Those with Powerwall and S or X does it coordinate charging?

[Vines]

Looking through Tesla literature it seems that the Model 3 works with the Powerwall, to turn off or on the charging when in off grid mode.

Does it work with the S and X to have the freedom to limit or allow charging when in off grid mode? I am curious to know more about how it works.

Maybe only newer vintage of S and X?

 

[bmah]

Looking through Tesla literature it seems that the Model 3 works with the Powerwall, to turn off or on the charging when in off grid mode.

Does it work with the S and X to have the freedom to limit or allow charging when in off grid mode? I am curious to know more about how it works.

Maybe only newer vintage of S and X?

Older S/X do it as well. The basic idea is that in an off-grid scenario, your car can soak up excess solar energy as the Powerwalls start to fill up (past a threshold that is configurable from the Tesla app). If you didn't have this, the Powerwalls would have to shut down the solar inverter(s), and your solar production would go to waste. I think it works by commanding your car to start charging, and to vary the charging rate to match the solar production. I believe both your Powerwalls and car need to have network connectivity to the mothership for this to work.

There are some limitations and conditions on it, which I personally am not familiar with. I used it once during a PSPS event last year and it basically worked, but the solar system at my house is pretty small, so during an extended outage, figuring out where to store excess energy is not likely to be a big problem for me.

Bruce.

 

[Vines]

Older S/X do it as well. The basic idea is that in an off-grid scenario, your car can soak up excess solar energy as the Powerwalls start to fill up (past a threshold that is configurable from the Tesla app). If you didn't have this, the Powerwalls would have to shut down the solar inverter(s), and your solar production would go to waste. I think it works by commanding your car to start charging, and to vary the charging rate to match the solar production. I believe both your Powerwalls and car need to have network connectivity to the mothership for this to work.

There are some limitations and conditions on it, which I personally am not familiar with. I used it once during a PSPS event last year and it basically worked, but the solar system at my house is pretty small, so during an extended outage, figuring out where to store excess energy is not likely to be a big problem for me.

Bruce.

Cool thanks for the confirmation. I was questioning that it definitely did work lol. This is why I didn't ask Tesla, their literature from last year indicates it works with Model 3 but nothing else stated. Its a nice feature to have for sure.

Anyone else use this a lot, and what limitations does it have? Can it only be setup with cars on the same account as the powerwalls?

 

[BGbreeder]

Cool, and useful feature by the sound of it, but wouldn't requiring network connectivity during an outage be a limitation? (Our neighborhood connection disappears 8-10 hours after the power fails...)

All the best,

BG

 

[Electrph]

i can only speak to model 3 / when charging while i am off grid .. i know you were asking on other models
i have tesla series 2 wall connector
first of all it worked 1st time / nothing needed on my part as far as set up
it lowers and raises charging current to car based on house demand / amount solar at moment /and what my 2 powerwalls can provide
i have never let car charge to point of running batteries down so i dont know if it would lower current to nothing if necessary and then start charging again when possible .. but that would be cool
just to add my model 3 has been alone on tesla account for over a year .. i am at waiting pto stage and have never had my powerwalls / solar show up yet on tesla app (telsa refused until after PTO) . i have to use teg at home to monitor .. but as i said car coordination always worked from day 1 without any setup i was aware of

 

[jjrandorin]

@Vines

I think @BrettS did some testing of this feature, during his off grid tests (if I remember properly). I havent seen him post in this section in a while, but you could try PM ing him as well to see if he had any feedback on it.

The cliff notes version is, as @bmah said, you configure a "Vehicle charging during power outage" percentage (will share screenshot below) and the car is supposed to start charging when, in an off grid scenario, the powerwalls are above that percentage.

In effect, you can set it to like 90% and theoretically make sure that, if your car is not fully charged, your solar will still keep producing and the power it is producing has someplace to go (your car). I havent tested it though.

Honestly, it would be nice if they enabled this feature for when there ISNT a power outage.

Here is the screenshot of how it looks in the app

EDIT: I should say, I have a 2018 Model 3 so its not 100% relevant to your thread question.

 

[pilotSteve]

@Electrph, I thought gen 2 WC did not have any communication capability. So how is this achieved?

 

[jjrandorin]

@Electrph, I thought gen 2 WC does bot have any communication capability. So is this achieved?

Its not doing it by triggering the wall connector, pretty sure it is triggering the car itself to start charging.

 

[Electrph]

as @jjrandorin said its all the car's doing ...including adjusting current .. i think ppl are confused on what gen 3 can actually currently do vs gen 2 connector at this time .. in future maybe diff story

 

[pilotSteve]

Its not doing it by triggering the wall connector, pretty sure it is triggering the car itself to start charging.

ok, thanks. That makes sense. So would a non Tesla Solar installation (like LGChem Resu batteries) be able to do this too?

 

[jjrandorin]

ok, thanks. That makes sense. So would a non Tesla Solar installation (like LGChem Resu batteries) be able to do this too?

Probably not, as I think its the a combination of the gateway (tesla) and car) etc working together. There is nothing stopping you from manually doing it, but I dont think it would happen automatically in that case.

 

[Vines]

Thanks all for the details on this function.

Its good to know that this has limited usability, until the Gen3 HPWC is smarter and updated.

If it was a direct wifi function to the HPWC it would be much more useful. As pointed out above often with extended outages there may not be local cell network capability.

 

[bayareaever]

Does it work without Tesla HPWC (just mobile cord)?

 

[Electrph]

Does it work without Tesla HPWC (just mobile cord)?

i would say yes .. since car is adjusting charge level
i would test it for you but my highest power outlet outside of my HPWC is a 20amp 110v and not much for model 3 to throttle back there

 

[alexguichet]

Definitely worth checking the support page, it has a lot of answers to questions that came up here—and a lot more.

 

[Vines]

Definitely worth checking the support page, it has a lot of answers to questions that came up here—and a lot more.

Good info on that page, thank you.

I wonder how it knows when you are plugged in to a home with Powerwalls, with a car not on that same Tesla Account? It says no internet connection is required, which seems contrary to other reports, unless its ignoring that a cell connection is still required.

Technically the Powerwall could control this car charging by frequency shifting I suppose, though I am not sure the chargers in the cars are sensitive to this? Seems more likely based on the description in that page.

 

[bmah]

Does it work without Tesla HPWC (just mobile cord)?

Yes.

Bruce.