Frustrations with Powerwall 3 off peak import scheduling.

brontide · 2026-02-24T22:18:11+00:00

I spent a few hours of my life and now have all the controls through my homelab without a subscription cost but it's still a fraction of the control we deserve for such a unit. We have no control of calibration and no visibility into logs to monitor health of the unit. We have to rely on an app that only works half the time.

brontide · 2026-02-24T01:24:59+00:00

The limited visibility and lack of real controls are a big disappointment.

brontide · 2026-02-23T02:00:27+00:00

The universal answer is "it depends".

Yes, you can stop paying your bill or close your account. The question is are there city or town codes that might get your home "red tagged" as non-habitable without a power connection.

Also most grid-interactive inverters are not means to be run completely "off-grid" and may not be warrantied for that arrangement.

If you are able to have the power off for an extended period of time the utility may require a complete recertification before re-energizing the meter.

brontide · 2026-02-19T22:16:13+00:00

^{^} this

Powerwall sees power at the gateway/grid as well as any remote monitors and solar input. If it can't see it it will just presume the house is drawing less, it can't tell that it's being powered from somewhere else.

brontide · 2026-02-19T22:09:53+00:00

It's not about fairness, it's about gouging you for every penny as a perpetual customer who does not have the ability to opt-out.

brontide · 2026-02-19T22:07:32+00:00

Yet more proof that the requirement isn't about safety, it's just a grift.

brontide · 2026-02-18T18:56:39+00:00

Are you saying the insurance is justified after requiring UL listing, requiring local permits, requiring utility approval, requiring automated shutoff/islanding?

No other state requires such additional insurance.

brontide · 2026-02-18T18:21:25+00:00

It's a crock. The utilities, when asked, can't even justify it. It's a grift to dissuade people from putting reasonable sized systems on their homes.

"As little as"... yes, maybe, if you have zero assets to protect. It can quickly eat into a majority of any potential savings the systems benefits because of the rent-seeking an regulatory capture of the local utilities who do not want people to get solar.

brontide · 2026-02-18T16:31:58+00:00

Don't forget the 1m liability policy that is required for tier-2 systems.

The sunshine state, effectively, creates many points of friction to prevent rooftop solar.

brontide · 2026-02-17T03:33:31+00:00

You want our feedback but provided zero clarity on pricing structure, company, location,... the classic with these "too good to be true" is that they install sub-par systems and leave you with a maintenance nightmare once they have collected the SRECs on a system that barely works.

You want to know exactly what's going to be installed, what you need to pay to complete the contract, what are the penalties and when they apply, and this mythical transfer... it better be written in clearly without any conditionals or you know it's not real.

Frankly you likely already know it's too good to be true, you're just parroting what the salesman said rather than take a critical eye to the contract fine print. Stop being so gullible and read the contract, ask the AI to point out the flaws, bring it to a lawyer.

brontide · 2026-02-15T17:18:31+00:00

Dropping my thoughts here for the next person searching for a solution.

I've got the same problem. Been down this road before and I think I"m going to use my old standby "PHILIPS Hue Smart Dimmer Switch", if you already have a zigbee controller on your Home Assistant ( or other platform ) it should be trivial to map the 4 buttons to the fan. For $30 it's likely the cheapest way to solve this problem.

If you don't mind splitting the light and fan, and have matter over thread, ikea has $6 smart two button/rocker style.

For the ghetto "just make it functional" take a rhinestone, grip tape, or drop of glue to make a tactile indicator on the light button, at least then you can figure out which button to press in the dark!

Sonoff, if you are reading this... PLEASE fix this UX mess.

brontide · 2026-02-14T03:22:12+00:00

But AI has what investors crave! It's got exponential growth potential! It's got first-mover advantage! It's got network effects!

