Solar Edge isn't monitoring my Powerwall. Perhaps you are being confused by the PV Output site which consolidates data from both devices as explained here? I pay AU$20 per year for the data hosting but reckon it's well worth the money as I see get solar and battery data in one place with a useful time-based plot of what the battery is doing (and the state of charge is the genuine value and not with Tesla's fudge factor which makes 5% charge look like zero as that's when the battery stops discharging).
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Tesla: we need more control over our PowerWalls
- Thread starter Ulmo
- Start date
Thanks JohnRatsey. I am the first to admit I'm confused, and being a bit slow in understanding, but can I ask what the Solar Edge figures you linked to are if they aren't yours? I understand the PV Output site, in fact I tried to sign up to it but it asked so many questions that I realised that it was beyond me. But I still don't understand how the Solar Edge page you linked to is generated, whose system it is, is it just an example they provide? Or are they your figures which have been passed via PV Output and thence to Solar Edge. I do sincerely apologise that I'm being so slow to comprehend.
As to the the Tesla charging algorithm, I would continue to maintain - like you - that something has altered. Yesterday we had generated 22 kWh of solar by close of play, with the previous day beating our record thus far with 27 kWh. By the time we went to bed last night the battery was still at 70%, and I didn't wake up until 03.15 ( ie nearly two hours after cheap rate had started). I'd left the system on TBC, and was (pleasantly) surprised to find the battery up at 89%, and charging at 1.2 kW (an unusual rate, normally it's 1.7 or 3.6 kW). I am guessing the battery had dipped to about 58% at its lowest before TBC kicked in and started charging it, but what I'm trying to highlight (for xWren) is that in spite of two sunny days previously, the battery was charging well, which is sensible because today is forecast cloudy.
Now I've only had the system since the beginning of October, but I would absolutely confirm the findings of others hitherto, ie that a sunny day seems to discourage subsequent nightly charging, for two and possibly three nights. That no longer seems to be the case.
If things have improved then I'll be the first to congratulate Tesla, I have been to date a stern critic, and the attitude of the Tesla Europe Service Centre on this matter - with some honourable exceptions - has been lamentably poor. But just maybe we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel....?
As to the the Tesla charging algorithm, I would continue to maintain - like you - that something has altered. Yesterday we had generated 22 kWh of solar by close of play, with the previous day beating our record thus far with 27 kWh. By the time we went to bed last night the battery was still at 70%, and I didn't wake up until 03.15 ( ie nearly two hours after cheap rate had started). I'd left the system on TBC, and was (pleasantly) surprised to find the battery up at 89%, and charging at 1.2 kW (an unusual rate, normally it's 1.7 or 3.6 kW). I am guessing the battery had dipped to about 58% at its lowest before TBC kicked in and started charging it, but what I'm trying to highlight (for xWren) is that in spite of two sunny days previously, the battery was charging well, which is sensible because today is forecast cloudy.
Now I've only had the system since the beginning of October, but I would absolutely confirm the findings of others hitherto, ie that a sunny day seems to discourage subsequent nightly charging, for two and possibly three nights. That no longer seems to be the case.
If things have improved then I'll be the first to congratulate Tesla, I have been to date a stern critic, and the attitude of the Tesla Europe Service Centre on this matter - with some honourable exceptions - has been lamentably poor. But just maybe we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel....?
The Solar Edge data are for my house. The inverter sends the output via my wifi to the Solar Edge server (my installer set up an account for me) and the data can then be viewed on the www or using the Solar Edge phone app. PV Output also gets the data from that server. One thing I've noticed, however, is that the SE data is for the panel output (if I'm logged in I can see the output of each panel) and this, overall, is a few % more than the total output according to the generation meter due to the inverter losses.
Anyway, I wait to see how well the improved Telsa algorithm can handle the variable British weather. Set yourself the mental challenge each evening of figuring out what you think the battery should do based on the weather forecast and see if it does something similar.
Renewed thanks, I now understand. I must see if I can get our installer to do what yours has, ie get the monitoring in place by Solar Edge. It really annoys me that I can't use the computer to see what's going on (apart from the very basic direct-to-IP facility), and for me any sort of analysis via the Tesla app is more or less impossible because each day takes so long to load, absolutely hopeless.
Sorry it's taken me so long to understand what you were helpfully trying to explain.
