What I am about to write probably has no relevance to the flickering problem being discussed but since no one has mentioned this yet, I throw it out and you can decide if it pertains to your case or not.  I poked into this thread because I had read that there was now some EISY plugins to talk to PowerWalls.  

I have two PowerWall 2s, not 3s and I don’t have any knowledge of the difference between the two, but when mine were installed nearly 3 years ago and I had occassion to run off the batteries because of one of our common grid power outages, I had lights flickering all over the house.  I believe it was mostly lights running off Insteon Lamp Modules.  I traced that to the frequency of the AC output of the batteries.  They were slightly off from 60 Hz.  For some reason, that off frequency was interfering the lamp module.  LEDs plugged directly into a lamp without Insteon were OK.  The off frequency was a little higher than 59 Hz.  WIth the PowerWall2, there is a control of that frequency that the people in the “BIg House” can adjust.  That cured my flicker problem.  

Sorry to have bothered you if my problem has no relevance to yours.  

Yes this was investigated by a few of us.  Impersonally have done a grid outage simulation and actually when on battery there was no flickering.  There are lot of places to look for sure.

7 hours ago, bigDvette said:

So Tesla came today. I could recreate my problem on the room I left Insteon switches in by lowering the backup threshold to 98% and letting the battery provide power for a bit, then raise the backup to 100% so the charger controller in the PW3 kicks on.  

I explained to him that I would see issues with flicker in the house even if the power wall for the guest house (all connected the same 400amp load center) was going from charge to discharge.  I probably need to let it run a bit longer test wise, but the problem seems to now be gone. No flickering. I'm not saying this solves the communication issues and I will continue to monitor for that, but the flickering when going on and off charge seems to be better.

The issue is what I suspected and was a loose neutral.  They messed up my main breaker during the install and changed it out a few days later.  The connection from that breaker to the 400amp load center that feeds both pw3 gateway was loose (like 3 turns of the lug loose).  The guy was super honest about it being totally an install failure.

I'll test the communication issues to see if they are less.  He was pretty sure when we started the problem was either.

1) a loose neutral 

2) an improperly bonded neutral to ground (either bad bond or that there was more than 1 bond to neutral).

I had checked the double bonded issue myself in the panels and ensured the bonding lugs in the gateways were removed, but didn't want to mess with the high power load in the main panel and wasn't sure how to test (other than tightening) for a bad neutral as I have some big splice blocks as well.

Anyway, if you see flickering, maybe check the neutrals as stuff I read in other forums also eluded to this.  

Interesting info. Since my flicker is a min, I’m more concerned about the comm errors. I took the liberty of using a long extension cord to plug it in to a further AC plug near the other side of the house to see if that helped to resolve some of the common errors. It did seem to make an effect and I’m still judging it. It would be good, however to still figure out why when I shut down the power walls and disconnect them from the house all of my other problems go away. Do you have any opinions on this?

8 hours ago, richtimpa said:

Interesting info. Since my flicker is a min, I’m more concerned about the comm errors. I took the liberty of using a long extension cord to plug it in to a further AC plug near the other side of the house to see if that helped to resolve some of the common errors. It did seem to make an effect and I’m still judging it. It would be good, however to still figure out why when I shut down the power walls and disconnect them from the house all of my other problems go away. Do you have any opinions on this?

There are so many variables to all this.  For instance, my main panel is separated from the electrical entrance to the house by probably 50ft of primary wire to the main panel and my secondary powerwall gateway is 75ft away.  I also think it makes a difference if your wireless dual band devices are good.  I have (had) a lot of switches all dual-band and that may have helped. I haven't seen any red blinking lights in a long time.  Have you tried a new PLM?  A failing PLM can also cause these problems.  If you want to try one reach out, I bought a bunch of new stuff trying to solve this including new PLMs from insteon and won't be using them.

On 2/18/2025 at 6:36 AM, bigDvette said:

There are so many variables to all this.  For instance, my main panel is separated from the electrical entrance to the house by probably 50ft of primary wire to the main panel and my secondary powerwall gateway is 75ft away.  I also think it makes a difference if your wireless dual band devices are good.  I have (had) a lot of switches all dual-band and that may have helped. I haven't seen any red blinking lights in a long time.  Have you tried a new PLM?  A failing PLM can also cause these problems.  If you want to try one reach out, I bought a bunch of new stuff trying to solve this including new PLMs from insteon and won't be using them.

