Batteries are good but the new app upgrade they have done does not charge my battery to at least 95% before going to grid. Now my battery does not fully charge in summer when using air con and weather changes Show details
Five years in and the Powerwall 2 has already lost around 25% capacity. There was a known bad batch made in their Nevada factory around 2019 that suffer higher than normal degradation. Tesla don't display that info in their app- you need to use Net Zero or Powerwall Companion apps to track it. NOTE: you also require the password to your Gateway… Read more
(different to your Tesla Account) to download the data. Tesla are actively blocking people from getting this data from the Gateway, I could log in prior to mid 2024- now I'm blocked. They refuse to reset the password. They no longer respond to Emails. A recent phone call I asked for the degradation percentage and they refused to tell me the exact percentage. Only" it's not at the required level for replacement." I've also requested the full degradation graph back to installation- they have refused to supply that. The graph I have obtained started in January 2023 (installed March 2020) and already over 2kWh capacity was lost. I',m of the strong opinion my Powerwall never had 13.5kWh usable (14kWh total) capacity when new. Hence them refusing to supply that graph. A new third party app, which uses historical charging/ discharging history to chart the approximate capacity history suggests the capacity was well under 13kWh when installed.
I've pushed the installer and Tesla for a replacement under Australian Consumer law- under the "Acceptable quality" clause. Tesla laugh at those laws and refuse, the installer does the same. It's technically the seller/ installer's responsibility to replace it, but they don't want to lose the money honouring the warranty. That company is NRG Solar (Adelaide) for anyone interested. They're currently giving me the run around over numerous issues regarding the Powerwall operation and are now threatening to charge me for their time- nice work! (I did have sympathy for them being in this situation.)
Take note of the Recent Powerwall 2 recall on the ACCC - there is no part number or serial number to identify affected models? Compare that to the battery recall LG has issued. Tesla are hiding the details of affected Powerwalls, and online reports show Powerwalls outside the only info in the recall - installation dates- have been locked out to be replaced too.
They have launched revised software updates since around November 2025 that now limit the charging rate of select Powerwall 2 batteries operating in Self Powered mode- so they do no fully charge in one go. My Powerwall charges to 80% and then sits there not charging- with all the solder diverted to the grid. In the afternoon (around 2:30pm yesterday) it then charges to 90% and stops again for about 30 minutes. Then it charges to around 100%. (They are also limiting the full charge and stopping that randomly- I've seen it sitting at 98%, other people have reported 97%.)
They're diverting people's solar generation to the grid at the worst time possible for grid stability- during peak solar generation (mid to late morning.) This is a forced update that would mean those Powerwall 2 units no longer meets the published specifications of 5kWh charging rate. Why the update? To limit their future exposure to warranty replacements for batteries with degraded capacity of under the 70% at ten years warranty.
Going by figures on the NetZero app around 16% of users of that app have their Powerwalls running on one of the two versions of firmware I am aware that do this limiting. FYI it's versions 25.42.0 and 25.42.1 that currently do this.
So don't buy anything Tesla- they consider themselves above any consumer laws and even break their own warranty wording (which includes the Australian Consumer law regarding the entitlement to the replacement of poor quality goods.)
I used to be quite happy with my Powerwall 2, until Tesla pushed out a failing compliance update last friday night at 3 am, that blocked the Powerwall that is now bricked and useless. No more storage, no more access. It says 'low energy lockout'.… Read more
This happened at 3 am on the night from friday to saturday to hundreds of Australians who own a Powerwall of a certain series that appeared to be non compliant with safety rules. So I had 4 year an unsafe Tesla, that was now urgently switched off from remote. I am furious, having to wait a few months for replacement. It was a panic reaction by Tesla, because none of the customers was warned, or received any form of correspondence. It shows that Tesla is failing. After they lost most of the EV business, the batteries are now falling apart. I wish I had bought a quality Chinese battery, instead of an unsafe Teslan Powerwall 2.
