Tesla to add the ability to Charge EV with excess solar

holeydonut · Mar 15, 2023

Not sure if this is an Energy topic or EV topic, but I’m excited to try this.

Tesla adds 'Charge on Excess Solar' function in app to get clean range at home

Tesla is adding a 'Charge on Excess Solar' in its app to allow excess energy to be put straight into the vehicle so owners can 'Drive on Sunshine.'

www.teslarati.com

I know some people had luck with ChargeHQ, but I didn’t. Clean EV charging here we come.

yblaser · Mar 15, 2023

I saw this earlier today. Not unexpectedly Tesla is finally adding functionality to their app to charge your car on excess solar if this article is accurate. Sound like it has some more functionality than ChargeHQ. You can set a normal charging limit but allow the car to charge to a higher SOC when solar is available.

I'm on Android and don't have the new update available yet.

Tesla adds 'Charge on Excess Solar' function in app to get clean range at home

Tesla is adding a 'Charge on Excess Solar' in its app to allow excess energy to be put straight into the vehicle so owners can 'Drive on Sunshine.'

www.teslarati.com

yblaser · Mar 15, 2023

@holeydonut beat me posting this so threads should probably be merged

power.saver · Mar 15, 2023

yblaser said:
I saw this earlier today. Not unexpectedly Tesla is finally adding functionality to their app to charge your car on excess solar if this article is accurate. Sound like it has some more functionality than ChargeHQ. You can set a normal charging limit but allow the car to charge to a higher SOC when solar is available.

I'm on Android and don't have the new update available yet.

Tesla adds 'Charge on Excess Solar' function in app to get clean range at home

Tesla is adding a 'Charge on Excess Solar' in its app to allow excess energy to be put straight into the vehicle so owners can 'Drive on Sunshine.'

www.teslarati.com

I just installed 4.19.0 and don't see any of these new features. If it's in this release, it's not enabled yet.

dailo · Mar 15, 2023

Wonder if this feature requires the newer gen wall connectors and some integration there or if it will be just through the car. Like previous features I imagine they will be rolling it out in batches across the customer base. Good timing as hopefully will have a lot more excess solar in the next month.

heavymetalm8r · Mar 15, 2023

Solar-only customers won't be able to do this?

ohmman · Mar 16, 2023

Very nice. I have a hacked-up version of this running in Home Assistant but will be glad to hand that off to a better developed version in the app.

jboy210 · Mar 16, 2023

This would be interesting. Starting in April, we have a lot of excess solar even after filling the Powerwalls.

I wonder if I need to upgrade from my Gen 2 referral Tesla Wall charger to one with more communication features. I would sure hate to lose the Elon signature face plate.

holeydonut · Mar 16, 2023

dailo said:
Wonder if this feature requires the newer gen wall connectors and some integration there or if it will be just through the car. Like previous features I imagine they will be rolling it out in batches across the customer base. Good timing as hopefully will have a lot more excess solar in the next month.

Yeah I have iOS app 4.19.0 and the Model 3 is on 2023.2.12 ... but I don't see any of these features yet.

heavymetalm8r said:
Solar-only customers won't be able to do this?

Does your solar-only system show up on your Tesla app? To the extent you can see what energy your solar system is producing and what is being exported to the grid?

Redhill_qik · Mar 16, 2023

jboy210 said:
This would be interesting. Starting in April, we have a lot of excess solar even after filling the Powerwalls.

I wonder if I need to upgrade from my Gen 2 referral Tesla Wall charger to one with more communication features. I would sure hate to lose the Elon signature face plate.

Might require a gateway firmware update. My firmware was updated to 22.36.6 on March 10th, but my Google Play store isn't showing the app update for 4.19.0, so I'm still on 4.18.0 and can't confirm this.

The gateway login screen changed to this screen, but the REST API calls still appear to be functioning normally. If you click on "Tell me more" it takes takes you to a page for the Tesla Pro app with links to the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. You need an installer account to be able to use it, so I didn't download it. There is also a "Compliance" link at the bottom that had some FCC information two items. The first is Telit LE910B1-NA (4G LTE Module) and the second is LGIT TWFS-B005D (WiFi module). Tesla must have been dinged about not having this info available from a regulator body.

holeydonut · Mar 16, 2023

jboy210 said:
This would be interesting. Starting in April, we have a lot of excess solar even after filling the Powerwalls.

