![\"OhmConnect](\"https://jongleberry.com/blog-images/ohmconnect-event.png\")
As mentioned in my other post, I am ineligible to join a VPP.\nThis alone makes me not recommend any installer except Tesla themselves.\nOnce I gave up on trying to join Tesla’s VPP, I researched other Demand Response Programs and found OhmConnect.\nWhen Googling, you’ll find many Tesla and Reddit posts comparing these two services with most people realizing that OhmConnect yields better results.
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When there’s a power saving event, OhmConnect will ping you, and you are expected to change your behavior to save power.\nIf you do in fact save power during the event compared to your historical energy usage, you’ll earn points, which you can redeem for various prizes such as Amazon Gift Cards (my choice).\nWhen I first learned about this, I thought it was super annoying; I didn’t want to think about every event and change my behavior just to save a few dollars.\nThus, I just set it up and forgot about it.
\nThen, when I added integrations and realized I was earning a lot of points, I finally understood how this works.\nYou don’t have to change your behavior if you integrate your smart products and let OhmConnect manage them for you!
\nI essentially have three types of devices connected to OhmConnect:
\n![\"OhmConnect](\"https://jongleberry.com/blog-images/ohmconnect-devices.png\")
For each device except for my vehicle, I got participation awards.\nAt the base rewards, 10 watts is about 1 cent, so I made $2 just for having my devices participating!\nBut what does participation mean?
\nIf you keep a streak of saving power, even if it’s just 1 watt, you’ll eventually hit Diamond status like me.\nWith a Tesla Powerwall, it’s pretty easy to do this since energy is exported automatically based on OhmConnect’s integration.\nWith my Diamond status, I can redeem rewards for 30% fewer watts, e.g. a $10 Amazon gift card for 5,960 watts instead of 8,520 watts.\nThis means that 1kw of power exported is equivalent to more than $1.50 of Amazon credits for me.
\nWith all your devices connected, you, by default, will not need to worry about anything.\nIf anything, you’d override your thermostat to turn on the AC when OhmConnect disabled it.
\n![\"My](\"https://jongleberry.com/blog-images/ohmconnect-powerwall-integration.png\")
There have been a few days where the Tesla Powerwall integration did not work.\nWhen I contacted OhmConnect, it seems like they’re updating their integration, which makes sense given that the current integration they’ve described probably doesn’t work for NEM 3.0 users.\nA core issue seems that Tesla hasn’t made an API to allow third parties to enable discharging batteries.\nThis is something to keep an eye out on if you’re integrating your Powerwall.
\nThere are two key differences with OhmConnect and Tesla VPP.\nThe first is that when a VPP event occurs, Tesla charges your battery for you, which would be really beneficial for someone like me who doesn’t always have enough solar to fill their batteries.\nOhmConnect doesn’t have that much control over your Tesla Powerwall.
\nThe second is that there are becoming less and less VPP events, most likely because California’s grid is becoming much more stable with more batteries.\nOhmConnect, on the other hand, seems to have at least 3 events per month, most likely to keep all users engaged with the platform.\nFor me, 3x events per month with an average 4kwhs saved is 144kwh per year or $216 in Amazon credits per year, not including additional events that occur during the summer.
\n\n\n", "url": "https://jongleberry.com/posts/ohmconnect-vs-vpp", "title": "OhmConnect - Better then Tesla's Virtual Power Plant for Tesla Powerwall Owners", "summary": "Due to my Tesla Powerwall installer, I am uneligible to join a VPP program. However, once I actually understood how OhmConnect works, I found that it is actually a more profitable Demand Response Program than Tesla's VPP.", "date_modified": "2024-01-02T00:00:00.000Z", "date_published": "2024-01-02T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Jonathan Ong", "url": "https://jongleberry.com" }, "tags": [ "personal-finance", "tesla" ] }, { "id": "https://jongleberry.com/posts/things-you-should-do-to-maximize-savings-with-a-tesla-powerwall", "content_html": "Want to save money too? Join OhmConnect with my referral code: https://refer.ohm.co/jonathanrichardong
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After fidgeting around with my Tesla Powerwall for over a year, I’ve finally settled on these TODOs for maximizing your savings.\nThese TODOs assume you have a Powerwall for the purposes of saving money, not for backup or self-generation, as the goals will be different.\nI, for example, am not worried about backups because there aren’t many outages in my area, but care about savings due to the high electricity rates in my area.
