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So technically the time between install and PTO could be ideal since it’s pre-loan payment but self consumption mode with a large enough solar and battery system can run independently fairly long.

When the powerwalls were full, and the panels would drop output to almost 0, was it less than the house was consuming? Meaning did they drop below the power needs of the home forcing grid usage or did they drop low because they could only supply to the demand?

Ah interesting. Good point. I’m thinking in my case the powerwalls will drain significantly overnight and their refilling plus home usage in summer will use a lot of the available solar generated power. That’s the hope at least!

Yeah definitely get this. Also why the panels are 23.49 but inverter is 20.9 because that 20.9 will cover likely 95% plus of production times over the course of the year, assuming there is maybe 5% during the peak of summer where maybe I get full production. Still unlikely in my case since 24 of...

I plan to the house on PWs overnight during self-consumption time period which should leave a good runway for them to charge by solar during day. I have 2 Model Ys so charging the cars with excess solar that would be otherwise wasted during the day is a good idea. However, I think between the...

Oh right - so this means, for example, if I have 4 Powerwall 2s at 25% charged and 23.49kw DC / 20.9kw AC panel system, in ideal conditions, the panels should be able to generate up to their full potential, right? The Reddit poster has 2 PWs and their 6.48kw system in full sunlight is only...

I get this if it was their policy. But why turn it on and limit it's power capabilities? Interesting. My system will be whole-home backup as well, but my advisor told me I will be able to operate in self-consumption mode between install and PTO. It was not my normal project advisor whom I...

Just got off of a call with my project advisor and he said the system would be in "self-consumption" mode prior to PTO after installation, and output would be limited. I asked him whether this means limited in that it will not export to grid (known) or actually power limited. He said limited...

Just had a call with a Project Advisor (not my normal one, he was "out today") and was told that down payment is due after inspector signs off on install, but full payment not due until ~60-75 days after PTO is given. So that was good news! Just stinks that it has now been 3 weeks and they...

This is what my paperwork says, I just looked. Thanks. However my advisor told me payment in full would be due 1 week after installation is completed last time I spoke with him. Have another meeting with him tomorrow so will touch on this again. Thanks.

Ok I better be able to since they told me payment will be due after install (technically after approval by town a week later). So I don’t want to be paying both my electric full price and the loan for months.

Do you have a "blanket" around the water heater. In your case this would likely help with efficiency quite a bit! Something like this:

I currently have gas hot water heater and gas oven/range. So I think my lowest hanging fruit will be things like optimizing car charging to excess solar, doing laundry during excess solar times, and removing extra refrigerators/freezers.

Were you able to operate after installation, or after county inspection in off-grid mode? Or were you not able to turn anything on until permission to operate from PEPCO?

Looks like my system will be similar to yours. I'm very curious to see how 23.49 DC into 20.9 AC feeding my home and 4x Powerwalls will look with different configurations of when/where/how power is distributed. My plan to remove some of our unused refrigerators and other unnecessary electrical...

Not sure if this was directed at me but I have Atlantic City Electric and heard back from them that they don’t allow more than installed 21kW AC inverter capability regardless of whether it’s all being used/disabled/derated. If it’s there and available, it counts.

After everything I’ve learned and that’s been said here, I completely agree, even with the addition of the DC expansion for PW3. My advisor noted the same. He said majority of systems have 1 Powerwall and 1PW2 was not enough to handle initial startup v requirements for AC Units, for example. PW3...

In my case the two Powerwall + will have their 7.6kw inverter but the extra 5.7 inverter is only I guess for both of the other 2 Powerwall 2s to charge from?

Thanks. Can you elaborate a bit on what you mean with parallel inverters and battery banks? How does that make it have higher output per installed kWh? Just because more inverters are needed per kWh of stored energy? So in my case I’ll have the 2x 7.6kwh AC inverters that are part of (albeit...

Yeah after meeting with my project advisor yesterday, I realized there is just no path to me getting PW3 due to my utility, not Tesla. The PW2s will work, I just liked that the PW3 had a smaller footprint and are LFP which is better battery chemistry. My advisor would not confirm the battery...

Yep. I’ve made my peace with it. The issue, I realized, is not Tesla, it is my utility. Tesla has all the modularity in their PW3 system to allow for derating/disabling of inverters on their PW3s and would do so if my utility allowed. But, given my situation, their solution of 2PW2 + 2PW Plus...

Yeah I found out since yesterday that the "DC Expansion" packs are purely storage and provide no incremental power output. So 1PW3 and 3 DC Expansion would only provide 11.5kW output. So in my case where my utility will not allow more than 21kW total output from the installed Inverter...

Other than the chemistry, there’s also considerably more equipment and a bigger overall footprint that the equipment will take up on the side of my house. It’s not that big of a deal since I’ll likely just plant some shrubbery/trees in front and out a bit to hide it. Also the 4x Powerwall 2s...

What do you mean?

https://electrek.co/2024/04/11/tesla-details-powerwall-3-cheaper-stack/ This is awful or great timing for me depending on how you look at it. I was just about to sign paperwork for a 23.49kW Panel system with 2x PW+ and 2x PW2 + 5.7kW inverter added to get to 20.9kW AC output. They told me...

