

I'm curious. Is the SRO as in nuclear?

I won't complain about back end improvements. I'm sure the engineers have solid priorities. And I don't need blinky lights. The Tesla App is pretty basic, so I wrote my own to graph our usage, rate and TOU savings.

It would just be nice if that one major item at the top of every brochure and whitepaper that sold us on Powerwalls in the first place (Load Shifting) was more of a priority. Conceptually, it's just a software switch and settings to schedule time on/off and battery reserve level. In an installation without solar, there's really not much more to it than that.

 

[zanary]

I commissioned mine two days ago. They came out of the box on 1.5.0-GF and I updated them to 1.7.0 during commissioning. They're still on 1.7.0 today.

Do you have solar, or are you Whole Home Backup? I just checked mine and I'm still at 1.6.0 but I'm Whole Home Backup.

 

[Parzival]

Do you have solar, or are you Whole Home Backup? I just checked mine and I'm still at 1.6.0 but I'm Whole Home Backup.

Solar + Whole home backup

 

[salcaide]

Re Load Shifting: Has anyone considered doing something to trick the powerwall? If I could convince the powerwall that I had lots of solar energy coming in, it would charge up, and if it had lots of load, it would discharge. If you wrapped a little wire around the ct a few hundred times, and passed a very small current through it, this would trick the CT into reporting things differently. Because it only charges off solar, you would need to trick the solar side to charge at night, and because it only discharges to cover load, you would need to trick the load during the day. Not sure if it would need to be an AC Alternating Current load, but the voltage would not matter, only the current. So, a 1V load at 0.1A wrapped 100 times would trick the Powerwall into thinking it was a load of 10A at 230V or 2+ kwh. Double the windings and double the result. All for an actual power consumption of 0.1 Watt. Your graphing and power usage indicated by the Tesla App would go crazy, but, I think it would work. Anyone else think of something like this?

 

[Tim_btt]

I've just noticed that I'm on firmware version 1.11.0 here in UK at the moment. Anyone else seen an update yet? I can't see anything to have changed, other than the 5% reserve that Tesla introduced has gone.

 

[nswfugitive]

Still 1.10.2 here in Australia, I haven't seen anything posted on the local Whirlpool (Green Tech) forum about anyone being upgraded here.

 

[zanary]

I've just noticed that I'm on firmware version 1.11.0 here in UK at the moment. Anyone else seen an update yet? I can't see anything to have changed, other than the 5% reserve that Tesla introduced has gone.

I'm also on 1.10.2 still.