\n![\"Tesla](\"https://jongleberry.com/blog-images/tesla-powerwall-settings.png\")
If you are on a time of use electric plan with your utility (which you should be doing when you have a Powerwall),\nenable the TOU option for the Powerwall to maximize savings.\nIf you don’t have TOU with your current utility provider, look into switching to TOU.\nSolar panels and battery allow you to shift your energy usage and exports to the best times with time-of-use plans, maximizing the benefits of the system.
\nLower your reserve to the recommended 20%.\nYou can risk going lower but you don’t want your Powerwall running out of energy if there is in fact an outage as low power can damage your Powerwall.
\nThe rates that Tesla provide aren’t accurate.\nFor example, as I am on NEM 2.0, it had my buy and sell solar prices to be equal, which is not true.\nI am taxed about $0.03 per kw imported from the grid, which Tesla did not take into account.\nBy adjusting the rates, the Powerwall became smarter and tried to minimize the amount of power I import from the grid by using as much of my solar as possible whereas before it assumed importing and exporting at any time was equivalent cost-wise.
\nAdditionally, there may be additional taxes and fees not taken into account.\nFor example, Santa Ana levies a 5.5% tax to my electricity bill, which is used to subsidize low income households.\nThis tax is not taken into account by Tesla’s rates and have to be updated manually.
\nBy default, only solar will be exported to the grid when it is being generated.\nBy selecting “Everything”, your Powerwall will export all its energy at the peak hours to maximize savings.\nThis will cycle your Powerwall all the way to the reserve percentage you set above.
\n![\"Tesla](\"https://jongleberry.com/blog-images/tesla-powerwall-energy-exports.png\")
In the image above, my Powerwall is charged by solar during the day, then exports all its energy down to the backup reserve percentage during the peak hours of 4pm-9pm PT.
\nIf you don’t have sufficient solar to charge your Powerwall, you’d want to enable grid charging to top off your battery.\nThis will also enable Tesla to maximize your savings, especially if you’re on net metering.
\nHowever, you may be ineligible for this; I am ineligible for 5 years because I got an SGIP Rebate.
\nThere is no control over when Storm Watch pulls energy from the grid.\nFor example, if a storm watch alert comes in the middle of peak hours,\nyour Powerwall will charge from the grid at peak hours at peak prices, which may cost you a lot of money.\nWhen you get a Storm Watch notification, skip it if it’s going to charge your battery during peak hours.\nTry enable/disabling/skipping as needed so that it’s charged off peak hours.
\nLastly, you’ll want to join one of the many virtual power plants.\nThis is similar to above where you export all your Powerwall energy to the grid,\nbut with VPP events, you will export the energy at a time requested by your electricity company and receive extra money to partipate, usually an extra $2 per kwh.
\nIf you’re ineligible for a VPP like me, join a demand response program like OhmConnect.\nI earn about $7 per OhmConnect event and they occur throughout the year (at least 3x per month), yielding a higher return than VPP seasons as VPP events are becoming less common.
\n\n\nInterested in buying Tesla Solar and/or Powerwall? Use my referral code!
\n
\n\n", "url": "https://jongleberry.com/posts/things-you-should-do-to-maximize-savings-with-a-tesla-powerwall", "title": "Things You Should Do to Maximize Savings with a Tesla Powerwall", "summary": "If your goal is to maximize your savings when buying a Tesla Powerwall, follow these steps ASAP!", "date_modified": "2023-09-04T00:00:00.000Z", "date_published": "2023-09-04T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Jonathan Ong", "url": "https://jongleberry.com" }, "tags": [ "personal-finance", "tesla", "solar-battery", "real-estate" ] }, { "id": "https://jongleberry.com/posts/almost-five-years-with-my-tesla-model-3", "content_html": "Sign up to OhmConnect with my referral link.
\n
I picked up my vehicle on September 9th, 2021.\nI saw Jason Bateman there picking up his car while I was there!\nMy options list is as follows:
\n| Description | \nPrice | \n
|---|---|
| Model 3 Long Range Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive | \n$53,000 | \n
| Red Multi-Coat Paint | \n$1,500 | \n
| 19" Sport Wheels | \n$1,500 | \n
| Premium White Interior | \n$1,500 | \n
| Enhanced Autopilot | \n$5,000 | \n
| Full Self-Driving Capability | \n$3,000 | \n
| Subtotal | \n$65,500 | \n
| Destination and Documentation Fee | \n$1,000 | \n
| Total | \n$66,500 | \n
| Sales Tax | \n$6,318 | \n
| Amount Paid to Public Officials | \n$710 | \n
| Out The Door | \n$73,528 | \n
Enhanced Autopilot included basic autopilot at this time (it’s standard now).\nNote that this was during $7,500 federal tax credits and $2,500 California tax credits.
