Tesla Only Wall Charger or Tesla Universal Wall Charger (House Power Share Feature)?

[davenlei]

Ok so now I am going to buy a wall charger and there is the universal and regular Tesla one. I understand that one has the J1772 adapter integrated into the unit but what I am really interest in is the "power share' feature only listed for the Tesla universal wall charger which allows you to power your house from the car if there is a power outage. I do not see that feature listed on the Tesla only wall charger.

I know that capability is only available on the Cybertruck and some other non-Tesla vehicles but I heard that the ability to feed power back to your house from your Tesla is rumored to be able to be done with all our Tesla vehicles but just needs to be activated.

Does anyone know for sure if only the Tesla universal wall charger can 'power share' with the house or can the Tesla only unit do that also?

 

[Cosmacelf]

Ok so now I am going to buy a wall charger and there is the universal and regular Tesla one. I understand that one has the J1772 adapter integrated into the unit but what I am really interest in is the "power share' feature only listed for the Tesla universal wall charger which allows you to power your house from the car if there is a power outage. I do not see that feature listed on the Tesla only wall charger.

I know that capability is only available on the Cybertruck and some other non-Tesla vehicles but I heard that the ability to feed power back to your house from your Tesla is rumored to be able to be done with all our Tesla vehicles but just needs to be activated.

Does anyone know for sure if only the Tesla universal wall charger can 'power share' with the house or can the Tesla only unit do that also?

So it does appear that only the Tesla Universal Wall Charger can do Powershare. Also only the Cybertruck has the bidirectional on board charger to do Powershare. Whether or when other Tesla vehicles get a bidirectional charger is literally anyone’s guess at this point.

 

[Tam]

If you just want to charge your car, any EVSE or "connector," Tesla or non-Tesla, would be fine.

Now, when discussing bidirectional, I want to ensure I got the correct one. It may be brand-dependent and model-dependent as well.

For Tesla, you'd better choose one that has the bidirectional "Powershare" icon, which is the Universal Wall Connector.

You can gamble with other versions from V1,2,3 but they have no bidirectional "Powershare" icon, so do it at your own risk.

As pointed out by @Jones1 :

 

[davenlei]

Thank You for the response. I assumed that was the case with the Tesla chargers but wanted confirmation.

So a follow up question - Is the ability to do bi-directional available on al modern Tesla's but just not activated or is there some additional hardware not present on the new X which will prevent it from ever being able to do it?

 

[jjrandorin]

Is the ability to do bi-directional available on al modern Tesla's but just not activated or is there some additional hardware not present on the new X which will prevent it from ever being able to do it?

The only teardowns we have seen showed that virtually no tesla vehicles had bi directional charge ports (at least through the beginning of 2023). So a new charge port (or as you mentioned "additional hardware" ) would need to be added / swapped out.

 

[Eric33432]

I don't know if anything has changed since this video was made.

 

[davenlei]

Ah. Ok.

 

[davenlei]

I don't know if anything has changed since this video was made.

Sounds like the board he was showing was from 2018 so that is several years ago and it seemed like he said the main difference between the capability of being bidirectional with that design is that board was using diodes vs switches. Hmmm.. So there is hope until someone can confirm one way or the other.

 

[Eric33432]

Sounds like the board he was showing was from 2018 so that is several years ago and it seemed like he said the main difference between the capability of being bidirectional with that design is that board was using diodes vs switches. Hmmm.. So there is hope until someone can confirm one way or the other.

Read the first comment under this video, Part 2 of the above linked video.

 

[davenlei]

Read the first comment under this video, Part 2 of the above linked video.

Ah, ok. So looks like no changes with the 2020 board and someone else looked at a 2022 M3 board and is the same as well.

 

[gsmith123]

I wonder if for now while Powershare is new they're only supporting it on the universal wall connector, and using their remaining non-Powershare inventory of parts for the cheaper NACS only connector units.

Wouldn't be too surprised if silently one day every wall connector supports Powershare.

 

[Tam]

Wouldn't be too surprised if silently one day every wall connector supports Powershare.

I would think that I need some education on what makes one wall connector have the Powershare logo and not the other.

Do they need an electronic board retrofit? Or just a software update?

 

[Eric33432]

I would think that I need some education on what makes one wall connector have the Powershare logo and not the other.

Do they need an electronic board retrofit? Or just a software update?

To power your house from your vehicle would require, at a minimum, some way to send power from your car to the house (the V2G wall connector) and a device to isolate your house from the power company connection, like a transfer switch does when you have a generator.

While you could simply turn off the main circuit breaker(s), I doubt that would be good enough. Feeding power out to the grid during a power failure is very dangerous.

And unless your car can make enough power for your entire house, you would need to isolate the circuits that you can power from those you cannot or do not want to power, just like is done when installing a generator that cannot power the entire house.

