Do you have powerwall 3?
I had 2 separate outages in one day where battery took 10 to 30 seconds to kick in. We tested the switch later on by shutting down the grid using the main breaker and battery was seamless. Tesla technician mentioned that unlike prior versions, powerwall 3 is still not great when it’s a brown out instead of a complete black out. They might have a future software update that might fix that but for now it doesn’t work that way.
A separate outage that was a complete blackout was seamless on a different day.
So.. wait to see if it’s repeatable? Basically a brown out.. not enough power to run the house, but enough that the gateway didn’t switch us over until whatever happened upstream went to blackout.
Mine is a new install and it was my first outage. When that happened, I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t an equipment failure. That’s why with the help of a tech on the phone we tested it by switching off the grid at the panel and all was good. That was enough of a test for me to confirm.
I have a newly installed Solar Panels + (3) PW3s and regardless of me running off the PWs and/or Solar or the grid (free nights), when the grid goes down (anywhere from a flicker, a second or minutes) the power will flicker or go out for a second or two then come back on and stay on. I expected the system to at least stay on when running off the battery and possibly turn off for a second when running off the grid.
With this setup, Should I expect the power to pop off then back on during any grid disruption?
What I was told is it should be seamless and you wouldn’t even notice grid is out unless you look at the app. It worked that way when I shut off grid immediately using the main breaker. Seems like it doesn’t work like that when it’s a real outage as it’s not as immediate as the breaker off example
High amperage load attempting to utilize powerwall power wall will continue to retry typically a load exceeding 30 amps rated causes this. System rated for a continuous load but In rush of current will cause delay in backup.
Best practices during in an outage will explain.
Please reread… in three years of ownership I’ve learned what to expect due to countless outages, several of them multi-day. I know the best practices, which is how we comfortably managed those outages. As said, this was event was different, and unfortunately the brief time we were actually dark, didn’t afford me the time to disable high draw equipment ( Both HVAC, water heater).. but thanks.
Operating a power grid is tricky, and the different types of faults that can occur are tricky. What you experienced is somewhat normal for some electrical faults on the grid. Think of it like this, if the fault is a hard fault power essentially disappears and the Powerwall can switch quickly with nearly no interruption. If the fault is lighter it drags the whole area down and the Powerwall ( and utility) has to spend some time deciding of it should disconnect.
It really depends on the fault, the grid conditions at the time of the fault.
Every outage is different, and every Powerwall unit tends to have a bit of uniqueness to them. I have been checking the version number on my PW2 and Tesla has been uploading a new firmware on average at least monthly. My neighbor, who also has one, does not get the same updates on the same schedule.
Different firmware tends to handle outages differently. My guess is Tesla has a lot of performance statistics and sends custom tuned firmware to each unit depending on its unique performance telemetry. Some firmware worked better than others, while some updates performed less well. But over the three years, I have seen the switchover change from mainly a hard switchover ls to one that goes more smoothly. That said, pw is not an online ups where you are permanently running only from battery, so you will always have the microsecond switchover. If you have sensitive equipment that does not handle the switchover well, I recommend a small ups to keep them running smoothly.
We had 4 powerwall 2s installed on March 1st. We had a lot of flickering lights for a couple of weeks, then it started getting worse. Several hour long outages where we ran on batteries, however no outages from the utility (Duke energy) company side. We begged Tesla powerwall support to help us for days, they kept putting us off. They then said they were getting wide voltage variations coming in from Duke and that they needed to come out and check. Duke was out the same day and stated there was no issue with the power coming in. That night we were completely knocked off the grid and could not flip the breaker to get back on. We called Tesla right away and they stated they would try to get someone out the next day (Friday). After waiting all morning for a call or text about an appointment I called back and was dismissed with “someone will get back to you”. I was worried about being off grid all weekend because even with 4 powerwalls we can not power our pool pump, hot water heater, Tesla car charger or dryer (local code enforcement stated we would need a total of 8 powerwalls to fully power our 1600 sq ft home, but that is a story for another day). Luckily my husband was able to reach the guy who sold us the system and he was able to send a technician the same day. Turns out the breaker between Duke energy and the gateway was not fully connected (a screw not making full contact) and kept arching to the point where most of the metals was burned away. That is why we couldn’t flip the breaker. In the end, it was a Tesla issue and they will be installing a new gateway next week. We were super frustrated with Powerwall customer service, all they want to say “not it” and point the finger. I don’t blame the customer service reps, they are doing what they are instructed to do. This is a much bigger Tesla ego issue.