\nWhen I picked up my car, I was too excited to check every detail.\nHowever, I noticed these issues almost immediately:
\nWhen you pick up your Tesla, check for any issues because its craftsmanship sucks.
\nThese are the only accessories I got for my car:
\nMy history of registration fees in California:
\n| Year | \nRegistration Fee | \nLicense Fee | \n
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | \n$262 | \n$259 | \n
| 2021 | \n$257 | \n$303 | \n
| 2020 | \n$250 | \n$346 | \n
| 2019 | \n$236 | \n$389 | \n
| 2018 | \n$270 | \n$433 | \n
These are all the service invoices I have from Tesla. I think I am missing a few as Tesla was updating their system in 2018-2019 and I can no longer access the invoices.
\n| Service | \nDate | \nMileage | \nAmount | \nNotes | \n
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tire Rotation | \n2019/12/9 | \n14.133 | \n$126.76 | \n\n |
| Wheel Alignment | \n2019/12/9 | \n14,133 | \n$117.00 | \n\n |
| Tire Rotation | \n2020/9/19 | \n20,322 | \n$49.00 | \n\n |
| Wheel Alignment | \n2020/9/19 | \n20,322 | \n$117.00 | \n\n |
| Air Filter | \n2020/9/19 | \n20,322 | \n$73.00 | \nPretty sure I replaced it because it started smelling | \n
| Brake Fluid Check | \n2020/9/19 | \n20,322 | \n$19.50 | \n\n |
| Replace 12V Battery | \n2021/6/28 | \n25,193 | \n$0.00 | \n12V battery died | \n
| Tire Rotation | \n2021/8/4 | \n26,327 | \n$50.00 | \nMobile service | \n
| Tire Rotation | \n2022/7/6 | \n34,871 | \n$0.00 | \n\n |
| Brake Fluid Check | \n2022/7/6 | \n34,871 | \n$21.00 | \n\n |
| Replace 12V Battery | \n2022/7/6 | \n34,871 | \n$0.00 | \nReplace before warranty expires | \n
| Windshield Replacement | \n2022/12/21 | \n46,037 | \n$1094.08 | \nCracked due to a huge rock, reimburised by insurance | \n
| Wheel Alignment | \n2022/12/21 | \n46,037 | \n$275.01 | \n\n |
| Replace Air Filters & Wiper Blades | \n2022/12/21 | \n46,037 | \n$62.00 | \nOne air filter was already purchased | \n
| Replace Tires with Continental 235/40R19 | \n2022/12/21 | \n46,037 | \n$1,500.00 | \n\n |
| Replace Flat Tire | \n2023/3/19 | \n50,329 | \n$375.00 | \nDamaged the side wall of the tire, so I had to have it replaced | \n
Most of my maintenace are from the tires, which luckily lasted more than 45,000 miles before Tesla recommended changing them!\nThey lasted much longer than I expected given that I drive very aggressively.\nThe tire rotation and wheel alignment costs significantly varied throughout all the service appointments, but I didn’t really care since I got those sweet Uber credits.\nI also get very annoyed if I feel like my alignment is off, so you may not need so many wheel alignments.
\nBe sure to get service before your 4 year warranty ends!\nThey replaced my 12V battery for free before my warranty expired since I didn’t want another dead 12V battery again.
\nEvery time I called Tesla roadside assistance, they weren’t able to fix my flat.\nThe first time was because they didn’t have a spare 19" wheel for me to swap even though I was right next to the service center, so they just towed my car to a service center.\nThe second time was because I was in Big Bear and they didn’t have service there, so I towed my car to a tire center with my AAA membership.
\nAccording to Tessie, after about 4.5 years and about 51,000 miles, my battery degraded 10.5%.\nThis is a little bit more than average, but I feel like it’s degraded more.\nCurrently, the app estimates my full range to be about 270 miles, which is about the same as a brand new standard Tesla Model 3, except you can use the entire LFP battery range on the standard.
\nI continuously looked for a new car, so also looked up my car’s trade-in value with Tesla a couple of times:
\n| Date | \nMiles | \nAmount | \n
|---|---|---|
| 2020/9 | \n20,403 | \n~$42,000 | \n
| 2021/8 | \n26,307 | \n~$46,000 | \n
| 2023/1 | \n47,332 | \n$24,200 - $27,000 | \n
| 2023/4 | \n50,674 | \n$23,800 - $26,600 | \n
I should’ve sold my car during COVID!
\nI have no regrets buying my car.\nI didn’t love it and was always looking for a better car,\nbut there wasn’t one out there.\nI am planning to trade-in my car before my warranty expires in 2026 for the next best EV: a GMC Hummer EV, Tesla Cybertruck, or a Porsche Boxster EV.\nJust looking at production schedules, it’s looking like my next car will be the Cybertruck.
