Tesla to add the ability to Charge EV with excess solar

[swedge]

A bunch of S/X just stated downloading 2023.26.6, so it looks like S/X are finally going to get it. A bunch more are in the waiting for wifi before downloading this version.

That is promising. Thanks for the heads up. Only a handful so far on TeslaFi, but this could be the beginning of the dam breaking.

Several times, while I've been typing up a post about how I wish Tesla would hurry up and do somethings, Tesla had done it, about the same time I hit the Post button. Makes me wonder when Musk will announce he Psychic-Link ... I also wonder if the prematurity of his prognostications is because his Reality Field Distortion Generator also as temporal distortion side effects.

 

[sorka]

Right after I posted this ^^^, the Tesla app pinged and I looked at the notifications to see the familiar "software update available" message in the android dropdown notifications. However, upon opening the app, nothing. My Unifi router not showing any wifi traffic beyond a few 10s of KBs.
Strange.

 

[h2ofun]

As I have mentioned before, I am currently locked out of 2023.26 and so can't try Charge on Solar myself yet because I am in the FSD beta branch. But I learned yesterday that 2023.26 does include the 11.3.6 version of FSD, and so am considering trying to opt out of the beta branch. Sadly, Tesla appears to have suspended further rollout of the release, so the timing of both getting out of FSD beta and installing 2023.26 are uncertain.

While I wait, I'd like to get more clarity on how Charge on Solar works to help me understand if it may or may not be useful to me at all. Tesla's descriptions are vague, to put it kindly, and from what folks have posted here, I am still not clear on what it does, for exapmple with regard to other PW and car charge settings. I'd just play with it myself, but Tesla won't let me.

It probably doesn't matter at all, but I also curious if the run-time decisions are made in the car, the PW, in the App, or on Tesla's servers. I'd vote for the car to run it by talking directly with the PW over the owner's LAN, but who knows?

So, I would appreciate it if one of you could post screen shots of the settings and the the help info. It is accessed in the app from the PowerWall settings or from the car settings?

As for how it functions: When does it charge the car, before or after PW is fully charged? If car is before PW, does it allow PW to fully charge before the end of off-peak period? Does it stop charging the car at the end of off-peak pricing? Is the car charging rate changed automatically to use the "excess" solar?

Thanks for all the info posted already. Any more will be appreciated.

I have not read anything of those details. BUT, since it charges the car before the PW, I have zero desire to waste anymore time with it

 

[sorka]

I have not read anything of those details. BUT, since it charges the car before the PW, I have zero desire to waste anymore time with it

For me this is the behavior I want.

...but ideally it would be nice to be able to specify the priority. It would be so easy for them to do.

 

[h2ofun]

For me this is the behavior I want.

...but ideally it would be nice to be able to specify the priority. It would be so easy for them to do.

For me, I want 100% batteries first, so I basically am off line more of the year, I want to charge car then with excess solar, but before like 4pm when rates go up, I want to send solar back with max rates. The utility does not give flexibility, so will just do manually.

 

[Gwgan]

AFAIK Tesla lets you set two charging limits, one as a minimum desired and a higher one in the case of available excess solar. I’d hope the timing of charging PW would continue to be based on the Operation Mode.
If you want to try out this functionality you could test with ChargeHQ which does give the priority switch but only one charge level.
(for me the Tesla way will probably not be helpful)

 

[jhn_]

AFAIK Tesla lets you set two charging limits, one as a minimum desired and a higher one in the case of available excess solar. I’d hope the timing of charging PW would continue to be based on the Operation Mode.
If you want to try out this functionality you could test with ChargeHQ which does give the priority switch but only one charge level.
(for me the Tesla way will probably not be helpful)

This seems like a really basic toggle Tesla could, and should add to their Drive on Solar feature.

 

[jhn_]

Right after I posted this ^^^, the Tesla app pinged and I looked at the notifications to see the familiar "software update available" message in the android dropdown notifications. However, upon opening the app, nothing. My Unifi router not showing any wifi traffic beyond a few 10s of KBs.
Strange.

Same happened to me today. Strange indeed. iPhone app here.

 

[Rocket_man]

As I have mentioned before, I am currently locked out of 2023.26 and so can't try Charge on Solar myself yet because I am in the FSD beta branch. But I learned yesterday that 2023.26 does include the 11.3.6 version of FSD, and so am considering trying to opt out of the beta branch. Sadly, Tesla appears to have suspended further rollout of the release, so the timing of both getting out of FSD beta and installing 2023.26 are uncertain.