Follow-up · I am asked for a follow up feedback, well here it is. No news about the replacement, no idea when or if this will happen. Meanwhile power needs to be bought from the grid. Powerwall 2 have ceased production in 2022 so wonder how Tesla will find me a brand new battery, unless they replace it with a Powerwall 3. Worse, I have been lied to multiple… Read more
Reviews with attachments
Most versatile battery on the market – We have our PowerWall 2 (PW2) installed for over a year. I did 3 part video review on it published on YouTube. I think ProductReview will embed the video. My channel will have more reviews on the topic as well as my thoughts on Virtual Power Plant (VPP) offered by Tesla and various electricity providers. If you would like more information feel… Read more
free to search for Greg Yurchenko and check the channel for content. Part 1. Decision making - buy or not Tesla PW2 Why? e.g. what were reasons to think about household battery To protect household from blackouts. Kid stuff (room heating, monitor, entertainment, lighting etc), cooking - not nice when power outage occurs in the middle of the cooking, fridge, cleaning (washing machine), AC (mostly for summer/winter night times), and also luxury items run during blackouts like TV and on To protect household from brownouts - modern electronics are sensitive to electricity grid frequency fluctuations. To maximise solar contribution - solar will not cut off when power grid goes down (continues power generation) To save money - leverage on electricity price difference and low feed in tariff
Why Tesla powerwall 2? Overall battery capacity - 13,5Kw in slim factor, also visually appealing High input/output - up to 5Kw/h - important for some power hungry household items during the outage Amazing monitoring system - warning, it is real addictive Slim form (don’t be fooled by it - it is heavy - 125kg) Climate controlled - it is water cooled - e.g. temperature is biggest degradation factor for batteries. It gives battery chance to last well beyond assigned warranty. Warranty - 10 years Support - pretty good support from Tesla and installer
Why not PW2 or battery? Cost - Cost too high, uncertain return on investment Uncertain payback - on average 5 to 15 years. How long will battery last? Out of pocket expense - In our case $3500 + $6000 10 year loan ($50 a month payments)
Why we bought it? Generous state subsidy - $3000 Generous loan - $6000 no fees, no interest, 10 years $3500 out of pocket - a lot of money, but we could save that amount if plan well.
Part 2 - Tesla PowerWall 2 - first year journey. Installation. Early adopters. Shortage of supply? Despite rumors that wait for Tesla PowerWall 2 installation is between 1 to 2 years, our installation happened within 3 month of ordering. Considering that we ordered just before Christmas, the turnaround is pretty impressive. Professional installation. Believe it or not, that was one of my biggest fear points. Tesla PowerWall 2 back then was a fairly new product in AU and I wanted a good installation that won’t get me in trouble late in battery life. Because the Tesla PowerWall 2 sale and installation process was supervised by the QLD government we received an exceptional service and post installation inspections.. After installation of Tesla PowerWall 2 some configuration is compulsory. Very important point to remember is that a Tesla PowerWall 2 WiFi connection and subsequent connection to the internet is not an option - it is a warranty requirement. With Tesla PowerWall 2 you will have 2 choices (for now) of Tesla PowerWall 2 gateway box. GateWay version 1 and version 2. For what we use Tesla PowerWall 2 there is no difference for us between those 2 products but the price, which was $1000 cheaper for GateWay version 1. We chose Gateway version1. Gateway has most of the battery logic, controls, relays and communication including built in 3G backup internet connection (no subscription or payment required)
Tesla PowerWall 2 - first year journey. Issues (technical or not). After installation, installers had to come back 3 times to ensure that installation was not only technically sound (which they did well the first time around), but also had full compliance according to QLD government battery installation inspections. Some stickers were missing, leading conduits were not to the QLD gov standard etc In the first 4 month we had 2 technical faults. One of them installation company logged fault on our behalf. The fault was momentary loss of power where no power was lost in the area The other one was brownout that was supposed not to happen as the battery should stabilise power supply. After a number of escalations and installation company investigation the problem was in the connector between the battery and power grid. The connector was faulty and replaced by Installation company. There is some rumour that Tesla acknowledged that the connector wasn’t designed properly and issued an improved version of the connector.
