Since I work from home the day I usually drive the most is the first workday of each month as that's when I drive into Houston for our monthly meeting. This graph shows solar production for the day and where it went: Blue = used directly by house Red = charging car Green = charging Powerwall Grey = sent to grid As specified on Tesla's page: Which explains why the car stopped charging around 5pm even though it had not reached at 80%. The car resumed charging the next morning when there was once again 1.2kW of stable excess solar.

The text above the slider changes while you're adjust it:

My Tesla's on the FSD Beta software branch, which often lags behind on updates like the Charge on Solar feature. It finally showed up with last night's update, so I'm giving it a try. The Sun slider (on the left) is set to 40%, if the charge is less than that the car will charge up to that slider using the grid. The max slider on the right is set to 80%. Car's receiving 11A Charging the car takes priority over charging the Powerwall. Some clouds reduced solar output, so car's now receiving 6A A Charge Tip appears if you set the max above 80%. The recommendation used to be a range of 50% to 90%, and I had been leaving mine at 50% since I work at home.

It is mostly a matter of math calculations. We know how the batteries degrade quite well now. So if the price you are getting paid extends the degradation it becomes interesting. Plus you have some autarky if you can use the battery for your needs.

Bluetooth game controller support coming to the 3 & Y with the next software update! 😁

For me in Texas it does seem like it would make more sense to send excess to the grid during the day when it's needed to cover peak demand from AC usage, and schedule the car to charge at night when we have excess wind power. I do have net metering though so the power company pays me for my excess solar. For every 1 kWh I send to the grid they pay me the same amount I pay them to draw 1 kWh from the grid, so it doesn't matter financially when I charge the car. For somebody without net metering it would make sense to use excess solar to charge their car rather than give it to the grid for free. Of course they would need to be at home when this occurs for it to be useful. I have read that some people have net metering plans that are also TOU (Time Of Use). The utility pays more for each kWh during the day when demand is high than the customer pays for each kWh in the middle of the night when demand is low. For those people it would not make sense financially to charge via excess solar. No, Tesla doesn't support V2G. I wish they would as it could be helpful after a hurricane. Tesla CTO JB Straubel On Why EVs Selling Electricity To The Grid Is Not As Swell As It Sounds (Sadly the video they got the quote from is no longer available.) This was back in 2016 though, when batteries were much smaller and more expensive.

Sounds cool. Can you use your Tesla as battery too?

Tesla's added a new feature that lets you predominantly charge your car using excess solar: It requires your car, Powerwall, and phone app to have a minimum software version level. My App is up to date, but both my Model 3 and Powerwall are not so I can't try it out yet. For some reason Model S and X cars prior to 2021 do not support this feature.

The estimate was off - they forgot to enter the parts, the $107.50 was just the labor. Total came to $302.52. Pickup was super easy - you now pay for service via the Tesla App, which also tells you which parking spot your car was left in. So once I got there I just got into my car and drove off.

Besides the above, I've also replaced the tires twice: April 2019 $1330 June 2021 $780

2nd time made no difference, still 288 mile range. I covered the service I've had done in the first year in the first post of this topic. This is the service I've had done since: June 28, 2019 cost $0 replaced passenger side headlight replaced camera assembly due to chrome coming off NOTE: this was already covered in 1st post March 25, 2020 cost $0 FSD (full self driving) Computer retrofit. Tesla upgraded the car's computer to a faster one required for FSD software. Replace charge port pin deadfronts June 29, 2020 cost $143 clean AC evaporator replace cabin filters This was due to AC getting musty smelling. I've done this myself 1 time since then, in October 2021, as well as 1 time for my folks which was much easier as Tesla had redesigned the access door to the filters. Will be doing this again soon as I'm starting to get faint whiffs of the musty smell. Filters and cleaner are $45. November 10, 2021 cost $0 Replace 12V battery Repair glove box - was no longer opening smoothly/slowly, just abruptly dropping down and spilling its contents on the passenger Yes, there's still a 12V lead acid battery in there that has to be periodically replaced just like with a gas car. Tesla has since switched to a 12V lithium battery, which should last longer. If you're interested, this article goes into detail on why Tesla still uses a 12V battery. February 28, 2022 cost $0 Reseal front upper control arm ball joints replaced driver side headlight - developed same issue that the passenger side was replaced for (see pictures in first post) Yesterday, June 4th, the control arms started making noise so I guess the reseal just delayed an issue. I'm scheduled for service on the 15th, which will include fixing some recall issues. One thing I was surprised about is the service is scheduled at the Richmond Service Center: Which I was unaware of. It's so new it's not even on Tesla's Find Us page - I put an X where it's at:

Seems to be typical, with more degradation in the earlier years before slowing down, as I lost 21 miles of range as of June 2022 and only 1 additional mile since then.

