SpiceWare's Blog

Awesome!

 

Are these not Tesla's solar panels?

Guess not, was surprised about that myself.

A Google search shows that Q Cells is one of their major supplier OEM's. The ones made in California are probably relegated to the west coast? Q Cells is building a factory in Georgia, USA according to the article.

 

https://www.pv-tech.org/editors-blog/teslas-solar-panel-suppliers-have-changed-rapidly

2:00 - panel installers are finished & have left. Electricians are still hard at work - CenterPoint (manages grid) is onsite, they removed my meter (so power's out) so the electricians can finish that part of the install.

Powerwall is the inverter, or is that Tesla's home battery? I looked into SolarCity a few years back, but the savings vs all the restrictions didn't seem worthwhile. I figured I'd wait until the home battery scene picked up or the cost went down.

Battery.

I wish my apartment building would put solar on the roof...

Received an email update this morning:

 

 

 

This is to inform you that an application has been received for a distributed generation connection at the subject address. It has been moved to Inspection In Progress. Detailed information for the location is provided below.

 

Customer Name: DARRELL SPICE

Address: xxxx

Contact #:xxxx

Generation Type: Inverter

Fuel Source: Solar

Generation Size AC: 10.71

Comments: Please upload the installation photos

 

Power Quality & Solutions, DER Team will perform the normal review process to ensure compliance with Texas PUC rules and CNP requirements.

 

Please feel free to contact us if there are any questions or concerns.

I was under the impression they'd be coming out for the final inspection, but by the comment that may not be the case.

How long is the Powerwall supposed to provide power? I'm guessing it's for essentials only? (Lights, fridge, computer, etc.)

Tesla has an interactive tool How long will PowerWall last in an outage?. Based on that, essentials only for almost 2 days. Solar will refill it during the day, so in theory indefinitely.

Each PowerWall can supply 240V @ 30 amps and I only have one. The breakers for my AC and Model 3 are 240v @ 40 amps and 50 amps respectively, so were relocated to a new breaker box which does not get supplied during a power outage.

I could have added a 2nd PowerWall and had enough to run everything, but decided it would be more cost effective to get something like this portable AC unit which runs off 120 volt. It'd be enough to keep my bedroom cool enough for sleeping, during the day I could cope with fans. Likewise I could plug my Model 3 into a 120 volt outlet, as I did for the first 6 months I had it.

Hadn't heard anything so I reached out to Tesla last week. Response was "we are reviewing your documents prior to submitting to CenterPoint". Sounds like somebody forgot to upload them, shouldn't take 2+ weeks to review them.

Reached out again yesterday, received back from somebody else "Thanks for the prompt. Eddy can you process this today?". A few hours later CenterPoint sent out an update "It has been moved to Inspection Submitted."

Received an update about 30 minutes ago, "It has been moved to Agreement Generated." with comments of "Please notify the customer that inspection has passed for this project and all that remains to proceed is a signed ICA. The ICA should be available for e-signature in the customer's e-mail."

I'm guessing ICA is something like InterConnect Agreement, will know for sure whenever it shows up.

Hadn't received it by 10:30 so contacted them, they had a SNAFU with their outgoing email server. Agreement showed up a little after 11, I signed it soon after using my iPad.

Received an update 1, status is now "It has been moved to Agreement Executed" with comments of "Moving from 'Agreement Generated' to 'Send Agreement for e-Signature' by ANB team."

 

So now I'm waiting on the ANB team.

Permission to operate received, though it's "as of Friday 26 April 2019", so I get to turn everything on tomorrow.