First Powerwall functionality outage; easily resolved with good Tesla Energy phone support

[Troglodytes]

tl-dr; system outage noticed this morning, initial issues with phone support, but good end result, support stated its okay for end users to push the backup gateway's reset button at their own discretion to attempt to fix issues.

Had my first (and hopefully only) failure of system experience for my five month old system last night/this morning.

My wife noticed that the Powerwall2's we have were flashing a fast green bar this morning. She also noted a chiming noise coming from the backup gateway.

Fast flashing green on the Powerwalls indicates a communications failure I noted in the manual.

As a precaution I flipped the power switches on the Powerwalls to the off position. Waited a few minutes then I flipped the switches back on and waited a few more minutes for a change. Still flashing. Flipped the switches back off.

Since this was the first outage of the system I had experienced I checked on a few things prior to calling Tesla Energy support.

I added the backup gateway to my home wifi network months ago and assigned an IP address via static DHCP assignment to the wifi connection and the LAN connection (Powerline adapter).

I could ping the WIFI address of the backup gateway, but I could not browse to the IP address. The built-in web server would not respond. I also noted that I could not see the TEG-xxx SSID being broadcast.

With an abundance of time available to me this morning I decided to call Tesla support and see what they made of it.

I called at a little bit after 8AM Eastern, go through the prompts, Tesla Energy, support, Powerwall, talk a specialist, and get "Tesla Emergency Roadside Service, are you in a safe place?"

I explain that I was attempting to get to a Tesla Energy support specialist and am transferred back to the IVR where I get the same prompts and arrive back with the same Emergency Roadside Service representative. She apologies and says that Energy support is available starting at 7AM Mountain. No worries, all good. But, it would appear that the IVR for the phone menu system is misconfigured some how.

Get a drink and a bite to eat and call in at 7AM Mountain. Same prompts, different result. Spoke to a good technician, followed a script along with him, and eventually got communications re-established. Took about 30 minutes all told.

In the course of the troubleshooting: what is your serial number? who installed the system? [Tesla. Pretty sure if I had said anyone else they would have deferred assistance.] discussion of terms: backup gateway is the silver box installed on the wall, solar gateway is the black box about three CDs stacked on top of each other in the house. What lights are on the Powerwalls? Can you hear a chime coming from the backup gateway? Can you turn the Powerwalls back on? (No change to the green flashing lights.)

He could check on his side of things and saw that everything was 'grayed out'. We discussed the differences between cellular, wifi, and LAN connections that were available, but I never got a clear understanding that he was actively connected to the backup gateway in real time. I think he was looking at historical information (logs) for the system.

Eventually, he asked me to connect into the TEG-xxx WIFI network and I indicated that it wasn't available and that I had moved the backup gateway to a home WIFI network. He had me press the backup gateway's reset button for three seconds. I did, nothing changed for about 30 seconds and then a new chimes pattern was heard, and the TEG-xxx SSID showed up in my available WIFI networks.

He had me connect in to the backup gateway's TEG-xxx network and browse to the 192.168.91.1 address. And, there was the usual TEG-xxx web site for my system and the Powerwalls now showed their usual solid green lights for standby. After a little bit more looking around including logging in as customer into the 91.1 website everything looked fine.

I asked the support specialist to confirm that they/Tesla don't mind customers pushing the reset button on their own in the future to try and spare a support call and he said that he sees no problem in the customers hitting the reset button in an attempt to clear errors in the future.

Overall a good experience with Tesla Energy support with the exception of the phone menu issues.

I mentioned the phone menu issue to the support representative after he indicated that they had 24 hour support for Tesla Energy issues now. He genuinely sounded surprised that I couldn't get someone earlier and was going to escalate that to his management. (My assumption is that someone either messed up the IVR configuration or forwarded their phone when they were supposed to have been on shift and taking calls.)

No idea what the root cause of the outage was. Fix was apparently the reset button push. It appears from looking at the available app data that the system stopped data collection around 9:30PM Eastern last night and didn't startup again until around the time of the reset about 9:30AM Eastern this morning. I'm guessing that the Neurio got messed up last night for some reason and couldn't recover until the reset button cleared out whatever problem it was having.

