u/DanielLorey — reddlx

I had 2x Powerwall 3 installed in April 25 to supplement our small solar setup, which has been working well.

Just before Christmas our roof developed a leak and upon further inspection, it was obvious we needed to remove the solar panels and repair the roof.

As the original installer did a good job the first time, it made sense to go back to them for a quote for a new solar system. In total we agreed on 2x 8kW strings (each on the north and south elevations) and that install was completed today.

To the issue… several hours after completion the PW3 tripped out. I went around the house to troubleshoot and I noticed that the casing of the PW3 seems to have gotten scratched up pretty badly where the Ethernet cable enters.

There’s been a few other issues with the install which I won’t go in to here, but sufficed to say there was already an Ethernet cable that entered this gland previously, but due to poor communication they removed it. How they’ve managed to take out a plastic gland containing the end of a cable and replace it with another plastic gland leaving lots of nasty marks is truly mysterious… but anyway.

I’m worried that the scratches may compromise the integrity / waterproofing of the PW casing. The sensible side of me says it’s not likely to cause a catastrophic failure but then any leak is a ticking clock and I doubt Tesla would honour a warranty if they could pinpoint a leak in that area.

Tl;dr - should I push the installer to rectify this? Realistically the only resolution is going to be a full replacement.

So, earlier this week I paid for a heatgeek to come out and conduct a survey for an ASHP.

I literally cannot fault the guy that came out, his knowledge and enthusiasm was top-tier and he was very happy to answer my questions.

That said, after the survey we sat down to discuss the quote. I was happy with the price but the spec is calling for a 3.5kW Vaillant aroTherm. The total surveyed heat loss is 3.67kW.

I understand that it’s designed to -2’c and that it’s only really designed to replace the heat being lost but this to me doesn’t allow much scope for colder winters. I also understand that overspeccing would cause cycling but I’m wondering why they haven’t specced the 5kW Vaillant aroTherm, especially given it’s the same frame size etc.

The quote says that they’ll guarantee the efficiency at 440% but I really wouldn’t want to faff about staring at data and having to query with the installer 6-9 months after install if the house drops too much on the coldest of winters.

For context, we have a 1 year old baby and likely another on the way in the next year so the house dropping more than 1-2c in the winter months would cause stress for the Mrs, which I want to avoid.

Any thoughts? Should I push for the quote to be amended? I know they’re likely to fall back on “trust the algorithm” but I also don’t fancy playing FAFO with our heating system for the sake of a small bump.