\nAfter I wrote this article, my car’s onboard AC charger broke and my car started to only charge at 16A (half-rate) at home.\nThe Tesla Service center quoted me $2k to fix it, which I did not want to pay.\nUnfortunately, my car was out of warranty, otherwise I would’ve just purchased the extended warranty and fixed it through that.\nInstead, I sold my car to Shift for about $28k and bought a brand new Tesla Model Y for about $52k before any taxes.
\n\n\n", "url": "https://jongleberry.com/posts/almost-five-years-with-my-tesla-model-3", "title": "Almost Five Years With My Tesla Model 3", "summary": "A review of all my experience and costs with my Tesla Model 3", "date_modified": "2023-04-07T00:00:00.000Z", "date_published": "2023-04-07T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Jonathan Ong", "url": "https://jongleberry.com" }, "tags": [ "personal-finance", "tesla" ] }, { "id": "https://jongleberry.com/posts/four-months-with-tesla-powerwall", "content_html": "Interested in buying a Tesla? Use my referral code!
\n
In November 2022, I bought a new construction house in Orange County, California which included a 3kw solar array.\nAdditionally, I purchased a $14,700 option to purchase a Tesla Powerwall.\nThe solar array is estimated to be $9,740 retail by the installer.\nI didn’t have a choice with the solar array - I didn’t even have the option to add more solar panels.\nHowever, was my $14,700 Tesla Powerwall a good purchase decision?
\nThe primary reason was I got a Powerwall was that if I didn’t, I would be thinking about getting one every day, which would take up a lot of brain capacity.\nThe cost of using my brain capacity on it would cost much more than the amortized cost of purchasing the Powerwall, as you’ll see below. The second goal was for cost savings, especially since the builder wouldn’t allow me to add more solar panels.
\nThe final goal was for backup during outages as I experienced quite a few outages living in Westwood, Los Angeles.\nInterestingly, I found SCE to be a much more reliable electricity provider than LADWP.\nEven if I broke even in cost savings,\nI’ll be happying knowing that I won’t be susceptible to power outages except for a few appliances.
\nI was disappointed with how my Powerwall was set up because it did not provide whole-home back up to my fully electric house.\nInstead, it was set up as a partial-backup with the following bypassed:
\nI don’t mind that my EV chargers bypass the Powerwall, but was quite disappointed to learn that my HVAC, washer/dryer, and water heater were.\nI can choose to charge my EV at night, but being price sensitive to running the AC, running the washer/dryer, or taking a shower during the peak hours of 4pm-9pm is quite annoying.\nIf the Powerwall backed up my HVAC and washer/dryer as well, I would be saving a lot more money.
\nHowever, I don’t think a whole-home backup would even be possible with just one Powerwall.\nThere’s no mechanism for it to communicate with the other appliances (except for the EV) to turn off or lower power usage during an outage,\nso there’s a chance that the appliances would pull too much energy and break something.\nYou’d most likely need multiple Powerwalls to make sure this doesn’t happen as well as more solar panels to charge them.
\n![\"SCE](\"https://jongleberry.com/blog-images/sce-winter-rates-2023.png\")
![\"SCE](\"https://jongleberry.com/blog-images/sce-summer-rates-2023.png\")
For Southern California Edison, the peak hours are between 4pm and 9pm, which is around when solar panels stop generating electricity.\nThe Powerwall’s time-of-use operational mode does a great job at maximize savings by:
\n#1 & #2 saves the ~$0.30 difference per kw between on-peak and off-peak pricing.\nThus, if I offset 4kw that day, that’s $1.20 saved!
\n#3 exports all the energy generated by the solar panels to the grid.\nIf you only had solar panels (i.e. no Powerwall) that generated, say, 5kw during the peak hours, but your house used 3kw, your solar panels would only export 2kw to the grid at the on-peak rates.\nHowever, with a Powerwall, the 5kw will be exported to the grid at the on-peak rate and the 3kw used by your house will be discharged from the Powerwall using an off-peak rate, maximizing savings!
\n![\"Powerwall](\"https://jongleberry.com/blog-images/powerwall-daily-usage-example.png\")
My monthly solar generation and Powerwall discharge according to the Tesla app, which only includes electricity that passes through the Powerwall:
\n| Month | \nSolar Generated (kWh) | \nPowerwall Discharge (kWh) | \n
|---|---|---|
| 2023 January | \n238.5 | \n141.8 | \n
| 2023 February | \n308.4 | \n149.9 | \n
| 2023 March | \n388.8 | \n144.4 | \n
Note that these are winter months, so the solar generation should increase significantly in the summer months.
