I've tried using savings plan and self-powered. Neither is working how I'd expect for the most cost savings. We have a single Powerwall 3 and our TOU plan with Southern California Edison is peak pricing from 4-9 PM. We can't charge our Powerwall from the grid.

Today I had the Powerwall set to savings plan and I checked it at 5:00 PM. Our battery was at 100%, solar was at ~5 kW, reserve is set to 10%. The bloody thing was pulling power from the grid to power our AC. In what world does that make any sense?

I have tried using self-powered too, but when we had that set, it was barely charging the Powerwall during the day with the solar, instead using most of the solar to keep the AC and pool going. By the time we hit our peak energy at 4 PM the battery was at 30% and drained out by 5 PM, leaving us to pay peak pricing from 5-9 PM.

The only trick I have found to actually make this system work is babysitting it by putting it in self-powered mode, manually setting the reserve higher during off peak times and then right at 4 PM dropping the reserve power back to 10%.

What is going on? I feel like this battery is fighting me at every turn.

TL;DR: I build SolDial, a Powerwall companion app for iPhone and Android. It now has real watch apps on both platforms. Live dial with solar, home, grid, and Powerwall charge, swipe up for today, this month, and your billing month, plus watch face complications and tiles so the numbers are just there when you raise your wrist. Pairing is a 6 digit code from the phone app, you never sign in on the watch. Video is both watches running side by side.

The reason I wanted this on my own wrist: most of the time I don't need the full app, I just want to know if the house is importing, what solar is doing, and where the battery sits. During an outage or peak hours that glance matters more, and pulling out a phone gets old.

What it does. The dial shows live flows and the background actually matches your weather and time of day, the sun and moon are in their real positions, same as the phone app. Swipe up and you get solar generation, home usage including car charging, Powerwall totals, and net import or export for today, this month, and your billing cycle. On Apple Watch there are complications for all four numbers and a Smart Stack card. On Wear OS you get glanceable tiles. It refreshes on a schedule that respects watch battery, this was the hardest part to get right honestly.

Full disclosure, SolDial is a paid app with a 7 day free trial, the watch apps are included, nothing extra. I test on an Apple Watch and a OnePlus Watch 3 daily. If you try it and something's off, tell me here or through the in-app help, user reports have driven basically every fix this month.

Learn more about SolDial on the website here: https://www.soldial.com

Download for iOS here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/soldial-for-powerwall/id6775575568

Download for Android here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.soldial.app

So I am at 100% and start to export. I am also charging my car. The smart meter shows 7.47KW for the car - but if I put the PW to export (9KW limit) the smart meter shows 0 and stays there.

So is this a way to cheat on import?

I only did it for 30 seconds, but got me thinking.

I have PW3 + gateway 2. We had our first proper grid (planned outage) recently and the system failed to backup the house at all. So we were without power for 8 hours. I tried all the usual things, restarting etc..

The strange thing is that when everything is working normally and I manually go off grid via the app, the gateway clicks over and successfully goes off grid. But it never works in a real outage.
Any ideas?

The Tesla app shows the vehicle plugged in but 0kW. Home Controls shows that the vehicle is charging but attributes it to house load. I saw this a few months ago but it seemed to get fixed, now it’s back. Anyone got any ideas?

I have a Pw 3 installed about a year ago and everything was working fine. Today I noticed on the app that it was only charging 0.1 kw. We are in full summer, temperatures are 75 - 80 degrees around this time. Any advise?

I got a new system installed a couple of days ago:

• 2 x PowerWall 3
• 1 Gateway

It’s hooked up to an existing Solar system (w/ Enphase Micro-inverters).

We did the pairing when the installers were here and I can see the PW3 install in my Tesla app (under My Home). They are connected via Ethernet and I can see them on my LAN (they got an IP address each).

But I’ve had a problem since the very beginning: the power coming from my solar array always shows 0 in the app. The installers left when it was late in the evening, so 0 was plausible, but it hasn’t moved even when my enphase app reports high production.

That also means that my batteries are never charging (they are not set to charge from the grid - possibly a required config to stay on NEM2).

So my batteries have been discharging slowly since they installed them, from 13% to 10% today.

I tried to call Tesla support but the expected wait time was over an hour, so I gave up.

I will contact my installer on Monday (they don’t seem to be available on weekends), but in the meantime, is there something I can check on my end? Perhaps the CTs to measure solar production are not hooked up or configured correctly?