Part 3 - thoughts forward and conclusion What advertisement and installers not telling you: Battery degrades - however Tesla has a number of advantages ranging from generous warranty to water cooling. Warranted for 70% of its initial capacity after 10 years. Battery can’t be discharged 100% - effectively make total available capacity 5% less than advertised plus battery degradation Electrical consumption sensing mechanism doesn’t like small loads, as result it will still consume around 20w/h on average from the power greed when battery is charging and discharging. That will result in some daily extra cost. We’re talking couple of cents here and there. The mechanism of conversion (inverters) has big losses. Solar panels are DC to Inverter AC to Tesla battery DC. Round trip loss around 15%. That means every 10Kw of generation you’ll waste 1.5Kw on conversion on a round trip if the battery is in operation (not full on stand by). Even though Tesla PowerWall 2 has 3g comms sim, disconnecting battery from the WiFi (internet connection to Tesla) will void warranty. Support is hit and miss. They’re good at trivial things, but more complex ones usually swept under the carpet. No reporting back. Depends on electricity costs payback 5 - 15 years. Did you ever expect any payback from your portable UPS? Tesla application and monitoring system are addictive - don’t laugh - serious warning
Conclusion Would I buy it at the full price + installation costs. Don’t know. Depending on the financial situation. There would be no financial incentive to buy one at full price, pure self protection and comfort. Would I buy it if I’d been in my shoes 1,5 years ago knowing what I know today and having the same purchasing arrangements. Yes, Yes, Yes. Do I regret not paying extra $1000 for gateway v2. NO! Would I recommend Tesla PowerWall 2 to those who can afford it - 100% Yes Would I recommend Tesla PowerWall 2 to those who might be able to afford it - Yes Would I recommend Tesla PowerWall 2 to those who think they are not able to afford it - do the maths before you dismiss it
Final thoughts Considering the complexity of the setup and device itself we had a pretty good first year of ownership with no regrets. Fun fact - within the first year of battery use the biggest power outage was 3 hours 27 minutes which we learnt only a week later checking log files.
Look like I can attach here only 1 video review. There are 3 parts video review, one for each above mentioned part: Part 1: https://youtu.be/Omosx2vFCj0 Part 2: https://youtu.be/nJR6sGgHsLM Part 3: https://youtu.be/MCePZiCZ2m0
VPP thoughts video will be released soon, I'll update it when I finish it.
For us this was a game changer – Our Powerwall 2 is now 13 months old. Last year I estimate is saved us $1450. For context we have 9KW of solar that are now 5 years old. While the panels have long ago paid themselves off two years ago we started getting power bills again because the feed in tariff dropped so drastically. When we saw a good deal ($10,200 fully installed) a for a… Read more
Powerwall we jumped at it. Since then our electricity bill is $1250 in credit. Out of that $800 came from an initial sign on credit so the real credit from the Powerwall is $450. If you add the $1000 annual electricity bill from the year prior you can see that the PW2 saved us $1450. What is even more remarkable is that we bought a Tesla EV in March and this saving includes 10,200km of driving. The battery talks to the car and the Tesla charger and enables the car to be charged mainly off solar. For at least 9 months of the year the 9Kw of panels can charge the car, fill the battery and feed on average 10KWh into the grid, mostly from 3pm onwards (this helps the grid). If I was able to I'd get at least 2 more. These are great.
Not worth it if you are with AGL – Not worth it if you are with AGL. Powerwall is a massive con job. I am probably going to turn mine off. Very dumb primitive software. Will charge off the grid even if sun is out. Powerwall is a con! Show details
Tesla Powerwall 2 has been amazing have two units and have worked flawlessly – Installed by Callunn and designed / sold to me by Tom at Pure Electric two years ago. I've been cycling them daily to minimise my grid imports to zero. Combined with my electric car and my EV plan with OVO I am now getting the cheapest energy I've had in 23 years living at this address. Show details
Poor customer service – Got installed 2 x Powerwall 2 on 10 August 2023. On the packaging box the sticker said "Shipped on 18 August 2022" from NV, USA. The firmware it came with is 22.26.4 fc00d5dd. This is much older firmware. The issues with this version is that the batteries continuously suck the power (about 200W) even when reached 100% and charges from grid even… Read more
when not configured to do so. The latest firmware version is 23.xx.x. The honest installer informed that he installed another battery in the same week with this latest firmware that came with the battery.
When called the Tesla support to force upgrade, the lady with American accent informed that Australians prefer this firmware and no need to upgrade. After much effort, she said to escalate to the diagnostic team for a review.
Today I called again, the same night shift lady responded and said the same. I have recorded the conversation.
Feel like taken for a ride by Tesla and by the installer's boss who sold 2022 battery.
What should I do, I am in Adelaide?