Bigdvette

 

I did in fact replace my POM with a brand new one. I did move the plm to different outlets to see if that effected coms and it seems it may a bit. 
my real question is since Tesla came out, do you see that your communication and queries are better or the same.  I will tell you that all of my switches, including my PLM or dual.Band.   
I feel I am kind of willing to live with a bit of flickering that I get currently but it’s extremely important to make sure that my communication between EISY and my switches are as good as possible.

any insight or comments to this would be appreciated

So tesla came out.  a big issue with the flickering and reliability was there was a loose neutral on the main panel (after meter, before load center(s))  I suspected this and I checked neutral all the way to the gateways but not to the main panel because I had to turn off power to house and wasn't sure exactly how to test.  I mean the lug had to be turned 3 more times (full turns) to lock it down.  I knew when they came to replace my main breaker after meter because they broke a lug that they were going to forget to check all the torques again.  

Hi All, I also have a powerwall3 and extensive insteon installation. I was also suffering from Insteon comms issues as soon as they installed powerwall. Turning the side switch off and forcing the system to grid power allows insteon to communicate normally, so I knew it was the powerwall being noisy. 

I found that my installer did not install the large ferrite core around the power lines in the powerwall. They came back and installed the core, but it did nothing to help Insteon. 

Their plan B was to install an in-line filter. They installed the Enphase filter (pictured below) between the powerwall and breaker in the gateway outside and... Insteon communicates without issue! 

For me, at least, this filter solved the problem. Powerwall3 and Insteon are finally cohabitating in harmony.

Edited March 26Mar 26 by NCSTATE78

@NCSTATE78, excellent data point - thanks for sharing.  Sounds like Tesla is coming up the learning curve on how to avoid powerline communication problems.  Not an easy task.

The Enphase filter certainly has to power rating (64A) to handle the Powerwall.  There are unfortunately not many specifications on load isolation and filtering. 

Usage and installation is include in the following (LONG) document: https://enphase.com/download/planning-enphase-energy-system-tech-brief

If someone has the technical specification on the device itself, I'd be all ears.

IM 

On 3/26/2025 at 1:53 PM, NCSTATE78 said:

Hi All, I also have a powerwall3 and extensive insteon installation. I was also suffering from Insteon comms issues as soon as they installed powerwall. Turning the side switch off and forcing the system to grid power allows insteon to communicate normally, so I knew it was the powerwall being noisy. 

I found that my installer did not install the large ferrite core around the power lines in the powerwall. They came back and installed the core, but it did nothing to help Insteon. 

Their plan B was to install an in-line filter. They installed the Enphase filter (pictured below) between the powerwall and breaker in the gateway outside and... Insteon communicates without issue! 

For me, at least, this filter solved the problem. Powerwall3 and Insteon are finally cohabitating in harmony.

I assume Tesla was not your installer?

They were not. SunVena Solar installed solar and powerwall… and knew to install this filter when I described the power line communication issues we had with Insteon. They’re one of the preferred installers referred by Tesla’s website for Tampa, FL.
 

It’s so nice to have programs working again! 

Did they charge you?  On the web the filter itself looks like it is around $500-$600.  After charging to install it, assume another $500, I think I could replace most of my Insteon gear for that kind of price.  Only issue would be the keypadlincs, no one seems to make an equivalent.

4 hours ago, btreinders said:

Did they charge you?  On the web the filter itself looks like it is around $500-$600.  After charging to install it, assume another $500, I think I could replace most of my Insteon gear for that kind of price.  Only issue would be the keypadlincs, no one seems to make an equivalent.

They did not. I'm grateful for that. $1k is about 18 switches in parts alone; I have many more than that installed, so the filter definitely makes sense in my case, even if I had to pay for it. 

Hopefully, Tesla will engineer this filtering into the powerwall3 directly. 

And that only filters 1 powerwall.  I’d need 3, eek.

7 minutes ago, bigDvette said:

And that only filters 1 powerwall.  I’d need 3, eek.

