TESLA MONITORING GUIDE
TESLA MONITORING
The Tesla app allows you to monitor your system’s production, battery usage and home consumption all in one place. The app will let you control your battery settings and gives you the best visibility into your system from anywhere in the world.
STEP I
DOWNLOAD APP & CREATE PASSWORD
The Tesla app is available to download on the Apple or Google Play Store. Please be sure to register for your log in credentials within 24 hours of receiving the link to ensure that the link is a “live” link. If you do not register soon after receiving the email, the link may stop working. If this happens, please download the app and reset the password by selecting “forgot my password.” The email used to connect to your tesla app is the same email address we have in our records to correspond with you.
STEP II
HOME SCREEN
Once logged in, you’ll be able to see an overall dashboard of your Tesla battery’s performance. To the right of the battery, you’ll see a percentage which reflects the current total storage power. The current status of the battery will display one of the following: Charging, Discharging or Standby.
STEP III
POWER FLOW
The Power Flow view allows you to see real-time energy production from the system, Utility Grid and the Tesla battery. The Solar, Home, Powerwall, and Grid will be represented by the same colors and icons throughout this monitoring app.
For more detailed graphs of your system’s performance, tap the three bars located on the top right corner.
Under this tab, you will see day-to-day line graphs along with weekly, monthly, and yearly bar graphs. The best way to maximize the efficiency of your system is by understanding these graphs and how each part of your system is operating at different times.
Hours of the day are marked every four hours across the middle of the graph. Power Production and Consumption are measured in kilowatts (kW), represented by the numbers located on the left hand side of the graph.
POWER FLOW continued
Power sent to the battery for charging is measured in negative kWs and it is displayed at the bottom of the graph. In the example screenshot below, this system filled the battery by 12 pm. Any excess power that has not been used for the home’s consumption was exported to the grid.
By tapping the date, you can view weekly, monthly, and yearly bar graphs. This makes for easy comparative analysis on the production and consumption data. The data located below the graphs show the total usage and production summaries for the week, month, or year.
POWER FLOW continued
STEP IV
CUSTOMIZATION
There are FOUR customization fields to program your battery: Backup-only, Self-powered, Advanced, and Storm Watch. Please refer to the descriptions below for each setting.
1. Backup-Only: In this mode, your battery will reserve 100% of its stored power in case of a power outage. Your battery will not discharge at night or during daylight hours if your home consumption exceeds your solar production.
2. Self-Powered: In this mode, your battery will stop charging anytime your home consumption exceeds the solar production (Daylight hours only). Your battery will start to provide power to your home when there is no sunlight and when your solar panels are no longer producing power. Your battery will act as the main power source at night, so you don’t pull energy from the grid. In this mode you can adjust your reserve level. Our recommendation is to not adjust settings lower than 10% in order to have enough power stored in case of a power outage. You may adjust the percentage for reserve power as you see fit.
3. Advanced Time: Based Controls. Use this mode if energy cost from the utility varies at different times of the day.
4. Storm Watch: Storm Watch is auto-enabled. Your battery will be alerted by the National Weather Service when severe weather is on the horizon. When triggered, your settings will change to allow the battery to charge to 100% and reserve it so it can provide full backup power. When the weather event ends, your battery will revert to its original settings.
CUSTOMIZATION continued
Note: If Storm Watch is on and triggered, you will see the words ‘Storm watch’ above your battery. When the National Weather Service (NWS) issues a red flag, high wind, or strong weather warnings
to parts of O’ahu, this will trigger Storm Watch to be activated. You can turn off your Storm Watch setting for the time being. To deactivate Storm Watch in the Tesla App, go to the CUSTOMIZE menu at the bottom of your Home Page (where you see the image of the battery). Scroll down to the Storm Watch section and TOGGLE OFF this feature by swiping the toggle to the left. Feel free to toggle it back ON at a later time.
Lastly, you can adjust Vehicle Charging During Power Outages. This only applies if you own an electric vehicle and have an EV charger installed in your home. This will not allow you to charge your vehicle during a power outage if your battery is below the energy threshold set here.
BATTERY SETTING
Please check your Tesla App to ensure the battery is configured in the correct setting. Tesla has not enrolled a login for contractors just yet, so we ask that you double check this configuration.
1. Login to your app
2. Select "customize"
3. Setting should be in "self-powered" mode - no lower than 10%
The purpose of the Tesla Powerwall being in this setting is when the sun goes down the Tesla Powerwall will kick in instead of your home pulling electricity from the grid. In this setting, you will maximize your solar production to offset your HECO bill. You may adjust the percentage for reserve power as you see fit. Advanced - Time- based control settings are not normally applicable to Hawaii users and we advise against using it.