hey guys it's Zach if you want to learn
everything there is to know about
Tesla's app for their power wall system
you're in the right spot we're going to
do a full walkth through to cover all
the basics as well as all those little
things that most people don't recognize
I have made other videos with more
in-depth tips and tricks that I'll refer
to throughout this video if you haven't
already check out those videos after
this one and subscribe to the channel
for more now if you do need help
registering your power wall system so it
actually appears on your Tesla app that
is certainly step one and I included a
link from Tesla
at the top of the description below on
how to do that with the different Power
wall Models All right so we're going to
start out on your home screen as you log
in you're going to see your house you're
going to see the power flow going on up
in the top left you'll actually be able
to see your power wall status it's
either going to be in standby
discharging charging or off grid standby
isn't bad I always get asked that it
just means that your batter is either
fully charged fully discharge down to
that backup Reserve or it's just waiting
to be used for peak hours if you are on
that time base control you can also edit
your home Name by pressing and holding
the name where it usually says my home
up at the top left of the screen on the
front you're going to be able to view
your home's live power flow you're going
to have solar home power wall and then
the grid you can also view the
color-coded power flow of your home and
see where the electricity is Flowing
Green's going to represent power wall
yellow is going to represent solar and
then gray is going to represent the Grid
or the utility the numbers next to each
section represent the total in KW or
kilowatts and this visualization is
going to show you if Powers coming in or
going out and just give you an idea of
the overall flow if you have a paired
Tesla wall connector which is their EV
charger it will show up on your home
like here and you can have up to two
wall connectors shown on your house to
pair them to the home you just have to
go to add product up here on the screen
and then follow the steps for the wall
connect now this app right here is for
mobile devices only like your phone and
your tablet so if you want to view all
of this data on your computer through
the web browser you're going to have to
use net Zero's third party app go to the
link right here that you see on the
screen log in with your Tesla
credentials and then you should be able
to see all your systems information on
your computer on the homepage you're
going to have five primary sections
you're going to have energy impact
settings go off grid and support energy
will show you your total kilowatt hours
generated for the day and then on impact
you're able to see your self-powered
percentage for the day as well let's
jump into the energy section this is
where you're able to get a view of all
of your granular data and those energy
metrics that you're looking for you can
view this dat by clicking here where it
says energy or from the home screen you
can just press on the solar panels to
view the solar stats the power wall the
view your power wall stats you get the
idea then you can just jump directly
into whatever energy graph or energy
section that you're looking for at the
top of the screen when you're in the
energy graph you can see which section
you're on the name is going to be right
there and then you can also toggle the
different sections by selecting that
correlating icon at the bottom of the
screen you're going to have your home
icon all the way to the far left which
shows your home's energy consum
assumption if you have a paired Tesla
vehicle you're going to see a vehicle
and that's going to have all of your
vehicles energy stats the power wall
icon is going to have your power walls
charge and discharge stats the solar
icon is going to have your solar
generation and then the Grid in the
bottom right side of the screen is going
to have all of your grid Imports and
your exports so basically energy going
to the grid and coming from the Grid
it's going to show you your overall grid
dependence toward the top right you can
filter through any date range that you'd
like including a custom range so you're
not stuck with all the presets you can
also swipe back and forth on the chart
to view past days months years and so on
I do find this most helpful when
scrubbing through past days to see what
happened on that day and the entire
energy breakdown if you long press and
hold and then scrub on the screen so
drag your finger back and forth left or
right you can actually scrub through all
this data and see what happened on any
individual day month throughout the year
or even each individual 5minute
increment for that day you can do this
for any of the energy Cate ories that
we've discussed so far so whether it's
home power wall solar you can view all
of the little details that we're looking
at right here if you do click the three
dots at the top right of the screen you
can also download the data for that date
range and that energy category and it's
going to download in a CSV spreadsheet
Excel type file and then that way if
you're looking for something really
specific like I said maybe a billing
period you can actually download the
data for that and then compare it
against the numbers that you're looking
at to see your actual metrics your
actual system performance and it just
again gives you more details if you're
looking for something like that this is
probably most useful over a longer time
range like a month a quarter a year or a
lifetime if you have a Tesla EV charger
paired to the app you can also see your
EV charging history right here so you
have all of your past charging events
when they were how long and how much
energy they used on the charts right
here you will be able to put on a color
filter on the data to see a quick
breakdown of the energy splits again
green is for power wall yellow is for
solar Gray is for the grid blue is for
home and then if you have a paired Tesla
vehicle red will represent the vehicle
starting on home you can see your home's
energy consumption up in the top left
and get a quick stat on the total
kilowatt hours consumed on this day view
you're also going to be able to see a
timeline from 12:00 a.m. until 11:59
p.m. giving you a full breakdown of
what's happening when the color splits