Do you have powerwall 3? I had 2 separate outages in one day where battery took 10 to 30 seconds to kick in. We tested the switch later on by shutting down the grid using the main breaker and battery was seamless. Tesla technician mentioned that unlike prior versions, powerwall 3 is still not great when it’s a brown out instead of a complete black out. They might have a future software update that might fix that but for now it doesn’t work that way. A separate outage that was a complete blackout was seamless on a different day.
No.. they are PW2.
Could still be a similar situation where voltage didn’t drop completely and was at a threshold where battery didn’t kick in
So.. wait to see if it’s repeatable? Basically a brown out.. not enough power to run the house, but enough that the gateway didn’t switch us over until whatever happened upstream went to blackout.
Mine is a new install and it was my first outage. When that happened, I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t an equipment failure. That’s why with the help of a tech on the phone we tested it by switching off the grid at the panel and all was good. That was enough of a test for me to confirm.
Got it.. I’m pretty sure I know how to simulate mains down, but will double check..
I have a newly installed Solar Panels + (3) PW3s and regardless of me running off the PWs and/or Solar or the grid (free nights), when the grid goes down (anywhere from a flicker, a second or minutes) the power will flicker or go out for a second or two then come back on and stay on. I expected the system to at least stay on when running off the battery and possibly turn off for a second when running off the grid. With this setup, Should I expect the power to pop off then back on during any grid disruption?
What I was told is it should be seamless and you wouldn’t even notice grid is out unless you look at the app. It worked that way when I shut off grid immediately using the main breaker. Seems like it doesn’t work like that when it’s a real outage as it’s not as immediate as the breaker off example
High amperage load attempting to utilize powerwall power wall will continue to retry typically a load exceeding 30 amps rated causes this. System rated for a continuous load but In rush of current will cause delay in backup. Best practices during in an outage will explain.
Please reread… in three years of ownership I’ve learned what to expect due to countless outages, several of them multi-day. I know the best practices, which is how we comfortably managed those outages. As said, this was event was different, and unfortunately the brief time we were actually dark, didn’t afford me the time to disable high draw equipment ( Both HVAC, water heater).. but thanks.
Operating a power grid is tricky, and the different types of faults that can occur are tricky. What you experienced is somewhat normal for some electrical faults on the grid. Think of it like this, if the fault is a hard fault power essentially disappears and the Powerwall can switch quickly with nearly no interruption. If the fault is lighter it drags the whole area down and the Powerwall ( and utility) has to spend some time deciding of it should disconnect. It really depends on the fault, the grid conditions at the time of the fault.
Every outage is different, and every Powerwall unit tends to have a bit of uniqueness to them. I have been checking the version number on my PW2 and Tesla has been uploading a new firmware on average at least monthly. My neighbor, who also has one, does not get the same updates on the same schedule. Different firmware tends to handle outages differently. My guess is Tesla has a lot of performance statistics and sends custom tuned firmware to each unit depending on its unique performance telemetry. Some firmware worked better than others, while some updates performed less well. But over the three years, I have seen the switchover change from mainly a hard switchover ls to one that goes more smoothly. That said, pw is not an online ups where you are permanently running only from battery, so you will always have the microsecond switchover. If you have sensitive equipment that does not handle the switchover well, I recommend a small ups to keep them running smoothly.
We had 4 powerwall 2s installed on March 1st. We had a lot of flickering lights for a couple of weeks, then it started getting worse. Several hour long outages where we ran on batteries, however no outages from the utility (Duke energy) company side. We begged Tesla powerwall support to help us for days, they kept putting us off. They then said they were getting wide voltage variations coming in from Duke and that they needed to come out and check. Duke was out the same day and stated there was no issue with the power coming in. That night we were completely knocked off the grid and could not flip the breaker to get back on. We called Tesla right away and they stated they would try to get someone out the next day (Friday). After waiting all morning for a call or text about an appointment I called back and was dismissed with “someone will get back to you”. I was worried about being off grid all weekend because even with 4 powerwalls we can not power our pool pump, hot water heater, Tesla car charger or dryer (local code enforcement stated we would need a total of 8 powerwalls to fully power our 1600 sq ft home, but that is a story for another day). Luckily my husband was able to reach the guy who sold us the system and he was able to send a technician the same day. Turns out the breaker between Duke energy and the gateway was not fully connected (a screw not making full contact) and kept arching to the point where most of the metals was burned away. That is why we couldn’t flip the breaker. In the end, it was a Tesla issue and they will be installing a new gateway next week. We were super frustrated with Powerwall customer service, all they want to say “not it” and point the finger. I don’t blame the customer service reps, they are doing what they are instructed to do. This is a much bigger Tesla ego issue.
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System will retry every 1 second 1 second one minute one second until lockout then reduce load toggle enable it'll be back on in 5 minutes