Spirit Energy Install the First Tesla Powerwall 3 in the UK.
... to be installed by anyone other than Tesla.
The First Tesla Powerwall 3 in the UK to be installed by an installer.
To find out more about Powerwall 3, see our Tesla Powerwall 3 Knowledge Bank.
Here's our step-by-step installation video:
That’s right – it's actually the 5th Tesla Powerwall 3 in the UK, however, the first 4 were installed by Tesla as “pilot installs” to test the installation, commissioning process and to iron out any kinks prior to the announcement of Tesla Powerwall 3 in the UK on June 19th. Spirit Energy are the first installer to install a Tesla Powerwall 3.
Spirit Energy are one of Tesla’s 29 Premium Partners in the UK (out of a pool of 1,500 installers). It's a high bar to become a Premium Partner, Spirit Energy installed 239 Tesla Powerwall 2 units last year and have installed well over 1000 Tesla Powerwall 2 units in total. Tesla selected us to be the first company in the UK to install a Tesla Powerwall 3.
We installed the first Tesla Powerwall 3 for a Tesla employee in Horsell, Woking. Spirit’s Head of Installations, Justin Parsons, and one of our senior electricians, Simon Norris, arrived at the customer’s house at 8am to begin the installation.
Step 1: Unboxing & Mounting Powerwall 3
The first step was to mount the Powerwall 3 on the external wall where the customer wanted it to sit. Powerwall 3 is shipped in an all-new sustainable clamshell packaging design that can be reused by Tesla to help lower the cost and carbon footprint of the product.
Tesla has designed a dolly to lift and mount the Powerwall 3. This will save time and make it much easier to lift and manoeuvre the Powerwall 3.
Step 2: Installing Tesla Gateway 2.
The next step was to decommission the customer’s existing system from a different manufacturer, ready for the upgrade to the Tesla Powerwall 3. Following this, our Head of Installations began to install and wire Tesla’s Gateway 2 in the customer’s utility cupboard. Gateway 2 is primarily responsible for disconnecting, ‘islanding’, the house from the grid in the event of a power cut.
Step 3: Wiring Tesla Powerwall 3.
While Justin cracked on with wiring Gateway 2, Simon started pulling cables through the wall to connect Powerwall 3 both to Gateway 2 and to the customer’s electricity supply.
The cables that need to be run to Powerwall 3 are:
Step 4: Completing Gateway 2 Wiring.
It takes 2-3 hours to fully wire Gateway 2 (if you’re doing it properly and carefully, that is). Part-way through the installation, Justin switched off the customer’s electricity to re-route the incoming supply cables through Gateway 2. This allows it to island the house in a power cut.
Unfortunately, due to the previous installation that was decommissioned, the cable arrangement and placement in the cupboard was difficult to make perfect like we would design for a brand new installation.
Step 5: Wiring the Solar DC Strings to Powerwall 3.
While Simon installed the earth rod, Justin began crimping and wiring the DC cables from the on-roof solar panels. Tesla Powerwall 3 has a solar inverter capable of up to 20kW DC input, however, in this case we only needed to use the 3.68kW inverter as the customer has a relatively small, 10 panel solar system.
Tesla Powerwall 3 has 3 solar MPPTs which stands out against most inverters that only have 2.
Step 6: Installing the Front Cover & Commissioning.
Following completion of the wiring, it was time to put the front cover on and go through the commissioning process. The Tesla Powerwall 3 light glows an epic, Iron Man shade of red when being commissioned.
We’re super proud to be the first installer in the UK to install a Tesla Powerwall 3, and we’re very grateful to Tesla for giving us this honour. It’s a huge testament to the hard work of everyone at Spirit Energy and our unwavering commitment to excellence & quality.
Please get in touch to request a quotation for Tesla Powerwall 3 or to find out more.