Sounds like a typical, average loss of capacity, no?

Time flies, just a few more weeks and it'll be 5 years of owning an EV! My final car payment is on the 15th. Decided to recalibrate the battery so let the car down below 10%, sit for an hour while keeping it awake, then charged to 100%. I now have 288 miles of range, down 7.1% from the original 310. Cumulative mileage is 46,419. Instructions suggest doing this twice in a row, so I'm going to skip charging until I get it below 10% then do another 100% charge.

I'd forgotten about it too, it popped up on my YouTube suggestions last night. Was surprised it hadn't been waterproofed, I'd find it annoying to have to run out and cover my car every time it rained. Of course we get 90+ rainy days per year in Houston, have no idea how common it is where she lives. The charging bot was neat, but wouldn't work for me - when parked there isn't enough room between the car and the garage wall for it to maneuver. Maybe something that was mounted on the wall. Charging mat could be interesting, depends upon how much loss there is.

Wow, I completely forgot about this project, thanks for linking to the video! Nice to see she's still driving Truckla around, and that she had some additional work done on it (and sounds like they're going to do a bit more). The charging bot was interesting, although I'm not sure I'd trust it to not scratch the hell out of my car. Tesla is going to have to come up with some sort of automated solution someday, maybe a giant charging mat you park over as was kind of shown in a render / photo at a presentations they did recently. ..Al

Tesla has setup a page where you can vote for five future Supercharger locations, from a large list of locations in the US and internationally: https://www.tesla.com/supercharger-voting I haven't looked at this too closely yet, but I will. One I will definitely vote for is Terlingua, Texas, which is near Big Bend. It's somewhat difficult to get to Big Bend now and actually stay out there, as charging is very limited in that area. ..Al

November 21, 2022 - Reuters article about the latest Tesla recall makes sure to emphasize that it's the 19th this year: Other reports on this made sure to include "19th this year" in the headline. Result is all over social media people are claiming 19 recalls in 1 year is horrible. November 24, 2022 - Reuters article, by the exact same reporter, about the latest Ford recall makes no mention on how many recall's for the year. It was Ford's 64th recall...

My mom is really into Christmas, so I gave her an early gift - Limited Edition: Holiday Wrap Kit 2022

My 3rd appearance on RtL: at 51:43 in episode 378 as a followup to my call in episode 318 on our Supercharging experience. Basically a summary of my Wisconsin trip, 2022 post (including the reply about grocery stores) to fit Ryan's request for 90 seconds max per caller.

Despite the many times as we've been to Wisconsin Dells, this was the first time we've been on the Ducks, amphibious trucks from World War II: Dad & mom, mom's relatives in the back row. Mom's relatives also suggested the Lost Canyon Tours. Was unaware of this one, it was a blast - I highly recommend it if you're ever in the Dells and looking for something to do.

At the Dells we ate at The Keg a few of times. Food was great, and they had 1919 on tap - an awesome regional root beer. We checked out the Root Beer Museum. where we found lots of Snoopy a sign for a video game tie-in, would have been awesome if they had a Tapper cabinet on free-play a small theater showing old commercials And many other things, including pony kegs of 1919 for sale! Dad bought one and we brought it back to Texas.

After Chicago we went to Milwaukee to visit mom's cousin and then Green Bay to visit dad's sister. Charging stops were at Woodman's and Festival Foods, both grocery stores. Woodman's in Kenosha, WI Festival in Sheboygan, WI Superchargers at grocery stores seem like they would be a perfect fit for EV owners who don't have charging at home. Range is enough now that you could likely get by with just charging your car whenever you were buying your groceries. Did a spot check of where I've charged in the past, and these where all at grocery stores. So Tesla apparently thinks that's a good solution as well: 🛒Edwards Food Giant (Brinkley, AR) 🛒Festival (Oshkosh, WI) 🛒Festival (Sheboygan, WI) 🛒HEB (Katy, TX) 🛒Hy-Vee (Dubuque, IA) 🛒Hy-Vee (Madison, WI) 🛒Hy-Vee (Olathe, KS) 🛒Meijer (Bolingbrook, IL) 🛒Meijer (Champaign, IL) 🛒Meijer (Evergreen Park, IL) 🛒Meijer (Howard, WI) 🛒Meijer (Rolling Meadows, IL) 🛒Woodman’s (Kenosha, WI)

We stayed with my friends in Chicago and went out on their boat to watch the Chicago Air and Water Show. Clouds were very low, which delayed the start of the show.