I'm trying to understand how the Time Based Control works with Powerwall 2 and if it might be worth it for me to switch to a Time Of Use tariff.
My setup is a 10 year old 10kW solar system (that still works well) and 3 x Powerwall 2 (installed around Christmas) on a fairly power hungry house in Blue Mountains NSW. I also have a Model 3 although recently I have been doing almost all its charging at the NRMA charger at Sydney Olympic Park on my way home. The system is currently set to Self-powered with a Reserve of 5%. I'm on a fixed rate tariff (22.75c/kWh).
If I get a run of sunny days, the solar is enough to charge the Powerwall to 40-70% which usually results in 5-25% left in the Powerwall by the time the solar kicks in again. i.e. with a run of sunny days I take almost no net power from the grid. This will likely change in Winter with shorter days, lower sun height, and AC to heat the house.
If I get a run of cloudy/wet days, the Powerwall barely gets to 10% and so I'm back on the grid by 5-7pm.
I've read the online help that Tesla provide but still can't get my head around how Time Based Control would work in the two scenarios above (run of sunny days, run of cloudy days) or any combination of them.
If I switched to a TOU tariff and used Time Based Control, would I still draw no grid power with a run of sunny days? How does it know? If I had a run of cloudy days, how would I avoid using grid power during the peak (13:00-19:59) @32.33c/kWh? Again, how does it know?
With Time Based Control does the Powerwall still only charge from solar or can it charge from the grid? I'm trying to understand the Excess Solar/Any Solar in the documentation. Does it mean that when there is no excess solar during the off-peak and shoulder times that the house runs from the grid and all the solar is used to charge the powerwall?
My setup is a 10 year old 10kW solar system (that still works well) and 3 x Powerwall 2 (installed around Christmas) on a fairly power hungry house in Blue Mountains NSW. I also have a Model 3 although recently I have been doing almost all its charging at the NRMA charger at Sydney Olympic Park on my way home. The system is currently set to Self-powered with a Reserve of 5%. I'm on a fixed rate tariff (22.75c/kWh).
If I get a run of sunny days, the solar is enough to charge the Powerwall to 40-70% which usually results in 5-25% left in the Powerwall by the time the solar kicks in again. i.e. with a run of sunny days I take almost no net power from the grid. This will likely change in Winter with shorter days, lower sun height, and AC to heat the house.
If I get a run of cloudy/wet days, the Powerwall barely gets to 10% and so I'm back on the grid by 5-7pm.
I've read the online help that Tesla provide but still can't get my head around how Time Based Control would work in the two scenarios above (run of sunny days, run of cloudy days) or any combination of them.
If I switched to a TOU tariff and used Time Based Control, would I still draw no grid power with a run of sunny days? How does it know? If I had a run of cloudy days, how would I avoid using grid power during the peak (13:00-19:59) @32.33c/kWh? Again, how does it know?
With Time Based Control does the Powerwall still only charge from solar or can it charge from the grid? I'm trying to understand the Excess Solar/Any Solar in the documentation. Does it mean that when there is no excess solar during the off-peak and shoulder times that the house runs from the grid and all the solar is used to charge the powerwall?