Tesla Solar in Houston & Surrounding Area’s

[DrewHou]

Another gateway, another separate system in your app.
I have 3 gateways in my app, each connect to 2 Pws. I wonder if there is a reason they can't stack 2 more on your existing 2 to use same system for 4 pws.

Yeah that makes no sense to me. I will chat them up tomorrow and ask because I thought this would just be add two to the existing gateway and system now just shows 4. I also wonder how this will work out for adding the two new ones into my Span Panel app.

 

[2tall3ne]

Question for those with PW + free nights plan. Curious if you've ever run out of PW during the day on hot cloudy summer days? I have 4 PW, reserve capacity set to 40% (paranoid of outages, seems to happen fairly frequently where I am at), both wife and I work from home... thinking about a switch to free nights. Just wondering if anyone has run into a situation where you just don't have enough PW capacity during the day.

I have 4 PW2, 16.32kWh solar and on free nights. Reserve set to 50%, work from home (wife and I) and always have a full battery by sunset.

 

[wiltoking]

View attachment 990142
Here’s how mine ended up breaking down if anyone’s interested.

That’s 4k cheaper than what I originally got offered 2 for when I was starting my system design. I would’ve done 2 powerwalls for that price back then for sure. My home is surviving fine with one but it leaves little for outages, getting a second one is very tempting :s

 

[Jones1]

Tesla Project advisor just contacted me. They have decided to put the PW’s on the opposite wall of my garage. They would like for me the clear the wall. In that area. I only have garage hooks and hangers in the wall. I will move them. This weekend. Now I’m waiting on the cost.

 

[DrewHou]

Tesla Project advisor just contacted me. They have decided to put the PW’s on the opposite wall of my garage. They would like for me the clear the wall. In that area. I only have garage hooks and hangers in the wall. I will move them. This weekend. Now I’m waiting on the cost.

View attachment 990403

I wish I had any details around my install. They just told me they will make the decisions once the install crew is on site.

However, I did get past the financing part this morning as I have an alert on my CR to call and verify identity first and first thing as finance opened this morning they called and got it completed. So now we wait on the city permits to be submitted and CP approvals…

 

[DrewHou]

So I got the plans from Tesla. They plan to put mine outside on the opposite side of the garage wall. However that means they are not in the fenced in part of the yard just out in the open near the front of the house and on the very opposite side of the house from where the breaker gateway and everything else is.

I am concerned the HOA is not going to approve this location at all and confused why they would go there as it’s the absolute least logical place to put them other than just putting them on the front porch lol.

I am hoping the install team will be able to figure it out once on site. I submitted what they sent to the HOA but I’m 99% sure certain they will be vetoing this design haha.

 

[DrewHou]

That’s 4k cheaper than what I originally got offered 2 for when I was starting my system design. I would’ve done 2 powerwalls for that price back then for sure. My home is surviving fine with one but it leaves little for outages, getting a second one is very tempting :s

Yeah sounds like me. I can definitely live with just two and things are going well but summer when I don’t hit free nights until I am nearly 25% left on the PWs defeats the purpose that I wanted backup power readily available.

Then @Jones1 brought up the new financing and compatibility with the PW3 not happening… and dude was a bad influence again and here we are waiting on permits again a year after doing this the first time. Haha

 

[Jones1]

So I got the plans from Tesla. They plan to put mine outside on the opposite side of the garage wall. However that means they are not in the fenced in part of the yard just out in the open near the front of the house and on the very opposite side of the house from where the breaker gateway and everything else is.

I am concerned the HOA is not going to approve this location at all and confused why they would go there as it’s the absolute least logical place to put them other than just putting them on the front porch lol.

I am hoping the install team will be able to figure it out once on site. I submitted what they sent to the HOA but I’m 99% sure certain they will be vetoing this design haha.

Surprised they decided to go outside. It would be cheaper to mount them in the garage .
The site survey guy told me. The further I wanted them. The more the wire and emt would cost. I told him. I could move any item in the garage or on a wall in the garage. If Need be. So I guess that’s why they chose. The opposite side of my Garage.

 

[Jones1]

Yeah sounds like me. I can definitely live with just two and things are going well but summer when I don’t hit free nights until I am nearly 25% left on the PWs defeats the purpose that I wanted backup power readily available.

Then @Jones1 brought up the new financing and compatibility with the PW3 not happening… and dude was a bad influence again and here we are waiting on permits again a year after doing this the first time. Haha

 

[DrewHou]

Surprised they decided to go outside. It would be cheaper to mount them in the garage .
The site survey guy told me. The further I wanted them. The more the wire and emt would cost. I told him. I could move any item in the garage or on a wall in the garage. If Need be. So I guess we hats why they chose. The opposite side of my Garage.

So maybe this question is stupid but do the new PWs need to connect to the old PWs with a wire directly? Because here’s my thought.

The solar off my roof goes down to the garage to the 2 PW+ then goes underground to the other side of the house to the gateway / breaker / meter.

Is there any reason why the PWs couldn’t just go outside next to the existing gateway and just plug in there?

I know every little of how wiring is done and requirements for data lines between Tesla equipment but this just seems like the way it should work haha.

 

[Jones1]

So maybe this question is stupid but do the new PWs need to connect to the old PWs with a wire directly? Because here’s my thought.

The solar off my roof goes down to the garage to the 2 PW+ then goes underground to the other side of the house to the gateway / breaker / meter.

Is there any reason why the PWs couldn’t just go outside next to the existing gateway and just plug in there?

I know every little of how wiring is done and requirements for data lines between Tesla equipment but this just seems like the way it should work haha.

From my understanding. The PW’s work in parallel. To each other. I was under the impression. That they connect and talk to each other at the Gateway and inverter. But not connected to each individual PW. I could be wrong. But I would think. It just needs to be connected to the inverter. They don’t share power with the other PW’s.

