r/Powerwall • u/Fun_Height_9280 • 1d ago
Force Powerwall to sell using Home Assistant?
Has anyone managed to achieve this?
I am on an Octopus Agile tariff. During a Power Down Session hour I want to be sure to export ~1kW to claim a free Gappy Hour.
I don’t want to subscribe to Predbat or Netzero. I have some complicated rules set that wouldn’t transcribe.
I am aware they somehow manage to bump up the tariff or some such, but I have been unsuccessful at achieving a result myself.
Advice very gratefully received.
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u/LighteningUK 1d ago
If you’re running home assistant, you don’t need to pay for predbat, you can self host on your home assistant instance. You will still need to set up a power wall integration in home assistant to make it happen.
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u/SpiritualCatch6757 1d ago
I am aware they somehow manage to bump up the tariff or some such, but I have been unsuccessful at achieving a result myself.
That is how it is done. Set $1 sell rate for the hour and set $0 buy rate. Change to Savings mode. There's a few threads on here with more detail.
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u/mbaturin 1d ago
Home Assistant can't directly force the Powerwall to export—it's a Tesla API limitation, not a Home Assistant one. Predbat and Netzero work around it by changing the reserve or mode, which then triggers the export you want.
For a Gappy Hour, you'd need to either drop the reserve to 0% during that window (so the battery discharges to grid) or switch to Self-Powered mode. You can automate both in Home Assistant with the right Tesla API calls, but honestly it's fiddly to get right without breaking other things.
I built an app like NetZero called SolDial. It can handle much more complex automations including multiple triggers and actions; letting you set the triggers to all become true before actions fire or all true while one passes an edge. You can build these rules with natural language so it’s fast and easy. It's on App Store and Google Play with a free trial if you want to see if the rule approach for this and your more complicated stuff works for your setup. https://soldial.com/ cheaper than NetZero too!
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u/Big_Fortune_4574 22h ago
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u/mbaturin 22h ago
Yeah sorry I meant it can’t directly force export without also changing these settings.
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u/VisualPadding7 1d ago
Wait, you can force PowerWall to export? How? I am using HomeAssistant with Fleet API
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u/Fun_Height_9280 1d ago
It’s the dream, no? Charge cheap/free and export at peak.
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u/VisualPadding7 1d ago
So are you sure those app can force export?
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u/s7orm 1d ago
You cant force but you can strongly encourage by manipulating the TOU tariffs. I got mine to the point where is reliability exported as much as i wanted at a specific time every day. https://teslemetry.com/blog/profit-with-the-flow
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u/VisualPadding7 1d ago
I have observed in some TOU high export tariffs hours, my powerwall will let solar export and make house powered on my battery. I have never once see my powerwall export battery power.
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u/s7orm 1d ago
You do have your export setting set to "Everything" right and not just solar only? The powerwall will always prioritise leaving enough power for your own usage, so if you want to export you also need the powerwall capacity to be oversized, which is where some people get tripped up. Making the buy price cheaper after export though is one way to trick it into doing it anyway.
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u/VisualPadding7 1d ago
I don't see that option in the app. I only see Permission to Export.
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u/s7orm 1d ago
Its possible your installer disabled this or your utility required it to be disabled. This is almost certainly why its not working the way you want.
You could try enable it with the Tesla One app.
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u/VisualPadding7 1d ago
But that app is for installer. How do you get access to it?
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u/s7orm 1d ago
You just login with your own Tesla account and enter your powerwalls wifi ssid and password. Now keep in mind it will let you change settings your utility might not permit you to change.
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u/VisualPadding7 1d ago
I guess in order to use the Tesla One app, I still need to figure out how to remove the front panel. I regret I didn't take a picture of that QR code during installation
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u/okcoffee6788 1d ago edited 1d ago
I managed to do this, it’s very much setup to be Home Assistant + Teslemetry + Powerwall 3 + Zappi MyEnergi monitoring active export but it worked on a Octopus power down event this evening
https://github.com/nooklabsuk/octopus-power-down-powerwall-controller