Positive reviews
Hasn't missed a beat – Purchased prior to ascertaining how awful he is. Would be unlikely to purchase any Tesla product again. No problems since installation in 2022. Remember that your retailer/installer is legally responsible for warranty in the first instance (not Tesla) should you have any issues. Avoid confusing the battery operation with what an energy provider… Read more
may wish to do with your battery and power/solar if you choose to go down the Virtual Power Plant (VPP) path. To quote the writer of an article recently in The Guardian newspaper "most VPPs can be fairly underwhelming...over and above the savings you get anyway from simply owning a solar and battery". Run away from Energy Locals! For geeks: Data from Netzero app (after 2years and 4 months): 1. Original maximum capacity 13.90kW. Tesla typically overprovisions above13.5kW. 2. Current maximum capacity 13.71kW. 1.36% loss from original capacity, but still above 13.5kW 3. Total discharge 5120kW. Total charge 5980kW. Therefore, 85.6% efficiency.
Great battery when it works – Battery lasted only 5 months then failed. Tesla service disgraceful. Dont care. Had to use installer to correspond with tesla to get some traction. Just one text from tesla stating the obvious that the battery failed. No further correspondence from them . Still waiting 3 months for warranty battery replacement. Would not recommend tesla due to the after sales service department. Show details
Powerwall 2 Awesome user experience – I have 2 Powerwalls 2s fitted and wanted to say I should have done this sooner. I was procrastinating for over a year. The house has been 99% off Grid since install of the Tesla Power Wall 2’s along with 12.96Kw REC solar panels. Can’t describe how easy the app is and control of where and what power is used. Love it. Show details · 1
Negative reviews
After 2 years operation the Powerwall 2 stopped charging and discharging. After 3 months of haggling and delays the Powerwall 2 was eventually replaced. This was the worst customer experience I have experienced. Tesla does not do customer service to Australian standards. After the new inverter has been operating it is now not charging correctly - it sends energy to grid before the battery is 100% charged. Show details
I have a Tesla battery that has failed after 3 years and is a replacement under warranty confirmed. The initial company that installed it no longer does Tesla, the second recommended repairer never replied and the 3rd company was too busy to get involved. Finally I got hold of Tesla but the Tesla service has been disgraceful with almost zero… Read more
communication and long waiting periods, so far some 6 weeks with no signs of rectification insight. I would not recommend this expensive product as there is little to no after sales service, they don't seem to care!! Thanks CA
Find out how Tesla Powerwall 2 compares to other Electronics
Know better, choose better.
Skip the marketing hyoe, buy a solar battery system to meet your needs – It was going quite well until I had to deal with Tesla support. My Powerwall died and after speaking to Tesla, they sent me a questionnaire about the failure (what was happening in weather - storms, any other failures - none). I responded same day and waited. And waited. And waited. My electrician followed up with them after 3 months and they said… Read more
they were still working on their report. An hour later, the report turned up in my email. I figure they forgot about me and quickly clicked their "generate report" when my electrician contacted them. The report claimed the failure was due to storm damage (even though it was the battery and not the inverter that failed as I still have solar, just no battery). As such it wasn't covered under warranty and I need to make a claim on my household insurance. If they had quickly resolved the matter or taken ownership of the failure I wouldn't have given such a review. The Tesla system is okay but has no granularity of control. I realised that the default set up meant that if the battery was drawn on during the day to offset loads and it got to the low point, it would draw from the grid to charge. There was no ability to tell the battery not to charge from the grid but to still allow access to draw from the battery power when grid power was available. This meant that the battery was only of use in a power outage and not for minimising my grid usage during peak loads unless I was willing to pay to charge it from the grid. On a positive note, I did have a number of outages (I'm rural. it happens) and the battery did kick in each time pretty seamlessly. It's a very expensive and quiet generator...
Recent reviews
Horrible customer service – Everyone make sure you are confirmed 1000% for solar panels and not just the powerwall battery as they are scamming alot of people And just installing the battery but then turning around and saying you weren't approved for solar panels. TESLA AND ENERVEN are in on this!. Show details
Bad Tesla support – Worked well for 18 months, it now exports all power from the solar panels, contacted Tesla support and they said I was the problem as I keep changing the settings, they said to leave the settings alone and the power wall would "figure it out" . I asked why it was exporting my solar power to the grid and the support staff said it was peak period so the grid needed my power! Show details
No service, warranty at Tesla's discretion – Was fabulous at first until it just ceased to work after 2 years 9 months. Was approved for a replacement under warranty on 8th April 2024. No contact from Tesla now for three months. Have tried to contact and was put through to a call centre in Utah once. Was told the job had been given to a company 300kms away and that a replacement unit had… Read more
been sent to them a month ago. Was promised I would receive a call back from [Name Removed] in Utah when he had investigated and was assured by him that he had my Australian phone number. I'm still waiting, have hung on the phone for an hour at a time listening to crackling music and never get a response. I rang the australian company that I had been told my replacement unit was shipped to in mid May. They knew nothing about my job and had not received any replacement unit for me. Worse still, they only service their local area and not my area. I'm out of pocket some $13,000 and Tesla provides no service. Forced to just wait and wait and hope I eventually get a refurbished replacement unit, as is indicated in other reviews. Meanwhile suffering high energy costs.
