I am trying to find an alert or notification for my solar output. I need to set an alert if my solar output exceeds 12.5 kW. One of my 2 Sense monitors looks at the combined solar/powerwall output. With 2 powerwalls rated at 5 kW continuous output and 7 kW peak output each (total 10kW continuous and 14 kW peak) I need to get notification that I am over the limit for continuous draw on the powerwall. Any help locating where or how to set this alert would be appreciated.
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Could you set a Solar goal for Any Time on the monitor that is looking at the combined solar/powerwall output? Then just set the threshold to be under 12.5kW.
That’s the first place I looked. Solar production does not have an “At any time “ option on the app and is limited to “Over”. 
You’re absolutely correct. I don’t have solar, so I just assumed incorrectly. When we initially built the Goals feature, energy storage wasn’t a use case we had in mind, but can see that Any Time goals for solar does matter for that. I’ll forward this on to the Product team.
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This is what I have been asking for. It makes sense to me that if you have solar and it is generating SO MUCH that it’s just going back to the grid it makes more sense to use it locally. So if I could have Sense tickle me when there is too much production I could get up and run the dish washer, or start the Tesla charging. If it gets too low I could stop the Tesla charging. Especially cool if I could do it with IFTTT, so I don’t have to get up to start everything going on cue.
Thx.
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I’ll bump this one up so when I finally move to the real world and have solar-everything all the alerts and automation will be ready!
Emergencies included.
“Ms. Polos, a nurse, recalls the power going out 10 times in the past year. If she and her family need to get out because of a fire, she said, she wants to be able to keep her Nissan Leaf electric car charged.”
I’m a little confused. If you have a net meter, power going back to the grid is “banked” for later consumption. It only makes sense to run unnecessary devices to burn power when you’re coming up to the utility’s “evening-up month” (In NJ that’s once a year a the solar installation anniversary or other negotiated date).
Normally the Powerwall will not charge unless PV production is greater than household demand and then the charge rate is limited and excess power is sent back to the grid.
To the original question posed by dwleckie, I don’t believe it’s possible to exceed the discharge limit of the Powerwall if the grid is up. I’m not at all sure what would happen if the grid were down and household demand exceeded the max discharge rate of the Powerwall. Brownout??
All the net-metering has been subscribed here. It’s only 5% of the population is mandated to be offered that. Where we are it’s long gone. California is very pro renewable energy. I get 7¢ for each kWh I produce that I don’t use, but I pay 28¢ to buy it back if I need it later. I pay a little extra to get all Green power, but I would prefer to save money by making my own green power.
Hi @israndy,
Which CA utility are you with ? I’m in NorCal with PG&E and did get in on Net Metering, so i’m on a NEMS EVA (electrical vehicle TOU) schedule. @tomstiller, those plans do have a yearly true-up. @israndy, I can see why you would want the battery - better to offset 28c / kWh, than get paid 7c later. I also subscribe to the local 100% renewable electricity source.
Alameda Municipal, oldest power company West of the Ol’ Miss
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Ryan, do you have a diagram for the solar sensors using a Powerwall? Just got mine installed and I need to reposition the solar sensors.
This are the locations I used for combined solar/Powerwall. If you don"t want combined - put the solar C/T’s in the box on the right at the solar array input breaker.
This is my mess with 2 sense units (mounted in a 10x10 box below)
This is after cleaning up Teslas messy wiring and shows Solar C/Ts in combiner panel
Thanks. Just curious what the C/T shorthand denotes?
Current Transformer - i.e. the white clamp!
BTW that was a super helpful diagram. Can you summarize the advantage of the second Sense? I’m in CA with Net metering so I’m not trying to use every electron of solar. I’m getting full billed rate for every kW I put back.
I am using the second Sense unit to actually see my stored solar from the powerwall being used.
The upper image is the combined solar and powerwall view of the power meter. Compared to the lower image (standard setup) you can see the “missing solar” in the morning that is recharging the powerwall and see the solar (stored) power being utilized in the evening until the end of my peak demand period. The Tesla app and data is mostly worthless and very granular - I want to see the full details.
Hi again! So I installed the solar sensors on the “left box” but I guess I’m rethinking that I should have installed them on the right box since I only have 1 sense module. Any chance you have a detailed photo of the right box hookup?
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I should also add that I have 2 solar systems (7kW Solar City & 4kW Tesla w/ single PW2). I’d just like to capture the total solar production. One complication for the sense on the load side: Tesla was unable to move all my load to PW2 backup due to the 5A max load. Therefore some of the load is still in my main service entrance. I left the load CTs on the service entry cables…any issues with this arrangement? I do see the load swing wildly during the day as solar exceeds load…I’m at a loss to figure out best place to put those CTs to make sure Sense captures all the devices it can.
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If you want to capture BOTH solar arrays ( I’m assuming each lands on a separate breaker in the combiner panel on the right), I would leave your solar CTs where they are - even though the Powerwall is also measured there.
Definitely leave the main CTs on the main service panel. All loads should still pass through there.
PM me with a picture of your combiner panel.