And, while I don't think its relevant as an explanation of the outage, the app shows software version 1.49.0 in use, and normally I keep the solar gateway disconnected since I have Ethernet connected to my inverters. I did reconnect the solar gateway this morning prior to hitting the backup gateway's reset button this morning, but I don't believe the solar gateway connectivity was necessary to resolve this issue.

 

[mnsweeps]

Good info. I understand the backup gateway is the Tesla Energy Gateway(TEG). What is the solar gateway you mention above? Never seen references to that before.

 

[BrettS]

Good info. I understand the backup gateway is the Tesla Energy Gateway(TEG). What is the solar gateway you mention above? Never seen references to that before.

That is the device that we also refer to as the zigbee gateway or the little black box gateway. It is the device that the inverters use to talk to tesla.

 

[mnsweeps]

That is the device that we also refer to as the zigbee gateway or the little black box gateway. It is the device that the inverters use to talk to tesla.

Today is my install (they haven't arrived yet). I am asking them to hardwire the inverter to my wifi switch in garage. In my case would they still install the zigbee gateway?

 

[jjrandorin]

Today is my install (they haven't arrived yet). I am asking them to hardwire the inverter to my wifi switch in garage. In my case would they still install the zigbee gateway?

They will hardwire the TEG (backup gateway in the OPs excellent information). They will hand you the solar gateway (little black box) and tell you to connect it to your network. They will not hardware anything to your inverters at all as it relates to networking.

TL ; DR They wont hardwire the inverter as tesla is not setup to do that. They will hardwire the backup gateway and you will also have the solar gateway. If you push on the "hardwire the inverter" request, they will likely look at you confused and say "we dont set that up like that"

 

[wjgjr]

My wife noticed that the Powerwall2's we have were flashing a fast green bar this morning. She also noted a chiming noise coming from the backup gateway.

It would be nice if there was an option to alert you through email, text, or the app if there was an issue with the equipment connecting back to Tesla for a certain (ideally configurable) amount of time so that you could have potentially been notified of the issue last night rather than requiring a human to notice it this morning. Had you been on vacation or if the equipment happened to be installed in an out-of-the-way location, you might not have been aware there was an issue if you were not somebody who checks the app regularly. For my setup (with the TEG hard-wired) I would expect essentially no outages, unless my internet was out (and even then, when it actually was, the failover to cellular worked flawlessly) so I would appreciate an alert on the order of 15-30 minutes if the TEG wasn't communicating back to Tesla (or was communicating a problem.)

 

[BrettS]

Today is my install (they haven't arrived yet). I am asking them to hardwire the inverter to my wifi switch in garage. In my case would they still install the zigbee gateway?

As @jjrandorin said, they likely won’t hardwire the inverter for you. Tesla does not support that configuration and if the inverter is hardwired it will actually prevent Tesla from being able to communicate with the inverter. Tesla wants you to use the zigbee gateway.

I don’t think it would hurt to ask your installers to hardwire the inverter for you, but if they do so it would be as a favor to you and not part of the standard installation. Don’t be surprised if they refuse to.

 

[mnsweeps]

@jjrandorin @BrettS They arrived few minutes back and agreed to hardwire the inverter. They gave me the black zigbee box and said I can keep it as its mine for future. I am installing 2 Powerwalls also. So I should be able to monitor all solar production using the Tesla app. Isn't that correct, @BrettS ?

 

[mnsweeps]

also one thing they found is I have an overhang in garage so they couldn't lift the Powerwall on top to get to wall mount...So they are setting up the Powerwalls outside on the side of the house.

 

[jjrandorin]

@jjrandorin @BrettS They arrived few minutes back and agreed to hardwire the inverter. They gave me the black zigbee box and said I can keep it as its mine for future. I am installing 2 Powerwalls also. So I should be able to monitor all solar production using the Tesla app. Isn't that correct, @BrettS ?

You would be able to monitor the production without the little black box in either case, if you have powerwalls. Its surprising to me that they would connect the inverter for you via hardwire since the inverters can only communicate via one way or the other from what we are told.

The little black box doesn prevent you from seeing production if you have powerwalls. Not having it prevents tesla from connecting to the inverters for firmware updates, etc. at least according to what they say.

Not having the black box prevents someone from seeing production if they have ONLY solar, but not if they have solar and powerwalls.

