r/Powerwall

Hi, my 2 Powerwalls 2 are working fine. There was only 1 time in the past 3 months where it was offline. Just needed a reset. I got notified by Tesla, a month later, that they wanted to come by and perform maintenance on it. My appointment (after 2 months scheduling) is next week.

I just got notified by email that 2 Powerwall 3s are being shipped to me. Any idea on why they would replace existing working Powerwall 2s? Thanks.

Recently added PW3 + Expansion to my existing PW2 setup.

Results are looking very good so far. Currently on the pilot firmware. Just one small issue with nearly constant small grid imports, for context, my pw2 imports over 24 hours were mostly less than 200Wh, but with PW3 is about 1.4kWh over 24 hours. Hopefully this will be resolved by the time the firmware is officially released.

I have 6 year old Powerwall that's connected to a non-Tesla PV array. We've had a couple of utility outages the last few weeks and I noticed that after the power goes out the PV stops production even on a sunny day. PV production starts back up when utility power is restored. I know this isn't by design so wondering if anyone out there has seen this and has a (hopefully) simple explanation/solution. I've reached out to the local Powerwall rep and they agreed the PV system should re-start production shortly after utility power is lost. Unfortunately they want $300 just to schedule a tech to come out and check it (it being something they installed themselves).

I'm trying to educate myself. I need the rule of duh .

Mother inlaws house in Puerto Rico has Powerwall 2 installed with solar panels. Not sure on how many solar panels they have . According to my brother inlaw it's enough 😤 Tesla fanboy .

Spoke to Tesla recently. They said " PW2 is offline not connected to the interweb. Let's do a hard reset.

Walked me through the rest process. Failed a few times to make connection.

Wouldn't connect to the interweb. Everything was done correctly. The issue is .. When I toggle the shut down switch. It turns my internet off to the house. So the PW2 can't make a connection.

According to my brother inlaw . His app shows everything running as it should.

Here's why I'm checking things out for my mother inlaw. She said ... her electricity bill is outrageous. $500 / $700 a month. And 1/2 of the time the house sits empty.

They've had the PW2 since 2017 or 2019 . And she has not seen any real benefits to having the panels.

Is my mother exaggerating the issues?

She got hook into a 25yr lease and is paying both ends . Power company and Tesla wall purchase.

I am in the Los Angeles area. Powerwall disabled back in March 26', appointment for next week May 26th, just got a text my appointment for next week is cancelled, now the next available appointment is Mid August...........

Tesla: Hi, this is Tesla's Service Support team. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we will be unable to make it to your home as scheduled. To reschedule your service appointment, you can access our calendar via the Tesla App to view our availability. For further questions, you can use your Tesla App or Tesla.com to chat with one of us live. For further questions on how to use the Tesla App, please visit tesla.com/support. We are available Monday-Friday 8am-4pm Pacific. Thank you for your time.

Anyone else's power wall offline ?

I’m on a 7p cheap overnight tariff from midnight to 6am, then 30p peak until midnight. Export is 16p all day.

At midnight, my PW3 starts charging, and by 3:30am it’s at 100%. Then at 5am, still during the off-peak period, it decides to start powering house loads. ??! It used to wait until 6am, so the battery was always at 100% when the peak rate began.

I’ve noticed this pattern since 27 April. At first it was around 5:50am, then 5:30am, 5:10am, and now 5am.

I have the correct import and export tariffs set, time-based control enabled, and exporting solar would make more sense than draining the battery during off peak and then needing to power the loads or even recharge the battery from the precious solar so it lasts until the next midnight!

Hi Folks - Looking for opinions and recommendations.

I am located in South Florida. I have a 19.125kW solar system with a Powerwall 3 plus expansion. In Florida (Florida Power and Light) there is no VPP and FPL buys back energy at the same rate the sell it, so the powerwalls only purpose is for backup power.

Two powerwalls will hold me through the night but it requires power management (cut off the water heater, and 2 of the 3 HVACs). 

I am looking to do one of two things, add another powerwall expansion (40.5kW total backup power) or add a SPAN panel. Each option is $9k installed.

The SPAN panel allows for better energy monitoring, and better battery management when paired with solar and powerwall. The 3rd powerwall would fully cover the house and I wouldn't have to worry about power management.

Hi all, I've been having issues with my APC ups unit with power switch overs from grid to battery and back to grid. My research on this sub led me to believe that I need to adjust my maximum frequency shift to 2.5 (for 62.5Hz). However, when I finally got through the Tesla One app to make the adjustment I found that the setting was already at 0.2 (for 60.2Hz). This leads me to believe that my Powerwall 3 may not have been the cause of my ups problems, but regardless I raised the maximum frequency shift to 2.5 (for 62.5hz).

Is it possible my PW3 battery may have been damaged from over charging because of a Maximum Frequency Shift set way too low from the installer?

Any recommendation on further actions to keep my APC 1500 ups functional?

With two Wall Connectors and proper load sharing, both cars can stay plugged in overnight while the system manages the available power.

The second charger does not magically make electricity cheaper or double the home’s electrical capacity. It just makes the overnight charging window easier to use.

Sorry for the long post, just want to provide full context. tl;dr is I’m wondering if I can mitigate voltage drop on long undersized mains with a battery system like a PowerWall.

Okay, so I’ve got a farm property that was built in the late 70’s and the house is about 1000 feet from the meter. The mains are direct buried aluminum that are a bit undersized (appear to be about 4/0 or 250 MCM.) The house was set up for 100 amp service but rarely saw anywhere near that as it had propane for heat, hot water, and cooking appliances. Well we upgraded the water heater to a hybrid unit and installed an induction range and electric oven. We also put in a four head mini-split system and charge an EV as our primary vehicle. Suffice to say we are at times pulling significantly more amperage than before. I’ve got a Sense energy monitor and have noticed that fairly regularly we’ll see each leg’s voltage drop down to about 110v from its average of closer to 120v (220v across the legs.) I’ve verified this with a quality Fluke multimeter.

So what to do about this situation?

A) Fixing this by trenching and putting in properly sized new mains is exorbitantly expensive (my electrician estimated it would be north of $100k in copper alone before materials and labor.)

B) I’ve spoken to PG&E and running a new poles and meters would be I think $40k-60k or more though they are cagey on the numbers until after they complete engineering, which requires a few thousand dollar non-refundable deposit.

C) One electrician suggested a step up transformer near the meter and matched step down close to the house. Raising the voltage and thereby lowering the amperage would either require smaller replacement mains or we might be able to get by with our current ones. It looks like the transformers aren’t that expensive (maybe $15k in parts) but there is some inefficiency and ongoing energy loss by using them.

D) Here’s the creative one I’m wondering about. The voltage drop happens due to high amperage going through the mains. So what if I could shave off the peaks in that demand and average the amperage out to a lower level. Looks like the PowerWall 3 handles up to 11.5 kW of discharge so a couple of those could cover my peaks. If the house is drawing those down then my thought is that directly reduces the amperage pulled through the mains. They recharge at about 20-30 amps and so would effectively shave the peak usage and spread it over a longer period of time which would limit the voltage drop. Plus I’d have the benefits of battery storage and time shifting electricity usage, which PG&E seems to be incentivizing with its latest rate structures. And at a price point that would likely be similar to the transformers.

I’m on a 15 acre avocado farm with essentially limitless space for more solar panels (currently I have a dated system from about 20 years ago that outputs a peak 2.5 kW but I plan to add more.)

All thoughts and discussion welcome. Anyone seen a setup like I’m describing work or am I missing something obvious?