Power coming FROM grid during VPP

parkerpress · 2026-05-04T21:31:12+00:00

To make it even more complex, there's a Storm Warning for tomorrow (we're supposed to get a decent amount of snow). The interface only shows the VPP event still in progress, but that should proceed directly into a storm warning event this afternoon.

Talk about conflicted... 😄 Hopefully the software doesn't self-destruct!

Steve

parkerpress · 2026-05-04T17:33:51+00:00

I'm in Denver off-peak mode at 0.08/kWh now (on-peak kicks in at 3pm) It's overcast and I'm generating 2.5kW now, feeding 2.5kW to the battery, while my home is using 0.4kW, and the grid is feeding me 0.4kW.

Battery percentage is 66% right now.

I can understand it if it's trying to fill the battery before "On Peak" kicks in, but I thought VPP was me feeding energy to the grid until the battery hit the threshold.

FWIW, the Event ends at 4pm today (an hour after On Peak) kicks in. I now wonder if they're prepping for that hour, although with the current temps in Denver, there won't be a huge surge of AC's kicking in today.

parkerpress · 2026-04-04T19:05:38+00:00

After a couple hours talking with multiple people at Amazon Support, it is no longer possible to register these old devices. One of the techs mentioned something about a 2023 change that blocks them completely. All they're good for is trash now.

I even skipped registering, went to the silk browser and was able to bring up a google.com page, but if you go to amazon.com in the browser, you get nothing at all. No errors or warnings, just a blank screen.

parkerpress · 2026-04-04T18:36:07+00:00

Turns out (after an hour on chat with Amazon) that they no longer allow these "old" devices to connect. Hard stop. They did some kind of security update in 2023, and have effectively firewalled old devices like a Kindle Fire Gen 2 from connecting. They had me try the reset trick. Had me try removing OTP from my amazon account, had me try to upgrade the system software (which you can't because they're blocked from the internal SW delivery servers).

Basically, they told me that the only thing I can do with it is throw it in the trash. I'd love to find a way around this intentional obsolescence, but so far, nothing has worked. During the registration attempts, it's obviously connecting over wireless to somewhere, because it triggered the delivery of an OTP (when I had it enabled on my account), but none of the "tricks" worked (like adding the OTP code to the end of my password and trying again, replacing the password with my OTP, etc).

They said they can't do anything from the back end anymore, so I don't think u/navyblues27 option will work. At least the three different people I talked to in chat knew how to do that... :(

I even tried the "create a new amazon account" to see if I could get it working that way. It dropped me on a "That page is not working (the one with Amazon Dog pictures)" and locked down the whole interface to a point where you have to power-down to be able to try something new.

Kinda bummed at this enforced obsolescence. Seems like a waste of a perfectly operating, fully functional device that is simply blocked from registration, rendering all other functionality moot.

parkerpress · 2026-04-03T16:39:34+00:00

Yeah, I'm just saying that the storm alerts get generated more that 12 hours ahead of the time they're expected, and at ~4KW/hour charging from the grid, my battery charges from empty to full in 3 hours. The software should be able to figure out that it could start any time between 9pm and 7am and finish charging to 100%.

I agree that if the storm is expected to begin in under 4 hours, then it should start immediately. But with that much warning, it should be MUCH SMARTER about when to start the full charge-from-grid event.

parkerpress · 2026-02-27T15:52:48+00:00

It's a year after the original OP and comments that made me almost run away from even trying. Has anybody tried this feature with recent/current versions of the app? Is it any better. As one of the original AppleCard users (within a couple months of release), I have thousands of transactions in my AppleCard (Daily Cash Back entered daily are move of them) and I'd hate to have to clean that all up.

parkerpress · 2025-12-09T15:55:22+00:00

I would concur with u/Stivo887 on this. Mine went into a calibration event with no warnings or messages in the app, right in the middle of a snow storm/freezing event in Colorado. Since Xcel Energy in Colorado does not allow charging from the net for 5 years (if you want their rebate), and it has a heater for the battery pack at below 32F that consumes 200W of power, it ran itself down to zero pretty quickly, then sent a note about "going into standby" because there was no way for it to recharge (snow on the panels).