here will be a breakdown of how much was
used from the power wall the solar and
then the grid if you can't see these
colors and it's just BL for whatever
reason just click that eyeball right
here and it's going to turn the filter
on or off you can also press power wall
or solar or any of these and it'll
highlight the data on the chart all of
these filters work the exact same on any
of the energy categories and sections
that we're talking about jumping into
the power wall view you can view your
discharge and charge stats as well as
when it's happening throughout the day
my favorite part of this graph is being
able to see when my power wall system
hits the backup Reserve which for me is
10% and then when it hits 100% so it
gives you the exact time of when these
events are happening it just really
gives you a good idea of your batteries
charging and discharging patterns on the
solar chart you can view your generation
bell curve and all of the stats in terms
of kilowatt hours generated for that
date range that's going to be up there
in the top left of the screen same as
before you can see the splits in terms
of where that energy is going is it
going to the home is it going to the
power wall or is it being exported out
to the grid solar is probably the chart
that people will use the most frequently
especially when looking at their total
generation for their system over a month
or a year on the grid section you can
view your energy imported or consumed
from the grid and then the energy
exported which means energy sold back to
the utility you'll also be able to see
when that's happening and then what your
Net usage was for that date range it's
going to be right here in the middle
part of the screen if you scroll all the
way to the bottom you're able to see the
cost of energy on the buy side how much
you pay to buy that electricity and then
also on the sell side which is how much
you get paid to sell it back to the
utility throughout the day let's go back
to the home screen and jump into the
impact section and if you are enjoying
these videos so far do me a huge favor
drop a like if you haven't already and
subscribe to the channel for more I
really do appreciate it now in this
impact section there's some cool data
but it's more nice to know information
rather than need to know information I
recommend switching the time frame up
here in the top right section to
anything but the day view that way
you're seeing these metrics right here
like self-powered and savings on a
little bit longer time Horizon I
personally like the month view you can
see your self-powered percentage and how
much of each power resource your
consumption came from the higher this
percentage is the better it will also
show you the projected savings based on
your utilities rate plan that you set up
and then you're going to have your solar
offset which is all of your energy
generated from your solar panels
compared against all of the energy
consumed from your home during this time
frame and at the bottom you're going to
have all of your backup events when the
grid went out how long they were when
they occurred all of that information so
back to the home view we go let's take a
look at settings and this is going to be
a simple version of settings I'm not
going to walk you through all the
nitty-gritty of everything if you want
to watch a more in-depth version of
going through and setting up all of the
settings within the Tesla app please
please refer to a video I put together a
few months ago it's going to be linked
at the top of the description below that
is a very important video to watch
especially if you are new to your Tesla
power wall system and you're just
learning this app so starting with
settings and then power wall right here
at the top of the screen let's talk
about backup Reserve now backup Reserve
is the energy Reserve that you're going
to save for your power wall each day
your battery will not discharge below
this percent unless there's a grid
outage so do not make the mistake of
setting this number too high unless you
only want to use the power wall for
outages this is one of two major
mistakes that I see homeowners make
right here in this setting section that
really kills their system performance I
recommend a 10 10 to 20% backup Reserve
unless you're really concerned with
random power outages if you are worried
about outages and maybe you get more
frequent outages than others I do
recommend airing a little bit on the
higher side so that way you do have
enough energy to get yourself through a
short evening until the sun comes back
out and recharges your battery if you
want to use the most out of your battery
each day I recommend going lower I keep
it at 10% but don't baby your battery
you bought it to use it so do that all
right now operational mode this one's
simple go with self powered if you want
to prioritize energy Independence and
reducing your overall grid usage or if
you just have one flat rate for
electricity throughout the day so you
don't have any time of use rate plan and
the cost of energy is the same no matter
when you consume it now time based
control is good for anyone on a time of
use rate plan so California Arizona
Texas several other states throughout
the us but you will want to properly set
up your rate plan accurately otherwise
this isn't going to work out well for
you we will talk about setting up your
rate plan here in a second now I
mentioned I see two major mistakes made
by homeowners on the app that kill
system performance and here is number
two permission to export turn it to yes
you need to Mark permission to export on
once you get permission to operate from
your utility company if you leave it in
the no position your system will only
produce as much solar energy as the home
or the battery can handle but do keep in
mind by marking yes you do need utility
approval to turn the system on to toggle
this so if you just got installed you
haven't gotten permission to operate
from your utility yet leave it in the no
position but do not forget to do this
once you do get that permission to
operate flip it to Yes again I can't
stress this enough do not forget this
step so permission to export yes grid
charging yes or no if you're not sure
just mark it no you might even have this
disabled by your installer depending on
if it's allowed by your utility and then
automatic backup Select Auto if you have
a pair Tesla vehicle under the vehicle
charging right here under power wall you
