TOU-B & Powerball Time-based control help

[ChunkyJ]

hi everyone,
I was hoping to get some help with more experience users on my setting for TOU on the PowerWalls

We got 2x Powerwall recently together with a 9KW solar system. We have a Tesla model 3 and we charge every 2 days or so during super off-peak time (long commute). We are on TOU-B (grandfathered in) where we have M-F 10pm-8am is super off peak, shoulder time of 8am-2pm & 8pm-10pm and peak from 2pm-8pm. Weekend we have no peak time, same super off peak and the rest are shoulder time.

Currently, I have the PowerWalls scheduled with TOU as above so for the most part, it works perfectly the way i wanted which is feed solar power to the house first, any extra power from solar, charge the PowerWalls and once its full, feed to the grid. At night because of TOU, i want the system to use the grid for charging the car since its the cheapest time.

I wanted the weekday schedule replicate thru the weekend as well, however during the weekend, the system seem to not charge the powerwalls and feed most the power to the grid. During the weekend, i would like the system to act the same as weekday which is feed the house first, the battery then anything extra, feed to the grid....how can i do that?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[d21mike]

I have the exact same but 12 kw solar. Mine is on self powered with a high enough reservation to never discharge after midnight which is when my 2 Tesla’s are scheduled to charge. Current set to 70%. I could not make either of the advanced settings to work. I absolutely do not want to discharge batteries for the cars. Would be nice to have a truly advanced option.

 

[csanders90D]

Give this a try: Set to Advanced, Cost Saving. Then ignore the difference between off-peak and shoulder times, and set all that time to off-peak in the app. Because there's not enough solar between 10pm-8am to matter, the extra differences between off-peak and shoulder are just confusing the app.

So for weekdays, you'll have peak from 2-8pm and all other time off-peak and weekends will be all off-peak.

 

[power.saver]

The only way to do what you want is to create a dummy peak period on the weekend. If there is no peak, there is no charging.

I have SCE and similar (TOU-D-A) schedule, and what I did was put a small 1/2 hour peak on weekends, from 9:30pm to 10pm. This forces the PW to charge on weekends (and also discharge during that short 1/2 hour dummy peak). Right now, this is the only way to make it work.

I also don't use any shoulder. Weekday peak is 2pm-8pm, everything else off peak. Weekend peak is 9:30pm-10pm, everything else is off-peak. Advanced Time Based Control, Cost Savings.

 

[d21mike]

The only way to do what you want is to create a dummy peak period on the weekend. If there is no peak, there is no charging.

I have SCE and similar (TOU-D-A) schedule, and what I did was put a small 1/2 hour peak on weekends, from 9:30pm to 10pm. This forces the PW to charge on weekends (and also discharge during that short 1/2 hour dummy peak). Right now, this is the only way to make it work.

I also don't use any shoulder. Weekday peak is 2pm-8pm, everything else off peak. Weekend peak is 9:30pm-10pm, everything else is off-peak. Advanced Time Based Control, Cost Savings.

Are you saying with these settings that it will not discharge during off peak? In my case it did so could not use it because my cars would empty the batteries.

 

[ChunkyJ]

The only way to do what you want is to create a dummy peak period on the weekend. If there is no peak, there is no charging.

I have SCE and similar (TOU-D-A) schedule, and what I did was put a small 1/2 hour peak on weekends, from 9:30pm to 10pm. This forces the PW to charge on weekends (and also discharge during that short 1/2 hour dummy peak). Right now, this is the only way to make it work.

I also don't use any shoulder. Weekday peak is 2pm-8pm, everything else off peak. Weekend peak is 9:30pm-10pm, everything else is off-peak. Advanced Time Based Control, Cost Savings.

If I set the system as you suggested above, would there be any discharging during the off-peak at all? What i like right now is the powerwalls also discharge during shoulder time. if we set shoulder as off-peak, there is no discharging correct?

 

[power.saver]

There will be no off-peak discharging with what I use. If you want to discharge during shoulder, this may not work. I have not tried that, as I don't want any shoulder discharge.

