In this video I'm going to show and explain how the Tesla Powerwall 2 was
installed in an outside location. So let's get to it!
Hi john Tisbury here. If this is your first time here and you want to learn more
about photography and cinematography, working with models, both on location and
in a studio, then start now by subscribing and clicking the bell
notification icon to be notified of new updates. I also do videos on my PV solar
installation and Tesla Powerwall - but you probably knew that because you'd
already clicked the link for this particular video!
So what I wanted to do on this particular video was take you through our Tesla Powerwall 2
installation because we had our installation done in an outside location.
And this is perhaps slightly different from all of the other installations that
I've seen. Generally most of them have gone for an indoor location, be that a
in a garage, or in the house, or utility room or something like that. And we
didn't have that option. S.o we went with an outdoor location So I just wanted to
spend some time and talk you through that. So before I go on, is probably worth
giving you some context. We're based in the UK in East Midlands. We have a Tesla
Powerwall 2 which is installed on the 4th of December 2018. And that was added
to our existing solar panels our PV installation which was done in September 2011.
And that's a 4 kWh array with a Sunny boy inverter which is 3.8 kWh invertor.
So if you were considering getting a Tesla Powerwall 2
installed and you didn't have any room inside to install it, in the garage or
utility room or whatever. Don't be worried about that because outside
is absolutely fine and let me reassure you that you know there is a case.
And it's not just me saying that if you look at the Tesla website...
Now there are some caveats around the location. And I looked through the safety instruction manual
that comes with the Tesla and that points out some areas for consideration
in terms of the environmental aspect. I'm going to read them to you.
I'll bring them up on screen as well. It's on page 4 of the manual...
Installed in the location that prevents damage from flooding. We're okay.
Do not expose the Powerwall to ambient temperatures +60 degrees C or below
-30 degrees C. That's a 140F to -22F
Ensure no water sources above or near the Powerwall including downspouts
sprinklers or faucets. Overflows, that kind of thing for the UK.
Ensure snow does not accumulate around the Powerwall.
So yeah all good in the hood there, from that perspective. I guess the only thing we need to worry
about is, where where ours is located, is perhaps when it's snowing, is a
build up of snow around the Powerwall, base of the Powerwall. But as we get snow very
infrequently it's not really a major concern. But as you'll see in a minute
when I look at that location it is potentially something to be
aware of. The company we use to supply and fit our Tesla Powerwall was company
called JOJU solar. I'll put their details down in the description below
I'm not on any commission or referral and it's just so if you're interested
that's who we used. And before you sign anything or pay any money they came out
and did a site survey just to understand the lie
the land and whether it was a standard installation or whether it was a sort of
bespoke non-standard installation. And what I mean by that is things like cable
runs and how far the Powerwall is away from the consumer unit. Ours was all a
standard installation. But for instance if you wanted the Powerwall
at the back of the house and your consume unit was right at the front of
the house that may be considered as a non-standard installation because of the
length of the cable run. I'd be interested know about standard and non-standard
installations. So if you have had yours installed, or about to have yours
installed, and it is a non-standard installation. Then drop your points and
comments and information about the installation down below and we can
help each other and learn from what's a standard and a non-standard
installation in terms of a configuration, and distances, and those kind of things.
I guess it's probably different for each type of company but at least it
will give us a flavor and something to evaluate. We've got our Powerwall fitted
against the wall here this is the wall of our office, so it's a single story wall.
And up above we've got a roof with an overhang and because we're between
the two houses here, us and our neighbours. This is fairly sheltered, apart from the
fact the wind whistles down here a bit. It is sheltered from rain and the
elements. So we don't need to worry too much about anything like that.
...the cat is just come here to see me...
So I said that we're fairly sheltered here,
where we've got this located. The only thing have noticed is when it's been
really cold overnight, so where we've had a minus or zero degrees overnight
and then in the morning when the solar panels kick in and start generating
electricity, have noticed that the Powerwall throttles back on how much
electricity it can absorb. It tends to sort of slow down a bit until it's
warmed up and then it'll throttle into normal speed. So that's the only minor
thing that we've spotted. It's not a massive curve in terms of what it
throttles back on, but it is noticeable compared to a normal day where it as
soon as the solar starts generating and the start of a solar day and it'll take
that power straightaway.
So let's have a look at some of the cables in the installation on our setup.
So this particular cable here is our
network cable, our LAN cable. You can have a choice of having a Wi-Fi connection to
the Powerwall, or you can go hard-wired LAN cable. As this is our office through
here, and on the other side of this wall is our network switch and our modem and router.
I decided to go with a wired connection, which is that one. This other
cable here it goes to my photography studio so you can ignore that one.
The other cable up here is the in and out to the Powerwall, an isolator up here which
we can use if need be to turn off the Powerwall and that runs down all the
way along under, the slate there through that little channel, and then
back up here and into our electricity cupboard. Which I'll show you inside of in a second.
This cable is from the Tesla gateway in the houses the cables that have the CT
clamps on. The Current Transformer clamps. These measure the direction, the amount
of current flow. A bit tricky to see here, but there are 2. 1 for the Zappi
charger, and 1 for the Tesla. Here's the new consumer unit which has 3 MCBs
in them, to turn off items. As you'll see there there's 1 for the gateway, 1
for the Tesla, and 1for the Zappi. Here's our Tesla gateway. Inside here
is all the circuitry that works out where the power goes to and from.
It's not a pretty sight inside here however you may need to open it up to note down
the details of the gateway IDs, if you've not been told them by your installer and
they configured the installation. Apart from that probably no real need to go
into it. There are actually 2 Wi-Fi networks which you'll see broadcasting
if you have a look at your computer or your smartphone. On the door on the left
hand side is the Neurio module. The Powerwall uses an energy monitoring
system manufactured by them and this is the Wi-Fi network that it uses. The second
Wi-Fi network is a Tesla gateway which you connect to if you want to monitor
performance via an Internet browser, rather than using the Tesla app
on your smartphone. It will broadcast TEG TE short for Tesla, G short for Gateway...
followed by a unique ID for your system. This can be found in a couple of places
within this box. On the door there's a sticker and also on the back panel.
I've actually blurred mine out so you can't read them, but they are there.
If you choose to go the hard wired route for your network connection then you
don't need to worry about these Wi-Fi networks.
B ut it's useful to know what they are anyway.
So this is our Zappi charger...
again this has a cable running to it and also a feed into a connector so it can
monitor how much is being delivered. At the moment we haven't actually used this.
We haven't got a car, so we're waiting for our car to arrive so we can actually use that.
So that's if me, so I hope you found that useful and you can now consider a
Tesla in and outside location. If you found the video useful in to give it a
thumbs up, or thumbs down. And remember to subscribe, hit that notification bell icon,
so it can be notified of new updates.
Ans I'll see you on the next one. Take care, bye.