Still, I find it very surprising they will connect the inverter for you via ethernet, everyone says that having ethernet connected to the inverter prevents the solar gateway (little black box) from communicating to tesla.

 

[mnsweeps]

You would be able to monitor the production without the little black box in either case, if you have powerwalls. Its surprising to me that they would connect the inverter for you via hardwire since the inverters can only communicate via one way or the other from what we are told.

The little black box doesn prevent you from seeing production if you have powerwalls. Not having it prevents tesla from connecting to the inverters for firmware updates, etc. at least according to what they say.

Not having the black box prevents someone from seeing production if they have ONLY solar, but not if they have solar and powerwalls.

Still, I find it very surprising they will connect the inverter for you via ethernet, everyone says that having ethernet connected to the inverter prevents the solar gateway (little black box) from communicating to tesla.

In my case hard-wiring the inverter lets me (through Solaredge app) AND Tesla see production since I am also installing Powerwalls, right?

 

[jjrandorin]

In my case hard-wiring the inverter lets me (through Solaredge app) AND Tesla see production since I am also installing Powerwalls, right?

It should, but I dont have solar edge inverters (and this is somewhat off topic for this OPs thread). @BrettS would know for sure since he has that configuration. I would be a bit concerned about connecting ethernet to the inverters instead of using the tesla solar gateway (little black box) until everything was confirmed to be working properly and you had full PTO, because its my understanding that is an unsupported configuration for tesla.

I would recommend connecting the black box, and not connecting via ethernet to the inverter until everything is fully functional, but thats jus what I would do. I wouldnt want any finger pointing at "well, we cant see the inverters, have you changed anything?" especially if you come back and say something like "my installers did it like that".

Of course, its your equipment, not mine (lol) and you need to set it up like you feel is right for you.

 

[BrettS]

In my case hard-wiring the inverter lets me (through Solaredge app) AND Tesla see production since I am also installing Powerwalls, right?

Yes, that’s correct. Although as we are discovering in another thread it looks like tesla has started passing on the inverter data to solaredge again even if you are using the zigbee gateway, so hardwiring no longer seems to be necessary to use the solaredge app.

It’s also worth noting that as long as the installers leave the communication options set to auto then you can unplug the ethernet cable from your hub (and leave it connected inside the inverter) and that will be enough to let the inverter switch back to the zigbee connection if you do need or want to use the zigbee gateway for any reason.

 

[mnsweeps]

Yes, that’s correct. Although as we are discovering in another thread it looks like tesla has started passing on the inverter data to solaredge again even if you are using the zigbee gateway, so hardwiring no longer seems to be necessary to use the solaredge app.

It’s also worth noting that as long as the installers leave the communication options set to auto then you can unplug the ethernet cable from your hub (and leave it connected inside the inverter) and that will be enough to let the inverter switch back to the zigbee connection if you do need or want to use the zigbee gateway for any reason.

good point. I am having them hardwire the inverter because then I don't have to deal with running the network cable from inverter through the stucco to my network switch in the garage.. All the panels/boxes etc are being installed outside the house on the side which I am kinda liking it .. Garage would look busy if some of them were inside..I only have 2 car garage with lots of cabinets .. LOL

 

[BrettS]

They arrived few minutes back

Why are we not seeing pictures of your install in progress? You’ve been around this forum for a while now. Have you not realized how much we like install pictures yet?

 

[mnsweeps]

Why are we not seeing pictures of your install in progress? You’ve been around this forum for a while now. Have you not realized how much we like install pictures yet?

I will add a thread....

 

[Timothy]

I had my PowerWalls installed by a 3rd party vendor November 2019. I have had a solar system operating since 2009. I am not techy, but a friend is and he noted in January that my app was showing the communications of the system was incorrect. For instance, it showed solar power coming in to the system at night. Unlikely! So the installer worked with Tesla and it was very, very slow and difficult with weeks of being unable to reach Tesla.

Finally, Tesla sent us some new communication equipment which was installed 10 days ago and all FINALLY worked fine! After 11 months of not operating correctly!

But this last weekend the battery communication stopped working. The app showed a flat green line from the battery. So we are back where we started.