Non Existent Support for Powerwall – I applied for the $750 rebate 2 months ago and it is still in review when they say it should be paid within 3 weeks. I tried calling Tesla support and they have a recorded message that they do not take any calls relating to the rebate. What do you do now?? Show details
Never buy a Tesla product. the after-sales service doesn't exist – I purchased a battery system for my solar panels setup 3 years ago. For over 6 months, I've had random and increasing issues with the Tesla Gateway 2 and the meters. Tesla has had my system under investigation by their "engineers" since these problems began, and there's still no solution or repair. Now my Powerwall 2 batteries are not working,… Read more
they discharge and recharge very quickly for no apparent reason. In 6 months, Tesla hasn't visited to inspect or replace any faulty parts. They only diagnose and repair remotely!
So if something breaks down, you're left with either crying about it or paying for the faulty parts yourself.
I'm cancelling my Tesla S order because I've lost confidence in them and don't want to wait months in case of a breakdown. In Australia, Tesla provides extremely poor service and charges a lot without any real warranty.
Great product until it fails – I've had a power wall for 2 yrs. In that time it has failed 3 times that required onsite repairs. Each time Tesla service has been horrible. The last repair worked for 7 days before the unit failed again. I have been waiting a month for "tier 2" customer support. Numbers calls and chats have only resulted in delaying tactics. I would avoid this product Show details
Avoid TEP in NSW – For some reason, that others have also noted, Tesla seems unable to understand that filling your battery to 100% just before the sun rises is not correct! Do not sign up for TEP (NSW at least) as you will be sorry. I also recently had a problem where power was cut and the battery did not kick in. It usually worked in the past, so I will not drop it down to 1 star. Show details
Discharge just been reduced to 3KW – All was good until now when charging my Tesla Model 3. I noticed that the discharge of the Powerwall to the vehicle was only 3Kw and the remaining was coming off the grid. I contacted Tesla who advised me that they decided to reduce the higher discharge from the Powerwall to increase its longevity as they have noticed some ‘swelling’ of the… Read more
battery at the higher discharge. I understand the reasoning, but it’s somehow defeating the object having a Powerwall to charge your EV.
Find out how Tesla Powerwall 2 compares to other Electronics
Know better, choose better.
Great when it works. Unfortunately, ours does not – We have had the Powerwall for just over two years and up to now have been very happy with it. However, it has now stopped working and service in Australia for this product seems non-existent. The diagnose button on the app simply opens the home page for the Tesla website, a nice picture of a model Y is not very helpful. I believe the support… Read more
lines are staffed in America. I have received no help or feedback from my calls to this line. Frankly, the last person I talked to sounded bored with the whole process and made no effort to disguise this fact.
I am not anti-Tesla, I have a model 3 that I am very happy with. I have had to contact the local service team twice regarding the car and both times the service I received was excellent.
I would not recommend the Powerwall, there are multiple viable alternatives available and supported in Australia now.
Terrible after sales support – Failed/died after 8 months. Service support virtually non-existant. Go LG, would not recommend Powerwall if you want some level of battery support.
Very Disappointed With The Installation and Tesla's Support – We engaged AGL to instal a Tesla Powerwall 2 Battery to our existing solar panel. Their sales people assured us that the battery will be fully functional after installation. When the AGL Contractor turned up, he said that it is not possible to install the battery in a way that it will still charges if the grid is down. We contacted Tesla's… Read more
technical people who sent us the instructions on how to make the installation work which we gave to the AGL Contractor, who then said that this is not in the scope of the work that he is required to do. On a second visit to rectify other matters, he said that he does not know how to set up the battery to run during a grid failure. We also contacted AGL's Customer Service people who refused to help and are ignoring us. We have since lodged two official complaints to AGL. They are supposed to come back to us within a week. This has been months now.