Ugh of course this would come out today: Tesla releases more details on Powerwall 3, confirms cheaper stack coming So now I have to decide if I want to wait for the DC Expansion PW3 models to be available. I assume they could do 1 PW3 with inverter and a separate Tesla 7.6kW Inverter to get me...

Ah got it. My understanding is that shading on a single panel or small few will decrease DC output for all panels connected to those panels in the same string. Therefore, it’s better to have more strings with panels grouped by areas where it’s likely the majority of panels in that string will be...

What did they say to you that made you agree with them in the moment? Any tips for avoiding this? I’d much prefer the designers plans be what is installed, but can see it being difficult to argue with installers on site who come up with a reason I may not fully understand for changing the...

Thanks this is good to know, if not a little worrisome since I'd much rather have a fully thought out, designed, and agreed on design before installation date since I don't necessarily know who will be installing and how knowledgeable they'll be. Also won't know if installers will have...

My backyard is surrounded by trees - this drone video was shot around 6pm if I'm not mistaken -

Oh missed this! I wonder if there is anywhere showing how they plan to breakup the strings. I did see this..

Ah I see. 11.5kW is definitely not enough for my home. Not that this would be a common occurrence, but I have 2 model Ys, for example and just charging them from PW would take up 20kw (maxing both at 40amps). Unfortunately, this would also be the max of the 2PW+ and 2PW 2 systems they are...

I think if/when PW3 expansion only model comes out, they would likely be able to supplement it with their stand-alone inverters like they have spec'd for my system now. It would be the 2 PW+ 7.6kw inverters and a separate 5.7kw inverter. I would still be limited to the 11.5kw + one of their...

Also - as a side note - it looks like they intend to put all 58 of may panels on just 2 strings, one for the panels on the front of the home and one for the back: This seems like very inefficient design to account for shade that may hit different parts of the house from trees around my...

Ahhh so now I am wondering if I should wait a bit - or move forward with this design expecting install won't happen until Q3 and perhaps they will be ready by then and my design will change?

Yeah I got one other quote and it was $14k more for the same system. So I will stick with Tesla. Although I'd really like to get the new PW3s, I mostly see now they are really meant for people getting 1 or maybe 2 PWs in some cases but will rarely work for those who want 3+ PWs for more backup...

Really appreciate you responding. This is exactly what I was wondering. How worth it is it to fight/pursue. It seems the real "bad guy" here is the utility who likely has these caps only to ensure some level of dependency on the grid remains and people cannot truly be self sustaining with...

Oh totally missed that! Thanks, makes more sense now!

In my opinion - it is this exactly. The technology is capable of limiting total output via hardware and/or software and there is no risk to their lineworkers if a Powerwall is sitting there with disabled inverters. They simply don't want people installing more panels, for example, after the...

I am dealing with the same thing right now. My system iis somewhat larger at 23.49 (58x 405 panels) with 34 southeast facing and 24 northwest facing. I ordered with 4x Powerwall 3s and the planset I got back had 2 Powerwall+ and 2 Powerwall 2s. When i asked about this, they told me that my...

Which model Powerwall and how many? If this is PW 2 or plus wouldn't you need around 7 to get this output? Is that what you have? For 3s I guess this would be 3 PW 3s?

Got one other quote for same system and it was $14k more. They did tell me the same about the PWs and that they would have to use PW2s and PW2+ if I wanted tesla storage. The additional cost was because the PWs cost them much more according to them.

Service is 200amps. I have a 100amp breaker going to a subpanel which has 2 60amp breakers in it feeding 2 separate Tesla Wall Connectors wirelessly connected to not exceed 80 amps total (if charging together). They would backup entire 200amp panel. In last 12 months i used 25,613kW with average...

Yeah you meant Powerwall+ is a little better than Powerwall 2 right? As Powerwall 3 is better as far as I can tell in chemistry (LFP vs. Lithium ion), footprint (less separate hardware), continuous output (11.5kW vs 5kW per unit), and peak startup voltage (insignificant for systems with 2+ PWs)...

Having some trouble understanding how PW3 makes sense when more than 2 are needed/wanted for longer backup. Some background....got my detailed plan and plan set from Tesla yesterday. This is for 58 panels at 23.49kW with 4 Powerwalls. Good thing is that they actually got me from original...

Got my detailed plan and plan set from Tesla today. One good thing is that they actually got me from 97% offset to 100% offset with less panels by shifting more panels onto the rear (southern facing) of the home's roof since their survey showed it was larger. They were able to remove 2 panels...

At least where I live in a more rural area USA, stop signs are often set back a decent distance from the actual crossing road. So the two stops are one before the stop sign and another up where the cars cameras can see cross traffic.

I was told that 85%-90% of installs in the northeast are done outdoors and not in garage. It appears that the in my market specifically, there are very stringent code requirements for in-garage installs. That’s what the assessor said anyways. With that being said, I think with my home...

You can’t see it in the picture, but ground from the back of the deck to the house slopes upwards only leaving around 2-3 feet from the ground to the bottom of the deck at the house. From the end of the deck that you can see it’s about 8 feet tall, so it’s quite a slope downwards away from the...

Possibly? It would need to be set back from the house and easements and all at proper distances though, so I'm not sure it would realistically work. The assessor did mention that I could potentially get a stand built and put trees around it. That would potentially fly, but it would likely come...