I am not able to work on this myself, so hopefully my installer can get somewhere. He communicated with Tesla, but no advice so far.

Any advice on how to get Tesla to communicate better with my installer would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Kodemonkey]

also one thing they found is I have an overhang in garage so they couldn't lift the Powerwall on top to get to wall-mount...So they are setting up the Powerwalls outside on the side of the house.

Howdy Neighbor! I live in Stevenson Ranch as well, and I also have that "ledge" in the garage. The inspector did not notice it or didn't believe that it was an issue. We decided to put our powerwalls in the same place outside the garage anyway. Our houses are stacked so close together that my neighbor's house will shade the area in the morning and it will only get about an hour in the sun in the summer. Our street has appeared in numerous commercials because it is like a stock photo of cookie-cutter tract housing.

I asked the inspector if I could get the SolarEdge inverter that has the car charger included, but after seeing your photos it looks like they put the inverter next to the powerwalls and that won't work for me. Even though I plan on charging in the driveway I don't like the idea of draping a charge cord over my gate (if it would even reach).

EV Charging Single Phase Inverter | SolarEdge US

Still waiting for Engineering to finish (initial inspection was 8 days ago). He told me about 2 weeks, but the county was going to be the limiting factor. He did say that he believed it would be no problem to get installed by the end of the year.

BTW, you are a few months ahead of me on purchases. I also ordered a Model Y and I am still waiting for it. I even almost went for the blue, but the wife's mustang is that color and it's already hard enough for her to accept that my car will be faster than hers let alone be the same color!

 

[mnsweeps]

Howdy Neighbor! I live in Stevenson Ranch as well, and I also have that "ledge" in the garage. The inspector did not notice it or didn't believe that it was an issue. We decided to put our powerwalls in the same place outside the garage anyway. Our houses are stacked so close together that my neighbor's house will shade the area in the morning and it will only get about an hour in the sun in the summer. Our street has appeared in numerous commercials because it is like a stock photo of cookie-cutter tract housing.

I asked the inspector if I could get the SolarEdge inverter that has the car charger included, but after seeing your photos it looks like they put the inverter next to the powerwalls and that won't work for me. Even though I plan on charging in the driveway I don't like the idea of draping a charge cord over my gate (if it would even reach).

EV Charging Single Phase Inverter | SolarEdge US

Still waiting for Engineering to finish (initial inspection was 8 days ago). He told me about 2 weeks, but the county was going to be the limiting factor. He did say that he believed it would be no problem to get installed by the end of the year.

BTW, you are a few months ahead of me on purchases. I also ordered a Model Y and I am still waiting for it. I even almost went for the blue, but the wife's mustang is that color and it's already hard enough for her to accept that my car will be faster than hers let alone be the same color!

Hello neighbor.. Looking back I think it was a good idea to put Powerwalls and other gizmos outside. Else garage would look very busy and they would have to run long think conduits all over. In plan , they have Powerwalls inside so they have to resubmit the plan to county before inspection. They haven't done that yet.. very frustrating to follow up. I hardwired TEG and inverter though it may not be needed. Wifi signals are strong. I already have a 2019 Model 3 and have 240 v outlets on either side of garage. I also have a 2021 Y on order ..VIN assigned but still in pre-production stage.. I will PM you..

 

[Kodemonkey]

Hello neighbor.. Looking back I think it was a good idea to put Powerwalls and other gizmos outside. Else garage would look very busy and they would have to run long think conduits all over. In plan , they have Powerwalls inside so they have to resubmit the plan to county before inspection. They haven't done that yet.. very frustrating to follow up. I hardwired TEG and inverter though it may not be needed. Wifi signals are strong. I already have a 2019 Model 3 and have 240 v outlets on either side of garage. I also have a 2021 Y on order ..VIN assigned but still in pre-production stage.. I will PM you..

Interesting they originally wanted the PW inside. They originally wanted them outside. After some thought, I think outside will actually be better because I have a south-facing garage door that radiates a ton of heat. That garage remains hot all night. It will probably have a better climate where they had planned on putting it on the east wall outside. I have a little bit of a setback problem because the gas meter is also there. They are going to punch through the wall and run the conduit inside and then back out to the powerwalls behind the gate (just like yours). Thanks for the PM - nice chatting with you!