Powershare compatible wall charger - Tesla Universal Wall Connector in online shop

[Macgyverfever]

I thought with a firmware update our gen3 chargers could support bidirectional charging?

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[kYdizzle]

Well I bought a Universal Wall Connector last month. No Powershare branding on it. What are the chances it will support it?

 

[Crissa]

I hope this is no different than the universal wall connector Tesla brought out a month or so ago because I got one and don't feel like getting another one. Not that I need power sharing to the house (I have a whole home generator) but I don't like to waste money and I like to be prepared. The power sharing capability would be just one more way to be prepared just in case.

Whole house generator uses more fuel and makes alot more noise than battery backup.

Since I don't run my generator but a couple hours a day when the power is out, my fuel lasts alot longer.

-Crissa

 

[Jhodgesatmb]

Whole house generator uses more fuel and makes alot more noise than battery backup.

Since I don't run my generator but a couple hours a day when the power is out, my fuel lasts alot longer.

-Crissa

We use our generator 3-4 times a year, but when it is needed it is appreciated. Ours is fueled by natural gas. I agree that battery backup would be better but it wasn't really a cost-effective solution when we installed the generator, and it doesn't make sense to decommission it just because I like the idea of a battery solution. Damn straight it is noisy - that part is awful.

 

[Crissa]

We use our generator 3-4 times a year, but when it is needed it is appreciated. Ours is fueled by natural gas. I agree that battery backup would be better but it wasn't really a cost-effective solution when we installed the generator, and it doesn't make sense to decommission it just because I like the idea of a battery solution. Damn straight it is noisy - that part is awful.

Battery backup is great because it's so much more efficient when the house demand is low (like late night or mid-day) you're not idling an engine wasting fuel.

-Crissa

 

[scottf200]

Good summary I saw here:

This picture really summarizes YEARS of work in the making by @teslaenergy @TeslaCharging @Tesla. Again, lets look
at it from a holistic point of view as investors, owners and installers of the Tesla ecosystem
---->

(1) BACKUP SWITCH
---> "The best part is no part"
This is perhaps for me, as a Tesla installer, the most amazing innovation. Why? 4x faster installation, no need to add Gateway [if paired with PW+/PW3], no need to upgrade existing electrical panel.

(2) POWERWALLS
Tesla has gone from PW2 --> PW+ --> PW3. These babies are more than batteries, they're complete systems including: battery-based/string inverter, thermal management system, cells themselves, power electronics, etc. This 'close-loops' the Tesla ecosystem

(3) WALL CONNECTOR/NACS
Simple but powerful. Now with 'PowerShare', people can use their vehicle to power their homes during an outage. Even perhaps use their vehicle to add more capacity (in kW and kWh) on a daily basis, participate in VPP programs ...

(4) POWERSHARE/@Cybertruck
Closing the ecosystem with a V2G/V2H component (aka Cybertruck), 48V vehicle arquitecture is MASSIVE. This unlocks the full potential of Tesla's mission to transition the world to a sustainable future through a 'distributed' energy approach

This is a clear example on how amazing Backup switch (BUS) is. Assuming you had a Ford version of the backup switch, you won't be needing: (3), (5), (2)

 

[PilotPete]

If power sharing is using the 240 volt outlet in the bed then yes because it is limited to 40-50 amps.

That really depends on your house setup more than anything else.

There are a couple of options to make the power sharing/V2H work, details are not really well known, but technically the universal charger could handle most of the switching internally, but it would also have to control a grid islanding switch to disconnect the house from the power network to avoid feeding back into the grid, and risking electrocuting a lineman.

There's no reason that they would need a powerwall as a part of the setup, but they might want you to buy one anyway... from how I read the options on the power share page, I think the Powerwall is optional, the charger not so much, if you want automatic charge/discharge switching.

The CT can also be connected to the house without the Universal charger as well, by using the 240V outlet in the bed. The requirement here is the same, in that you would have to connect it to the house via a generator input switch, that would in turn off the grid supply as well for safety.

The difference there is that it won't be able to automatically switch between charging and discharging, and will have a little bit less power output 9,5kW rather than 11kW through the charge connector plug.

Either way I'm glad that CT finally added the V2X functionality, but I don't think they really had a choice given that they included a high power 120/240V inverter to power tools etc anyway. It's just a different way to connect that same hardware using the charge connector.

Jack, It appears that the feed back is through the power charging cable, no need to plug in the 240. Save you tons if that would require you to run out to your driveway and plug it in, in the middle of the night, in a storm,

JB,

In California (at least, I do know a few other states are the same) Solar alone will not allow you to power your house in the event of an outage. With Solar alone, when the power goes out, your solar system is disconnected from everything. The only way for a backup switch install is if you have a battery backup. Gens probably work the same way. So, IF you currently have solar (in some states) and IF you don't have any battery backup, you MIGHT not be able to use your CT as backup power. And since this is a safety issue, and you can disconnect your CT from the house, I doubt the powers that be will give you that option.

 

[Tommytuna]

Does Tesla produce a switch that would isolate the house from grid in event of failure without having to buy the full powerwall. I LOVE the fact that we could use the truck to back up the house vs. a gas generator. 11kw should power a fair bit of stuff at peak including one of our air conditioners.

