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Tesla solar installed today. Can I turn on
- Thread starter giran99
- Start date
That is definitely more of a guideline than a rule. I turned my on immediately and ran it for 3 weeks before my provider showed up. No one said anything to me.
You can turn it on
You might want to turn off your grid/meter breaker so some reports of meters that don't run in reverse for grid-feed
You'll break a few laws/rules/regulations
You might want to turn off your grid/meter breaker so some reports of meters that don't run in reverse for grid-feed
You'll break a few laws/rules/regulations
There are 2 worst case scenarios that come to mind:
* Electric company needs to upgrade a local transformer to support your usage, local solar production causes an early demise. (Very slim chance, but your liability is not zero).
* Electric company bills you for solar back feed as if you had consumed it, not netting it. This has happened for some people, causing an unfair large bill until PTO.
The Tesla gateway has a pre-PTO mode that limits your back feed to zero, but if you have only solar, I don't know if the system is capable of that.
* Electric company needs to upgrade a local transformer to support your usage, local solar production causes an early demise. (Very slim chance, but your liability is not zero).
* Electric company bills you for solar back feed as if you had consumed it, not netting it. This has happened for some people, causing an unfair large bill until PTO.
The Tesla gateway has a pre-PTO mode that limits your back feed to zero, but if you have only solar, I don't know if the system is capable of that.
Electrph
Member
i don't think the home gateway or any system I know of would know not to export to grid due to work being done upstream ... if grid is available and there is excess pv it will export
I don’t think I can export to the grid yet because I don’t have the net meter in place. The Tesla guy told me first they gonna have inspection from town then electric company will come and put the net meter.
Electrph
Member
do you have power wall(s) ?
if so as stated above you can turn off main service breaker (to grid) and "island" you system . zero chance of exporting if you are a zero risk person like me
if you like to live dangerous . . you can just switch it all on and export / claim ignorance if anyone calls you out on it
i personally would not do this even though chance of issues very low but i think the risk vs reward not good .. but to each their own
if so as stated above you can turn off main service breaker (to grid) and "island" you system . zero chance of exporting if you are a zero risk person like me
if you like to live dangerous . . you can just switch it all on and export / claim ignorance if anyone calls you out on it
i personally would not do this even though chance of issues very low but i think the risk vs reward not good .. but to each their ownThis is most likely the 2nd case then - you /can/ export, but the meter will see it as if you were consuming it, so you get charged for what should be a credit.
Thanks I don’t have a power wall just solar panelsdo you have power wall(s) ?
if so as stated above you can turn off main service breaker (to grid) and "island" you system . zero chance of exporting if you are a zero risk person like me
if you like to live dangerous . . you can just switch it all on and export / claim ignorance if anyone calls you out on it
Electrph
Member
with just solar unless there is a setting in the tesla to prevent export to grid (i'm not familiar with non pW tesla systems) it would be difficult to not export .. you would have to run the pv (panels) only when your household consumption is higher than you pv production (not very practical) and you cannot shut off main grid breaker since your pv would not function then
I had mine running for months, exporting, before I got PTO. Of course, no credit for what I sent to the grid
The answer to this is "You are not supposed to".
Whether you will get in trouble or suffer some consequence for doing so, depends on your specific utility, but you are not supposed to, and with no powerwalls, there is no way to prevent feeding back to the grid on a tesla install, so "no, you shouldnt".
It is definitely a rule and a contractual agreement in most Net Energy Metering agreements. That being said, apparently my breaker was turned on for months between install date and PTO. No one said anything to me either. I did try to charge my Tesla as much as possible when the sun was shining.
With Tesla Inverters I understand there to be a mode that does not export PV power. It simply uses CT to measure the home load and only inverts enough AC power to satisfy that demand. If all appliances in the home are off and the demand is 0 then the inverter will effectively export nothing.
As to the OP question, its not a good idea to backfeed power unless you have PTO. Follow the rules, its only a small amount of power wasted until you can turn things on correctly.