I must admit that the battery does helpus to retain most of the electricity and our reliance on the grid since it's installation is minimal. We just want to be able to keep charging our battery (with a proper installation this is possible) if the grid is down, which could be for several days and our battery would empty very quickly .
Several weeks ago Tesla conducted an audit on the work done by the AGL contractor. Theauditor said that the battery should have been set up in a way that it works when the grid is down and he will ask AGL to rectify the matter. He just sent us an email saying that he can't help us. We are baffled as to the purpose of their audit if they can't initiate rectification action.
Very disappointed both with AGL and Tesla.
Great when it works. A huge fail on customer support – 5 year old Powerwall failed late August 22. Tesla notified - tried various options including reset and firmware update without resolution. Advised by Tesla it would take a further 25 days to resolve the problem. I heard no more after the 25 day period. I contacted Tesla Australia support and was told that on 13th September it had been resolved to… Read more
replace the battery with a 6-8 week delivery. At 4 weeks I contacted Tesla again and was advised of up to 25 day period to resolve the inquiry. Further contact today and I was told of the 6-8 week delivery and the replacement should arrive within 3 weeks. We will see! Apparently replacement batteries are being built and shipped (hence the lengthy delay) rather than being replaced from current stock in Australia. I will be interested to see if the replacement is new or simply a rebuild and if the warranty extends out to 10 years.
Overseas managed – I am happy with my Powerwall 2 and get low energy bills except during the deepest part of Winter . I was unable to log into my App which is invaluable to go off grid and see the amount of kw the Solar Panels are feeding into the Battery and how may kw are being drawn from it . I now find that you have to log into the Tesla website to reactivate… Read more
the App . So the Overseas Server goes down and you then cant operate some features for the Power wall . When I contacted Telsa they said they were collecting information from my Battery to "..in order to find ways to improve the connectivity and the Customer experience. I don't want Tesla in my device sending information to goodness knows where . Tesla have declined to comment on my concerns .
Update. Tesla responded and state they are not collecting data from my house.
I still rely on an overseas server to be working to access the App on my phone if I need to log in .
It's not what I imagined when buying an off grid product.
Initial Impression - Very Good – Week 3 review. Have used no grid power since installation. Household of 2 adults and 2 EVs; 6.6/5kW solar system. Total daily household power usage is around 17.5kW including EV charging. EVs are topped up a couple of times a week on sunny/partly cloudy days. Still averaging around 6kW per day fed in to the grid in August (but varies from 0 to… Read more
22kW). A 13.5kW capacity battery is all most people are likely to need to power their house during the peak evening period. I typically use around 40% of battery capacity during the evening peak if I have an air conditioner running.
Tip 1. Purchase from a Tesla certified installer with lots of experience, i.e. established for many years. Tip 2. Tesla only sell batteries (and cars). They do not determine your energy retailers charges, peak use periods and feed in tariffs, which vary widely throughout the country. Tip 3. Charging your battery from the grid, which you may wish to do if you are on a "time of use" plan, takes a bit of mucking around in the Tesla app. Not something I have needed to do. Tip 4. "Storm Watch" function may not operate as anticipated. Not something I need to do. Tip 5. Even if you are not using the grid you get regular "pings" of less than 0.001kW from the grid into your battery "gateway" controller.
Virtual Power Plants (VPP) If you are not familiar, this allows your battery to become part of the grid, providing a small amount of reserve power and frequency support, in return for various financial incentives and rebates. They are only offered by a small number of retailers and vary widely in features, depending on your wholesaler and retailer. These plans are all entirely independent of Tesla except the Tesla VPP offered by Energy Locals. There are large variations even with the Tesla VPP, as it is governed by the vagaries of your energy wholesaler. You may not able to find a VPP provider in your area. They are usually restricted by location, wholesaler, maximum numbers. Expect your VPP provider to set caps on the maximum amount they may take from your battery, during times of grid strain over the course of a year, and a minimum they will leave in your battery. Being part of a VPP obviously increases the cycles on your battery to a small extent. Some VPP providers may offer increased warranty on your battery.
No service – Mine died over a month ago and I still don’t know how the problem is to be sorted. Big on sales but poor on service. Communication re fixing it is almost non existant. Glad mine is a Powerwall and not my main transport. Show details
I Rely On Me ...Not The Power Company – I don't understand many of the negative reviews !! I had a Powerwall 2 put in along with upgrading my solar panels to maximum allowable (in South Australia). Over the next couple of years my electricity supplier reduced my feed-in tariff from 20c KW/h to 5c, so rather than sell to them so they can profit from my expenditure, I had a second… Read more
Powerwall put in and I benefit from my expenditure.
