Turning Off Dream Home Power! 

You did it, Dan! We love how much you learned about your home from energy insights in your SPAN Home app throughout this experiment, and that your SPAN Panels made it possible to go off-grid for a full 48 hours. Resilience looks good on your Dream Home!

Dang those drone shots are sweet!

Watching this from South Africa is funny. We live with 10+ hours a day where we have no power. Switching to solar is a game changer here and almost a requirement to live a normal life.

It’s crazy to see how much your house uses even without AC. Even more extreme with AC. Thats no comparison to european houses

Hey Dan, I didn’t read through the comments, so someone else may have said this, but it seems that the Span panel is in charge and not the power wall. This would account for some of the discrepancies that you saw. The power walls are being fed from the Span panel, which is why the span panel was seeing the “whole” picture more clearly than the power wall was seeing. Hope this helps! Thanks for the video! Can’t wait to go solar myself.

This is honestly such a good challenge. You really learn to appreciate having power and become more conscious on how much electricity you use every day. I would love to see you guys try this challenge again in maybe a year and see how you change your home to become more and more efficient.

I wish the Tela powerwalls and chargers would communicate with the Cars to send power from their battery packs back into the house just to bridge the gap between the power walls running out and the solar kicking in fully. It would also mean that the solar could continue at 100% output after the power walls were full and start charging the batteries in the cars. This is something we know Tesla could make, with the app connectivity they already have it would be easy to make them all communicate.

American houses use so much power. I have no idea how do you guys even use this much power, like what in the actual hell are you doing to possibly use this much power ? Most American still use the outdated and dangerous GASSSS for cooking and still use this much power. It just blows my mind.

My wife walked in the room and asked why I listening to Ryan Reynolds and told her I was watching what’s inside family 😂😂 never really knew how similar Dan sounds just like Ryan Reynolds and now I can’t get it out of my head

You need a UPS for your network/computers with a managed shutdown script

Dan - Can you please explain how in 2023 with LED bulbs everywhere, you are using 1KW for your lighting (15:34) during the *day* ?????

It's good to have a backup like you have installed even though you have such a good grid energy system! Here in South Africa our grid is unstable, we have rolling blackouts every 4 hours or so, so having some sort of backup is a need unless you like sitting in dark for 4+ hours a day. You should do some more videos on the solar side.

We lived off grid with our Tesla PowerWalls for 11 days after Hurricane Ida! Our solar panels charged our PowerWalls daily.

they use more energy in one day than i do for my home in a month

Cool challenge. Since there were times in the day where the power banks weren't charging because they were full, couldn't the cars get charged during that time? It would use up some of the stored energy and utilize the available sun. Can't wait to finally see what happens to the statue.

This is more entertainment than instruction. Timing is important and insolation is much better this time of year. And you appear to be in the southwest so not much weather. Practically, this CAN be done any time of year if one manages demand. And yes, the solar/powerwall/SPAN combination is powerful.

Great video Dan! I love the flexibility of SPAN you showed. Our family has about 12kW of solar and 4 Tesla Powerwalls installed. We ran this type of experiment before and after installing a 5 zone Mitsubishi based heat pump system (for cooling and heating), in both winter and summer. I was able to go reliably off grid in both seasons, in part by moving from HVAC to heat pumps. We live in Los Angeles and our home is significantly smaller - about 2,600 square feet - but it's a testament to how much more efficient heat pumps are over traditional HVAC systems. And with the multi-zone nature of heat pump systems, you can just heat or cool the area of the home where you are.

It takes a fair amount of practice to figure out what you actually need on or off. Awesome video! South Africa is going through this but not by choice, haha!

Have you looked at the Tesla solar tiles for the other sections of your roof, as they are far more discreet than the big solar panels?

Seems like you need to complete the solar roof. All that wasted space that can be used for solar. That house should be able to run off the grid without cutting down energy usage.

Could you possibly see about putting a WiFi extender close to your Tesla power wall? Wondering if it just loses communication from the WiFi at certain points? Maybe during peak performance times where a lot of bandwidth is being used? Putting that WiFi extender near the power wall maybe help with that intermittent connectivity.