While I wait, I'd like to get more clarity on how Charge on Solar works to help me understand if it may or may not be useful to me at all. Tesla's descriptions are vague, to put it kindly, and from what folks have posted here, I am still not clear on what it does, for exapmple with regard to other PW and car charge settings. I'd just play with it myself, but Tesla won't let me.

It probably doesn't matter at all, but I also curious if the run-time decisions are made in the car, the PW, in the App, or on Tesla's servers. I'd vote for the car to run it by talking directly with the PW over the owner's LAN, but who knows?

So, I would appreciate it if one of you could post screen shots of the settings and the the help info. It is accessed in the app from the PowerWall settings or from the car settings?

As for how it functions: When does it charge the car, before or after PW is fully charged? If car is before PW, does it allow PW to fully charge before the end of off-peak period? Does it stop charging the car at the end of off-peak pricing? Is the car charging rate changed automatically to use the "excess" solar?

Thanks for all the info posted already. Any more will be appreciated.

I think that coordination is done in the app. When you install Charge on Solar the app seems to update its connection to the PW I assume because the PW firmware was recently updated to support this feature. I believe only the app knows the status of the PW and Car and can perform the logic of where the solar goes. The car doesn't communicate with the PW and vice versa which I think is stupid from a company that sells both and claims to want to push solar and EVs. There are so many possibilities if the car and PW talked to each other. I don't have FSD Beta or FSD at all. But if I had to choose between the two I'd pick FSD over Charge on Solar. Not even close. Charge on Solar as it is serves no useful purpose at least for me. Haven't missed it for a second. Waste of my time. If they make improvements maybe I'd try it again. But I'm not going to complicate things with no usable benefit.

 

[jhn_]

I think that coordination is done in the app. When you install Charge on Solar the app seems to update its connection to the PW I assume because the PW firmware was recently updated to support this feature. I believe only the app knows the status of the PW and Car and can perform the logic of where the solar goes. The car doesn't communicate with the PW and vice versa which I think is stupid from a company that sells both and claims to want to push solar and EVs. There are so many possibilities if the car and PW talked to each other. I don't have FSD Beta or FSD at all. But if I had to choose between the two I'd pick FSD over Charge on Solar. Not even close. Charge on Solar as it is serves no useful purpose at least for me. Haven't missed it for a second. Waste of my time. If they make improvements maybe I'd try it again. But I'm not going to complicate things with no usable benefit.

The app doesn’t control anything. The app is just an interface. The gateway in the Powerwall (separate or integrated with PW+) install controls the drive on solar feature and determines when and where the power goes.

 

[bwb1]

I had high hopes for Charge on Solar, but without being able to prioritize my Powerwalls over the car is a real problem. Given I live in the desert I need the powerwalls at 100% to cover running the AC from 4-9 each day. Manually toggling CoS on and off and manipulating battery reserve levels three or four times a day to make it work is just not worth the effort.

 

[YRide]

I’m just getting getting going with CoS. Having a complicated setup in 3x Y’s, but the only one that has CoS FW currently is the one that is often not at home during the day. I did just purchase the ChargeHQ ($5/mo) which I’m using for the other two non-CoS Y’s. ChargeHQ does seem to allow prioritizing ESS charging over the car. But it seems ChargeHQ doesn’t have the concept of a guaranteed charge threshold followed by an excess solar threshold.

That all said, for the official Tesla CoS Y, it did have a note today “CoS paused to prioritize powerwall”. Weirdly, this was even before the first threshold (daily driving) limit was reached.

Gonna have to give this more time to truly understand the behaviors. But I do think this is at least better then a few months ago when I had none of this…can only hope it evolves in right direction.

 

[power.saver]

But it seems ChargeHQ doesn’t have the concept of a guaranteed charge threshold followed by an excess solar threshold.

In ChargeHQ, the guaranteed charge threshold is the Charge Limit set in the vehicle. You can further restrict this by programming a schedule with a lower limit, which will stop charging from the grid when that limit is reached. Solar charging will continue past the schedule limit up to the Charge Limit set in the vehicle.

For example, I have the Charge Limit in the vehicle set to 90% and a ChargeHQ schedule for off-peak charging with a limit of 80%. At night, ChargeHQ will stop the vehicle from charging once it reaches 80%, but during the day ChargeHQ will charge it up to 90% from excess solar.

