Strange Powerwall Behavior During Outage

[grtoro]

During today's outage in the SF Bay Area, the Powerwall charge went from 97% to 0 almost instantaneously. The app was full of red flags and warnings to shut down everything. To make matters worse, the app says not to troubleshoot during an outage. I was getting very nervous, trying to contact Tesla (not easy!) and getting ready for a cold, dark night when the charge went back to 97%, I have juice for more than 24 hours, and everything is nice again. Wait! It's happening again, and after sunset.

Is this a common occurrence? What is the cause? I am guessing that Tesla's servers were not able to communicate with the Powerwall.

Thanks

 

[jjrandorin]

Did you log into the gateway on your local network to see what it reported (vs the tesla app)? If so, what did it say? If not, why not?

 

[getakey]

why not? In all do respect, We should not have to log into the Tesla Gateway to see what it said.
This is very abnormal behavior. There should be a way to report high priority issues and get a high priority response.

 

[jjrandorin]

why not? In all do respect, We should not have to log into the Tesla Gateway to see what it said.
This is very abnormal behavior. There should be a way to report high priority issues and get a high priority response.

"I was getting nervous"... is what the OP said. If the app appears to not be registering properly, during a power outage when someone is home (and their phone is likely on their home wifi, which may or may have an actual internet connection depending on where the power is actually out), then the next step would be to check the local device and see if it is functioning.

That should come before (not after) attempts to contact Tesla. Thats the "why". Nothing to do at all with a priority response, etc... and tesla does have powerwall support via phone that is fairly responsive. I have never had to wait more than 4-5 rings for them to pick up the phone, but I also have no idea where others are calling.

 

[grtoro]

In all honesty, I have never connected to the Tesla Gateway. I tried to do it during the outage but it did not work. I would appreciate some guidance on how to do it or a pointer to the right manual and section.

BTW, what's the powerwall support phone number? I want to be better prepared next time.

 

[jjrandorin]

In all honesty, I have never connected to the Tesla Gateway. I tried to do it during the outage but it did not work. I would appreciate some guidance on how to do it or a pointer to the right manual and section.

BTW, what's the powerwall support phone number? I want to be better prepared next time.

The number I call for powerwall support is 877-961-7652. It gets you to a phone tree that will ask if you have powerwalls. Since you do, make sure to push that option. Frankly, it goes to tesla tier 1 powerwall support, but they do have some ability to look at data from your powerwall, and advise you on steps they recommend.

As for logging into the gateway, here is the current information I see on that from tesla. I have a gateway version 1 myself, and I think its slightly different for gateway 2.

Connecting to Tesla Gateway and Powerwall+ | Tesla Support

If you lose internet or cellular connection, view instructions on how you can monitor your system’s power flow and charge level via web browser by connecting to your Gateway or Powerwall+.

www.tesla.com

On a side note, i am not trying to intimate you did something wrong, so hopefully it did not / does not come across that way. I was mainly asking the question to ask if the "going from 97% to 0" was a visual quirk in the app (but the powerwalls were providing power) or, if in fact everything shut down.

Another question I would ask is, do you have 1 powerwall, or multiple, and what is the size of your solar install? I am not trying to grill you, its just that to even begin to speculate on "what was the cause", it would help to have some of this information.

 

[grtoro]

Thanks for the information.

 

[grtoro]

left home for an errand. found the house dark. on phone w/ tesla. Number was very handy. thx again.

 

[jjrandorin]

left home for an errand. found the house dark. on phone w/ tesla. Number was very handy. thx again.

Without any additional information from you on system size and number of powerwalls, it sounds to me like either you have too much solar for 1 powerwall, or you have "not enough powerwalls" for whatever loads are running when a power outage is happening.

 

[grtoro]

I have two powerwalls, which I think is plenty for my non-summer load. The maximum load today was 1.6 kW (no AC, washer, dryer, or dishwasher). It could be too much solar for 2 powerwalls, but I doubt it (solar peaked at 4.9kW).

I sure would like to know what caused the problem today. I am guessing it happened when the battery was full but no energy could be exported because of the outage.

The earlier problems were likely connection problems because the Internet connection was flaky. They looked serious but were not. The app showed 0 charge but I had plenty of juice in the powerwalls.

 

[bmah]

I have two powerwalls, which I think is plenty for my non-summer load. The maximum load today was 1.6 kW (no AC, washer, dryer, or dishwasher). It could be too much solar for 2 powerwalls, but I doubt it (solar peaked at 4.9kW).

I sure would like to know what caused the problem today. I am guessing it happened when the battery was full but no energy could be exported because of the outage.

The earlier problems were likely connection problems because the Internet connection was flaky. They looked serious but were not. The app showed 0 charge but I had plenty of juice in the powerwalls.

If the battery is full (or almost full) during an off-grid situation, the Gateway will shut off the solar inverter but the Powerwall system should (continue to) power the loads in your house. As the battery depletes, the Gateway will allow the solar inverter to come back on.

You may know this already but the Powerwall system doesn't require Internet access for normal operation, including backing up your home during a power outage. You might not be able to use the app or change settings in such a situation, but your loads should be powered.

You didn't say how long your system has been installed...have you or your installer ever tried an off-grid test (by opening the main circuit breaker to your house) and did it work as expected?

Bruce.

 

[jjrandorin]

I have two powerwalls, which I think is plenty for my non-summer load. The maximum load today was 1.6 kW (no AC, washer, dryer, or dishwasher). It could be too much solar for 2 powerwalls, but I doubt it (solar peaked at 4.9kW).

I sure would like to know what caused the problem today. I am guessing it happened when the battery was full but no energy could be exported because of the outage.

The earlier problems were likely connection problems because the Internet connection was flaky. They looked serious but were not. The app showed 0 charge but I had plenty of juice in the powerwalls.

Your house should not have been without power, with 2 powerwalls, and no large loads running. Even if the battery was full but no energy could be exported, that should just turn off the solar (not powerwalls). As @bmah says powerwalls dont need internet to function.

There is something going on that you need to get looked at, its not operating properly based on what you mention.

 

[jboy210]

Your house should not have been without power, with 2 powerwalls, and no large loads running. Even if the battery was full but no energy could be exported, that should just turn off the solar (not powerwalls). As @bmah says powerwalls dont need internet to function.

There is something going on that you need to get looked at, its not operating properly based on what you mention.

The only time I have had the powerwalls not take over is when the power dropped in an unclean manner with a lot of light dimming, then getting bright, then dimming again rapidly. Our TV went out and did not come back, but the light (LEDs) where on. I went out and flipped the main breaker off and on and the Powerwalls took over and all lights, TV, gas heater, etc. worked. When the grid came back up, I only knew by checking the app.