Issues after installing Tesla powerwall 3

[Jimini]

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.  

[bigDvette]

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.

[richtimpa]

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?

[bigDvette]

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.

[richtimpa]

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