 

[Jhodgesatmb]

Jack, It appears that the feed back is through the power charging cable, no need to plug in the 240. Save you tons if that would require you to run out to your driveway and plug it in, in the middle of the night, in a storm,

JB,

In California (at least, I do know a few other states are the same) Solar alone will not allow you to power your house in the event of an outage. With Solar alone, when the power goes out, your solar system is disconnected from everything. The only way for a backup switch install is if you have a battery backup. Gens probably work the same way. So, IF you currently have solar (in some states) and IF you don't have any battery backup, you MIGHT not be able to use your CT as backup power. And since this is a safety issue, and you can disconnect your CT from the house, I doubt the powers that be will give you that option.

I have grid-tied solar and a Generac generator and transfer switch. It is set up so that if the power goes out we can still charge the cars using the generator. Might it be possible to still use power sharing or am I SOL?

 

[Gurule92]

Does Tesla produce a switch that would isolate the house from grid in event of failure without having to buy the full powerwall. I LOVE the fact that we could use the truck to back up the house vs. a gas generator. 11kw should power a fair bit of stuff at peak including one of our air conditioners.

Backup switch might be that?

 

[Tommytuna]

Backup switch might be that?

Makes sense - hoping this Backup Switch will be certified for use in Canada

 

[Tommytuna]

The details are here: Tesla Backup Switch | Tesla Support seems pretty slick although no Canadian certification yet.

 

[PilotPete]

I have grid-tied solar and a Generac generator and transfer switch. It is set up so that if the power goes out we can still charge the cars using the generator. Might it be possible to still use power sharing or am I SOL?

So if I understand correctly, if the power goes out, you have a transfer switch that separates you from the grid, and you can run the house and Tesla charger from the Gen. If I understand everything correctly, then you should be able to run the house off the CT or the generator.

 

[JBee]

So if I understand correctly, if the power goes out, you have a transfer switch that separates you from the grid, and you can run the house and Tesla charger from the Gen. If I understand everything correctly, then you should be able to run the house off the CT or the generator.

Yep which is exactly what I explained in my post.

I've been dealing with grid interfacing/ network connections for two decades now, and have been offgrid for nearly as long. Not much has changed in that time except batteries and solar have become cheaper.

In fact EM has mentioned the transfer/backup switch quite a few times recently because everybody wants it, but the network providers drag their feet on it, so he is calling them out. The technical term is anti-islanding protection.

Here in Australia grid defection is a big problem because we have very high levels of RE/solar that knocks the network out of whack. This is because networks can't afford to run and increase power lines on the grid because people are no longer buying enough power to make the grid connection pay for itself. Yet solar is creating huge peak generation until the sun goes down, and then they don't have eneough to replace it. This is a regressive death spiral in that networks have to raise prices to maintain the network but when they do customers want even more solar to avoid the costs. So customer energy is "defecting" off the grid and being replaced by solar.

That is also why the networks curtail solar powered household energy exports to the grid, by leaving the network voltage artificially high so that the inverters throttle down as they reach their upper setpoints. This is not regulatory capture, just a technical problem of how the network works itself.

Here in our area, it costs $5000 just to get a "quote" from the power provider, for a power connection. They then go away and do a network impact survey, and say if you can connect at all at that point, and give you a quote on how much it will cost you. If you want solar, you have to do that on top of that, and in most cases it's knocked back, unless you're lucky enough to be in a place that has capacity available, and that solar installers have knocked people up yet.

This all due to the network requiring spinning reserve to maintin voltage control. They can't properly throttle solar export voltage from inverters so it a big headache to stop the network from tripping from overvoltage.

This is also why they now only want to allow inverters that are directly network controlled through a modem, because there is simply to much solar on some parts of the network. Hence all the huge Tesla battery packs installed network side, to suck power out of the grid on a sunny day, so The network doesn't overvolt. It SA it caused the whole state to go down a while back.

To be clear we're pretty pro solar and renewables here, even the networks, but we are hitting hard technical limits on "to much solar" and on how intermittent RE can be handled with diminishing base load that offer the spinning reserve that keeps the grid alive.

I have a few threads on the subject floating around here, and also how V2G and CT could become a part of the solution. We have a 55x 5lot acre subdivision that is designed around going off grid for that exact reason, because it's cheaper to supply off-grid solar with batteries than it is to lay cables and connect to the grid. In fact our network provider is disconnecting parts of the grid themselves and putting in their own battery solar units instead of replacing the grid after fires etc.

And now EM wants us to triple the network capacity so we can all have EV's. Lots of work to do to make this work, but there is a shortcut way with V2G and EV's that I'm glad EM is finally allowing to happen.

We just need lots of bidirectional chargers for people at work and home were they are parked most of the time, and we should be good. Power capacity will then just be driven around in EV batteries and follow peoples demand wherever they are, instead of needing to go to through a cable and the network.

This way the problems are solved at two locations on the grid where the highest demand exists, at home and work.

 

[scottf200]

Does Tesla produce a switch that would isolate the house from grid in event of failure without having to buy the full powerwall. I LOVE the fact that we could use the truck to back up the house vs. a gas generator. 11kw should power a fair bit of stuff at peak including one of our air conditioners.

That is quite a few amps:

48 amps = 11520 watts / 240 volts​

96 amps = 11520 watts / 120 volts​

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