Hello folks. I'm worried that one of my inverters may have bitten the dust. Around noon today, near peak sun in Phoenix (zero clouds), I saw a dramatic drop in production. I called Tesla and they had me power cycle the inverters. As of right now i'm seeing less than half of what I should be seeing. Does a failed inverter make sense? I might have the worst luck in the world when it comes to my Tesla Energy install. Feel free to look at my post history for past woes. Anything I can really do to confirm my suspicions?
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Sudden Production Drop
- Thread starter hobapolis
- Start date
I had something like that happen to me, and thought it was the inverter. In my case, it ended up being some connector that had stress on it on my roof and had freyed and become disconnected.
The tech they sent to check on my system was able to get me back up and running (by making a cable and fixing the connection), and then he put a ticket in for tesla to replace all the connectors on my panels because they didnt use "that style" anymore or something.
That took a couple months actually, but since he had returned me to service, was transparent for me.
The tech they sent to check on my system was able to get me back up and running (by making a cable and fixing the connection), and then he put a ticket in for tesla to replace all the connectors on my panels because they didnt use "that style" anymore or something.
That took a couple months actually, but since he had returned me to service, was transparent for me.
I'll make sure they check cables on the roof as well.
I popped open each inverter front and one of them had a near silent fan and one had an extremely loud fan. they are both exposed to about the same amount of sun. i'm wondering if this could be an overheating issue? A friend at Tesla Tier2 suggested as much.
Could be. I know in my case, I looked at my inverters when it happened (I have one 4.2 kW inverter and one 3.4kW one) and they were both on, and silent. Mine both have small digital screens on them that display information, and one of the screens shows current power generation. I watched both the screen scroll, and one of them had "Zeros" where there was supposed to be generation numbers, so I thought it had gone bad but wasnt sure.
I actually had phenomenal turn around on this, when it happened to me. I think tesla had someone out to look at my system in like 4-5 days. I have always wondered if that was because I am actually under a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) on my PV system, where I pay for generated solar.
Solar generation cut in half ment less money paid to tesla (lol) so I always wondered if they prioritized PPA customers in return to service over others. I have no idea, It was just something I was wondering about.
Anyway, when the person came, I was sure he was going to tell me "yep the inverter is bad, we need to order one", and they dont even make my brand inverter anymore (from 2015, brand is called "ABB" and was sold to some other company) so I was prepared for a long haul type of issue and cut production (and frustration) for a while.
Luckily it didnt turn out that way at all. Hopefully yours is similar, we can hope. Good luck with it.
I actually had phenomenal turn around on this, when it happened to me. I think tesla had someone out to look at my system in like 4-5 days. I have always wondered if that was because I am actually under a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) on my PV system, where I pay for generated solar.
Solar generation cut in half ment less money paid to tesla (lol) so I always wondered if they prioritized PPA customers in return to service over others. I have no idea, It was just something I was wondering about.
Anyway, when the person came, I was sure he was going to tell me "yep the inverter is bad, we need to order one", and they dont even make my brand inverter anymore (from 2015, brand is called "ABB" and was sold to some other company) so I was prepared for a long haul type of issue and cut production (and frustration) for a while.
Luckily it didnt turn out that way at all. Hopefully yours is similar, we can hope. Good luck with it.
Thanks. While I had the inverters open I took a photo of the wifi information so I'm hoping by logging into the inverters directly I can see some production information to at least suss out which one it faulty. I have the new-ish Tesla-branded white box inverters so there's no information anywhere about current production which, frankly sucks.
jgleigh
Member
@hobapolis The Gateway has all the information you're looking for. Several good options, but here are the ones I use to grab all the information.
github.com
github.com
GitHub - jasonacox/pypowerwall: Python API for Tesla Powerwall and Solar Power Data
Python API for Tesla Powerwall and Solar Power Data - jasonacox/pypowerwall
github.com
GitHub - jasonacox/Powerwall-Dashboard: Grafana Monitoring Dashboard for Tesla Solar and Powerwall Systems
Grafana Monitoring Dashboard for Tesla Solar and Powerwall Systems - jasonacox/Powerwall-Dashboard
github.com
You can only get string level data through the GW with PW2+. It sounds like the OP had a standalone Tesla inverter(s). In this case you need to power cycle them and then connect to the wifi SSID that the inverter broadcasts. Quite inconvenient.@hobapolis The Gateway has all the information you're looking for. Several good options, but here are the ones I use to grab all the information.
GitHub - jasonacox/pypowerwall: Python API for Tesla Powerwall and Solar Power Data
Python API for Tesla Powerwall and Solar Power Data - jasonacox/pypowerwallGitHub - jasonacox/Powerwall-Dashboard: Grafana Monitoring Dashboard for Tesla Solar and Powerwall Systems
Grafana Monitoring Dashboard for Tesla Solar and Powerwall Systems - jasonacox/Powerwall-Dashboard
EVRider-FL
Active Member
I’ve had some Enphase microinverters stop working temporarily but they always recover without intervention. Enphase has their own app and website that shows your inverter status (among other things).
Yeah something is up. I do have the standalone inverters and even after opening up the panel I don’t see the password I expecting to see for the SSID. I’ve been told that someone will get back to me Monday. The working hypothesis is still overheating but it’s only April in Arizona and this doesn’t bode well for the summer.
What a coincidence OP! This exact thing happened to me, but two days before you. In my case also, production dropped to zero around that same noon time, but on Thursday. And my system did not start producing again until 430 PM on Friday. So, from noon on Thursday to 430 PM on Friday, I had zero Production. I called last Saturday, and they said they will monitor my system for 24 hours and get back to me. They never got back. Chatted with someone this past Friday, and they said they will escalate it to some senior analysts. Hopefully those analysts are able to figure out something.
For the past 3-4 months, I have noticed another issue daily. Between the hours of 10 AM and 2 PM or so, when the production is over then 6 - 7 kw, I see frequent drops to almost zero or 1-2 kw production for a few minutes before it goes back up again. This has been happening on every single day without fail. I think the last time I had a smooth production curve between 10 AM and 2 PM, above 6-7 kw was back in January. Do you see a similar pattern?
Thank you. I will take your advice and get on their case daily. Was not too impressed by their first level support advisors. The first person I talked to just looked at the total production number, said it was 105% of the promised capacity and concluded there was nothing wrong. The second person I chatted with was multi-tasking and actually sent me a message meant for another customer. Did not even have the patience to read and understand the issue I was describing until I had to virtually yell at them and demand attention!
Are the panels they are connected to on the same roof plane, same string length, etc.? Fan speed is closer coupled to load than solar loading on the inverter.
This has been my experience with level 1 as well. My case is completely F'd up and the on-site i was supposed to have tomorrow (Friday) is for a different issue...they cancelled that appointment out of the blue...so yeah I'm back to square one and the Level 1 I'm talking to doesn't seem to believe there's a problem because my CURRENT production is fine. This guy is delusional.
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