\nIn total, I was able to get $9,072 in rebates from my $24,440 ($9,740 + $14,700) system, making the net price of the system to be $15,368.
\nThe U.S. governments provides a 30% tax credit on solar, which I took for both my solar panels and Powerwall.\nThis amounted to $24,440 * 30% = $7,332.\nThe rebate for the Powerwall alone was $4,410.
SGIP is a California program that incentivizes installing energy storage systems.\nMy Powerwall was only eligible for a $1,740 rebate.
\nLet’s calculate how much the Powerwall is saving me and whether it was worth it.\nThe Powerwall cost $14,700, which I was able to bundle into my 30 year, 3.75% mortgage.\nThis ends up being about $68.08 per month with interest.
\nAfter the tax rebates of $4,410 and $1,740 for my Powerwall, the net price is $8,550.\nEven though I amortized the Powerwall over 30 years at a low interest rate,\nI got a rebate for almost 42% of it within the first year!\nThe $6,150 rebate’s portion of the loan is like taking out a tax-deductible loan at 3.75%, which I would happily take at this time, so we can consider it income positive and ignore it for the rest of the calculations.
\nDue to the rebates, to break even, we can lower our target monthly savings of $68.08 to $39.60, which is how much a 30 year loan for $8,550 at 3.75% is.\nCost-shifting 150 kWh every month at a price difference of about $0.30 equals $45 per month saved just from the Powerwall.\nIt’s worth it, currently barely, but the savings should increase in the future as the price difference in on-peak and off-peak increases as CA adds more solar panels.
\nIf it weren’t for the tax credits, this would not be economically feasible at all.\nMortgage interest rates reaching 6% also makes it economically infeasible.\nIf you aren’t able to roll it into your mortgage like I did, it would probably be economically infeasible as well as the rates are probably higher, the loan term is probably shorter, and the interest wouldn’t be tax-deductible.
\nBecause the loan for the Powerwall is rolled into my mortgage, the interest portion is tax-deductible up to a limit.\n$14,700 over 30 years at 0% interest is about $40.83/month, so the payment’s average interest portion of about $68.08 - $40.83 = $27.25 is tax-deductible.
Additionally, the Powerwall allows my solar panels to return more energy to the grid during peak hours.\nHowever, it would be difficult for me to calculate how much money this actually saved me because I don’t have easily-accessible hourly data.
\nAlso, note that the solar panels and the Powerwall are excluded from property tax assessments.\nNot really a savings, just not an additional cost.
\nThe Tesla app tells me an estimate amount of savings of my entire system.\nThe numbers also don’t add up - a lot of times, it says that I used grid energy during peak hours, but individual days don’t show an grid energy usage during peak hours.\nI just don’t bother looking at Tesla’s estimated savings number at all.
\n![\"Tesla](\"https://jongleberry.com/blog-images/powerwall-2023-02-savings.jpeg\")
\nI’m pretty sure I am saving more than what Tesla tells me since the amount of electricity generated from my solar panels for the month alone almost adds up to the estimated savings Tesla shows.
\nTesla has a Storm Watch feature which fully charges your battery before a storm.\nHowever, I live in Santa Ana, and every Santa Ana Wind triggers a Storm Watch,\nwhich is quite often and quite annoying.\nAdditionally, Storm Watch overrides the Time of Use plan, so it may charge your battery at peak hours, costing quite a bit of money.\nI disabled it and only enable it temporarily when I want to fully chage my Powerwall from the grid.
\nThe Powerwall has a setting for how to charge your EV during an outage.\nHowever, as mentioned above, my EV chargers bypass my Powerwall, and there is no setting to disable this.\nOf course, this really doesn’t matter because my EV wouldn’t charge during an outage, but it is annoying that I can’t disable it.
\nOverall, I am happy with my purchase, but it would be difficult for me to recommend it for most people from a cost-savings perspective.\nLike I mentioned above, this is only economically feasible for me because I was able to roll it into my 30 year mortgage with a low interest rate.
\n\n\n", "url": "https://jongleberry.com/posts/four-months-with-tesla-powerwall", "title": "Four Months With Tesla Powerwall", "summary": "How cost-effective is the Tesla Powerwall?", "date_modified": "2023-04-03T00:00:00.000Z", "date_published": "2023-04-03T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Jonathan Ong", "url": "https://jongleberry.com" }, "tags": [ "personal-finance", "tesla", "solar-battery", "real-estate" ] } ] }Interested in buying a Tesla Powerwall? Use my referral code!
\n