Why am I unable to monitor energy usage? 600A service issue

[Tryin2hard]

We just had our solar turned on last week. Tesla/SolarCity installed 133 panels on our house. The house is fed by a 600A service. Tesla tells us that the "Powerblaster was DQ'd from the job due to existing 600A service -- per SOP: PowerBlasters can't be installed on services rated higher than 400A."

It doesn't make any sense to me that having 600A service prevents us from monitoring our energy usage altogether. What is the work around or who do I escalate this too? Contacting Tesla only get's me the message quoted above.

 

[phantasms]

Tony Stark?

 

[Shygar]

You don't have any powerwalls?

 

[ewoodrick]

FYI, 600A service is 3 times the service found in most modern homes and 6 times the amount found in a lot of homes.

As such, I would not be surprised if a manufacturer didn't build a solution for 600A, it adds cost and the number of installations would be very low. For 600A, you are going to be looking at industrial solutions.

 

[Vines]

Its likely a problem with the Current Transformers (CT), that read the amperage from each of the service phases.

600A services usually have a hard buss which will often be larger or inaccessible for the average doughnut type CT. A rope CT is required, and those are available from Tesla only as a special item. We have a few designated for some of our largest installations.

A 3rd party solution like the E-gauge will be able to read this same rope CT. It might be that the Powerblaster isn't even compatible with rope style CTs. Sometimes it is possible to connect multiple doughnut type CTs in parallel and capture all the feeds out of the 600A switchboard and add them together instead of trying to grab the main feeds all with a single set of CTs

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

dahhmm... I thought 400 amp service was crazy.... what monster needs 600?

 

[Vines]

We just did an installation with a mansion built by a prepper type.

He has a 1000A 3 phase service!

400A service isn't really crazy, especially to a Tesla family. Just a single HPWC can push a 200A service into a 400A, if set to maximum.