Tesla wants to come fix my solar system

[buckweet1980]

A few weeks ago I removed the tesla power booster from my power panel, i wired up my inverters to ethernet and setup Solaredge access.. Just last week I turned off the gateway box since it does nothing..

I quit using the Tesla app because it just didn't work. It never told me correct information.


I find this funny, but them I'm like great, now I have to deal with them. They sent me a text message and an email, via text I told them the system is fine and to not come out.. I'm sure they will send someone out and then I have to deal with that..


Anyone else ran into this? I mean its good they're somewhat monitoring the system, I just wish they would have fixed the app for me, then I wouldn't have gone the route I did.. For background, I have a 16kw system and was seeing half capacity at most in the app, and it would never tell me the correct usage from the grid. I called tesla one day and was told by some tech support person that the it was correct, they're getting all the data and I would never see anymore power generation than the 5-6kw I was seeing.. Meanwhile I have other monitoring device (Solaredge app and a Sense box) which told me radically different results. Solaredge and Sense were aligned with each others data, while Tesla was totally off, so I was tired of dealing with them and removed it.

 

[aesculus]

Actually they are doing what you asked them to do. Investigate why your system is not reporting the correct levels.

It may be more than just a software setting so having them onsight to verify the installation and equipment is exactly what you need and asked for.

 

[buckweet1980]

Honestly, I believe they're just coming out because the system isn't calling home... I called weeks ago about the app.

 

[SMAlset]

As your installer I think they are obligated to maintain and see that your system is in proper operating and reporting condition so it complies with whatever Interconnection agreement you made with your utility. Taking yourself out of compliance could I think get you into trouble with the utility and puts Tesla possibly in a bad light with them. Next week we’re having our inspection so not familiar with all this yet but from various posts that’s the impression I have gotten.

As far as the Gateway goes, I believe it is the way Tesla monitors the system collecting data that is or may be requested by your utility to make sure your generation system is operating within specs. I think the Gateway2 is a crucial part of why your system was approved by the utility. If you’ve altered that reporting system, I can understand why they are coming out.

 

[nomis_nehc]

As your installer I think they are obligated to maintain and see that your system is in proper operating and reporting condition so it complies with whatever Interconnection agreement you made with your utility. Taking yourself out of compliance could I think get you into trouble with the utility and puts Tesla possibly in a bad light with them. Next week we’re having our inspection so not familiar with all this yet but from various posts that’s the impression I have gotten.

As far as the Gateway goes, I believe it is the way Tesla monitors the system collecting data that is or may be requested by your utility to make sure your generation system is operating within specs. I think the Gateway2 is a crucial part of why your system was approved by the utility. If you’ve altered that reporting system, I can understand why they are coming out.

Eh, this is not true. Utility companies interconnection doesn't say or care anything about monitoring your system. By that logic, what would the people do for their solar companies that went bankrupt?

 

[aesculus]

Honestly, I believe they're just coming out because the system isn't calling home... I called weeks ago about the app.

Take the win when you can.

 

[Redhill_qik]

So now we know how to get Tesla to respond to fixing problems with the monitoring configuration. Disconnect it so it doesn't phone home with the sweet, sweet, but bad data that they crave and they will come out to fix it.

 

[buckweet1980]

So Tesla just came out.. Told me that the 1st line tech support person basically didn't know what they were talking about. One of my inverters wasn't registered to my account. So that's why (hopefully) that the app was just reporting so incorrectly.

But as I write this, the app now say my solar is generating 22kw, my home is using 11.8 (its really using about 1.4kw right now) and I'm sending back 10.2 to the grid.. I only have a 16.2kw system, so this thing is just screwed up.

Now the frustrating thing is that they turned off my lan connectivity to get their app working. So I'm going to have to go back out and switch it back.. I don't want to use their system. I want to use SolarEdge and have them just leave me alone.. I'll call them when there are issues! I'll probably go change it back after today.

 

[BrettS]

I don’t know why it’s reporting that your solar system is generating so much, but it makes sense that the erroneous reading there would also screw up the amount of power that it thinks your home is using. They don’t directly measure how much power your house is using, but instead they measure the amount of power that your solar is generating and the amount of power that’s going to or from the grid and use those numbers to figure out how much power your house is using. In this case the system thinks your solar is generating 22kW and it sees that 10.2kW is going back to the grid, so it assumes that the 11.8kW difference is being used by your house.

