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Latest Update

• 5/26/2026 (Edited 5/27/2026)

New Feature: Battery Hold - Helps Avoid Extra Battery Wear

We've added a new Hold battery for charging widget to the Site Live view. Use Battery Hold when you want to charge your EV (or any large load) to avoid draining your Powerwall battery.

Nitty Gritty Details

When you are optimizing your Time Of Use / Solar interaction you often want to charge your EV during the day to soak up that free sun, but often your solar panels can't do it all. You need some help, and by default that help usually comes from your battery. But you'd rather keep your battery filled to support your home when the sun goes down. A battery hold is just want you need to keep your battery where it's at. With extra power coming from the grid. This makes the most sense when you have a surplus of overproduction which you'll know by looking at the Load Timing feature we recently added.

User Experience

You get there from the live data chip at the top of the site view — the new card sits next to Load Timing.

Hold Battery card : A web interface component titled "Hold battery for charging." The description text reads: "Parks the Powerwall at its current level so a large load (e.g. EV charging) draws from solar/grid instead of the battery." Below the text, there is a prominent blue button labeled "Hold battery at 43%" next to a white button labeled "QR Code". A footnote at the bottom reads: "Note: The official Tesla app caches settings aggressively. You may need to force-restart it to see updated reserve levels."

Tap Hold battery and we park your backup reserve at its current level. While the hold is active, your load pulls from solar and the grid instead of discharging the battery.

Hold Battery Modal: "Hold battery for charging" with a close (X) icon in the top right corner. The text inside states: "Battery at 43%. While held, the Powerwall draws the load from solar/grid instead of discharging." Under a "Duration" heading, there are two radio button options: a selected option for "Auto-detect (restores when charging ends)" and an unselected option for "Fixed duration". The bottom right of the modal features a white "Cancel" button and a blue "Hold at 43%" button.

When Does the Hold Stop?

When you start a hold, you pick how it should stop:

  • Auto-detect — we watch your load and restore your previous reserve as soon as charging ends. Best for EVs.
  • Fixed duration — set a timer (2/4/6/8 hours, or custom) for a strict window.

There's also an 8-hour safety backstop so a missed signal can never leave your reserve parked overnight, and you can always hit Restore now to end a hold early.

How does Auto-detect Know When To Stop?

We use something called Non-Intrusive Load Detection (NILM) to detect the shape of loads. While your battery hold is running we check every so often to see if our NILM detector has noticed that your load is finished. We are re-using the same detector we created for site usage history load detection.

Handy QR Code

Each site has a QR code (on the widget itself and on the Site Settings page) that deep-links straight to Start a Battery Hold Stick it on the wall next to your EV charger and you can start a hold right from your phone.

Feedback

As always let us know what you think. Hit us up on the discord if you have any questions.