Alarm feature?

[tonyrayer]

A nice touch would be an ALERT option

Many people have 'dumb' EV chargers and they might decide to charge when the Powerwall is partially full and their solar is producing.

To be 100% green

If Solar Generation + Battery > 7.2kW
Status = 'GREEN'
If Solar Generation + Battery < 7.2kW
Status = 'RED'
Audible and Visual alert

Give user the option to disconnect the EV charger. As time goes on this is likely to be part of the charger - but there are millions of 'dumb' chargers on the market.

[tonyrayer]

Great utility - where can I make a donation?

[tomhollander]

Thanks @tonyrayer!

Re alerts: that's an interesting idea. If you have a Tesla, you can start and stop charging through the API, so even if the charger itself is dumb then it should be possible to fully automate this case. I think this would be pretty useful although it would probably make more sense to do this with a server-side script rather than through a GUI client. I'll ponder this more.

Re donation: Next time you're in Sydney, you can buy me a beer 🍺 .

[tonyrayer]

Thanks for the reply. Quite often you make comments and they appear to be lost in the ether.

I don't have a Tesla and the majority of chargers and solar systems that have been installed over the past years lack the functionality to do this.

A simple alarm would be useful....we have been working with Tesla on their APP as the data that was being presented was incorrect, and this may have filtered down to you.

I have an office with 32x250w panels and 28x275w panels. As we are a solar installer we like to understand why we make offerings of product rather than taking the manufacturers stats.

The 32 panels has been running since 2012 on an 8kW 3 phase SMA inverter using Suntech panels. There has been no apparent degradation in the production during this period.

The remaining system is a 1kW SolarEdge and 1kW Solis both with the same panels and at this configuration the Solis offers better value for money outperforming the SolarEdge by 3% and at a lower initial cost

The remaining 20 panels are on a SolarEdge 5kW inverter and are made up of panels fromJA Solar, Trina, BYD, Canadian Solar and Sharp. All apart from Sharp are equally effective but Sharp produce 2.5% less energy. This has only been in place for 2 years so there may be some degradation to come but the initial thoughts are 'why buy Sharp'

All this is attached to the Tesla Powerwall gateway but the 7.2kW EV charger is dumb. There is no way of limiting the power to it based on Powerwall + Solar as I said previously hence my request for an alert. I guess you understand my predicament and Tesla have no intention of making this an option.

Sydney- one day I am sure I will make a trip down under as I am a yachtsman and would appreciate some warm weather sailing in Australia and NZ. If your 'local' has a gift card operating online I would be pleased to send a couple $$ for a cold one for you.

Happy to keep chatting if you are interested