Tesla Gateway - Planning ahead for installation

[Sard]

Hi all,

I am considering having a Tesla Powerwall 3 and Gateway installed. I am in the process of getting quotes but wanted to get an idea on cable routing. I'm also looking to have an EV Charger installed at the same time.

Here is my current electricity supply cabinet:



I would like to have the Gateway installed above it, as shown below:



I would like to have the cables fed via rear entry. The cables will be 16mm2 Powerwall cables, 6mm2 EV Ultra cables, Cat5 Ethernet and then grid side feed coming into the Gateway and then a load side feed going to the main switch that feeds the house.

The charger will be on the other side of the property with cable being clipped to joist inside the ceiling voide. The battery will be also be on the other side of the property and housed in my garage. My house has cavity walls and I am wondering if we can drill through the internal block work, down at an angle, so that we can pull all the cables listed above through the cavity and out by removing an external brick to allow rear entry? The Gateway back panel and entry points look like the following, with the entry points near the bottom.



Does this sound feasible? Any reasons not to do it like this? The Powerwall cable is 19mm2 in diameter and can be tricky to manipulate. I am trying my best to avoid having cables tacked to the exterior of the property

Thank you in advance.

 

[Sard]

Just nudging to hopefully get some advice

 

[Murdochcat]

Have you consulted a competent installer?

 

[Sard]

yes, this isn't intended to shortcut the installers work but my question is quite specific about cable routing and less about how the system is set up etc.

 

[ericmark]

Ducts can be fitted for cables to be drawn through, but batteries and inverters seem to change month by month, so what seems the best option a couple of months ago, today can be old hat.

Also, what can be seen as unfair practice, where firms like Octopus offer special tariffs to customers using them for all, buying car, charger, and power from them, you get special rate, but also they have their own strict rules of how it is to be done, like not using the existing consumer unit.

So a near impossible question to answer. Both my son and I use Octopus and charge batteries overnight, I pay 8.5p/kWh he pays 7p/kWh for off-peak, because he got the car from Octopus.

He was careful to leave ways in his consumer unit for the connection to his battery, but they will not use it, their internal rules said the electrician fitting the unit must use a consumer unit supplied by them.

Each firm is different, so in real life no answer to your question.

 

[Sard]

Ducts can be fitted for cables to be drawn through, but batteries and inverters seem to change month by month, so what seems the best option a couple of months ago, today can be old hat.

Also, what can be seen as unfair practice, where firms like Octopus offer special tariffs to customers using them for all, buying car, charger, and power from them, you get special rate, but also they have their own strict rules of how it is to be done, like not using the existing consumer unit.

So a near impossible question to answer. Both my son and I use Octopus and charge batteries overnight, I pay 8.5p/kWh he pays 7p/kWh for off-peak, because he got the car from Octopus.

He was careful to leave ways in his consumer unit for the connection to his battery, but they will not use it, their internal rules said the electrician fitting the unit must use a consumer unit supplied by them.

Each firm is different, so in real life no answer to your question.

Thank you, I have ruled out Octopus for that very reason. The information in my original post is based on conversations I've had with various firms, but I am keen to get my own understanding. The setup described described above has been validated, its more to do with the cable routing and termination.

 

[ericmark]

I was with British Gas, and for 20 months go no payment for export, so I was very happy with Octopus, British Gas offered a better deal, but since they did not do as promised, what the offer is useless.

 

[Sard]

Just to clarify, I ruled out Octopus because they refused to fit any Powerwall where the battery is more than 15m from the gateway. Mine is about 17m and they insisted on me fitting it closer, in a very awkward location. Other companies like heatable and spirit solar have been absolutely fantastic and their engineering teams have confirmed what I'm after is absolutely fine, but cannot comment on cable routing until they are on-site, which for me leaves too much to chance.

 

[Murdochcat]

Just to clarify, I ruled out Octopus because they refused to fit any Powerwall where the battery is more than 15m from the gateway. Mine is about 17m and they insisted on me fitting it closer, in a very awkward location. Other companies like heatable and spirit solar have been absolutely fantastic and their engineering teams have confirmed what I'm after is absolutely fine, but cannot comment on cable routing until they are on-site, which for me leaves too much to chance.

If they won’t comment until they are on site and you expect random internet advice to be ok

Eyes on site trumps internet advice every time

 

[Sard]

Murdochcat , I think you're just making meal of it now. Its a simple question about cable routing through brickwork, but yeah let's DIY bash. Last time I checked, this forum was for amateurs and hobbyist to get friendly advice. Have you got advice to offer? If not I politely ask you to stop commenting as its not adding any value at present

 

[Murdochcat]

Did you not wonder why nobody was commenting?

 

[Sard]

No need for me to wonder. My brain doesn't go down rabbit holes unnecessarily.

 

[JohnW2]

Murdochcat , I think you're just making meal of it now. Its a simple question about cable routing through brickwork, but yeah let's DIY bash. Last time I checked, this forum was for amateurs and hobbyist to get friendly advice. Have you got advice to offer? If not I politely ask you to stop commenting as its not adding any value at present

Indeed, Give the nature and (I presume) purpose of this forum (and others like it), one has to wonder why some electricians (and retired electricians) bother to expend time and effort participating if their attitude to "DIYers" is essentially 'negative'.

Thankfully, there are some of the regular participants (both electricians and non-electricians) who are happy and willing to participate in a manner as was (presumably) 'intended'!

Having said all that, there obviously are occasions on which those who are 'remote', and hence have not see the actual 'on-site' situation', cannot give much, if any, useful advice - but there are pleasant (as well as 'less pleasant'!) ways of pointing that out!.

 

[Sard]

Thanks JohnW2, I've greatly benefited from your support over the years and that of other members like EFLImpudence and MadRab over in the plumbing forum.

What perhaps has not been visible to others in this post is that I have designed the installation fully, documented it and had it thoroughly vetted by a number of Solar/EV installers and pretty much everyone has agreed that my desired configuration is robust and they would be happy to implement it.

The sole purpose of my post was to determine if removing a brick to help feed some pretty chunky cables through the cavity wall was the right approach. The sizing of cables, placement of breakers, CT clamps that's all been sorted.