can toggle on a few more settings this
one is the percent of energy shared um
from the power wall to the vehicle
during a power outage only I will post a
screenshot somewhere here on the screen
on what this info means exactly but I
like to save 95% of my energy for my
home during an outage personally so
that's where I leave it at on the bottom
you can also sync your Tesla vehicle to
charge on Sol as well so this is where
you can do it you can also do it from
the vehicle page I have a whole another
video on charge on solar so we won't
dive into that here now going back to
Power wall settings let's see storm
watch now stormat is going to trigger
whenever there's a weather alert like
wind or thunderstorm or hurricane or
whatever it is and you can opt out of
the event you're going to get a
notification sent to the app but when it
gets triggered it's going to prioritize
your power wall state of charge meaning
it's going to charge Max Capacity from
from either the solar or the Grid or
whatever is available to reach that 100%
it's preparing itself for a grid outage
however there is one downside here is if
you are on a time of use rate plan it's
going to override the peak times meaning
it might charge from the grid when the
energy is the most expensive so use it
at your own risk whether you toggle on
or toggle it off that's your call you
can also schedule a stormwatch event in
the app directly if you want to manually
trigger it yourself I've done this
before when I see that it's going to be
stor me the next day and I just want to
top off the battery and ensure that I
have some state of charge available now
utility rate plan right in here under
stormat you're going to want to go in
there and select your state and your
utility and pick the correct rate plan
that you're on make sure it's correct
but there's a decent chance that your
exact rate plan or your utility provider
is not actually in the Tesla app if
that's the case you will have to create
a custom rate plan now how to set up a
custom rate plan is broken down 100% a Z
in that settings video that I mentioned
earlier again it's linked in the
description below check it out if you
need any help on setting up a custom
rate plan now I do offer a paid support
call for anyone who needs one-on-one
help or assistance with setting up the
Tesla app making sure all the settings
are dialed in and really just ensuring
that the system is functioning like it
should I try to put as much free content
as possible here on YouTube so hopefully
you guys don't even need that but if
that is of interest for you and it'd be
useful the link for that is in the
description below the big thing here to
to remember within this custom rate plan
is when you're setting up your energy
Buy rate and your sell rate within the
app is that this is all from your
perspective so how much you pay the
utility company to buy electricity and
then how much you receive from the
utility company when you sell them
electricity so keep in mind it's from
your perspective not from the utilities
perspective and then you have phone
pairing if you haven't done that already
go through that process it's super
simple Wi-Fi make sure your Wi-Fi setup
or for any reason your system goes
offline or disconnects from the Wi-Fi
you can reconnect it there manage access
you can share your system to anyone like
a friend or a family member as a guest
so they can view everything that's going
on and then my home info has all of the
information on your equipment the serial
numbers all of those details can be
found there all right back to the home
screen and let's go off grid when you go
off grid you do need to have your device
paired so if you haven't done that
already you'll need to go back into the
settings pair your device it's going to
prompt you on how to do it like I said
it's really simple to do another thing I
will also see is people will go off grid
because they don't want to use the
utility but don't do that just go into
self-powered mode you don't have to go
off grid off grid is just a virtual
simulation it's fun to do it's a cool
little party trick but it's not a mode
that you guys should be using each and
every day and the main reason for this
is when you go off grid your system
won't export it won't overproduce your
solar panels will only generate enough
electricity to either power your house
or charge your battery so if the
battery's already charged the solar is
going to be throttled down to only
produce enough electricity to cover your
needs meaning it will not export back to
the utility so if you just want to
reduce your grid dependence and use less
of the utility's electricity don't go
off grid just put it in self-powered
mode under the operating control now
when you go off grid or you have an
actual grid outage you're going to get a
notification sent to the app letting you
know hey your home is off grid there was
a power outage and then when you open up
the app you're going to see it says top
left you're off- grid and then there's
also going to be a little red X or
orange x right there in the middle of
the screen letting you know that you're
disconnected from the utility
Additionally you are able to view the
projected remaining backup hours right
up here in the top left however this
does not Factor any potential incoming
solar energy that would recharge the
battery so it's likely longer than
what's stated when you do have a grid
outage you are able to see a power meter
right here in the middle of the screen
letting you know how much power you're
currently draw drawing so that way you
don't overload your power wall if you
overload your power wall the power walls
will shut off and essentially trip if
you do click on this power meter it's
also going to show you some of the best
practices during an outage which
basically just means use less
electricity so your batteries last
longer when you are done you can go
ahead and reconnect to the grid and then
it'll be back online within a few
moments the last section here at the
bottom is support which really does have
a lot of different tutorials manuals and
things like that so there might be some
helpful information in there for you as
well now if you want to keep learning
more about how to maximize your power
wall 3 experience click on this video
right here on the screen there actually
should be two of them pick which one you
want they're both pretty good thanks for
watching and we'll talk next time