Back in February 2021 there was a severe ice storm where I live and it’s very unusual to get weather like that, but from it we lost power for 5 days and it took out nearby cell towers so we had no wifi, cell service, and heat Edit: we had to then opt for a generator afterwards instead of solar as from late October to early mid April we don’t get much sun

Lift masters garage door openers with a battery backup is a must for all my houses. When we moved to our current home it was one of the first things we had installed

It's a good, Hard way to find out if the solar panels orientation was set up correctly. Thank you for this. Will keep this in mind when I finally put them on my house

Excited to see how this turns out

I LOVE these house updates. Please keep this content up!

This is what it feels like in South Africa everyday with constant power outages. Such an amazing video love the content!!

I live in Denmark where aircondition is rarely used or even installed. Like the office building I work in has no air conditioning. We do have 82 here from time to time during the summer, and you don’t need AC for those temperatures. Yes it’s a little bit unpleasant, but you can easily do a couple of days with those temperatures.

Did you stop uploading on the main channel??

I’m ou should have put a emergency battery under your desk for your computer, it would of made thjngs so much easier😊

Would love to go off the grid and seeing this video does make me want to do it more! Very cool and educational

I live in rural Pakistan and the grid turns off many times a day (load shedding) and we have a ups but it’s not always enough especially in the hot summers when we want to run the ceiling fans. I have AC but the grid turns off more often in the heat so I’m not able to properly use it. I have been looking into solar to power my whole house ,but It’s expensive and the lithium battery’s are even more expensive. 😅 Basically the experiment you did is just like what happens here when the grid goes off for hours at a time.

so what I've gathered is you need 1 more powerwall, maybe v3 11.5kwh rumored ones, and you could do this flawlessly.

this was an eye opener on how, when n what to use in power conservation n also on hw to go abt power usage in cases of outage

I can give some advice. You can set up the lights so you use less of them for example each of my fixtures have 2 bulbs and when I'm that night time power save mode I use only one and when I'm being really frugal I was set the lights to a color which uses 3 watts or less per bulb

Always happy to see that Zack's statue is still there.

Your frustration between the mismatch of generation and storage is a perfect microcosm of the issues faced by the grid!

Span and the tesla wall are amazing. It's so cool how your power goes down, but you still have power! Also, late happy birthday to Claire 👍

great video and very interesting. done this myself 4 weeks ago and you really learn a lot about power, usage and your behaviour. everyone should do this to get the knowledge about there power usage

LOVE these house updates.....i want you to move for more house videos lol

I think that your house is wired up weirdly, as I have found the tesla app is actually very accurate even when the power is out. It also works completely independently of the internet too (and allows for hardwired ethernet if you want). I have a second power meter, and I measure both at 1hz with some home automation and they match to about 0.1% error. I think this is an app explanation issue. It looks like your house has 2x 200a panels, and the powerwalls do not actually connect between separate the two service connections. This means when it is disconnected, there are many ways that the tesla app could measure differently than span depending on how the house is wired and they truly are measuring the correct power through a wire, but just because of the way they are wired, they represent different things.

17:09 I believe the reason it does this is because the grid is disconnected and the power can’t be sent to the power company. I do think that it is odd that it doesn’t use the solar for the house but it may be for the same reason. And good job managing everything and keeping energy for your house most of the video!

i helped my neighbor go off grid, 7.5 kw of solar and 20kw of batteries, occasionally he needs to use the generator, but it is winter in south east Australia and solar is lousy her over winter because of how south we are. we split his panels 50/50 east and west so he makes power all through daylight hours and only when its severally overcast he will generate little power. His batteries her set up for cycle life so they are only used from 30% charge to 85% so in essence he is only using about 10kw of his batteries.

This was a great test, I imagine your solar/usage can be scaled up and down dependent on size of property and appliances. You can switch off fridges for a few hours as long as you don’t open them, in a pinch you could have not used air con etc… during an actual outage, this could be life saving. Instead of using the Tesla power wall there are modular systems that allow for more granular upgrades. Teslas a nice package though. Nice real world, human test. Also, well to wheel, EVs still contribute less CO2 than ICE vehicles. Span needs to go international, absolutely cracking idea.