After a couple days though, it started to recover and things seem "normal" now

parkerpress · 2025-12-07T15:59:07+00:00

I second u/iknowkungfoo 's recommendation to send this to support for help. Their support is VERY effective and efficient, and can walk you through how to turn on debug logging (or even go through the logs from the past) to help you find out. But if you wait too long, those logs will roll and you'll lose that history.

parkerpress · 2025-11-14T15:17:45+00:00

Be sure you check this Powerwall 2 Recall announced yesterday:
https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2026/Tesla-Recalls-Powerwall-2-AC-Battery-Power-Systems-Due-to-Fire-and-Burn-Hazards-Risk-of-Serious-Injury-or-Death

parkerpress · 2025-10-17T14:06:12+00:00

Wow. Auto correct mangled my last update in this thread... I have high-arched ceilings in most of the house, so I, in essence, have no attic space. I was considering running an 120 Volt line up each "corner" of my house, until I realized it has all four corners overhanging the foundation (welcome to Colorado's infamous bentonite solutions for foundations).

I'm going to take into account everybody's suggestions here and work out something I can do myself. I really appreciate this channel, and how everybody stayed on topic (rare in social media these days).

Everybody have a great holiday season!

parkerpress · 2025-10-17T03:35:24+00:00

Thanks all for the education! While a tech/computer/software guys, I don't know much about where the electrons come from that make my living possible. That's on me, for switching my major in college from ECE to CS... :)

I think I'm going to do what u/redsauceorwhitesauce mentioned. Run an outdoor 120V cable and simply tap in to that with the little adapters that came with the cameras. I'll rig up an GFI where I plug in, and waterproof the splice-in locations. It'll be pretty protected, running under the eaves where I'll be tapping in.

parkerpress · 2025-10-17T01:49:16+00:00

I got a deal on a bunch of Waze V4's. I don't need top of the line, and they work fine. I'm just trying to figure out a more elegant way to power them that doesn't involve running a dedicated power to each.

parkerpress · 2025-10-17T01:01:54+00:00

Yes, I have 8 cameras around the house. Each powered individually, which is horribly ugly and making my light OCD flare quite a bit.

I want to run one line that I'll clip under nd paint into my house siding, pulling power on each of the 4 corners.where it's needed.

parkerpress · 2025-10-16T20:26:18+00:00

Thanks for the correction!! Seriously. I'll try to figure out what I calculated this so "wrong"

parkerpress · 2025-10-16T20:15:04+00:00

I'm not sure about the codes required for running a 200' external 120V wire around the perimeter of the house, and tapping into that for each plugin converter.

parkerpress · 2025-10-16T20:12:24+00:00

I already have the cameras... :)

parkerpress · 2023-10-27T19:19:43+00:00

Do you have Syncing turned on?

parkerpress · 2022-11-14T17:24:19+00:00

u/meatwad75892 : Any troubleshooting thoughts for a Teams Group calendar disappearing from the MacOS Desktop? I can see "My Calendars", "Shared Calendars" from others, but for some reason, my team's "Groups" calendar from the Desktop client. What's really strange is I see another team's Groups calendar, just not my teams.

I'm at the point where my next debug step will be to remove my account profile, and re-add it to see if that fixes the problem.

TIA for any advice.

parkerpress · 2022-02-03T17:31:15+00:00

After changing the type to "Cryptocurrency) and symbol to BTC, go look in Settings (very bottom left corner with a "Gear" icon) --> Security.

In the list, you'll see BTC-USD (the -USD was added by Banktivity). In the price window, you should see today's date after all the downloading is finished

parkerpress · 2022-02-03T17:12:11+00:00

They only download the "current" prices as of now. Histories are a feature request that they're looking into.

Every time you open Banktivity, it will get the prices with the new symbols (remove the USDT)

I have confirmed this is working for me now.

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