An installer I have been working with here in southern VT has also repeatedly applied to become an installer with Tesla for powerwalls with no response.I cannot in good conscience recommend their products based on their history and unresponsiveness in our area. They may be great for Puerto Rico, and now Australia, but have currently rated a thumbs down here. We are happy with the sonnen product, delivery and support. GlennSent from my 'smart' phone so please excuse spelling and typographical errors. ------ Original message------From: Dave TedeyanDate: Tue, Feb 13, 2018 11:35 AMTo: RE-wrenches;Cc: Subject:Re: [RE-wrenches] experience with the Tesla Powerwall I think that this may have come up before, but I do not remember there being a resolution:Do you guys have any tips on becoming a Tesla dealer? We have people ask about it all the time, but we have not been able to get Tesla to respond. We have installed Sonnen, which is also a great system, but the up front expense scares many people away. We are located in upstate NY which may have something to do with it. Cheers,Dave
-- Dave Tedeyan Senior Engineer Taitem Engineering, PC10 Verizon Lane, Lansing, NY 14882Voice: (607) 930-3481 x6www.taitem.com On Tue, Feb 13, 2018 at 10:36 AM, August Goers <[email protected]> wrote: Marco, Thanks for sharing, it is good to hear details from an installer who is living with a Powerwall. We starting selling the Powerwall 2 in 2017 and have worked up a large pipeline. We have about 20 installed so far, but are still waiting on utility permission to operate which is taking a long time. We have spent a good deal of time commissioning and testing each system. For the most part, our experience has been good although the commissioning software and internet connectivity features have been buggy. Hopefully those are issues that will be ironed out by Tesla. Otherwise, we've had the systems correctly operate in on-grid and off-grid modes with both Solaredge and SunPower Equinox AC coupled systems. We installed conventional lead acid battery backup systems for over 10 years and I can confidently say that Tesla's Powerwall and Gateway setup is truly market-disruptive. The design flexibility of the Gateway setup, the small size, minimal labor to install, and performance blow other systems out of the water. I hope that other manufacturers are able to catch up with this type of design. Best, August August GoersLuminalt Energy Corporationo: 415.641.4000 www.luminalt.com On Sat, Feb 10, 2018 at 12:23 PM, Marco Mangelsdorf <[email protected]> wrote: Aloha Wrenches, I thought I'd share my own experiences with the Powerwall as my company is now launching a program to add PW to existing NEM systems since the vast majority of them do not have storage which means that if the grid goes down, so does their PV system. (With the exception of the SMA SB line and their Secure Power Supply.) And no, I'm not a shill or toadie for Tesla. marco I wanted to walk my own talk. Before we launched adding Powerwall to existing Net Energy Metered solar electric systems, I wanted to make sure that what was promised on paper would work in the real world. I added Powerwall to my NEM system last year and have been monitoring and testing it during normal grid-on and grid outage modes. And I’m very pleased to report that Powerwall has performed flawlessly and as expected. When used in a NEM system, Powerwall is programmed to be in “Backup” mode. When utility power is on, Powerwall stands ready in a full state of charge for any power outage. During normal grid-on conditions, my Powerall takes about .6 kilowatt-hours every other day to stay fully charged. Over the course of the month, this Powerwall’s electricity consumption comes to about 9 kWhs or about $3/month at the current HELCO R rate. I have turned the utility power off to my home on a number of occasions in order to experience how Powerwall would perform in a simulated grid outage. When the grid goes down, my house effectively becomes a self-generating micro-grid. That is, my photovoltaic system (solar modules and inverters) and Powerwall (battery storage and integrated inverter) form a power grid with energy being created and stored and then consumed by my electric loads. Several things I noted from my simulated grid outages: · I purposefully overloaded Powerwall by turning on my electric dryer and electric oven at the same time. As expected, since the maximum output of Powerwall is 5 kilowatts, it shutdown. Meaning that all the power in my house went off. Within seconds, Powerwall reset itself and the power came back on, with the dryer and oven having shut down after the power went off. If power does not come back on after your Powerwall trips off, you will need to turn off those high-power loads and reset Powerwall by turning its black on-off switch, located on the right side of the unit, from on to off and then on again. The important takeaway: during a utility outage, you will need to be careful as far as operating heavy electric loads, especially 240 volt appliances both from the perspective of overloading your Powerwall and rapidly drawing down the battery capacity, especially at night. · The magic of frequency shifting. Without getting into too much techno-talk, this is the story of frequency shifting. Normal utility frequency is 60 hertz (Hz). PV inverters require the utility frequency to be at or near 60 Hz in order to operate. During a grid outage, Powerwall effectively establishes grid quality power (120/240 volts at 60 Hz), allowing a micro grid to operate with solar providing power to your house loads (during daylight hours) and charge Powerwall as needed. During the day with the loads being met by your PV system and Powerwall being at or near full state of charge (97-100 percent), Powerwall will shift the frequency from 60 to 66 Hz in order to turn off the PV inverter(s). That is, the PV inverter(s) see the frequency out of spec and shut down as they’re expected and required to do. Why? Because with Powerwall at or near full and the house loads being met, there’s nowhere for any additional solar generation to go. Powerwall will wait for its the state of charge to drop below 96-97 percent before shifting the frequency back to 60 Hz which allows the PV system to restart and generate solar power again. This frequency shifting can take place repeatedly over the course of the day depending on load demands, solar potential and Powerwall state of charge and is perfectly normal and does not damage the PV inverters. · 66 Hz and home appliances: when Powerwall is at 66 Hz, some of your house loads may be affected. What I and other Powerwall owners have noticed, while not a comprehensive list, can include: electronic clocks running fast, motors sounding different (microwave, washing machine, pumps), uninterruptible power sources (UPS) not charging and going into back-up power mode, appliances having a computer behaving unusually. _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Redwood Alliance List Address: [email protected] Change listserver email address & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out or update participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Redwood Alliance List Address: [email protected] Change listserver email address & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out or update participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
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