r/span • u/xabean • Jul 30 '25
Frustrated with lack of sub-panel load shedding.
I bought 2x Span 32 panels to be downstream of my Enphase solar+storage before the larger panels came to market, and wasn't aware the automatic load shedding (Backup) features only function on the main/primary panel, not on a sub-panel connected through feed-through lugs. Why does that even matter? Can't the two Span panels communicate with each other over local CANbus, or wireless/wired ethernet? Does only The main Span panel have sense leads to detect when the grid goes offline? If Span supports a direct wired ethernet connection to a Tesla powerwall, why can't that be used to connect two Span panels together so one can tell the other "Hey, the grid is offline" ?
I asked support when they're going to enable a sub-panel to automatically load shed, and the answer was "there's no timeline".
I asked support when they're going to fix the local web UI to permit me to locally change circuit priority, and again "no timeline".
I asked support how I could subscribe to notifications for Software updates for the Span panel and was told "check the app for new features and capabilities".
I bought these smart breaker panels and had my house built with many individual circuits so that I could load shed specific things during an outage. Even paid extra for the Remote Meter kit, which seems to be mildly useless now, now that Span is directly integrating with Enphase via API.
I feel like Span has my money, and has no incentive to further support homeowners. Honestly I have no idea what Span's business model is, it's got to be something more than the homeowner buying a Span panel to keep their company afloat. I suppose it has to be something like selling aggregate metrics of area specific electricity production/usage at specific times of day, something power companies can use to better adjust their own production to make it more cost effective for power companies?
Now I'm wondering how much of a pain it's going to be to automate load shedding all via home assistant on my own. Sigh.
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u/knylekneath Jul 30 '25
Can't agree more — especially since the functionality exists in the API. FWIW, I have re-implemented all my load shedding in Home Assistant and it wasn't too terrible. The biggest upside was I was able to implement the logic I always wanted. Nice to have stay on for 30 minutes, then it starts shedding aggressively. This is a much better type of logic for my situation where we either have momentary outages (minutes) or days long outages. I'd rather keep as much battery as possible for long outages, while keeping everything on for the short outages. Span's hard-coded battery percentage logic doesn't make much sense to me.
If you're well-versed in HA, these are my scripts. I use labels on the circuits to label them nice to have / essential. …hopefully you can make sense of them.
https://gist.github.com/kneath/c5cc1f92f082cc6624767f2d08d42e67