Time-Based Control?

[ohmman]

I'm just telling you that it works as expected on Balanced with our weekday rate schedule. Cost Saving works great on the weekends when there is no Part-Peak. But you can obviously do whatever you want...

Yeah, I think instead of switching back and forth, it's easier for me to just adjust the weekday schedule to eliminate the morning part-peak. I've set my off-peak through 11am weekdays and it charges the Powerwalls until that time, which seems to be enough to cover me over the rest of the day. I've actually also adjusted the evening so that peak extends through 11pm (forcing my house to use Powerwalls during part-peak).

High usage days might be different, but I also have the friendly weekend schedule to catch up on any charge deficit.

A side note: holidays are on weekend rate schedule. I wonder if the app considers that. I doubt it at this point; maybe I'll send in a request.

 

[JohnRatsey]

My suggestion to Tesla was to add a facility to the app for the PW2 owner/user to define the target battery charge level at the end of the off-peak period. Sensibly, this should be sub-divided into (i) a default value and (ii) daily target values for, say, the next 7 days where the user can adjust the target charge value depending on the guestimated solar output and domestic power requirements. If this concept makes sense then perhaps more suggestions to Tesla along the same lines might result in something happening. Tesla's software might be able to learn enough about the domestic power requirements to make reasonable assumptions about the load but it won't be able to make reasonable assumptions about solar array output for those who live with variable weather conditions (I'm in UK) and this is critical for making best use of off-peak charging.

 

[abasile]

Tesla's software might be able to learn enough about the domestic power requirements to make reasonable assumptions about the load but it won't be able to make reasonable assumptions about solar array output for those who live with variable weather conditions (I'm in UK) and this is critical for making best use of off-peak charging.

At least in my case, there is no way the PW software is going to know how much energy we're going to want to draw from the PWs during Peak hours on a given day. Our baseline domestic usage only represents a small fraction of our potential consumption. Charging an EV, using an electric oven, and running an electric clothes dryer are all energy-intensive activities that may vary considerably from day to day. None are more demanding than EV charging, which we typically do at night, but sometimes we charge during Peak hours if we have an extra trip to make.

For this reason, I'd generally prefer to have more control and not less of when the PWs charge, their maximum target charge, whether or not to draw from the grid while charging, etc., etc.

 

[Icepicknz]

My 2 power walls were installed today, YAY!

Don't have ToU yet and have 1.15.1 on the power walls and 3.3.6 on iOS app and am based in New Zealand.

I just tried the 'backup' mode and i see its only charging at 3.3kw from the grid and I have 2 power walls, so that would take 8hrs!
I have seen this mentioned before has anyone managed to get it higher from the grid?

 

[Gear]

My 2 power walls were installed today, YAY!

Don't have ToU yet and have 1.15.1 on the power walls and 3.3.6 on iOS app and am based in New Zealand.

I just tried the 'backup' mode and i see its only charging at 3.3kw from the grid and I have 2 power walls, so that would take 8hrs!
I have seen this mentioned before has anyone managed to get it higher from the grid?

Twinsies from the other side of the planet! I just got my 2 Powerwalls installed today too!

I also don't have ToU yet on 1.15.10 and 3.3.6 on Android. Sorry I don't have an answer to your question.

 

[Neil_dsb]

Really cloudy Day in the UK, the PW did not charge from the grid during off peak, have 28% left @ 1300hrs GMT.... BTW on Firmware 1.17.1....

prior to today its been charged from the solar for ~3 weeks of so, imported nearly nothing

 

[Dborn]

Pity there is not some way for it to receive local forecasts and act on them.

 

[Tim_btt]

Pity there is not some way for it to receive local forecasts and act on them.

I agree, there's no shortage a good local weather forecasts here in the UK (we're a nation obsessed by weather). For the past few days the east coast of England has been plagued by thick cloud and fog. Further west lots of sunshine. My Powerwall on cost saving mode hasn't been charging overnight. This morning thick fog and rain forecast my Powerwall starts the day peak rate at 3%

Does anyone know what forecast the powerwall algorithm looks at to decide whether to charge or discharge during the off-peak?