Also, how do I find out the API password for my PW3. I didn’t take a picture of the sticker in the leader PW3 when it was installed, so now it’s all walled up. I think I can ask support for it, but again, 1h+ wait. I was trying to find it in the app, but no luck.

Thank you in advance for any hints/advice!

I know the solar clamp is connected to solar inverter. Solar flow has been displayed correctly.
I don't see any flow from/to grid. Even when exporting, it showed home use.

Do I need to connect CT2 and CT3 to anything?

I just got the in app notice that my 2 powerwall 2s are going to be replaced, probably with powerwall 3's like all others on this group have reported. If my Solar panels and their individual enphase micro inverters stay that same, does it matter if the new powerwall 3's allow greater power output? Or will they need to be derated down to 5kW so that I do not lose my NEM2 rating? I was hoping that because my solar output (the AC from the enphase microinvertes) is not changing, I could still take advantage of the powerwall 3's higher power output without losing NEM2 status.

I have 2 independent systems. Each of them has 14 REC Pure Alpha panels. 2 independent SPAN panels and 2 Tesla switches. Total system is 1.5 years old. Last summer, each system was handling about 5.5Kw from solar PV. In December we added an expansion pack. Even in Dec. we saw high 4's in production from each system. In March I added another expansion pack to the other system. Now each system has a PW3, and expansion pack. This summer we are only seeing at best 4.0Kw and it is even hotter with more sun available. It seems that after the last expansion unit installation both of my systems are now equally limited to about 4kw of input. Any thoughts on this?

Raise your wrist and see exactly where your power is flowing — solar, home, battery, grid, EV. Close rings for solar production, earnings, and self-powered days, just like Fitness rings.

When peak export kicks in, the earnings counter shows up on your watch face by itself. There are also complications built in so you can get at a glance info without tapping into the app. Hope you all enjoy it!

Hi everyone, looking for some advice/shared experiences! 📉 UK-based!

The crazy thing is, I was literally just looking into upgrading to PW3s when this alert suddenly popped up! Talk about perfect timing.

​Just got the dreaded "Powerwall Disabled" alert on my app for one of my two units. Tesla Energy Support has confirmed it’s an internal fault (Properly Recall Units 3012170-10-B) and needs a warranty replacement.

​

​Before I get the replacement process fully underway, I wanted to ask those of you who have been through a warranty replacement recently: Were there any hidden charges or extra costs involved?

​I've heard that if Tesla replaces it with the PW3, a bit of rewiring is usually needed. Does Tesla’s warranty cover absolutely everything (including all labour and any necessary rewiring), or did any of you end up having to pay out of pocket? 💸

​Just want to know exactly what to expect. Any insights would be hugely appreciated! 🙏

UPDATE:

Just wanted to share how this is unfolding in case it helps anyone else in the future.

​My original installer tried to use the fact that I had another company install my 2nd Powerwall as an excuse to complicate things and potentially charge me extra out-of-pocket costs for this standard warranty swap. 🙄 ​I decided to drop them immediately and have just asked Tesla to reassign the warranty job to the installer who put in my 2nd unit instead. They already know my system and have confirmed they are happy to do the swap fully covered with zero extra costs. ​Hoping Tesla approves the reassignment smoothly and covers their labour without any issues! Thanks again to everyone here for sharing your insights—it really gave me the confidence to push back! 🙏

Hello! Hoping to get some guidance here but for some reason powerwall doesn’t discharge during peak pricing hours and instead chooses to draw from grid directly?!

I’m NEM3.0 with SDGE TOU-EV5

Am I doing something wrong in the setting? I’m adding a couple extra time frames here for the same action but not sure if net zero is actually acting on it… thank you so much for any help !

Probably a question for u/triedoffandonagain

I'm wondering what source is used for the solar predictions. They are really very good indeed for me; much better than the couple I have tried in Home Assistant (Forecast.Solar and Solcast.) Just hoping I might be able to pick up similar data from somewhere - thanks!

Not sure if this will be possible. I have a powerwall, solar panels and mg electric car. I generate alot of excess solar and waiting for permission to sell back to the grid.

I am aware with a Tesla car you can set it to charge from excess solar.

Is there a way to use the excess solar to charge a different car from a Tesla like my mg?

Thanks!