I have one powerwall and one expansion pack. If your powerwalls are in series, you'll only need one filter, but if they're in parallel, each with their own breaker at the gateway, then yes, you'll need one filter per powerwall.  https://www.ebay.com/itm/387726138263

I don’t think you can put pw3 in series.  Even if it is a follower it has its own line to the gateway.  I have 3 pw3 and 2 gateways so would need 3 but I yanked out all my Insteon dimmers and went matter over thread.  I never had awful comm issues like some.  

I have been unable to locate any specifications on the RPC1508-64.  I did find the following Enphase filtering document that recommends the use of a RP240-80-10-S for noise issues (https://enphase.com/sites/default/files/2021-06/Power_Line_Filter_Single-Phase_TechBrief.pdf).  This device is available @Newark for $233 (https://www.newark.com/astrodyne-tdi/rp240-80-10-s/filter-1-phase-80a-250v-chassis/dp/85AJ1317).  Specification lists insertion loss (filtering) @150Khz of 40/60 db for CM/DM signals (https://www.farnell.com/datasheets/3622987.pdf).

...not much of a specification.

The Enphase document indicates that it's Microinverters communicate over the powerline @144Khz.  The filter is used to clean (or isolate) power to allow the communication.  

I would not have purchased this filter expecting it to filter/isolate noise in the 130Khz Insteon communication range.  While the current range is applicable, the filtering range is spec'd from 150K up to 30M.  Too expensive to roll the dice hoping that a device spec'd for 150Khz and above can filter sufficiently in the 130Khz range.  Based on the results that @NCSTATE78 is seeing, the filter has sufficient bandpass to cover the Insteon range as well - at lease for the RPC1508-64. 

Just another data point.  NOT proposing that anyone try this.  It COULD be something to mention to your installer.

Well, I’ve had all the connections checked and all the grounds checked to make sure that they are tight and I’m still seeing communication issues.
 

One of the things I’m considering is to bring in an electrician to put in some sort of whole house noise filter at the main panel.

I figured I’d ask out here if anyone has had this done and wound up with success in clearing up communication issues with Insteon 

On 4/9/2025 at 2:48 PM, richtimpa said:

Well, I’ve had all the connections checked and all the grounds checked to make sure that they are tight and I’m still seeing communication issues.
 

One of the things I’m considering is to bring in an electrician to put in some sort of whole house noise filter at the main panel.

I figured I’d ask out here if anyone has had this done and wound up with success in clearing up communication issues with Insteon 

Anyone????

7 hours ago, richtimpa said:

Anyone????

Iwas wondering if there have been any updates or succesful solutions. Just installed a dual PW3 configuration and I am experiencing similar problems. In fact, the problems appear to be random. Yes - there is flickering, but it is random. Also, the IoX Console does appear to be rather slow with random communication errors. Like most of the earlier responders, I have an eisy with many insteon devices. The only deivces that appear to be prolematic are the switches - both dimmer and non-dimmer.

I did have some programs that did not finction as expected tonight. They would controller both switch, wall outlets, wall "brcks" and micro devices.

I also have a couple of 3-way configurations that are acting oddly right now.

Probably all related to the same issue.

Sorry, no real help here as mine also affected dimmer switches, it seemed to also affect a non inteon dimmer. The non inseon one was repalced and all is good, the insteon ones were near the PWs, so one I went back to a dumb switch the other to a Yolink switch. In genral, especially in the area of the PW, the insteon commands are very slow. Sorry no real help here, but I quit playing with it

Thanks for the update. I will talk to the installer tomorrow. In this thread there appears to be a couple of viable options. My electrical system has 2 breaker panels. One panel is for all of the wall outlets and one is for all the switches. There is a Surge Protector (did not see a model number) with 2 indicators labeled Line 1 and Line 2. I am assuming that is handling both panels. One of the other options talked about an Enphase Filter that sounded like it solved the problem.

@bigDvette @NCSTATE78 Do you think the install of the ENPHASE Filter and/or Whole House Sure Protector provided the solution for blinking and communication issues?

It did for me, yes. Immediately after they connected it, Insteon comms started flowing.

@NCSTATE78 Thanks for the quick response. My installer is also an ENPHASE installer so this might be a quick resolution. I am getting ready issue a "trouble ticket." I gave them the link to the forum topic chain so they can see all the discussions on this topic.