Tesla Powerwall Waiting for Solar: what it means and what to do
"Waiting for Solar" means Powerwall ran too low on energy during a grid outage and stopped powering your home. Tesla says it will check for solar every hour in daylight and resume once there is enough sun to power the home and charge. If those retries fail you may see "Waiting for User Input" and then "Waiting for Grid". A related alert, "Powerwall Overloaded", means your home asked for more power than Powerwall can supply.
Fix soon
Common causes
- Powerwall dropped below about 10% energy during an outage and entered standby.
- Not enough sunshine to power the home and recharge at the same time.
- Too many large loads running at once, which overloads Powerwall.
Safe steps to try
- Turn off large loads Switch off energy-heavy appliances such as air conditioning, electric heaters, EV charging and dishwashers. Tesla says this is the best way to extend backup and to recover from an overload.
- Let Powerwall retry with solar In standby with solar, Powerwall tries to recharge every hour between 8 AM and 4 PM local time. Wait for a clear, sunny period.
- Restart Powerwall when there is sun Tesla says you can restart with a quick toggle of the on/off switch on Powerwall, or in the Tesla app by selecting Powerwall Inactive and then Restart Powerwall. Only try this when there is enough clear sky to power your home and charge Powerwall.
- Reset the Gateway if a restart fails If the restart does not work, Tesla says you can power cycle the Gateway or Backup Switch using its reset button. This reboots it without changing settings. If that also fails, there is not enough energy to start, and Powerwall will wait for the grid.
When to call a professional
If Powerwall does not come back after the grid returns, or it keeps shutting down during outages with normal loads, contact Tesla or your installer. Raising your Backup Reserve in the Tesla app before storms can also help.
Frequently asked questions
- Why did Powerwall stop when it still had a little charge?
- Tesla says Powerwall enters standby when it has less than 10% energy remaining, so it keeps enough to restart when solar returns.
- What does Powerwall Overloaded mean?
- Your home needed more power than Powerwall could supply. Tesla says to reduce load; Powerwall automatically retries within about two minutes.
- How can I avoid this next time?
- Tesla suggests setting a higher Backup Reserve if outages are common, letting Storm Watch prepare for severe weather, and limiting large loads during outages.
Other Tesla faults
- Tesla Powerwall Disabled alert: what it means and what to do
- Tesla Solar Production Limited alert: what it means and what to do
- Tesla Powerwall Meter Offline: what it means and what to do
- Tesla Powerwall Breaker Open alert: what it means and what to do
- Tesla Powerwall Device Offline: what it means and what to do