Some early glitches now settled

[DarylLafferty]

About a month ago Tesla installed an upgrade to my existing ("legacy") 10-year old 7.92 kW solar system by adding 4.8 kW and 2 Powerwalls.

The ordering and installation went pretty well. It took about 7 submissions to the city to get the plans approved, adding at least 2 weeks to the process, but it finally was approved.
The installers were professional, friendly and very competent. Everyone knew exactly what they were doing and the installation process went smoothly.

After the city approved and the system was commissioned, it looked good at first, but then I started noticing a glitch. From 1 to 4 times every day the Tesla inverter would suddenly stop functioning for about 30 minutes at a time. The result was a sudden drop in total system output during these times, but because the legacy system was still working, solar production did not drop to zero.

Attached is an example one day when the system shut down 4 times.
(I tried to insert an image, but it isn't showing up...?)

The lower red curve shows the power output from the legacy inverter overlaid on the total power output. Notice that during the outages the bottoms of the gaps follow the legacy power curve exactly.

I contacted Tesla using the Chat feature on the support page (which feature works very well, by the way. Each time it only took one or two minutes to get connected with an agent.)

At first upon hearing my description of the outages, the agent tried to insist that I was just seeing clouds and other normal phenomena. I assured her that after 10 years with solar I know what the impact of clouds looks like, and this was not that. After this chat, agents monitored the system and each time they looked it was generating power so they closed the service ticket.

It took a couple more Chats with different agents, and fortunately during one chat the inverter went down and the agent was able to connect to it and see what was happening. This, along with sending in the image shown above, was probably the breakthrough needed, so the technicians could diagnose the problem.

It took a couple more days, and there was even one email from support suggesting that I was causing the problems by "messing with the system" (which I absolutely was not doing), but suddenly one day without warning the dropouts completely disappeared.

In the two weeks since the system has functioned flawlessly, with normal cloud and temperature impact but no inverter failures.

I've heard some horror stories about Tesla taking a long time to respond to service issues, so I'm not going to get too upset about this brief saga. I'm now very satisfied with the system, and love the app that shows so much.

It would have been nice if Tesla had acknowledged that there had been a problem and that they had fixed it, but again I'll live with it.

 

[arnolddeleon]

My experience is Tesla is not very helpful with these kind of intermittent issues. I also have legacy Tesla (nee SolarCity) PV system plus newer PV and Powerwall. It's only the legacy Xantrex system that experiences the drop outs. My own troubleshooting is the issue likely caused by the grid voltage moving out of the range that the Xantrex wants to see but the other inverters are ok with it.

 

[DarylLafferty]

About a month ago Tesla installed an upgrade to my existing ("legacy") 10-year old 7.92 kW solar system by adding 4.8 kW and 2 Powerwalls.

The ordering and installation went pretty well. It took about 7 submissions to the city to get the plans approved, adding at least 2 weeks to the process, but it finally was approved.
The installers were professional, friendly and very competent. Everyone knew exactly what they were doing and the installation process went smoothly.

After the city approved and the system was commissioned, it looked good at first, but then I started noticing a glitch. From 1 to 4 times every day the Tesla inverter would suddenly stop functioning for about 30 minutes at a time. The result was a sudden drop in total system output during these times, but because the legacy system was still working, solar production did not drop to zero.

Attached is an example one day when the system shut down 4 times.
(I tried to insert an image, but it isn't showing up...?)View attachment 939775


The lower red curve shows the power output from the legacy inverter overlaid on the total power output. Notice that during the outages the bottoms of the gaps follow the legacy power curve exactly.

I contacted Tesla using the Chat feature on the support page (which feature works very well, by the way. Each time it only took one or two minutes to get connected with an agent.)

At first upon hearing my description of the outages, the agent tried to insist that I was just seeing clouds and other normal phenomena. I assured her that after 10 years with solar I know what the impact of clouds looks like, and this was not that. After this chat, agents monitored the system and each time they looked it was generating power so they closed the service ticket.

It took a couple more Chats with different agents, and fortunately during one chat the inverter went down and the agent was able to connect to it and see what was happening. This, along with sending in the image shown above, was probably the breakthrough needed, so the technicians could diagnose the problem.

It took a couple more days, and there was even one email from support suggesting that I was causing the problems by "messing with the system" (which I absolutely was not doing), but suddenly one day without warning the dropouts completely disappeared.