Sorry it's taken me so long to understand what you were helpfully trying to explain.
Meanwhile I have my mental challenge each evening of figuring out what I want the battery to do based on the weather forecast (and my intended use), and then making it do exactly that
Interested if you can get confirmation from Tesla that that are using local weather in some way, otherwise my scepticism remains.
.... which is precisely what I have been doing up to now, but in a much more amateur way than you xWren, involving waking up between 01.30 and 03.30 and then taking appropriate steps to adjust between TBC and Self Consumption and sliding the storm watch reserve bar around.....
Just wish I was clever enough to automate it, but it's beyond me.....
Just wish I was clever enough to automate it, but it's beyond me.....
Hi Gdotp - I’m in the same boat as you (Octopus Go and wanting to control when the Powerwall and other appliances should be pulling from the grid). I tried following the video and the instructions on GitHub last night but had no end of trouble as scripting/coding isn’t a strength of mine. Could you possibly share your amended python files and your CRON job please. Obviously I’m not expecting to see your email and password but I found it unclear across all the files where information was required. Also the authentication has left me stumped, so seeing how someone got that working would be super helpful.
I hope that’s ok. Would really appreciate the help
skepticcyclist
Member
I just started automating my Powerwall/Grid behavior using my Hubitat and Powerwall Manager. Works great, but it does require you to already have a Hubitat device that is used by many for home automation!
hubitat.com
darwinsden.com
Hubitat Elevation® | Local, Reliable, Fast and Private Home Automation
Hubitat Elevation® is a local, reliable, fast and private home automation hub to connect your smart home devices. Elevate Your Environment™ with the solution that is not cloud-dependent. Shop now!
hubitat.com
Tesla Powerwall Manager app for SmartThings and Hubitat Hubs - DarwinsDen.com
Introducing the Powerwall Manager SmartApp for SmartThings and Hubitat Hubs Update 1-Jan-2023: This app is still fully operational on the Hubitat Hub platform, however due to recent changes on the SmartThings platform to eliminate the hosted Groovy application capability, this app is no longer...
darwinsden.com
skepticcyclist
Member
As long as someone is on an old APP, they can still use it. But once you view on a new APP, it automatically changes the settings back to TOU
Yep, because of comments on this site, I have NOT updated and hope to never update
@ Tim-in-CA What you've achieved fascinates me, and I'd willingly order a Hubitat this minute if I thought I was clever enough to get it to work with the Powerwall!
As I really am really really not well-versed in these things, you say that you need a Hubitat device, presumably by that you mean JUST the internet box shown here:
hubitat.com
I've also looked at the Smart Things website, but it's all video and limited actual info, does that too require some sort of hub?
Sorry to be so unknowledgeable.....
(Laters - I've answered my own question, you do need a hub for Smart Things, although a quick look at their own website doesn't seem to make that terribly clear, I had to look at a review site to find that out).
As I really am really really not well-versed in these things, you say that you need a Hubitat device, presumably by that you mean JUST the internet box shown here:
Collections
Hubitat Elevation® is a local, reliable, fast and private home automation hub to connect your smart home devices. Elevate Your Environment™ with the solution that is not cloud-dependent. Shop now!
hubitat.com
I've also looked at the Smart Things website, but it's all video and limited actual info, does that too require some sort of hub?
Sorry to be so unknowledgeable.....
(Laters - I've answered my own question, you do need a hub for Smart Things, although a quick look at their own website doesn't seem to make that terribly clear, I had to look at a review site to find that out).
Yes. Buy a Hubitat, follow the instructions to install the powerwal manager and your good to go. You can then start getting into smart lighting and other home automation!@ Tim-in-CA What you've achieved fascinates me, and I'd willingly order a Hubitat this minute if I thought I was clever enough to get it to work with the Powerwall!
As I really am really really not well-versed in these things, you say that you need a Hubitat device, presumably by that you mean JUST the internet box shown here:
Collections
Hubitat Elevation® is a local, reliable, fast and private home automation hub to connect your smart home devices. Elevate Your Environment™ with the solution that is not cloud-dependent. Shop now!
I've also looked at the Smart Things website, but it's all video and limited actual info, does that too require some sort of hub?
Sorry to be so unknowledgeable.....
(Laters - I've answered my own question, you do need a hub for Smart Things, although a quick look at their own website doesn't seem to make that terribly clear, I had to look at a review site to find that out).