I work for an electrical utility. I need some of our customers with solar to watch this video to show that even with a lot of solar and batteries you would still need some help from the utility at times to keep the power going and what it would look like if you were actually off grid

For the weirdness of the applications. Maybe, the tesla doesn't know that power is use in the house because it's from the solar panel only. Instead, the SPAN app know because all the power from the solar go thought the SPAN system and so, the app know the power consumption of the house and stored energy of the tesla wall

Pretty sure your home isn't 100% running through the powerwalls, do you have two breaker panels? That may be why the Tesla app isn't showing your full home usage? My home is 100% going through the backed up panel so it shows every watt we use.

Here in uk I have the ability to back feed from my electric car into my house if needed my inverter allows this I rarely use the grid. I use a solar controller through my pcb which incorporates a timer turns off when you know your not producing high power. if circuits power isn’t being produced to supply high power ie water heater it doesn’t turn those on.

Get the Liftmaster or other brand garage opener with battery backup which also has wifi and belt drive (very quiet). I was amazed one time when my wife came home when power was out and it just worked. Very nice feature.

I wish SPAN was available in Australia. I'm building a house and going full electric. Planning on getting 13kW solar and one Powerwall 2 (thinking of getting a second maybe). SPAN would be nice to have so I could have more control over the house.

This video should be titled "Utah Family Plays Vermont Simulator for 2 Days"

our electric went out for 2 weeks and we handled it very well. Kept the shades closed, doors, ,etcc. Especially if the entire Grid goes out through the Country. what else is best for people to have security cameras!!! We visit your city a month ago, it's so beautiful there and the citizens are so nice. Throughout Utah it's pretty.

cool house you have. when I was a kid our power got shut off all the time in the summer because my parents didnt have the money for the bill. 90+ degree days with no fans - no fridge. we had coolers. >>>> memories .

The 0% solar with 95% powerwall charge reading was correct. When off grid, the powerwalls will shut down the solar inverters before they reach 100% charge as a safety measure when your power use is relatively low. The powerwalls can control the solar production by shifting the frequency of the house power slightly. If you were to start using a lot of power suddenly (like plugging in the car) then the powerwalls would switch on the solar again. The trick is you would need to remember to turn off the circuit to the car as the sun goes down to avoid having it draining the house battery storage too soon.

Hey Dan, I was wondering why don't you put more solar panels on the other side of your golf simulation area? That way you can grab more energy

Dan what you just explained about why the power pack only charges up to 97% is what is called controls engineering or having feedback loops that can change in real time.......I would know since I just graduated with a B.S. in Robotics Engineering

If the house is connected to the grid, will the power-management system still exclusively use the Powerwall if it's charged enough, energy demand is low enough, and there's no solar input power?

6:46 why not have solar panels on both sides? But I’d get more solar storage.

So my question is, would it be better to do the solar roof tiles and maybe another battery because then maybe you would be able to sustain being completely off grid? An you would also beable to get more solar energy from start to end off day?

Ask your solar installer to check the CPs installed in main service panel. If it’s not picking up all the loads that might be causing the inconsistent readings on the Tesla app

i think the reason your tesla power wall wasn't working after grid was on because you changed your Powerwall setting to off grid mode. i might be wrong but that's what came in to my mind.

should put panels on the east roof of the detached garage since its not attached to the main house it wont look as bad from a driving view. That wouldve kept most of what you needed running all morning long probably

Dan house needs his own Tesla Megapack & not just Powerwalls😂

Does your power go into the span first before it goes to the Powerwall, or is the solar wired directly into the power wall? On the powerwall, do you have a MESH internet for WIFI? It might help the Powerwall is on WIFI fulltime.

I live in Hermiston Oregon and we have 22 325 watt panels and 10 365 watt panels that all face the south and right now on the average they generate 63 to 65 kw a day. The only thing is we don't have Tesla Powerwalls yet!

