Solar & Powerwall 2

[Embattle]

Yes, least the hail and rain are cleaning ours today between the sunny periods, yesterday's figures:

 

[Embattle]

So this is the first time in the year with minimal grid usage lasting a couple of days, it might be possible to ride this current round of sun for a week:

 

[old.Osy]

Snow melted, yay -

 

[Embattle]

So the various documents to do with the install have now been sent to us, here is the updated electrical diagram:

 

[Deebs]

Thanks for posting this, will save me a fortune as I can now copy the schematics and BYOSPF (Build Your Own Solar Panel Farm). Finally can use that 50m roll of 1.5mm flex cable as well

 

[Embattle]

Thanks for posting this, will save me a fortune as I can now copy the schematics and BYOSPF (Build Your Own Solar Panel Farm). Finally can use that 50m roll of 1.5mm flex cable as well

How are your plans/thoughts on solar going?

 

[old.Osy]

 

[Scouse]

What is relative autonomy vs self-sufficiency?

 

[Embattle]

What is relative autonomy vs self-sufficiency?

Perhaps:

What is autonomy in solar system?


The autonomy is defined as the time during which the load can be met with the battery alone, without any solar inputs, starting of course from a "full charged" battery state.

 

[Scouse]

Cool.

I'd like to see the full 24h period @old.Osy. When the day is over, of course

 

[Embattle]

Our battery reached full capacity just after 13:00 having reached a low of about 27% at which point the solar exceeded the house requirements around 7:00, just after 17:00 the solar was too low and the battery is in play again:

 

[old.Osy]

30 mins to midnight, should be relevant enough.

The Autonomy card is _relative_. Not what Embattle said. It's basically the percentage of power utilization from own sources vs grid, represented instantly. Hence the slightly curvy graph.

type: custom:mini-graph-card
entities:
  - entity: sensor.solarnet_relative_autonomy
name: Relative Autonomy
icon: mdi:information-box
color_thresholds:
  - value: 20
    color: "#fff000"
  - value: 50
    color: "#ffff00"
  - value: 80
    color: "#00ff00"
line_color: "#00aaff"
line_width: 3
show:
  fill: fade
  points: true
  legend: true
  labels: true
point_size: 1
hours_to_show: 8
points_per_hour: 3

 

[Deebs]

How are your plans/thoughts on solar going?

I definately need to invest. My only issue is how to get the feed to my consumer unit. it is on the inside wall under the stairs. When I first bought this house that was my least worry but I remember the hassle of putting in a new consumer unit and laying a cable for an electric oven, had to go up the wall to upstairs and then lift floorboards and typically the rafters were at the wrong angle but luckily most had pre drilled holes, then I had to feed the cable down a cavity in the kitchen.

In those dark days the old carpet was around so I had no issue ripping that up to gain access to the floorboards, not so lucky now. I might just go for an install to power the CDC if the survey makes me want to cry.

 

[Embattle]

In our case there was no work done at the consumer unit, the joining up happens from the wall box outside to the Tesla Gateway inside the house. Here is a picture of the inside of our:



In the External wall box, other than spiders, are:

1. Usual Stuff - 100A Main Fuse, Meter, Isolator.
2. Henley Blocks - Mains, Tesla Gateway, EV Charger (Grey Cable through the side to separate RCB & Trip).
3. CT Clamps - EV Charger, Harvi Box (Tells Eddi whenever there is export energy and turns on water heater).
4. Earths - The bottom one heads to a ground spike.

A look under the hood of the Tesla Gateway and where some of those cables go:




Although undoubtedly complex the basics are fairly straight forward

The main live and neutral (Brown & Blue) feeds come in on the left side from a henley block from outside (top picture) and go to the Tesla PW2 where it does its thing, and then the house live (middle) and neutral (right) return back through the same piece of trunking and hole in the wall to another henley outside that connects to the original live and earth that head to the main consumer unit.

The advantage, should you wish to go the battery route, is quite a few of the batteries now include solar inverters which in our case are both located in the loft.

 

[old.Osy]

In our case there was no work done at the consumer unit, the joining up happens from the wall box outside to the Tesla Gateway inside the house. Here is a picture of the inside of our:

View attachment 50162

In the External wall box, other than spiders, are:

1. Usual Stuff - 100A Main Fuse, Meter, Isolator.
2. Henley Blocks - Mains, Tesla Gateway, EV Charger (Grey Cable through the side to separate RCB & Trip).
3. CT Clamps - EV Charger, Harvi Box (Tells Eddi whenever there is export energy and turns on water heater).
4. Earths - The bottom one heads to a ground spike.

A look under the hood of the Tesla Gateway and where some of those cables go:


View attachment 50164

Although undoubtedly complex the basics are fairly straight forward

The main live and neutral (Brown & Blue) feeds come in on the left side from a henley block from outside (top picture) and go to the Tesla PW2 where it does its thing, and then the house live (middle) and neutral (right) return back through the same piece of trunking and hole in the wall to another henley outside that connects to the original live and earth that head to the main consumer unit.

The advantage, should you wish to go the battery route, is quite a few of the batteries now include solar inverters which in our case are both located in the loft.

Is that pressed MDF at the back in the first picture? If so, yikes !

 

[Embattle]

Is that pressed MDF at the back in the first picture? If so, yikes !

Probably.

 

[old.Osy]

Totally not up to code if so. If you have insurance, that's one way for them to back out of any responsibility.

Personally, I would engage a certified electrician to fix it.

 

[Embattle]

Totally not up to code if so. If you have insurance, that's one way for them to back out of any responsibility.

Personally, I would engage a certified electrician to fix it.

I suspect whatever it is, is fine since the DNO and multiple electricians have seen it.

 

[Jupitus]

.... then I had to feed the cable down a cavity in the kitchen ......

Any hole's a goal, pal!!! 🍻

 

[Embattle]

Any hole's a goal, pal!!! 🍻

Some of us worryingly fit in more holes than others, much to pixie search & research annoyance

I must say it is a rather nice feeling having your own supply of electricity to use and not see anything being pulled from the main grid, I suspect I'm not alone in that feeling.

 

[old.Osy]

Some of us worryingly fit in more holes than others, much to pixie search & research annoyance

I must say it is a rather nice feeling having your own supply of electricity to use and not see anything being pulled from the main grid, I suspect I'm not alone in that feeling.

Yeah, it's satisfying. One of the reasons why I customized my battery discharge rate, to even out the grid consumption over the night, while maintaining the minimum 40% charge lvl required for emergency backup.

Over a week: Blue is Solar, Red is consumption, Green is battery discharge.



And last 24 hours: