Smart Solar Charging

[skiingj]

I think we established earlier that your two 200A sensors are attached to the mains coming into the main panel and they are oriented correctly.
No. I moved the two 200A over to the backup gateway. Maybe I am wrong but the two 200A feeds into the main panel would also receive power from the two Powerwall’s. In the picture above in post #97 I am monitoring the supply line as labeled in the backup gateway. I did move around which way the sensors are pointed and located to troubleshoot.

When you set up the main panel on the Vue, you chose "solar production" so I am assuming when you do have solar production, you can see what you are producing in the Vue app (Net Production in green).
Yes. Net Usage / Net production appears to bounce around a lot. Goes in and out green/blue randomly. Pictures of this are below.

I believe what you are trying to do is use excess solar to charge your car with the Emporia charger.
Yes

Only the 200A sensors connected to the mains going into the Vue are used for to monitor for excess solar.

Let's talk about how your app is configured. If your EV charger breaker is in the main panel, they should be showing up in the main panel page in the app. Are they?
Yes

Thanks for your help.!

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[markboris]

Let's start here. You are showing an "EV Charger" under devices in your "Main Vue". You don't have a generic "EV Charger". You have an Emporia EV Charger which you can see is ABOVE the Main Vue and it should be nested IN the Main Vue. Go to Manage Devices > Main Vue and remove that EV charger. Then go back to Manage Devices > Emporia EV Charger > EV Charger Info > Nest Under > and choose Main Vue

 

[DevSecOps]

do not understand the panel above w/ all of the white wires? Must be some elaborate and detailed monitoring?

The thicker straight-ish wires with the CT clamps are part of the Emporia Vue monitoring. The squiggly white wires are for AFCI/GFCI breakers, which connect to the neutral bar, and the thinner straight-ish white wires in the background are the neutral wires going to the loads.

 

[skiingj]

Mark - I believe that fixed it. It now shows "Controlled by Excess Solar". I will report back once my Powerball's fully charge which may be tomorrow because of AC demand. THANK YOU!

 

[markboris]

Mark - I believe that fixed it. It now shows "Controlled by Excess Solar". I will report back once my Powerball's fully charge which may be tomorrow because of AC demand. THANK YOU!

Nice. I doubt the Powerwalls will kick in to charge the car. Mine don't so not sure why yours will if we both have similar systems. I can have my Powerwalls set to either Self Powered or Time Based control and they never help out when I have the Emporia charger set to charge on Excess Solar only.

 

[ridgebackpilot]

My experience is the same: Once the Powerwalls charge to 100%, the Tesla Gateway begins dumping excess solar production to the grid. The Emporia Vue senses that and activates the EV charger (provided it's connected to a vehicle).

Since the Powerwalls never send power to the grid, except during summer grid emergencies, they never trigger activation of the charger. My Emporia charger seems to do a good job of matching solar production by varying the rate of charge. There's a lag, of course, but nothing out of the ordinary.

 

[markboris]

My experience is the same: Once the Powerwalls charge to 100%, the Tesla Gateway begins dumping excess solar production to the grid. The Emporia Vue senses that and activates the EV charger (provided it's connected to a vehicle).

Since the Powerwalls never send power to the grid, except during summer grid emergencies, they never trigger activation of the charger. My Emporia charger seems to do a good job of matching solar production by varying the rate of charge. There's a lag, of course, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Seems like our three systems (yours, mine and John's) are similar and they are all running very much alike. The Emporia charger needs to see 1.4kW or above for a constant 2 minutes before it will start charging on excess solar. Anything below that is stops charging until it achieves that 1.4kW again.

 

[skiingj]

Well bad news, it is not working. Keeps draining the Powerwall's by ramping up amps well past any overage threshold. The app looks better setup now thanks to Mark's last input. Can I have the probes setup wrong?

 

[ridgebackpilot]

Well bad news, it is not working. Keeps draining the Powerwall's by ramping up amps well past any overage threshold. The app looks better setup now thanks to Mark's last input. Can I have the probes setup wrong?

I've had the same problem in the past. The only way I can get the system to work (and not drain the Powerwalls) is by setting the Operational Mode of the Tesla Gateway on "Self-Powered" rather than "Time-Based Control". Try that or vice-versa until it works for you.

Also make sure you turn your charger off in the Emporia app, so that it shows, "Charge Paused". That's the key to activating control by excess solar production. If both your Emporia app and the FordPass app show that your EV charging is paused, then you're set up properly for excess solar charging.

Good luck!

 

[markboris]

Exactly what Michael said above ^^^. Do this and let us know.

You mentioned about your sensors possibly being set up wrong. Just make sure the arrow on the bottom are pointing towards he breaker.

 

[skiingj]

Thanks guys. I will try these out in more detail.

A question in regards to the probes pointing towards breakers. My Backup gateway has the two large probs, pictured below. Technically there are beakers in each direction. Currently I have the probes pointing away from the main service disconnect breaker on the outside of the house. The Solar probes are pointing at the breaker in the backup gateway. Thanks again guys I will test away

.

 

[markboris]

Thanks guys. I will try these out in more detail.

A question in regards to the probes pointing towards breakers. My Backup gateway has the two large probs, pictured below. Technically there are beakers in each direction. Currently I have the probes pointing away from the main service disconnect breaker on the outside of the house. The Solar probes are pointing at the breaker in the backup gateway. Thanks again guys I will test away

.

Let's go one step at a time....

What is that 50A sensor for on the left side connected to one leg of the 40A breaker?

 

[skiingj]

What is that 50A sensor for on the left side connected to one leg of the 40A breaker?

Solar circuit

 

[markboris]

Ok, figured it was. That makes no difference how or even if you have it connected to the Emporia Vue for your EV charger to charge on Excess solar. It all has to do with the two main 200A sensors and that must be where your problem is.

I don't think you should have your main sensors connected to the supply power in your backup gateway. They should be connected between the Main supply feed coming in from your power company to your Main panel.

 

[skiingj]

Ok, figured it was. That makes no difference how or even if you have it connected to the Emporia Vue for your EV charger to charge on Excess solar. It all has to do with the two main 200A sensors and that must be where your problem is.

I don't think you should have your main sensors connected to the supply power in your backup gateway. They should be connected between the Main supply feed coming in from your power company to your Main panel.

I will remove the small 50a solar sensor. Sorry I am no engineer but if the supply from the grid was directly hooked up to the power panel there would be no backup/supply from the powerwalls. Isn't this the purpose of the Backup gateway to switch between grid and Powerwall?

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