You did this challenge so well and I loved the drone shots i can’t wait for you to do another challenge like this, maybe 72 Hours. You ae my favorite youtuber!

I believe if the home was also smart, you could pretty much configure so that when the battery is full, you can run the A/Cs on "max" so you can also create a thermal battery in the house. This way you can use way less power overall since you have the overflow during the "A/C time" and allow you to run more devices @ night. This is something TechnologyConnections mentioned about off-peak grid use, so I think it would also perfectly apply in the opposite case here of on-peak sun hours ☀☀

Good Stuff Dan Powerwalls & Span panels are a great combo.

I really enjoy your videos Dan, mainly techy but dynamic, like all on this family channel. It would be awesome if you could make a detailed smart home over few parts or security focused video next, (like a demo how it is set up) i wached your last smart home video, you said it can diferentiate yours from strangers it sounds like AI magic. What cameras or recorders can do that else than Luma, i cant get hold of them in Europe. Have a nice day, Matej😊

It would be cool if you could connect your tesla to the powerwall and set it to drain in case of emergency till a set amount of miles left.

Do you have a powerr generator, like a gas generator to see how much the difference would be? You have a gas stove so It would be interetsing to see what the power usage with a gas generator would be vs grid

connecting to and disconnecting from the grid: minimize your usage to minimize the arking and the current surge. A current surge can burn out equipment and devices. Example : the power company forgot to notify our processing plant before restoring the power. The power company had to replace 3 35 horsepower 3 phase m

Remember that ac grids, including your own micro-grid have to be perfectly balanced, the production has to match the consumption. That means your solar production has to go somewhere. It can go to the house, or it can go the battery (or both) and when you are on-grid, it can also go tho the grid. When you areare off-grid, if there is a sudden decrease on the house's consumption (for example, an ac turned off) all that solar power going into your house has to go somewere, and since the grid is off, the only remaining option is the battery. If the battery is full, or nearly full, then it might not be capable of taking all that power, and if that's the case, then you have a problem. That is one of the reasons of why your solar is cut when the powerwall is at 98%. Another option might be because the battery cannot coordinate with the solar inverter. Some battery and solar inverters can communicate between them, so the battery can tell the solar inverter how much energy should it produce so all solar energy can be handled by the system (ether by the battery charger or the house loads). If that option is not available, then you are left with the caveman method:, "bang bang" control: When the battery is almost full, turn off the solar, when battery is not as full, turn back on solar. Also, this control method is not fast enoguth for sudden demand variations, so a little buffeer has to be left, so even if the battery and the pv can talk to each other, is not strange for the solar to be cut-off when the battery is almost full.

Oh my God, I’m your fan

Cool experiment, but it's not really representative of normal energy saving. Stuff like lights and phones take bssically zero energy, you could run them 24/7 no problem. The only real things that draw power are heating and air conditining.

Living in the Caribbean we do these test all the time glad I have 🪟 so a/c isn’t turned on in the day. Plus when the grid is out you won’t make it to a 100% in the Tesla app stays at 98%. You just have to reduce consumption mainly a/c, a/c makes people soft like you’re dying without a/c.

Could the CT's for the TESLA power walls be located incorrectly or do the need to be calibrated. The Tesla system is also protecting itself that is factored in. It is eye opening and the data from the SPAN panel can be used to fine tune the loads and spot efficiency problems. A UPS system would be a good idea to take care of your computers independently.

This is a very interesting video I really life the span breaker system

Hey Dan, will you tell Claire, happy birthday and, I hope the stars will guide her! For the power wall, I seriously think the Tesla app isn't doing all that it could do. Haven't used it myself personally but I have Enphase so far I haven't had too many issues. Do love the way that it shows what it's doing. Live and how your showed up was very different from the way that Enphase app is. Personally, since you showed off the spam system, hopefully I said that correctly. It would be quite nice to have that installed here in the house because it would put us to a full house backup system instead of partial backup. With only one battery, I think we could manage the output of it, especially during the summer months where we have sun higher in the sky here in NC. My recommendation is to purchase a few cheap solar LED lights for outside and inside that does not have to be connected to any type of power. And personally, that was a great idea by the girls to charge up some of the battery backups and cell phones and flashlights!😂😂😂😂🎉 Great day to choose her birthday to torture her with one of your experiments as well! From my understanding, you could possibly get away with installing one more backup battery and possibly get away with having the home stay almost completely active. But yes, if you went with an extra two or three you would most likely have power for days! Or at least enough for a bad winter night! And thanks for all you do. Keep up the great content boss!

