Okay, figured it out after taking a pause. Here is what SEEMS to be working:
!m
Not sure WHY it works. I just experimented with clamp placement in different locations. That one did the trick, picking up ALL house usage, whether from battery or solar. The one thing that remains untested is grid power, since I haven’t pulled from the grid in a while. If grid power breaks this, I’ll update.
That looks just like my install. I’ve had it for 2 weeks now. The CTs for “solar” are on the lines that come from the “generation panel” that Tesla install that has my solar and Powerwalls combined. So Sense sees the net of battery and solar. Unfortunately they currently don’t graph negative power. This is not a major issue unless you get a lot of “Storm Watch” events. During those times the batteries will charge from the grid. During other others time they are charging from solar so solar just gets time shifted.
Since all my loads are coming from one panel I have the “mains” CT on the panel. This seems to be working just fine.
I spoke too soon. I’m currently pulling from the grid and sense isn’t picking that up. I’ll need to keep tinkering. If you have pictures you could share, that might be helpful.
You should contact support and let them know your configuration. That was essential for me because I couldn’t finish the solar setup. Here is a picture of the Power Meter showing the Poweralls discharging and the Sense showing it as solar production:
Note, currently Sense doesn’t appear to graph negative flows to solar. You can see that it knows about it because the meter values will show it.
dlipin,
Just had a new solar, PW2 system installed and I am researching this very topic on how to incorporate Sense into the mix. Your write up here makes perfect sense. I am wondering though do you have the the Version 1 gateway or the newer Gateway Version 2?
When you describe connecting the grid CT’s to the top of the board I am guessing you might have the Version 1?
On my Gateway 2, I think the grid incoming is on the bottom right. Just trying to determine the correct location for my grid CT’s.
Thanks,
It seems from the photos in other posts that the Gateway can be installed in various orientations, and that the images I attached to my original post didn’t actually get posted. Try this:
photos.app.goo.gl/D8cCziAnPr4KD9eT8
Thanks. I got mine installed on a Gateway2 based on your scenario. Sense is showing solar as both solar during the day and Powerwalls at night. It makes sense to me and seems to work well.
Thanks again. Cheers!
How did you set it up in the gateway 2?
I’ve been trying to set mine up, but to no avail.
If I remove solar from the Sense, everything checks out, but with solar on it shows me using up a sum of the usage plus the generation (at least it appears to be that way).
It also (which makes no sense to me) is showing now much more PV generation in the Tesla app when compared to my solar system.
I would really appreciate it if you could share a picture of your gateway CT setup.
Thank you.
So, doing the math, my solar readings are correct.
If I subtract the solar from the usage, it gives me the real usage.
Is that how it’s supposed to be?
jj,
I am unable to access the Gateway right now for a picture. However I have access to a gateway picture I can markup to show where I put the Sense Solar CT’s.
As far as the readings, the way I have it set up, solar will show total of generation and output from the powerwalls as a total solar value. I have 2 PW. Usage will show total household usage. This works well for me.
I’ll try to get you a picture later.
Thanks a lot man, that will be very helpful.
I also have 2 PW, and your way would totally work for me.
However, what I was wanting to do with Sense was account for home usage minus the PW and for solar generation only. But again, your way works too.
What’s seriously weird for me is that the “usage” count is accounting for usage plus solar generation. It would make more sense if it was accounting for home usage plus/minus the powerwalls depending on if they were charging or generating. Does that make sense?
Thank you,
The attached photo shows where I ended up placing my solar CT’s.
Ah, I see.
That may be an issue then. As you can see in my gateway picture, I do not have the Optional Internal Panelboard:
In my case, do you have an idea on what would be the best placement for the usage CTs since my Gateway does not have the panelboard?
I currently have my usage CTs (since before having the solar CTs, when it was measuring perfect) to the wires that come from the backup/load connections into the house.
Ah, so I won’t be much help with your configuration in this case. CT’s on just the solar incoming might give you what you want. I won’t be able to help determine that in your case, but you might already know. Or maybe someone else here with a setup similar to yours might chime in.
Good luck.
I’m waiting on a response from Sense support on this, see if they have any onsight. And, of course, if they do, I’ll make sure to have it posted here.
I also called my powerwall installer, and he’s going to try and come by at the end of the day.
Whatever we come up with, I’ll make sure to share it as well.
Again man, thank you very much. All your effort did lead me to finally figuring out what the issue actually is.
So, as it turns out, I didn’t have to move any of my CTs from where they were.
Support took care of it and now it’s all reading as it should.
Solar is not adding/subtracting anymore, and the usage is spot on.
Looks like you are set to go with the same kind of configuration most Sense Solar users have. I’m guessing you’ll some weirdness when your battery starts delivering energy when viewing the Power Meter.
Now that you mention it, I’ll find out tonight for sure. I run on battery form 11pm until morning never letting them drain under 20%.
I’ll check tonight around midnight and post my findings.
Good catch.
What I’m expecting to happen is that the Sense Total consumption will be partially or completely hidden by your battery.
I’m on battery right now, and the Sense is reading my usage fully.
I was leaning to agree with your thoughts man, honestly. More than anything I was thinking that my usage was going to drop to 0 while on battery. But as unexpected as this is, I’m very happy this is the case, because this is why I wanted the sense.
Switching gears, I want to extend my gratitude to all of you, that tried to help me figure this out. Thank you all very much.
Hopefully all the struggle will help more individuals with similar setups.