 

[arnolddeleon]

Does anyone outside of California or Australia have Time Based Controls? I'm in California and the claim is that all of CA will get TBC before anyone else in the country.

I'm also curious to see how long after you received the PTO (permission to operate) did you get TBC. My system was installed in Jan 2018 but the "real" (I hope) PTO didn't happen until April. Amusingly PG&E issued a PTO after my original install date but before the system got really installed. Then when the second PTO came, Tesla was telling PG&E the system wasn't installed yet. Oy! I think they're both straight now but it's been about 6 weeks. I know that @miimura 's system was installed after mine but he might have received PTO before me and he definitely has reported that he has TBC.

arnold

 

[cwied]

I don't have my PTO yet and I have TBC. I suspect there's no relation between the two.

 

[Icepicknz]

I was told New Zealand doesn’t have them yet but will do soon as I’m in NZ and didn’t get access

 

[miimura]

I got TBC almost a month before my PTO. My solar was pre-existing and the installer told me I could operate the Powerwalls before getting the PTO because I already had solar.

 

[arnolddeleon]

I got TBC almost a month before my PTO. My solar was pre-existing and the installer told me I could operate the Powerwalls before getting the PTO because I already had solar.

This just reinforces that randomness of who gets TBC. My solar is pre-existing as well.

 

[ohmman]

This just reinforces that randomness of who gets TBC. My solar is pre-existing as well.

This is probably coincidence, but my availability occurred the day after I had PG&E approval to run on site generation with NEM.

 

[BJReplay]

This is probably coincidence, but my availability occurred the day after I had PG&E approval to run on site generation with NEM.

Pretty sure it is a coincidence because some markets don't have PG&E, nor approval for on site generation nor NEM. I got TBC almost eight months after my safety inspection was complete - and Tesla have no way of knowing when that was (unless it had failed, and I'd got them involved in getting it fixed by the installer, and then told them - none of which happened). In Aus you'll need a safety inspection before you're allowed to turn it on, but, in practical terms, the system is commissioned and ready to go when the installer leaves - they just ask you to leave it turned off until the safety inspector has been and signed off.

 

[ohmman]

A side note: holidays are on weekend rate schedule. I wonder if the app considers that. I doubt it at this point; maybe I'll send in a request.

Confirming here that the Powerwall didn’t adjust today’s holiday (Memorial Day) to the weekend schedule, as it should have. It ran on the typical weekday schedule. So a feature for Tesla to add.

 

[Sylvia Else]

Perhaps worth noting that in Australia, not all retailers apply the weekend TOU rates for public holidays, and not all retailers apply daylight saving time to the times the TOU use rates apply even in states that have daylight saving.

 

[arnolddeleon]

Well, color me a little shocked, May ended and I actually have Time Based Control! Last night I thought Tesla was going to miss their deadline again because I didn't have when I checked. To my surprise I just checked it today and it is live on my account. So are there any California users still waiting for TBC?

The UI looks cute but that mapping my rates was much harder than it should have been.

 

[Gear]

Well, color me a little shocked, May ended and I actually have Time Based Control! Last night I thought Tesla was going to miss their deadline again because I didn't have when I checked. To my surprise I just checked it today and it is live on my account. So are there any California users still waiting for TBC?

The UI looks cute but that mapping my rates was much harder than it should have been.

I'm still waiting, but my install just finished on the 23rd. When I called at the end of last week, she said they couldn't give me a date it'd be sent to me, but that since I'm in California I'd have priority and that she expected it to be a matter of days, rather than weeks or months. Maybe next week.

 

[arnolddeleon]

I was hoping TBC would fix the problem with the powerwall discharging during off peak hours because of the load from old PV system, it didn't. Unfortunately the lead acid batteries in my Outback system are shot and so the Inverter/Charger is charging the batteries at night a little bit. It looks like the Powerwall is responding to this "negative flow" from the PV system by pushing out some power to offset it. Unfortunately this results in a small net less for me, the inefficiency of energy going in and out of the Powerwall. The more important downside is that it reduces the amount of energy in the batteries available for emergencies.