I wonder if I need to upgrade from my Gen 2 referral Tesla Wall charger to one with more communication features. I would sure hate to lose the Elon signature face plate.

The Gen 3 wall charger I have doesn't seem to do any communicating with the Gateway 2 or the vehicle. The only communications settings I see are for the situation where you set up multiple Gen 3 chargers on one circuit, and they can be configured to load-balance with each other.

But IIRC the signature on the referral black face plate is just printed on. You can get a Gen 3 charger, shiny red face plate, and people on Etsy sell vinyl copies of Elon's signature.

Jeremy3292 · Mar 16, 2023

None of these features are live yet. These were simply new strings found in the latest iOS Tesla app update.

See below:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1636133112307490816

CrazyRabbit · Mar 16, 2023

I wouldn’t think there would be any requirement for wall chargers. Now if the wall charger would connect to the gateway so the system would work without home network or internet, that would be another thing.
But the gateway can also talk to the car thru home network or cellular data, as each have both.
Can’t wait for this to go live.

Vines · Mar 16, 2023

Redhill_qik said:
Might require a gateway firmware update. My firmware was updated to 22.36.6 on March 10th, but my Google Play store isn't showing the app update for 4.19.0, so I'm still on 4.18.0 and can't confirm this.

The gateway login screen changed to this screen, but the REST API calls still appear to be functioning normally. If you click on "Tell me more" it takes takes you to a page for the Tesla Pro app with links to the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. You need an installer account to be able to use it, so I didn't download it. There is also a "Compliance" link at the bottom that had some FCC information two items. The first is Telit LE910B1-NA (4G LTE Module) and the second is LGIT TWFS-B005D (WiFi module). Tesla must have been dinged about not having this info available from a regulator body.

View attachment 918201

This is a long time coming. Before this, the customer could log in to the installer portal and change settings.

Redhill_qik · Mar 16, 2023

Vines said:
This is a long time coming. Before this, the customer could log in to the installer portal and change settings.

I've never tried logging in as an installer as I assumed that there would be some Tesla password on it. That option is still available on the login screen, I just screencap'ed the customer selection. Maybe Tesla will force Installer commands through the Tesla Pro app in the future, but right now both options are available.

jjrandorin · Mar 16, 2023

Vines said:
This is a long time coming. Before this, the customer could log in to the installer portal and change settings.

I dont think people are absorbing what @Redhill_qik 's post in post #10 is actually going to mean, longer term (as in, if / when "installer" disappears from the login screen when you login locally, and you can only login as a customer).

Right now, logging in as installer is pretty simple, no password actually needed, at least not on my gateway 1 install.

holeydonut · Mar 16, 2023

Vines said:
This is a long time coming. Before this, the customer could log in to the installer portal and change settings.

Wait, then how will customers adjust settings in the future? Like customers can't log into the gateway anymore by simply connecting to the localhost and flipping one of the power buttons on the side?

dailo · Mar 16, 2023

holeydonut said:
Wait, then how will customers adjust settings in the future? Like customers can't log into the gateway anymore by simply connecting to the localhost and flipping one of the power buttons on the side?

I sure hope not. Being able to login as installer is useful to get more info if something isn’t working with the system.

Vines · Mar 16, 2023

dailo said:
I sure hope not. Being able to login as installer is useful to get more info if something isn’t working with the system.

NEC requires the PCS control settings to be locked from the control of other than qualified persons.

swedge · Mar 16, 2023

ohmman said:
Very nice. I have a hacked-up version of this running in Home Assistant but will be glad to hand that off to a better developed version in the app.

ohmman,

Could you describe briefly the behavior of your "hack"? I've manually charged the EV during "excess" solar production, but it required constant attention and adjustment. I thought it might be nice to automate it to save a few $ on Non-Bypassable-Charges. I hope Tesla's version will work on my set-up, and do the right thing, but I'll just have to wait and see.

In any case, assuming this new feature does become available, it would be interesting to see how it compares with your solution.

Thank you.

Tesla to add the ability to Charge EV with excess solar

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