An Unexpected Journey: Life Lessons from Conquering Tesla Solar with Python

PyData Pittsburgh is excited to kick off our 2026 season with a powerhouse Python talk from Christopher Pitstick, Senior Software Engineer at Latitude AI. In 2024, Christopher installed a Tesla solar array expecting clean energy and lower bills. Instead, he got a masterclass in persistence, reverse engineering, and why you should never trust a system you can't monitor. Bringing laptops is encouraged for a live interactive surprise at the start of the session!

Tesla's Powerwall/Inverter ecosystem is powerful but notoriously opaque—out of the box it tells you very little about what's happening on your roof. When a weird beeping noise caused Christopher to suspect something was wrong, he built his own monitoring solution with PyPowerwall (an open-source library) utilizing Grafana, InfluxDB, and a Raspberry Pi. The shocking result? He discovered hundreds of kWh in lost production annually.

Time:
6:00 pm – Doors Open
6:30 pm – Talk, An Unexpected Journey: Life Lessons from Conquering Tesla Solar with Python

About the Talk:

This talk isn't just about debugging solar panels, nor is it entirely about Python! It's about the unexpected lessons you learn when you trust your instincts and refuse to accept "it's working fine" as an answer:

• Contributing to open source when the tools you need don't quite exist yet
• Bridging domains—how a software engineer learns just enough electrical/RF engineering to be dangerous
• Navigating warranty claims and contractor relationships with data as your ally
• The right-to-repair movement, and why closed ecosystems hurt consumers
• When to dig deeper vs. when to ship (spoiler: he chose poorly several times)
• Why Python's ecosystem makes it the perfect Swiss Army knife for uniting a vast array of disciplines and communities.

You'll see real code, real dashboards, real mistakes, and the very unscientific art of "vibe-coding" your way through iptable rules at 2am. Does the system get fixed? Does he recover his lost production? Is the blade Narsil reforged? Come find out!

About the venue:

Special thanks to CoLab18, our generous venue sponsor! CoLab18 is a vibrant digital-literacy lab and collaboration space nestled within Nova Place on Pittsburgh’s North Side. CoLab18 is designed to foster inclusive innovation, education, and workforce development, and serves as a hub for community groups, nonprofits, and educational workshops, offering access to technology, training, and public programming.

For directions and parking information, see the CoLab18 directions link.

Additional information: If parking in the Nova Place Garage, use garage entrance 3 or 4, "Visitor Parking" located on South Commons. Follow signs that lead to the pay station and take the "Concourse" Elevators to P for Plaza, the main concourse of Nova Place. CoLab18 is towards your left once you exit the elevators.

If utilizing street parking or any street entrances, please use any of the glass door entrances to enter the Plaza Level inside the Main Concourse of Nova Place.

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