Tesla: we need more control over our PowerWalls

[Ulmo]

Here's another example. I want to charge the PowerWall during the day from solar and use the solar-heavy grid for home supply in the day, then discharge from my battery in the evening. Yet look:

Instead of shifting solar use to the evening, stupid Tesla uses all the solar during high solar periods and uses fast-ramp dirty fossil fuels at night. That's literally wrong. Tesla, during winter I need to store ALL of my solar in the day, and use the grid's solar in the day and my solar at night. I have storage, but the grid does not.

This requires a setting to store all solar to battery and use grid solar during high grid solar times. It is very easy to program. STOP BEING RETARDED. Let us control OUR batteries. We know how to use them.

Addendum: in case you are speed reading but not speed comprehending, the graphs above clearly show more grid solar should be used in the day and less (grid) fossil fuels should be used at night.

 

[Ulmo]

Yes, you should shout at Tesla, not at the forum. In fact, I would suggest going to the press and creating a big stink in the media about this. The only thing Tesla reacts to is negative media articles. Get a really angry piece into Business Insider or Bloomberg or whatever. This is my advice.

I don't want anything to do with fake news.

 

[wwhitney]

If the behavior you want can be described by splitting the day into two time periods:

Charging time: use all solar to charge battery, let grid handle house loads
Self-consumption time: minimize grid use

Then doesn't TBC Cost Saving mode let you do what you want? Just tell it your off peak time is your "charging time" and your peak time is your "self-consumption time".

Or have I missed something?

Cheers, Wayne

 

[Ulmo]

If the behavior you want can be described by splitting the day into two time periods:

Charging time: use all solar to charge battery, let grid handle house loads
Self-consumption time: minimize grid use

Then doesn't TBC Cost Saving mode let you do what you want? Just tell it your off peak time is your "charging time" and your peak time is your "self-consumption time".

Or have I missed something?

Cheers, Wayne

Thank you, Wayne. Does anybody know how to access the TBC Cost Saving mode? I don't know the best way to accomplish that. From what I recall, that's not available for SGIP customers, because the purpose of SGIP is for us to use solar power as much as possible in the evening, but Tesla is enforcing an inferior version of that that actually goes counter to that. Since my only SGIP program requirement is practically speaking to shift my solar load to the evening and not charge the PowerWall from the grid and doesn't care one hoot what Tesla thinks, what you and I are describing would be MORE compliant with SGIP than what Tesla is currently doing for SGIP customers.

 

[cwied]

TBC Cost saving is the same as clicking on "Advanced" and then selecting "Cost-saving" from the two options. It's not SGIP that adds any meaningful restrictions, it's the ITC. What that doesn't allow is grid charging. All US Powerwalls that are installed with solar are configured never to charge from the grid by Tesla (although StormWatch seems to be an exception to this rule).

 

[Ulmo]

TBC Cost saving is the same as clicking on "Advanced" and then selecting "Cost-saving" from the two options. It's not SGIP that adds any meaningful restrictions, it's the ITC. What that doesn't allow is grid charging. All US Powerwalls that are installed with solar are configured never to charge from the grid by Tesla (although StormWatch seems to be an exception to this rule).

That's great. Where is the Advanced button? Is it in the app, on Tesla.Com, or on the PowerWall LAN web UI? My gateway is running software version 1.29.0.

I can't find it in the app. It's not on Tesla.Com. Last time I looked in the LAN web UI, I didn't see it, but I thought I didn't do a complete enough search there because mine doesn't match what I heard from others. There's no UI on the PowerWalls themselves other than the battery on/off buttons, and JTAG isn't for users.

 

[JohnRatsey]

That's great. Where is the Advanced button? Is it in the app, on Tesla.Com, or on the PowerWall LAN web UI?

I can't find it in the app. It's not on Tesla.Com. Last time I looked in the LAN web UI, I didn't see it, but I thought I didn't do a complete enough search there because mine doesn't match what I heard from others. There's no UI on the PowerWalls themselves other than the battery on/off buttons, and JTAG isn't for users.

There should be a Customize option in the app? It's explained here.

 

[cwied]

Interesting. If it's not in the app underneath Self-powered in the customize options, then you probably need to call Powerwall support to have them enable the option. They initially rolled out the feature slowly and apparently missed you somehow.

 

[Ulmo]

There should be a Customize option in the app? It's explained here.

That doesn't exist in my app. Thank you for the information.

Interesting. If it's not in the app underneath Self-powered in the customize options, then you probably need to call Powerwall support to have them enable the option. They initially rolled out the feature slowly and apparently missed you somehow.

I didn't know everyone else had it. Does everyone else have the Advanced tab? Thank you for the information.

I just emailed Tesla PowerWall technical support asking them to enable it for me.