If your ethernet cable is still plugged in, but it’s using zigbee for connectivity then they probably changed the connectivity setting from auto select and forced it to zigbee. To get it to use ethernet again you will need to log in to setapp with an installer app or use the backdoor web access so you can change it back to auto select. Let me know if you need help doing this.

 

[Twiglett]

silly question - if you didn't want all the Tesla extras why did you get the system from them?
Doesn't the purchasing agreement put them on the hook for monitoring it as well

 

[BrettS]

silly question - if you didn't want all the Tesla extras why did you get the system from them?
Doesn't the purchasing agreement put them on the hook for monitoring it as well

I don’t think there are any ‘Tesla extras’ for a solar install. In fact, I think it could be argued that you get less with a Tesla install than you would by going with a third party. The tesla monitoring app has fewer features than the solaredge app. You have less options in terms of panel placement, and no options in terms of panel selection or inverter selection.

The big advantage to going with tesla is price. They are considerably cheaper than any other option right now.

 

[buckweet1980]

silly question - if you didn't want all the Tesla extras why did you get the system from them?
Doesn't the purchasing agreement put them on the hook for monitoring it as well

It's about 14.5K reasons why I went with Tesla... The other company I spoke with wanted to install a lesser system for 14.5K more.. My Tesla system was 30K out the door, where as the other local company I spoke with was 44.5K..


Tesla uses the same gear as most other installers, so there's no reason not to go with them. $$$ matters to me, so I'm not going to overpay out of loyalty to some local company that is OK with over-charging me.

Tesla can't force you to use their monitoring.. I own the system, I can do with it what I want.. I just have to deal with their headaches though

I'm just going to have to go back into the installer app and re-config these things back to using ethernet. The guy that was out here mentioned that you can get them to link to the solaredge account, but I've read many recent posts that they don't do that anymore.

 

[jboy210]

silly question - if you didn't want all the Tesla extras why did you get the system from them?
Doesn't the purchasing agreement put them on the hook for monitoring it as well

I think you are correct about the monitoring. My system has both the Tesla Powerwall gateway and a separate gateway for the inverters. 2 monitoring systems that transmit data to Tesla.

 

[Twiglett]

It's about 14.5K reasons why I went with Tesla... The other company I spoke with wanted to install a lesser system for 14.5K more.. My Tesla system was 30K out the door, where as the other local company I spoke with was 44.5K..


Tesla uses the same gear as most other installers, so there's no reason not to go with them. $$$ matters to me, so I'm not going to overpay out of loyalty to some local company that is OK with over-charging me.

Tesla can't force you to use their monitoring.. I own the system, I can do with it what I want.. I just have to deal with their headaches though

I'm just going to have to go back into the installer app and re-config these things back to using ethernet. The guy that was out here mentioned that you can get them to link to the solaredge account, but I've read many recent posts that they don't do that anymore.

thanks for the clarification - that makes perfect sense
I didn't realize how much cheaper they were than the others, I just thought it was the usual press hyperbole and ignored it

 

[MP3Mike]

Tesla can't force you to use their monitoring.. I own the system, I can do with it what I want.. I just have to deal with their headaches though

Correct, they can't force you. But, is there anything in your warranty documents that state that you must maintain connectivity for them to monitor the system? If so, you could be voiding your warranty.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

One reason Tesla monitors production is to ensure the system is functioning properly and producing as expected. When we had our system installed, we had a power "production guarantee" in the contract. The power production guarantee promises that our solar system will produce a minimum amount of electricity each month. In the event that our system doesn’t produce the total kilowatt-hours (kWh) guaranteed in a month, Tesla will send a refund check for the difference.

We found the generation numbers to be on the low side and our system has always greatly exceeded the minimum production guarantee amount listed.

 

[BrettS]

I don’t believe tesla does production guarantees anymore, at least for customer owned systems. They may still do guarantees on leased systems.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

I don’t believe tesla does production guarantees anymore, at least for customer owned systems. They may still do guarantees on leased systems.

We bought ours but it was just over two years ago, so things might've changed since then.