Let’s say you have a Tesla electric car that you typically charge at home. Everything goes swimmingly until the electricity goes out. Now what? If you have a Tesla Powerwall installed at your home, you can use it to recharge your car, but at some point all the stored electricity can go into the battery of your car, leaving none left over to power your home.
Not to worry, though. Elon Musk and his minions have figured out a way to let you program how much of your Powerwall’s capacity should be devoted to charging your car and how much should be reserved for domestic use, thanks to a new software upgrade to the Powerwall app.
The change only applies to Model 3 and Model Y cars in North America for the moment, but Tesla plans to make it work with Model S and Model X vehicles soon and expects to expand it to other parts of the world shortly.
Here’s how the company explains the new software upgrade: “Powerwall now coordinates with Tesla vehicles during a power outage to charge your car without exceeding the energy and power capabilities of your Powerwall. The Powerwall reacts to the power needs of your home and will slow or stop your vehicle’s charging, keeping your home loads powered.
“During a power outage, your Tesla vehicle will charge from the Powerwall whenever it is above the threshold set in the Tesla app. You can change this threshold to balance your home and transportation energy needs.
“Keep your vehicle plugged in while the sun is shining and surplus solar will charge your vehicle. Charging stops when Powerwall’s stored energy drops below your set threshold.”
Such flexibility allows owners to adapt how their Powerwall operates to meet different situations. If a major snowstorm threatens outages near you and you won’t be driving anywhere for a while, the system can be set to reserve all available electricity for powering your home. The same can be said for people in areas where the risk of forest fires sometimes requires the local grid to be shut down. The chart below helps explain how the updated system works.
Vehicle Charging Behavior
Now you have the ability to program your Powerwall remotely to respond to changing circumstances. It gives you the peace of mind of knowing your Tesla will always have enough charge to drive you to safety if the need arises while guaranteeing your home continues to have enough electricity to meet its minimum requirements during a grid outage. Thanks, Tesla!
Image courtesy Tesla
I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ...
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