 

[DrewHou]

From my understanding. The PW’s work in parallel. To each other. I was under the impression. That they connect and talk to each other at the Gateway and inverter. But not connected to each individual PW. I could be wrong. But I would think. It just needs to be connected to the inverter. They don’t share power with the other PW’s.

I guess that’s why they want to install them next to the existing ones then if they need to plug into the inverters. Either way I guess I will wait until install day and ask a lot more questions. One would think having a site assessment would have made sense to understand where and how I want to use these things haha. Tesla at its finest haha.

 

[wiltoking]

From my understanding. The PW’s work in parallel. To each other. I was under the impression. That they connect and talk to each other at the Gateway and inverter. But not connected to each individual PW. I could be wrong. But I would think. It just needs to be connected to the inverter. They don’t share power with the other PW’s.

You need a breaker for each PW at the Gateway, these go in the internal panelboard that is limited to 200A. Here my understanding fails a bit, but I think the home backup loads + the Powerwall have to fall under this 200A limit. This I think is why some of you have additional Gateways coming, they will probably split your home loads between the two each with their own set of Powerwalls.

 

[Jones1]

You need a breaker for each PW at the Gateway, these go in the internal panelboard that is limited to 200A. Here my understanding fails a bit, but I think the home backup loads + the Powerwall have to fall under this 200A limit. This I think is why some of you have additional Gateways coming, they will probably split your home loads between the two each with their own set of Powerwalls.

Makes sense.

 

[wiltoking]

Also, the internal panelboard only has room for three 240v breakers (so that's another limit on how many PW's a Gateway can handle)

In my case, they didn't even use it and added a Service Disconnect off to the side. That has my single PW breaker but haven't opened it up to see if it could be expanded. Honestly, adding a Powerwall is pretty straightforward if not for all the permitting etc.

 

[DrewHou]

All of this makes sense. I reached out to Span and they said I can only have one gateway and access the data in the span app. That Tesla needs to use the existing gateway (that supposedly supports 10 PWs) otherwise I will not be able to use Span properly. This is getting interesting trying to figure this all out. Hopefully it all shakes out in the end but if I can’t use it with my Span and it won’t be the same “system” in the Tesla app either I am starting to wonder if it makes sense just to scrap the whole expansion and forget it. I’d rather have 2 that work the way they should than 4 that don’t work well together. Especially since the whole idea was to be able to set the reserve total to 50%.

 

[Jones1]

All of this makes sense. I reached out to Span and they said I can only have one gateway and access the data in the span app. That Tesla needs to use the existing gateway (that supposedly supports 10 PWs) otherwise I will not be able to use Span properly. This is getting interesting trying to figure this all out. Hopefully it all shakes out in the end but if I can’t use it with my Span and it won’t be the same “system” in the Tesla app either I am starting to wonder if it makes sense just to scrap the whole expansion and forget it. I’d rather have 2 that work the way they should than 4 that don’t work well together. Especially since the whole idea was to be able to set the reserve total to 50%.

Not sure about the Span. But the Tesla App. I would have thought all PW’s would be on the same system. Even if you have multiple Gateways. Did Tesla say it would be separate in the Tesla App?

 

[wiltoking]

All of this makes sense. I reached out to Span and they said I can only have one gateway and access the data in the span app. That Tesla needs to use the existing gateway (that supposedly supports 10 PWs) otherwise I will not be able to use Span properly. This is getting interesting trying to figure this all out. Hopefully it all shakes out in the end but if I can’t use it with my Span and it won’t be the same “system” in the Tesla app either I am starting to wonder if it makes sense just to scrap the whole expansion and forget it. I’d rather have 2 that work the way they should than 4 that don’t work well together. Especially since the whole idea was to be able to set the reserve total to 50%.

The devil's in the details, one Gateway can communicate with up to 10 Powerwalls. But that's not the same as handling the load of 10 Powerwalls.

Technically, we could upgrade to a single 400 A load center, hook up 10 Powerwalls there (avoid Gateway altogether), and then only have a 200A connection to the Gateway and home loads. This could work because the home would never pull more than 200A anyway from the Solar and Powerwalls. This doesn't take into account grid charging though and no idea how we could avoid pulling 300A through a 200A service if all 10 Powerwalls are drained and trying to charge.

All that seems expensive so I think that's why Tesla would add another load center (second Gateway?) that consolidates 3-4 PWs by themselves and distributes power to the home. Everywhere I see more than 5 PW's installed people end up with two systems on their Tesla App.

 

[Jones1]

The devil's in the details, one Gateway can communicate with up to 10 Powerwalls. But that's not the same as handling the load of 10 Powerwalls.

Technically, we could upgrade to a single 400 A load center, hook up 10 Powerwalls there (avoid Gateway altogether), and then only have a 200A connection to the Gateway and home loads. This could work because the home would never pull more than 200A anyway from the Solar and Powerwalls. This doesn't take into account grid charging though and no idea how we could avoid pulling 300A through a 200A service if all 10 Powerwalls are drained and trying to charge.

All that seems expensive so I think that's why Tesla would add another load center (second Gateway?) that consolidates 3-4 PWs by themselves and distributes power to the home. Everywhere I see more than 5 PW's installed people end up with two systems on their Tesla App.

Wow. The Tesla Way?

 

[wiltoking]

Wow. The Tesla Way?

Dunno, I only have a simple energy-efficient home, these 400A behemoths are beyond me! Are 400A service feeds single or 2x200A? Do they consolidate in a single panel if separate? Does the whole home run of two? Do you have two different meters? lol

We need to save the planet, not use enough juice to run a stadium in our homes!