Tesla called me and told me I needed to upgrad my brand new 200A panel. Does that sound right?

[charlesj]

Well, I might not have read all the responses, but the reason for new panels is determined by local electrical codes. In a conversation with a 3rd party installer, most main panel configurations in the Southwest US use an integrated Meter design, utility meter and breakers in the same cabinet. I looked at the Leviton power panel, and it's of this integrated design.
The Powerwall installation MUST intersect or go BETWEEN the utility meter, and the circuits feeding your home. That's nearly impossible with an integrated meter panel. In most cases there's no room to run (4) 2/0 wires out the side of the panel. These wires are almost 1/2" in diameter each and don't bend much at all, not to mention, the modification to the panel would violate NEC wiring codes.
A whole house backup installation requires ALL the circuits to be spliced and extended to a new main panel. All that remains in the original panel is the original main breaker and a new breaker of the same Amperage that feeds the Gateway.
An essential circuit backup is similar with less splices and all the essential circuits routed to a new power panel.

I recently had Tesla install 3 PW's for whole house backup, and that's how it was done.

That must be the reason my son's panel needs upgrading as there is no way to separate the loads from that panel and place the Gateway in-between, etc.

Tesla installer did a super job on mine.
I had two 100A breakers for two subpanels in that integrated panel.
That was replaced with 1- 150A breaker, ran that line out the lower back corner into the garage right behind it.
Also spliced and ran the 100A subpanel wires in that hole as well, hung the 200A backup panel right on that nipple, 3" perhaps(a big one).
The main line went through the backup panel to the Gateway right above that backup panel and the Gateway out came into the backup panel. Placed 2-100A for subpanels and 2- 30A for PW.

 

[mnsweeps]

OP, How did you go about this panel upgrade request? I am in same boat now. Tesla told they need to upgrade panel which is a 2003 year 200 amp panel installed by the builder (home was build in 2003). Cost is about $3000. I had ordered 8.16 kwh PV and 2 Powerwalls. Not sure how to proceed :-(

 

[CalMdl3]

Hello- thank you for some great information in this thread. I am in the same boat as the original poster - after months of delay, I finally get a note from Tesla indicating they have my permit from the City of San Jose. However, I need to pay $5,000 for a Main Panel Upgrade. I just had my main panel and service upgraded to 200 AMP using the Square D Solar Ready Panel (Model # SC3042M200PF) in 2017 (picture below). I cannot get through to someone at Tesla who can explain why I need to upgrade this almost new panel.

I am on order for 3 Power Walls and a 12.24kw solar system. Here are the pics of my main panel. From what I read on the web at SC3042M200PF - ALL-IN-ONE RING OH/UG SEMIFLUSH 200A SOL | Schneider Electric USA this panel has 200 amps and 225 amp BUS rating. I have plenty of open slots. Currently this main panel services two A/Cs, two car chargers, 100 amp sub panel for house.

The cryptic email on the request for $5K Main Panel Upgrade from my project coordinator says that my panel is not compatible with their PowerWall Gateway. I cannot imagine what panels would be - given this one is less than 3 years old and highly rated on various websites. I am not an engineer or electrician - what am I missing? Why $5K to replace a 200 AMP solar-ready panel with a 200 AMP Tesla compatible panel? Do you think this is because the meter is integrated into the panel?

They did not even mention the option of dropping a PW or cutting the number of circuits backed up. I don't want/need the car chargers or AC or oven backed up. I would like to back up the wine cellar

Any thoughts on what is going on here? Feels like the Powerwalls require some really special set up that is not included in most solar ready panel upgrades.

 

[mnsweeps]

OP SMAlset here and yes we got "the main panel upgrade required" notice from our City even though we had a 200A service. Our main panel was old, from 2004 when the house was built. All of our panel specs had long ago fallen off the inside and so we had no real idea what we had (mfgr/model) other than it was 200A service and so Tesla was kind of blind going into it as well. City had to pull our builder plans and when they did and looked up the panel that was installed that's when it hit the crapper. Tesla was told it had to be an end feed panel (ours was center) and for solar we needed to have a 225A bus bar. I suspect the bus bar might be your problem but only guessing here. They do make 200A panels which only have a 200A bus bar and that apparently was what we had. When I looked up the product you indicated you had installed (LP120-SR) the maximum ampacity is 200, not like the LP422-SR, which is 225. This would be very unfortunate if you had this installed on your own and you or your electrician (assuming not Tesla Energy?) did not know what your city would require to meet their code or standards.

If Tesla was responsible for installing the main panel upgrade, I would ask them to install the correctly sized one at their expense. At the point we hired an electrician to do our upgrade we had already heard back from the city rejecting permit because of our old panel and telling us why, so our electrician was able to order the correct one for us.

I have no idea how Generac works but I thought what was explained to us was that it was the solar portion of our project was going to require the higher rated bus. The main panel we had installed FWIW was an Eaton MBE2040PV200BTF (flush model otherwise 200BTS), solar ready. On the panel diagram it shows the Distribution Panel is rated for 225A.

For anyone wanting to look up his panel, here's Leviton's webpage for it: LP120-SR - 12 Space Outdoor All-in-One Solar-Ready Load Center with Main Breaker in Gray - Leviton "Product Overview" shows all the products they offer under this Solar Ready Load Center.

My situation is exactly as yours. My 2003 build home has the same 200 amp circuit with 200 amp bus bar. Tesla told me I need to upgrade to a 225 amp one Did you say you installed the Eaton MBE2040PV200BTF which is 200 amp panel with 225 amp rated bus bar?