In Summer I pretty much take nothing from the grid, using solar for the house and charging the batteries from the sun to use overnight. In Winter I use the Tesla app to charge the batteries from the mains with cheaper off-peak power, again using the batteries overnight. The added benefit is I can use reverse-cycle aircon for heating in the evening and mornings at effectively half price having stored off-peak power from my supplier when it is available.
AND ... if the main power fails (which it did repeatedly overnight a few weeks ago due to an apparent wind generator problem messing with the mains), the Powewall system cuts in instantly and I only become aware there was a problem when the app informs me later with a message.
Look, these things aren't cheap and the payback time runs into several years BUT eventually you will be the winner ... and the more they jack up prices and cut down feed-in rates, the quicker you break even. Update 2024 : Still working perfectly and grid prices up significantly, meaning my break-even point even closer than before :-)
Update 2026 : According to my electricity supplier, the power I send them is now worth 2c per KWh (despite them charging me around 30c per KWh if I need to take power from them). With my solar panels and 2 Powerwalls my, day generally consists of using what power I need from the solar panels, with any extra going to the batteries which I use after dark. This means I lose 2 cents but save 30+ cents each KWh by using my generated electricity for ME instead of generating yet more profit for the power companies.
I have also noticed on random days, my solar output being fed directly to the grid when my batteries are only around 80% charged. You could argue this is to protect my batteries ... but why only do it every now and then ? This could of course lead to needing power at Peak rates later on when the batteries don't have enough left for my overnight needs. I have to keep an eye on who's taking what from MY system and make sure MY solar output is being fed to My batteries.
A tip : Not all battery systems will stay operating in a blackout and not all will run a medium-large aircon by themselves. Do your homework, ask the questions and avoid disappointment later !!
Tesla VPP NSW – Customers be ware! This is a particularly clever scam the company pulls. So here is how the VPP works in NSW- Tesla pays 0.30c/kwh FIT but only for the electricity you produce between 2 and 8pm any electricity they take outside those time is not paid to the customer. Also they will fully discharge your battery between 2-8pm, this is not an issue… Read more
per se as this is why once join a VPP.
The problem starts when they forcefully charge your battery off the grid the day after, even if your solar is producing enough energy to charge it up. By doing so your battery can be charged within 2.5 hours first thing in the morning, and then the company can benefit of the free solar your system pumps into the grid while they have charged you 22c/kwh to refill your battery for absolutely no reason.
That coupled with the fact they charge a higher supply charge and a peek rate of 33c/kwh when the first bill comes you will discover that you worst off by joining their VPP then staying on a plan that pays you $0.05c kwh for anything you produce, and is not able to discharge your battery hence you power your own house free of charge.
They have no ethics, be warned!
Waste of money – We spent $18k on this and our bill has jumped through the roof. We already had solar, and our bills where around $30 to $40 a month. We where told how to readjust our usage to make the battery most viable and the first month our bill is $190. So I think it's an absolute waste of money and am totally disappointed and well out of pocket. Show details
No answer in Tesla SA home battery – Hi, I requested a quote from a Powerwall 2 from Tesla page (https://www.tesla.com/en_AU/sa-home-battery-scheme) at less 5 times in the last three months. I have never receive answer or call. I don’t know why. Now I am worry about the customer service it I get one Tesla battery.
be very wary of TESLA – Tesla will run your house from the grid, charging you . As I type this my solar is producing more than enough and is charging my battery, BUT Tesla has control over the app and inverter, forcing my solar NOT TO run my house. There is plenty of solar and I have more than one battery, so I do not need the grid, yet I still get charged although I DO… Read more
NOT WANT TO USE THE GRID. I am not permitted to disconnect from the grid, I must pay a supply charge, although I do not want to use the grid. DO NOT USE TESLA. They are very good at telling you what you want to hear, and are very good at taking your money, they have made an art of it. No one has been able to explain my screen shots clearly showing grid power in when it is NOT needed.
Did Tesla write malicious code?. Support calls cut after waiting two hours!! Warranty?? – Tesla app update lost wifi, Gateway 2 blinking blue death Show details
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I finally got the rebate but couldn't talk to anyone. Tesla has the attitude of you just wait when issuing rebates.