Excellent video!! What is the capacity of your power walls in total?

I have a single Span panel and a single Tesla Wall. I just wish the Span panel would be more connected to real breaker activity. The app doesn't show if a breaker is tripped or not. And I don't believe too much of what the Tesla app says regarding capacity. They could do a much better job. But hey, they build cool rockets.

Have you considered an EV with bi directional charging? ...this could be a good solution to your additional power needs. Nissan Lead and Ford Lightening I believe have these features. I am curious if power packs are available for individual residential properties. Or maybe a battery solution with old EV batteries that don't have the capacity that's ideal to drag around in cars.

I love you videos so you that teals powerwall 2 with the larger compasity help you house completely off grid?

I have a question if I have enough solar panels and tesla walls could I technically live off grid and not pay for electricity?

Dan you should definitely try this out in Az during the summer time to be more specific where at in Yuma it’s hotter in Yuma than in PHX

It looks like you have 400 amp service 2 panels-200amp each. Are the powerwalls powering one of those panels? Or somehow both? Just seems like battery backup is limited by the greater than 200 amp services. Tesla, enphase, etc seem to all be in same boat.

I think you have an issue, the span panels create an internal lan between the span panel and the tesla gateway (wired together via ethernet) so you shouldn't have issues with internet connectivity. The blackouts on the tesla app (missing data) could be an issue with the gateway itself, check to see if all the powerwalls are flashing rapidly, this would indicate an issue with the gateway.

Love ur videos 🎉 thanks for the vids

2kW baseload during the night? I have 350w at most (unless AC is on, but where I live it's not really necessary until July and August).

What about a challenge, where everyone in your family each gets an ecoflow power bank, and whoever powers his personal devices the longest wins something cool?

Got hope on twitter that you said on what’s inside twitter but hopes it’s what’s inside family

I doubt I will get a response but worth a try. ( A ) what if you had a cheap Walmart or Amazon like door mirror and aimed it towards your panel's for a little early morning sun ? Lastly what about the kids having their own portable backup battery packs in their rooms that they manage? Then try this again... Ideally the mirror unless you had some computer controlled ones to move them and always keep them pointed correctly it's kind of a dumb idea but just for the fact of keeping minimum power would it be enough?

Sounds like Dan's going to grab one or two more powerwalls or a few more easterly facing panels...

It is not off-grid if you have internet conenction. Try doing the same and unplug internet cable. It would be intersting if you can still manage your apps for tesla and span. BTW. Tesla app tells you only what is comming in and out to the wall, it does not have any information about SPAN and the other inventer, so it is reporting correctly, but just for itself.

Dan, was your refrigerator on continuously during the challenge?

i wonder if the tesla app is cloud based other thing i wonder if tesla just estimates power usage and such vs span which has wires touching or a loop around the wires because my LG AC unit estimates but doesn't know the actual power consumption

17:35 Can you have limit charged percentage for power wall like tesla cars? Cause if you always charge them to 100% , they will be lost their capacity soon.

Feel like that garage needs like...2-3 panels on the east side to get some morning juice inflowing before you get the big dose of sunshine. Have you considered sun tracking systems for solar panels? There are a few cool setups out there.

Car coming out is so nice❤❤❤ 12:33 +Tesla sounds

Excellent video there are a lot of things you could do to be better prepared. I am in 🇵🇷 Puerto Rico have the same system We have also battery backups (ups) in the Internet and other stuff. We go off grid every week because the grid is really bad. SPAN did not want to install in my house neither sell the system to me 😢. I am relying on other equipment to do something similar. But awesome video.