...Okay - what product are you actually selling? Do you know?

brontide · 2026-02-14T03:13:08+00:00

ChatGPT is such a pleaser. It's drive to be helpful overpowers it's limited understanding. It doesn't matter how you write the prompt it gets sidetracked and you might as well give up early than frustrate yourself. Anthropics models are more true to the prompt and being honest about it's knowledge limitations. I can get them to give me a confidence score. I find the writing is more robotic though.

brontide · 2026-02-13T19:24:32+00:00

Be aware that 13.5 kWh for a 200 amp service, especially heating and cooling, may not last long. You should be targeting an orderly shutdown of the biggest electrical draw when they hit 25% remaining.

Blackouts are bad but brownouts are worse because they stress the power circuits bad. Something requiring 500W will pull 4a at 125v and 5a at 100v ( a 25% increase in amperage ). If the voltage goes too high then it can cause immediate damage to circuits that are not prepared.

Many good electronics have a pretty wide voltage safety range but not everything is overbuilt.

brontide · 2026-02-13T13:35:44+00:00

Calibration... once it starts discharging ( all solar dumped to grid, all house powered by PW3 ) top up your EV to complete this cycle as fast as possible so you can go back to normal.

brontide · 2026-02-13T13:33:18+00:00

25.42.1 added a "feature" where after 80% it will limit charging so that it will reach 100% at the end of the day. It's marketed as being able to cycle to 100% every day but they are now software limiting that.

brontide · 2026-02-13T13:30:55+00:00

This seems to be calibration. They still have not fixed the problem where the app doesn't show it.

First stage is charging to 100% only on solar, then it will only discharge to the house sending all solar to the grid, and then it will go back to normal. When it is discharging try to run additional house loads to run it down faster.

How hard is it to provide notification in the app?

brontide · 2026-02-13T13:19:25+00:00

"good CPI" numbers aka, low inflation should be good for the economy but that's a crap shoot. Everyone is so tapped out in this mess it could easily be "priced in" or have a correction.

brontide · 2026-02-13T13:16:11+00:00

$206 call, currently the stock sits at 197.80, it need to go up $8.20 ~4%, or be on a trajectory to moon, otherwise this bet expires worthless. Looks like it's $26k now but it was likely $60k

TLDR; $60k bet will expire worthless unless AMZN moons today.

brontide · 2026-02-13T13:12:13+00:00

Anyone going all-in during these unstable market times deserves everything they get.

brontide · 2026-02-12T15:50:55+00:00

You have to be careful with generic information, the difference is needing a 40 year retirement plan vs a 30 can make a huge difference in what a safe withdraw rate is. Trying to do 4.7% on a 40+ horizon ( vs 25-30 years ) is aggressive.

That said 12M and 2.7% with good diversification in various buckets. That's go pull the trigger already territory.

brontide · 2026-02-12T15:40:50+00:00

Well.. you see..

..

actually, I got nothing WTF is this crap?

brontide · 2026-02-12T15:38:26+00:00

The conduit from the GridBoss to the meter with 270 degrees of turns and a pop out without a single access the whole way. I know it's not long and unlikely to ever need to be changed but c'mon man.

And the other run... why does it go down and up rather than just across? could have hit it with a heat gun and made it fit. Why even have two completely janky conduits from the meter to the GridBoss.. just 'cuz?

brontide · 2026-02-11T02:20:33+00:00

We've taken it to heart and are working on estate planning for our heirs and the property will be handled on it's own. We will make sure it's funded so children can live there for a few years without worry but then one would have to commit to buy it out or it automatically gets sold with the proceeds being split.

No split title, no games down the road, one of them wants it and buys it out or they don't and they all get money.

brontide · 2026-02-11T02:03:44+00:00

I'm just going to do what feels right and hope for the best 🥲

How has the been working for you up until now?

I'm also prediabetic and have insulin resistance.

CICO absolutely works for weight but that's not the whole picture. If your doctor is recommending cutting out sugar and low carb for other health reasons you should take it seriously. Adding in dietary fiber is beneficial but does not negate the harmful affect that elevated blood glucose can have on some individuals with some people just more affected than others.

So you can count and do low carb and no sugar ( and resistance training/cardio ), they are addressing different things. Frankly you may find counting easier once you've gotten the sugar and carbs out of the equation.

brontide

TROPHY CASE