How is the app running for you now @mw963? It recently ground to unusable slowness on my phone for me too (also in UK). I noticed that my phone it has been updated from PlayStore, while on an old tablet it was an older version (still v4) and worked much quicker. So maybe an update issue? Long story short (and there was a lot of faffing with various devices, alternative versions of app and side loading from mirror etc.), I ended up completely uninstalling the app, from my phone and reinstalling it from PlayStore. This now works at a reasonable speed.
I still prefer the v3 graphics and UI design, and I still use Python scripts on RPi to control the off-peak charging (not TOU and the dumb algorithm).
Mods: this post isn't really on topic, but I couldn't see how to quote and reply to @mw963 in a new thread (which I would title "Tesla v4 Android App Becomes Unusably Slow". Split it if you like.
With apologies to everyone for continuing somewhat off topic:
Basically xWren we've gone from bad to worse. On my Motorola G Play the app is unusable, even after a re-install, and on a Motorola G (not Play) it's slow but usable, often crashes.
Ongoing complaints to Tesla Europe now illicit the response "your phone is too old" rather than the previous mantra of "contact your phone manufacturer". The phones are in fact I believe only four years old, but in desperation I recently ordered a Samsung M22 which arrived yesterday, and in fairness it runs a lot better on that, although still not as fast as when I look at our neighbours' Solar Edge app.
I have told Tesla Europe in no uncertain terms that I am fed up with them refusing to pass my complaints on higher to America Head Office, and I am about to tell them that whilst the app DOES run better on a recent phone, that's no excuse for having such bloated software that it's too klutzy to run on a phone that is four years old. In addition I have told them that I am still not happy with
1) The lack of a customer-determined nightly charge level which can be set the evening before
2) The lack of a desktop computer version of the app
3) The lack of a calendar-type "go to" function on the app to allow one to look at the data for a specific day in the past without having to scroll through every intervening day, which on my Motorola can take a minute a day
I have also reminded them that single handed I've b*ggered up a lot of sales for them, by showing people the system and the app, and in doing so, whilst praising the hardware and the installation, explaining that if I had known how little control the app gives you, how unnecessarily bloated it is, etc etc I would never never NEVER have chosen a Tesla. I also explain to visitors that Tesla Europe refuse to allow me to discuss all this with someone in America who might be able to do something about it, and that in general I now realise that Musk is a complete control freak and doesn't trust his customers to understand their needs better than he can.
Fiinally, an interesting technical aside. This time last week an illegally over-height lorry traveling up the main road a couple of miles from us felled the overhead fibre connection between our small village and the larger village four miles away which houses the BT exchange. Later in the day BT had to also fell the 150 pair main analogue telephone cable as it had become a danger to traffic. I expected communications with Tesla via the app to be severed, as our installers INSISTED at nauseam that I HAD to provide an ethernet cable from fibre router to Powerwall Gateway, and it seemed fundamental to whether they would install, so of course I complied. However, the app continues to work (slowly on the old phones) as it did before we lost the BT line. So - being puzzled by this - I eliminated anything in the house that could be providing a bridge from Gateway to internet, including the 4G modem-router we're now dependent on for internet (which hadn't ever been paired with the Gateway), and eventually even running tests from a hundred yards away from the house to ensure that the Gateway wasn't somehow accessing the phone (with its 4G connection) direct, in order to use the latter to get a bridge back to Tesla HQ.
Anyway, long story short, it's clear that there is some sort of 3G/4G connection from the Gateway to the mobile phone network of which I - and I suspect lots of other people - are totally unaware. When I watched the installation I saw no sign of a SIM card on the giblets of the Gateway, and there was no point where the engineers were setting up a 3G/4G connection, just the ethernet one I had provided. I have contacted Tesla Europe asking them to explain how it is that the Powerwall is still communicating with them, but curiously enough I haven't had an answer, even though it's nearly a week since I posed the question. Another point to add to my list of dissatisfaction when I finally get to speak to someone in America, and I'm not going to let it rest, the Tesla system could be SO good and I could be singing its praises, but instead I've become the biggest critic of it, and making sure that people know how I feel.