 

[SMAlset]

My situation is exactly as yours. My 2003 build home has the same 200 amp circuit with 200 amp bus bar. Tesla told me I need to upgrade to a 225 amp one Did you say you installed the Eaton MBE2040PV200BTF which is 200 amp panel with 225 amp rated bus bar?

Yes, that is the panel we had our electrician install so we could make the end of March deadline for getting our solar installed (back then they were running short of PWs and they were splitting orders -- solar separate from PW install). When we finally were scheduled for solar and PWs together months later, we saw from our plans that two load centers were being added to our interior garage. Both of those were 200A/225A bus. All of the breakers in our new exterior Eaton panel were relocated to one of the load centers as a distribution panel. It has a 150A main breaker, and includes our Gateway2--125A breaker (we have 3 PWs). The other load center also has a 150A main breaker and contains 3 - 30A breakers for the 3 PWs and a 40A breaker for the Solar inverter. The load centers are Square D, which at least in our case Tesla had switched over from the Eaton to using. Because of the MSP being an Eaton, none of those breakers which were relocated could be used in the Square D panel.

If it hadn't been for the initial rush to get the MPU done to get the solar installed in March before prime summer solar production, and the unfortunate timing of covid, I think we would have now in hindsight with all that happened, been better off letting Tesla do the MSP upgrade. They were booked months out for that work so at the time using our electrician seemed the best move. Hope this helps. We were both new to this as well.

 

[mnsweeps]

Yes, that is the panel we had our electrician install so we could make the end of March deadline for getting our solar installed (back then they were running short of PWs and they were splitting orders -- solar separate from PW install). When we finally were scheduled for solar and PWs together months later, we saw from our plans that two load centers were being added to our interior garage. Both of those were 200A/225A bus. All of the breakers in our new exterior Eaton panel were relocated to one of the load centers as a distribution panel. It has a 150A main breaker, and includes our Gateway2--125A breaker (we have 3 PWs). The other load center also has a 150A main breaker and contains 3 - 30A breakers for the 3 PWs and a 40A breaker for the Solar inverter. The load centers are Square D, which at least in our case Tesla had switched over from the Eaton to using. Because of the MSP being an Eaton, none of those breakers which were relocated could be used in the Square D panel.

If it hadn't been for the initial rush to get the MPU done to get the solar installed in March before prime summer solar production, and the unfortunate timing of covid, I think we would have now in hindsight with all that happened, been better off letting Tesla do the MSP upgrade. They were booked months out for that work so at the time using our electrician seemed the best move. Hope this helps. We were both new to this as well.

Thanks for info. So are you saying the Eaton main panel which your electrician installed was sort of disassembled by Tesla as they were using Square D load center? I am wondering what brand should I recommend my electrician.

 

[BrettS]

Thanks for info. So are you saying the Eaton main panel which your electrician installed was sort of disassembled by Tesla as they were using Square D load center? I am wondering what brand should I recommend my electrician.

For what it’s worth, they installed Eaton panels for my install here in Florida in June. But I feel like brand might be more of a regional thing. Ideally I would think that you would want to run whatever your electrician is going to install by tesla just to make sure they are good with it.

 

[mnsweeps]

For what it’s worth, they installed Eaton panels for my install here in Florida in June. But I feel like brand might be more of a regional thing. Ideally I would think that you would want to run whatever your electrician is going to install by tesla just to make sure they are good with it.

Or the other way round. I will ask Tesla next week what brand they using on my install and I will pass. that info to my electrician. Permit title which Tesla files with LA county says this "

Installation of roof-mounted PV, 8.16 kw, 24 modules, 1 (N) 200A Load Center, 1 (N) 225A Distribution panel, 1 (N) 125A Load Center (2) Tesla Powerwall (ESS)"

I am assuming the main panel is the '200A load center' ? I already have the 200A panel but with a lower bus rating than the needed 225A. Is my understanding correct here?

 

[mstgkillr]

I'm having a 17 kW system with 4 PowerWalls installed by Tesla. I have a 200A Main Panel, which also feeds a Sub Panel. Everything was installed last year. Any idea if Tesla is going to hit me up for a panel upgrade? I'm currently in the permitting stage, so they have already received pictures of my panels.

The 200A Main Panel has 595A worth of breakers, including the 80A breaker that feeds the Sub Panel mentioned above/below. It currently has 6 opens slots, and I can free up 2 more if I remove the surge suppressor .

The Sub Panel has 215A worth of breakers and 11 open slots.

 

[AllThingsT3sla]

I was just quoted $4750 for my 200 to 225A main panel upgrade. Ugh

 

[Laketime]

I have a 16.32kWh system with 3 walls and a 200 amp panel that also feed 2 100a sub panels . I can't see why they need to upgrade a perfectly fine panel.

 

[holeydonut]

I was just quoted $4750 for my 200 to 225A main panel upgrade. Ugh

Yeah, for my project this was one of the surprise things that made Tesla's seemingly bargain quote on their website not really pan out for me. I just hope your gas riser isn't within 36 inches of your main service panel...

 

[SMAlset]

I have a 16.32kWh system with 3 walls and a 200 amp panel that also feed 2 100a sub panels . I can't see why they need to upgrade a perfectly fine panel.

If the issue is that the Bus bar is only rated to 200As like the main panel rating and not 225A, there was a thread on TMC that people explained why it would be needed. It’s not an uncommon thing to trip people up that already have 200A panel installed. I don’t remember what the difference in price was for a 225A bus as opposed to a 200A bus main panel but I’m sure it would have been cost effective for the original panel to be that instead of later having to pay for a whole new MPU with the 225A bus.

As I recall the need for this upgrade had to do with load calculations and needing to meet a % above for surplus I think. Try a search for “225A bus” in this forum to find the thread. I know when we worked out the numbers for our house the 200A bus did not meet the requirements.