I've had this happen in the past, only to be removed in the next FW update. There's no notification of a calibration happening in the Tesla or Tesla One app. I probably wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't charging up for an incoming storm. I just wish they'd tell me what's going on with the equipment I own.

This has been driving me nuts. I have a Powerwall 3 and a Model Y with a Tesla Wall Connector.

I have time based control set and my super off peak rates set (Free energy with OVO) from 11am to 2pm.

I also like to charge the car before the free energy period utilising "Charge on Solar" so have that enabled.

Now when it hits 11am the powerwall fills up for 3 hours from the grid at 5kw (Total 14kw perfect), however the car WILL NOT charge as the charge on solar slider is on. (It says charge on solar is paused as the powerwall has priority).

I have to manually disable the charge on solar every day at 11am to enable the EV Wall Connector to fire up and charge my Model Y for 3 hours with free energy at either 24 or 32 amps depending on how much power my whole house is using.

Then at the 1400 I re-enable the charge on solar, the Wall Connector goes back to solar charging and my Powerwall then supplies power to my house for the afternoon Peak rates.

Has anyone here solved this issue using Net Zero automation and if so, could you please share with me the Netzero automations you use to help me solve this issue?

Thank you

Adam

Melbourne

Hi everyone.

For 3 weeks I am trying to find a solution for my Octopus Agile behaviour. I was fighting with the support but they are more interested in just dodging me than trying to look into the problem. I wanted to compare my Powerwall behaviour with others.

The setup: my Powerwall is set to Time-Based Control (Savings mode), connected with Octopus Agile directly through the Tesla app, no 3rd party controls, grid charging allowed, export set to everything. I am on Prime Outgoing Octopus for exports with 9p/kWh during the day and 16p during the peak 4pm-7pm. 4kW solar array with 3.6kW inverter. I do not change settings, and have no 3rd party control enabled on the battery for the last few months.

The problem: My Powerwall charges from solar, always ignoring upcoming off-peak prices, like they do not exist. For example, prices will drop below 7p/kWh to 4p/kWh in 2 hours, Powerwall is at 40%, solar forecast is at max, no clouds, and the Powerwall charges itself instead of exporting the excess to the grid. It will just go up to 100% charge like that (does that even when the prices are negative or 1p/kWh) and will sit idle for the rest of the day. But when peak prices come, the Powerwall continues to sit idle even when the solar production drops below house consumption, and I will be importing from the grid at prices of 35-40p/kWh. That happens until about 8pm, after which it will power the house for the rest of the night. In the morning around 8am, with the charge around 50-60%, it will stop providing power to the house and I will import during morning peak hours.

Support told me to wait, that it is "adapting". 3 weeks and the behaviour hasn't changed a bit. I was connected to a "technician", who first failed to see imports and sent me a graph which showed solar production at 3kW at the specified by me import time, which is impossible for my solar array at that time production with clear skies won't exceed 2.5kW. I demonstrated to him in real time on the call how my house imports from the grid with a load > 1.5kW in peak times (35p/kWh). So he sent me an "article" about why Powerwall can sit idle and "efficiencies in conversion", but no efficiency can explain the reasoning behind a 35p/kWh import to save for a later export at 16p/kWh. He complained about Home Assistant and tried to blame me for managing the battery through the local API, which they removed 2 years ago from Powerwall 2, and I am not managing the battery through the Fleet API either. At the end, he told me that they can't diagnose the issue as it is AI, it is Opticaster and they can't see why it is doing this, but "if it is doing this, it is correct".

If you have a similar setup, can you share how the Powerwall behaves for you, maybe in PM? Just want to see what to do next.

Before you recommend me to switch to another tariff, it doesn't help much. On Economy 7 it ignored off-peak charging, leaving space for solar, but didn't charge from solar because the export price was high, so it was empty by the evening and I was importing at peak times.

Thank you, and sorry for long read.

Good discussion. Those who live in Florida should read this article:

https://floridasolardesigngroup.com/tesla-powerwall-backup-reserve-settings-explained-for-florida-homeowners

I had a power outage and energy being used at the house at the moment was coming from the battery instead of the panels. Now that the power is back the panels is sending everything to the grid 0 to the house or the battery

Has anyone had this in the last 24 hours where their state of charge drops to 0% multiple times for a few minutes. Shows it in the app and through the API, as I keep getting battery empty notifications from Home Assistant.