 

[Tam]

To power your house from your vehicle would require, at a minimum, some way to send power from your car to the house (the V2G wall connector) and a device to isolate your house from the power company connection, like a transfer switch does when you have a generator.

While you could simply turn off the main circuit breaker(s), I doubt that would be good enough. Feeding power out to the grid during a power failure is very dangerous.

And unless your car can make enough power for your entire house, you would need to isolate the circuits that you can power from those you cannot or do not want to power, just like is done when installing a generator that cannot power the entire house.

I think that's the difference: there's an automatic function to interface with the automatic disconnect system (Tesla Gareway/Backup Switch) to isolate the V2H in the home only and not to electrocute grid/line workers during a blackout.

Non-Powershare connectors don't need that function because it's not designed to do so. The power is in one direction only: from the connector to the car and not the reverse.

Thus, it might just be an easy circuit board swap but that might cost more than just buying a new Powershare connector.

 

[Eric33432]

I think that's the difference: there's an automatic function to interface with the automatic disconnect system (Tesla Gareway/Backup Switch) to isolate the V2H in the home only and not to electrocute grid/line workers during a blackout.

Non-Powershare connectors don't need that function because it's not designed to do so. The power is in one direction only: from the connector to the car and not the reverse.

Thus, it might just an easy circuit board swap but that might cost more than just buying a new Powershare connector.

If you dont have a Tesla solar/powerwall system, with the Tesla Gateway, or the non-Tesla equivalent, you are going to need some way to disconnect your house from the grid if you are providing power from your car to your house.

I have a Tesla solar installation (no power walls) and there is no Tesla Gateway. The inverters are simply hard-wired, through a breaker panel and disconnect switch, directly onto the power line wires coming into my main breaker panels

 

[Genie]

To power your house from your vehicle would require, at a minimum, some way to send power from your car to the house (the V2G wall connector) and a device to isolate your house from the power company connection, like a transfer switch does when you have a generator.

I’d love to see the circuitry of an EVSE that can disconnect the whole panel from the grid. I’m no EE but it seems like that would take an additional device like a gateway.

 

[Eric33432]

I’d love to see the circuitry of an EVSE that can disconnect the whole panel from the grid. I’m no EE but it seems like that would take an additional device like a gateway.

That's what I keep trying to explain: besides an having an EVSE that can send power from the car back into the house, there needs to be something that will disconnect the house from the electric utility, similar to how a transfer switch disconnects a generator from the electric service when the generator is operating. It connects the house to either the electric service OR the generator. In the case of vehicle to house, it would just need to be an on-off switch that would disconnect the house from the utility when the vehicle is providing power to the house.

In the case of my solar system, while it is hard wired into the grid, the inverters automatically shut down during a power failure so they do not send power into the grid. This is internal to the inverters. Even though the solar system's inverters are hard-wired into my electrical service, they cannot power the house during a power failure.

Since the car is basically working like a Tesla Powerwall, to make such a system work it would need to be installed similar to a Powerwall system, which has the Tesla Solar Gateway. I imagine once Tesla offers vehicle to house they will have such a device which will need to be installed between the electric meter and the main breaker(s).

There is no way to power a house with just an EVSE that can send power into a house without some sort of gateway, switch, etc.

 

[Cosmacelf]

That's what I keep trying to explain: besides an having an EVSE that can send power from the car back into the house, there needs to be something that will disconnect the house from the electric utility, similar to how a transfer switch disconnects a generator from the electric service when the generator is operating. It connects the house to either the electric service OR the generator. In the case of vehicle to house, it would just need to be an on-off switch that would disconnect the house from the utility when the vehicle is providing power to the house.

In the case of my solar system, while it is hard wired into the grid, the inverters automatically shut down during a power failure so they do not send power into the grid. This is internal to the inverters. Even though the solar system's inverters are hard-wired into my electrical service, they cannot power the house during a power failure.

Since the car is basically working like a Tesla Powerwall, to make such a system work it would need to be installed similar to a Powerwall system, which has the Tesla Solar Gateway. I imagine once Tesla offers vehicle to house they will have such a device which will need to be installed between the electric meter and the main breaker(s).

There is no way to power a house with just an EVSE that can send power into a house without some sort of gateway, switch, etc.

Yes indeed. You need a Tesla gateway. Heres Drew Baglino giving some info:

Post in thread 'ALL CyberTruck discussion'
ALL CyberTruck discussion

 

[gsmith123]

From the Specs section for Powershare.

 

[jjrandorin]

People are likely not realizing that this setup (if they dont already have a Tesla Gateway / backup switch from an existing solar + powerwall installation) is going to be a "multi thousand dollar" setup, not counting the car, or the EVSE.

Meaning, even once someone has a cybertruck (or potentially any other tesla vehicle that supports this specific feature), its going to require an installation of hardware, and labor that is likely to be at least 3k more, along with additional permitting.