 

[cwied]

I believe everyone in California (and some other locations) is supposed to get it now. I don't know if it's universally enabled everywhere, though, which might explain why sometimes people slip through the cracks.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

That doesn't exist in my app. Thank you for the information.

I didn't know everyone else had it. Does everyone else have the Advanced tab? Thank you for the information.

I just emailed Tesla PowerWall technical support asking them to enable it for me.

How long has your system been on? Ours had to run for a few days before the TBC option showed up in the app. We were told it will show up automatically if the Neurio CTs are able to report usage and production successfully. We did have to call and they saw ours seemed to be configurable incorrectly. They changed the settings remotely a couple of times and got things set up correctly. Then TBC showed up the next day.

 

[Ulmo]

Today I remembered to turn on my backup setting on my PowerWall when I saw enormous wind, so that we have more backup in case of a power drop. I barely thought of it in the afternoon. We're now at 85% SOC, so pretty good. The difference is that today was a windy day with a lot of sun, so the "backup" setting allows the PowerWalls to charge from our solar while we use grid electricity for the house. But on cloudy or rainy days that are also windy or have a lot of lightning, that would not work.

I wrote an email to PowerWall support asking for the Advanced tab in my PowerWall Tesla app, but they have not responded, and I still do not have the Advanced tab.

 

[Sylvia Else]

Tesla,
Tesla, you need to give us better software control of our PowerWalls

This really doesn't fit with Tesla's apparent philosophy, which is that they retain full control of the powerwall, and we the 'owners' should feel privileged that we're permitted to use them, and should accept whatever Tesla does with grattitude.

Sylvia.

 

[JohnRatsey]

I've figured out a work-around for the lack of user control in Cost Saving mode over the maximum off-peak charging from the grid: Shorten the off-peak period in the Tesla app. It's not an ideal fix as the PW will using battery power during the remainder of the true off-peak period but the financial loss due to round-tripping that power is a lot less than the loss which occurs if the battery can't use the day's excess solar power so it goes to the grid. Some snow has also revealed the need for user control over the minimum off-peak charge but I haven't yet figured out a fix for that (I don't have a backup gateway). There had been a sunny day two days before the snow arrived so the PW only charged itself to 60% the night the snow arrived.

 

[RedAxe]

What I would love is an option in that app that is a checkbox:

"Use off-peak grid instead of battery discharge" - since my feed in tariff is greater than my off peak rates, even with the round trip penalty.

OR have the app ask for pricing for offpeak, shoulder, peak and the feed-in tariff and make decisions accordingly.

 

[miimura]

What I would love is an option in that app that is a checkbox:

"Use off-peak grid instead of battery discharge" - since my feed in tariff is greater than my off peak rates, even with the round trip penalty.

OR have the app ask for pricing for offpeak, shoulder, peak and the feed-in tariff and make decisions accordingly.

I agree. If you don't have net metering, then the app should have you put in the buy and sell prices.

 

[SolarInAZ]

Here's another example. I want to charge the PowerWall during the day from solar and use the solar-heavy grid for home supply in the day, then discharge from my battery in the evening. Yet look:

View attachment 362286

Instead of shifting solar use to the evening, stupid Tesla uses all the solar during high solar periods and uses fast-ramp dirty fossil fuels at night. That's literally wrong. Tesla, during winter I need to store ALL of my solar in the day, and use the grid's solar in the day and my solar at night. I have storage, but the grid does not.

This requires a setting to store all solar to battery and use grid solar during high grid solar times. It is very easy to program. STOP BEING RETARDED. Let us control OUR batteries. We know how to use them.

Addendum: in case you are speed reading but not speed comprehending, the graphs above clearly show more grid solar should be used in the day and less (grid) fossil fuels should be used at night.

The thing I most interested in your graph is if you could explain what happened at noon and around 4pm.

The reason I ask is I have the footprint (although my CTs are wrong) of this massive shift at noon and around 4pm as well.

Is the powerwall causing this? Turning off the powerwalls (manually) stops that weird choppiness.

 

[ianto999]

It's not exactly "high tech", but yes I have a software for that:

National and Local Weather Radar, Daily Forecast, Hurricane and information from The Weather Channel and weather.com

I subscribe to rain/storm updates for my area and it emails me in advance.

IFTTT helps your apps and devices work together

Can do the same.

I was in the same boat, I saw the notice of heavy incoming weather and I bumped my reserve up to 70%.

can you tell us what sort of activity you can link with IFTTT please?

 

[1OldCarBuf]

There should be a Customize option in the app? It's explained here.

That link doesn't work. I believe this is now the link to that article.

 

[1OldCarBuf]

Including the link would help, eh? Powerwall2 update – Time-of-Use enabled – MikesGear