In the two weeks since the system has functioned flawlessly, with normal cloud and temperature impact but no inverter failures.

I've heard some horror stories about Tesla taking a long time to respond to service issues, so I'm not going to get too upset about this brief saga. I'm now very satisfied with the system, and love the app that shows so much.

It would have been nice if Tesla had acknowledged that there had been a problem and that they had fixed it, but again I'll live with it.

I couldn't see the image when I previewed and posted this. Turned out to be my ad blocker. I would have sized it a little better if I could have seen it...

 

[DarylLafferty]

Well, the glitches have come back.
Yesterday I lost about 8 kWh out of the 30 or so I usually get from the Tesla panels, so more than 25% loss from 5 inverter outages spread through the day.
The bottom of those gaps is exactly the power generation from my legacy (SMA) inverter. The Tesla panels and inverter normally bring the curve to the top, when it is working.

I contacted Tesla Service again, and this time they said that they requested a service call.

We'll see if someone actually comes and actually fixes it. I suspect they will view it remotely during a time when it is working, and assume that all is well and cancel the service call. Then I will have to contact them again and open a new ticket.

 

[CrazyRabbit]

Ask the tech to wire a separate CT from a neurio, and then you can pull data from each system.
Like this using powerwall dashboard:

I don’t know if you can mine data individually from the three optional CT on the Gateway.

 

[getakey]

Well, the glitches have come back.
Yesterday I lost about 8 kWh out of the 30 or so I usually get from the Tesla panels, so more than 25% loss from 5 inverter outages spread through the day.
The bottom of those gaps is exactly the power generation from my legacy (SMA) inverter. The Tesla panels and inverter normally bring the curve to the top, when it is working.

View attachment 943278

I contacted Tesla Service again, and this time they said that they requested a service call.

We'll see if someone actually comes and actually fixes it. I suspect they will view it remotely during a time when it is working, and assume that all is well and cancel the service call. Then I will have to contact them again and open a new ticket.

I recall some other thread(s) with similar graphs and the inverter was cutting out because of heat. I believe there is cooling fluid that probably needs to be topped off

 

[DarylLafferty]

I'm the original poster here.

Now the inverter has completely failed. Dead. Kaput. No lights or sound, and even the cooling fan is not running.

You can see where mid-morning the Tesla inverter started shutting down and restarting until it finally failed a little after noon, leaving me with just power from the legacy SMA inverter and my original solar panels.

I contacted Tesla again and asked if an outage merited service escalation over intermittent losses, and they said "No." Still 10 - 12 days from the day the ticket was opened before the service techs can look at it.

I assume that means:
-- They try to look at it online,
-- When they can't see it they will schedule a service call to investigate,
-- A few weeks later, the techs will get here, determine that it needs to be replaced,
-- And will order a new inverter which will probably take several more weeks to arrive.

So I'm probably going to be "down" for a couple of months.

At least I still have my legacy SMA inverter providing some power and my Powerwalls are still online.

 

[getakey]

Tesla service is the worst

 

[DarylLafferty]

I'm the original poster here.

Now the inverter has completely failed. Dead. Kaput. No lights or sound, and even the cooling fan is not running.

View attachment 943629
You can see where mid-morning the Tesla inverter started shutting down and restarting until it finally failed a little after noon, leaving me with just power from the legacy SMA inverter and my original solar panels.

I contacted Tesla again and asked if an outage merited service escalation over intermittent losses, and they said "No." Still 10 - 12 days from the day the ticket was opened before the service techs can look at it.

I assume that means:
-- They try to look at it online,
-- When they can't see it they will schedule a service call to investigate,
-- A few weeks later, the techs will get here, determine that it needs to be replaced,
-- And will order a new inverter which will probably take several more weeks to arrive.

So I'm probably going to be "down" for a couple of months.

At least I still have my legacy SMA inverter providing some power and my Powerwalls are still online.

The app has promised "We will contact you shortly" for several days now...

 

[DarylLafferty]

I finally opened a chat with Tesla, and got service scheduled for 4 days out. However, an hour later they said it was a mistake and moved it out a full month.
Then it disappeared from my app, though a chat agent told me I was still on the schedule, but that the status was "On Hold", whatever that means.
I think it means that they have no idea when my system will be fixed.