Discuss: Tesla Unveils Powerwall 3: Specs, What's New and How It Compares to Powerwall 2

Not a Tesla App

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PrescottAZRichard

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This sounds very interesting! I'm pretty solar / powerwall ignorant so I have a few questions that may be silly-
First, I know someone who has a solar system from a different installer. She thought her inverter was dying / dead. Could she get a PW3 instead of an inverter? I think that would be a better use of the $$ to buy only an inverter.
Second, same deal for us at our house, but we could add a few more panels to our roof. I'm guessing that any NEW panels would be different enough than the old panels (from 2008) that they'd be on their own input. Were we to add panels that would be a great time to switch everything to a PW3 assuming that's how it works. Currently we have net metering and I think anything we do to change our set up would lose that perk so I'd be happy to look at storing energy instead of getting paid a wholesale rate to send it back to the grid.
 
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Not a Tesla App

Administrator
Staff member
Aug 18, 2022
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This sounds very interesting! I'm pretty solar / powerwall ignorant so I have a few questions that may be silly-
First, I know someone who has a solar system from a different installer. She thought her inverter was dying / dead. Could she get a PW3 instead of an inverter? I think that would be a better use of the $$ to buy only an inverter.
Second, same deal for us at our house, but we could add a few more panels to our roof. I'm guessing that any NEW panels would be different enough than the old panels (from 2008) that they'd be on their own input. Were we to add panels that would be a great time to switch everything to a PW3 assuming that's how it works. Currently we have net metering and I think anything we do to change our set up would lose that perk so I'd be happy to look at storing energy instead of getting paid a wholesale rate to send it back to the grid.
My understanding is the PW3 requires everything to be pure Tesla for it to work, which is why Tesla is keeping PW2 around.

You're probably right about your installations, assuming its Tesla panels.
 

RNHurt

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Sep 17, 2022
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@Not a Tesla App I think you're correct about it being a complete Tesla system. I read somewhere else where the current meta for solar installs is to use micro-inverters on each panel and not a central inverter (like PW3 has). The idea is that micro-inverters can better handle panel fluctuations (shadows, snow coverage, outright failure) and optimize the overall output. If you have a central inverter then you lose that control.

Then again, maybe Tesla has a way to control for things like a bad panel or a tree shadow covering 1/2 of a panel. 🤷‍♂️ I'm not well versed in solar either but I watch a lot of YouTube. :D