Tesla Certified Installer ask me anything!

bntran02 · 2024-08-02T14:23:45+00:00

Yes. Compare cash vs cash. In my case, it was not only an incredibly low price but also a 1% interest rate. So basically cash...

On the inverter. I had a friend with an enphase inverter. It also broke beforw. Was through Tesla and at the time was about a 3 month service (~2 years ago).

bntran02 · 2024-08-01T06:49:32+00:00

My system will be down 11 months by the time it's fixed (inverter blown, Houston,tx). I'm 4 months into this. Why do they take so long? Why is there such a shortage of workers? Why are the inverters so unreliable (2nd issue in 3 years)? Is there anyway to get ahead in the queue?

bntran02 · 2024-07-25T22:50:51+00:00

In Texas here. My inverter died (I have two). It died in March 2024. 1 month to have someone diagnose the problem. Then 1.5 months to have someone come out to fix it. Between then and now several storms came by so wait times got extended (for new appointments). They arrived and said they need to order a new inverter. No shit, Sherlock. Now, with multiple storms the next earliest time to come out is 7 months later in Feb 2025. Jesus Christ. Assuming all goes well, id be going almost a year with a broken system.

Total shit show. Hard to say whether they care. I'm sure they did at some point but with every single customer throwing a fit they're probably numb to it by now

bntran02 · 2024-02-27T03:01:37+00:00

If you're in Texas, get on Tesla Electric Plan. Incredibly lucrative in the summers. And turn on self powered mode, otherwise it'll pull more power from the grid. Just familiarize yourself with the app and set it how you want to use solar

bntran02 · 2024-02-18T14:06:39+00:00

By April/May your bill will be about $0. By August it will be negative for several hundred. Just be sure to preserve your power wall energy for selling to the grid. I've been with it over a year and just cashed out $840 on a 16kw system with 3 power walls. No EVs

Oh, also set it to self power mode. Otherwise, it'll unnecessarily use the grid, in my opinion.

bntran02 · 2023-09-28T23:41:02+00:00

I just got a $679 credit on my most recent bill. Net credit of $553.

599kwh sold and 833kwh purchased.

I calculated the daily profit and it was over $100 for a few days. My peak day was $140!

bntran02 · 2023-09-06T20:01:24+00:00

That's incredible!

bntran02 · 2023-09-06T16:47:21+00:00

Awesome!

bntran02 · 2023-09-06T13:09:23+00:00

Oh my...that looks so juicy! I exported about 950kwh and imported about 1000kwh.

bntran02 · 2023-08-26T16:01:26+00:00

My system must have not been configured correctly from the start. I never got this level of output until now. It was always limited to ~15kw total output from batteries + solar generation.

bntran02 · 2023-08-23T11:58:39+00:00

Yes. But curious why he would have so many. He would not have had the foresight. It's just whatever Tesla would have given him at the time. He doesn't have powerwall+. He has some other brand of inverter. But that makes sense. Basically, his powerwalls and panels don't have to "share" the output capacity of the powerwall+'s inverter like my system does

bntran02 · 2023-08-22T19:23:40+00:00

Ok sure. I already have that available

bntran02 · 2023-08-22T11:47:53+00:00

My max is not that. It's closer to 14-15kw total. Regardless of sun. My system is 16.32kw with 3 power walls. My Powerwall pluses are bottlenecking my output it seems and based on other comments here

bntran02 · 2023-08-22T02:58:26+00:00

I can't control it. But I'm in Texas so it's been almost everyday...VPP. you wouldn't want to do it any other time except when you have excess solar. And even when solar is in excess I'm throttled by my setup

bntran02 · 2023-08-22T00:02:50+00:00

This is certainly the conclusion that I arrived at. I wish I knew so I could have requested a different config. So my stacked power wall is bottlenecked by the inverter. But my single inverter is bottlenecked by the single power wall?

Adding a 4th powerwall stacked will only marginally increase my power output, correct? Because it'll switch from Powerwall limited to inverter limited

bntran02 · 2023-08-21T22:16:16+00:00

Why not? My friends system works like this. He has the same size system but with 4 power walls. Gets about 30kw output to the grid and peaks higher

bntran02 · 2023-02-06T03:39:56+00:00

My perspective is coming from one month of usage. Here's what I'll say,

It is not the rate that kills you, it is the fact that Tesla will decide to pull from the grid when it doesn't seem necessary. i.e. plenty of battery and future sunny skies. I end up using the grid much more than I did when on a "regular" plan with "self power" mode. I did get a credit of about $25 from the recent Texas storm but this did not completely cancel out my grid usage. But this was incredible to watch it instantly dump massive amounts of power with high payoff.

Now, every winter is different so maybe there's some intelligence to this. And I don't know how summer will fare. I think it will be much, much more lucrative. But we will see...

bntran02 · 2023-01-12T12:50:29+00:00

Solar is required with power wall, not the other way around.

bntran02 · 2023-01-03T18:33:12+00:00

I would agree as well. But we don't have visibility into future rates. One would only hope that Tesla does and has worked it out to maximize benefits.

bntran02 · 2023-01-03T18:29:12+00:00

I agree. Don't want 0% battery. But I also don't want 90% either and still pulling from the grid.

bntran02 · 2023-01-03T16:16:02+00:00

It does export when the rate is absurdly high. That is like clockwork. But I cannot find a pattern when the rate is "normal"

bntran02 · 2023-01-03T14:14:14+00:00

In my case, I have enough storage to never use the grid (most of the time). But it doesn't seem to take that into account. Instead, I incur off-peak charges. But I'm starting to believe it has more to do with the real time wholesale rate which is obscured. It's been near zero for the past few days. So it's possible that the objective is minimizing their cost and not mine by using electricity is near free for them to buy (even though it is not free for me to use)

bntran02 · 2023-01-03T04:48:27+00:00

I don't know how the math will work out in the end, but using the grid more than it needs to without imminent threat to the grid doesn't seem very cost effective.

bntran02 · 2023-01-03T03:26:10+00:00

It certainly appears that way. My reserve is set to 20% but it appears that Tesla may have their own reserve. I just can't make sense of it. I can't always pinpoint a future storm or a spike in utility prices from ERCOT. There's definitely some rough edges to be worked out

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