The tangential moral of this story is that if your internet connection is important to you then a mains driven 4G modem router and a SIM card with lots of data on it is a must for when the fibre goes down. We're still off, and although we're told it'll be back on on Friday (so nine days without it) there is also an idea that it'll be off until 1st June, a down period of 20 days. I'm not blaming BT on this, they're faced with a complex repair which involves a road closure, something that always means a delay.
Basically xWren we've gone from bad to worse. On my Motorola G Play the app is unusable, even after a re-install, and on a Motorola G (not Play) it's slow but usable, often crashes.
Ongoing complaints to Tesla Europe now illicit the response "your phone is too old" rather than the previous mantra of "contact your phone manufacturer". The phones are in fact I believe only four years old, but in desperation I recently ordered a Samsung M22 which arrived yesterday, and in fairness it runs a lot better on that, although still not as fast as when I look at our neighbours' Solar Edge app.
I have told Tesla Europe in no uncertain terms that I am fed up with them refusing to pass my complaints on higher to America Head Office, and I am about to tell them that whilst the app DOES run better on a recent phone, that's no excuse for having such bloated software that it's too klutzy to run on a phone that is four years old. In addition I have told them that I am still not happy with
1) The lack of a customer-determined nightly charge level which can be set the evening before
2) The lack of a desktop computer version of the app
3) The lack of a calendar-type "go to" function on the app to allow one to look at the data for a specific day in the past without having to scroll through every intervening day, which on my Motorola can take a minute a day
I have also reminded them that single handed I've b*ggered up a lot of sales for them, by showing people the system and the app, and in doing so, whilst praising the hardware and the installation, explaining that if I had known how little control the app gives you, how unnecessarily bloated it is, etc etc I would never never NEVER have chosen a Tesla. I also explain to visitors that Tesla Europe refuse to allow me to discuss all this with someone in America who might be able to do something about it, and that in general I now realise that Musk is a complete control freak and doesn't trust his customers to understand their needs better than he can.
Fiinally, an interesting technical aside. This time last week an illegally over-height lorry traveling up the main road a couple of miles from us felled the overhead fibre connection between our small village and the larger village four miles away which houses the BT exchange. Later in the day BT had to also fell the 150 pair main analogue telephone cable as it had become a danger to traffic. I expected communications with Tesla via the app to be severed, as our installers INSISTED at nauseam that I HAD to provide an ethernet cable from fibre router to Powerwall Gateway, and it seemed fundamental to whether they would install, so of course I complied. However, the app continues to work (slowly on the old phones) as it did before we lost the BT line. So - being puzzled by this - I eliminated anything in the house that could be providing a bridge from Gateway to internet, including the 4G modem-router we're now dependent on for internet (which hadn't ever been paired with the Gateway), and eventually even running tests from a hundred yards away from the house to ensure that the Gateway wasn't somehow accessing the phone (with its 4G connection) direct, in order to use the latter to get a bridge back to Tesla HQ.
Anyway, long story short, it's clear that there is some sort of 3G/4G connection from the Gateway to the mobile phone network of which I - and I suspect lots of other people - are totally unaware. When I watched the installation I saw no sign of a SIM card on the giblets of the Gateway, and there was no point where the engineers were setting up a 3G/4G connection, just the ethernet one I had provided. I have contacted Tesla Europe asking them to explain how it is that the Powerwall is still communicating with them, but curiously enough I haven't had an answer, even though it's nearly a week since I posed the question. Another point to add to my list of dissatisfaction when I finally get to speak to someone in America, and I'm not going to let it rest, the Tesla system could be SO good and I could be singing its praises, but instead I've become the biggest critic of it, and making sure that people know how I feel.
The tangential moral of this story is that if your internet connection is important to you then a mains driven 4G modem router and a SIM card with lots of data on it is a must for when the fibre goes down. We're still off, and although we're told it'll be back on on Friday (so nine days without it) there is also an idea that it'll be off until 1st June, a down period of 20 days. I'm not blaming BT on this, they're faced with a complex repair which involves a road closure, something that always means a delay.
The Gateway 2 datasheet clearly says that there is a cellular modem in it with 3G/4G/LTE support. The footnote days that it isn't recommended as the primary method.
He is in UK, so the cellular radio may not be the same or not supported the same as the North American one.
Noted, but still present in the UK version of the datasheet in the connectivity line as Cellular (LTE/4G) with a similar footnote "Cellular connectivity subject to network operator service coverage and signal strength (2G/3G supported where LTE/4G unavailable)."