You can also use the ChargeHQ schedule to completely stop charging during specific times. I use that to prevent charging during the peak period 4-9PM.

 

[YRide]

In ChargeHQ, the guaranteed charge threshold is the Charge Limit set in the vehicle. You can further restrict this by programming a schedule with a lower limit, which will stop charging from the grid when that limit is reached. Solar charging will continue past the schedule limit up to the Charge Limit set in the vehicle.

For example, I have the Charge Limit in the vehicle set to 90% and a ChargeHQ schedule for off-peak charging with a limit of 80%. At night, ChargeHQ will stop the vehicle from charging once it reaches 80%, but during the day ChargeHQ will charge it up to 90% from excess solar.

You can also use the ChargeHQ schedule to completely stop charging during specific times. I use that to prevent charging during the peak period 4-9PM.

Ok, thanks for that insight.

I guess then I can’t really use the app/car schedule departure then? I would like to guarantee 60% every morning by 745a, regardless of source…and then any thing up to 90% with excess solar.

Further complicating, of the three Tesla’s, two are at home mainly during day. It seems in ChargeHQ I can only have one actively monitoring for excess solar. So I have to manually select that one.

Could I have two ChargeHQ accounts? Have one for car 1, the other for car 2?

 

[power.saver]

Ok, thanks for that insight.

I guess then I can’t really use the app/car schedule departure then? I would like to guarantee 60% every morning by 745a, regardless of source…and then any thing up to 90% with excess solar.

Further complicating, of the three Tesla’s, two are at home mainly during day. It seems in ChargeHQ I can only have one actively monitoring for excess solar. So I have to manually select that one.

Could I have two ChargeHQ accounts? Have one for car 1, the other for car 2?

You can use Tesla's schedule charge with ChargeHQ, I have it set that way but for starting charge not schedule departure. I don't think it matters though, ChargeHQ will take over once the vehicle starts charging anyway. So you should be able to hit 60% by 745am if you don't further restrict that in ChargeHQ.

Right now ChargeHQ only supports one vehicle at a time. A second account won't help because your PW is already registered to the first account. Supposedly they are working on multi-vehicle support.

 

[YRide]

You can use Tesla's schedule charge with ChargeHQ, I have it set that way but for starting charge not schedule departure. I don't think it matters though, ChargeHQ will take over once the vehicle starts charging anyway. So you should be able to hit 60% by 745am if you don't further restrict that in ChargeHQ.

Right now ChargeHQ only supports one vehicle at a time. A second account won't help because your PW is already registered to the first account. Supposedly they are working on multi-vehicle support.

I’m still struggling to understand how to set this up. So in Tesla app, schedule 745a departure but for 90% even though I only want 60% guaranteed abd ok for grid or solar? Then in CHQ, i set it for 60% limit, and Solar tracking only?

 

[power.saver]

I’m still struggling to understand how to set this up. So in Tesla app, schedule 745a departure but for 90% even though I only want 60% guaranteed abd ok for grid or solar? Then in CHQ, i set it for 60% limit, and Solar tracking only?

In ChargeHQ you would set a schedule with a limit of 60% that includes the time you want to charge. Thinking about it now, it might not work since it will start charging at the schedule time, and if your vehicle is already close to 60% it will end way before your departure time. And since the vehicle has 90% as the charge limit, it would try to start charging really early to get to that level, which you don't want. Although ChargeHQ would stop it at 60%, this is likely going to be way before your departure time.

I've never used scheduled departure, but I don't think it is compatible with ChargeHQ.

 

[timeslip]

My brother is visiting with his model Y and added me as another driver for his car. He is updated to 2023.27.6, so it should have the feature. I can't seem to get the options to show up for charge on excess solar.

 

[offandonagain]

My brother is visiting with his model Y and added me as another driver for his car. He is updated to 2023.27.6, so it should have the feature. I can't seem to get the options to show up for charge on excess solar.

I believe you have to be the primary driver to be able to enable Charge on Solar. So in this case you'd have to add the primary driver as a user of your Powerwall system, and use their phone to enable the feature. You'll also have to pair that phone to the Powerwall.

 

[timeslip]

I believe you have to be the primary driver to be able to enable Charge on Solar. So in this case you'd have to add the primary driver as a user of your Powerwall system, and use their phone to enable the feature. You'll also have to pair that phone to the Powerwall.

I tried this, but the option to pair it doesn't show up