 

[ChunkyJ]

I have the exact same but 12 kw solar. Mine is on self powered with a high enough reservation to never discharge after midnight which is when my 2 Tesla’s are scheduled to charge. Current set to 70%. I could not make either of the advanced settings to work. I absolutely do not want to discharge batteries for the cars. Would be nice to have a truly advanced option.

but if you do this, the system won't discharge below 70% which defeat the purpose of having the fully charged batteries with solar to use during peak time (if usage is more than 30% that is)

 

[power.saver]

Correct. My reserve is 30%, just enough to cover an all-night outage in winter. No EV charging when the grid is down.

 

[d21mike]

but if you do this, the system won't discharge below 70% which defeat the purpose of having the fully charged batteries with solar to use during peak time (if usage is more than 30% that is)

My peak usage is < 30%. My peak is 2-8pm and I am still creating grid credits during peak sunlight. Once the sun goes down between 4-5 I start discharging batteries to about 11pm or so. Then I start using my credits for charging the cars. It would be nice to discharge anytime when not charging cars but that is to hard to time without more advanced settings. If I could use advanced and it would not discharge during off peak I could game it but my testing it would keep on discharging during off peak. This will change in the summer when I use AC. Maybe have to set to 50% reserve to get thru peak.

 

[ChunkyJ]

My peak usage is < 30%. My peak is 2-8pm and I am still creating grid credits during peak sunlight. Once the sun goes down between 4-5 I start discharging batteries to about 11pm or so. Then I start using my credits for charging the cars. It would be nice to discharge anytime when not charging cars but that is to hard to time without more advanced settings. If I could use advanced and it would not discharge during off peak I could game it but my testing it would keep on discharging during off peak. This will change in the summer when I use AC. Maybe have to set to 50% reserve to get thru peak.

how is your system still discharge pass 8pm into super off peak time until 11?

 

[d21mike]

how is your system still discharge pass 8pm into super off peak time until 11?

I am using self powered mode with 70% reserve which means it starts discharging when the sun goes down until it reaches 70% reserve which based on my usage is around 11pm or maybe a little later. My cars do not start charging until 2am and normally done around 5am based on my scheduling. I am super off peak from 10pm-8am weekdays. Again, during the summer I will need to adjust this unless Tesla gives us true advanced options where we can decide when discharging happens by time of day.

 

[ChunkyJ]

I am using self powered mode with 70% reserve which means it starts discharging when the sun goes down until it reaches 70% reserve which based on my usage is around 11pm or maybe a little later. My cars do not start charging until 2am and normally done around 5am based on my scheduling. I am super off peak from 10pm-8am weekdays. Again, during the summer I will need to adjust this unless Tesla gives us true advanced options where we can decide when discharging happens by time of day.

got it! makes sense. Thanks for all the info. I forgot you were on self-powered.
i used to switch to self-powered mode during the weekend since i normally don't charge my car during the weekend and have the system charge-discharge as needed...but that could be a pain in the rear.

 

[d21mike]

got it! makes sense. Thanks for all the info. I forgot you were on self-powered.
i used to switch to self-powered mode during the weekend since i normally don't charge my car during the weekend and have the system charge-discharge as needed...but that could be a pain in the rear.

Right. That is why I tried to make it as automatic as possible and I charge every night so it does not take that long based on my daily usage.

 

[Shygar]

I've been trying to time my powerball as well, still no luck!

 

[ChunkyJ]

The only way to do what you want is to create a dummy peak period on the weekend. If there is no peak, there is no charging.

I have SCE and similar (TOU-D-A) schedule, and what I did was put a small 1/2 hour peak on weekends, from 9:30pm to 10pm. This forces the PW to charge on weekends (and also discharge during that short 1/2 hour dummy peak). Right now, this is the only way to make it work.

I also don't use any shoulder. Weekday peak is 2pm-8pm, everything else off peak. Weekend peak is 9:30pm-10pm, everything else is off-peak. Advanced Time Based Control, Cost Savings.

Wanted to follow up with the original post. Adding the weekend peak for 30min between 9:30pm-10pm did the trick. My Powerwalls did exactly just what i wanted in the original post. I did have to call support for them to upgrade my firmware 1.44.2 for the change to stick. The previous firmware version which i think was on 1.42 was having problem not taking the changes. I also have shoulder time on schedule as well and the batteries do discharge during shoulder time which is what i wanted.

 

[power.saver]

Glad it worked for you. Now your PWs will get topped-off during the weekend.