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I read that most EV makers, Ford, KIA, VW etc. claim their vehicles to be V2G ready (Vehicle to Grid) the only exceptions appear to be Tesa and GM. Did I miss the latest news.
Bolt V2G ready
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I'm sure GM's venture into EVSE's will compete against the Ford F150L. As to how much GM might integrate will be a market condition and maybe federal free money. I would like to have power but not willing to pay much for it. Takes a lot of stuff on my house to use it. The F150L people are spending something like $10K or more just to get backup power. I can buy any number of solutions for that.
Any vehicle which supports fast charging will physically support V2G insomuch as it can provide power to an external inverter which then connects to the grid. This comes down only to changing the software to support it. This is entirely doable. Now, if you want V2G directly, that's a different story. Some vehicles have some limited capacity for this but the nature of the beast is such that built-in inverters in a car are going to be wimpy. It's far better to keep the inverter "on shore" so to speak and just use the vehicle to provide DC power. This also means you don't have to pay for a new inverter with each car. Upgrade the car, the inverter is the same. This is the way to go for V2G for 90% of people. A few people are going to want 4kw AC output while they're out and about. For those people, sure, something like the F150 might be just the thing (it's probably not exactly 4kw, I don't remember what power output it has. 4kw was just an example).
V2G is fundamentally the same as a home battery or generator installation: if you want to be able to use the power during a blackout, you need a transfer switch that cuts off from the grid. If you're using an inverter powered from the car's fast-charge (DC) port, the car is simply serving as a battery like one of those boxes from Tesla or (shudder) LG or any of several others on the garage wall. The car's charging electronics, of course, need to allow bidirectional power flow and keep the battery conditioning online, but via the HV DC pins (which normally go directly to the battery) it should work with any EV whether designed for it or not. "Should" being the operative term - the car's not rated for it, so you're on your own making it work, good luck. The main problem is that it just costs so much to set up, essentially a HV DC charging setup (with inverter for house supply) which seems to run, at best, around an order of magnitude more expensive than an ordinary Level 2 AC EVSE.
Yes, the home based inverter will be somewhat expensive. But, it can be done for around $3-4 thousand dollars. This is certainly more expensive than an EVSE but the potential savings are found in the battery pack itself. Tesla Model S modules are around 24V, 5.5kwh and cost about $1200. So, if you want 11kwh of backup you get to pay $2400 plus you would still need a solar rated 48v inverter which is still around the price of an EVSE at somewhere in the $600-1200 range. But, for around $4k you might be able to get an inverter that can handle 400v and you already have a 65kwh battery in the bolt. To me, that's potentially worth it. So, if someone is thinking of home based power backup, it seems reasonable to pay more for an inverter and then drive your battery backup around when you aren't using it. Now, some vehicles have 1-3kw 120V inverters in them. If these are cheap enough perhaps they're good enough for some people. It's my understanding that the F150 has 240v output and more power but this capability is not free. So, I guess it all comes down to costs and what people are trying to accomplish.
v2h poor mans generator.
Well to answer my question. No codes were thrown while drawing ~3.5k from the hpdm. My inverter (solaredge se7600a) that I picked up used for $400 seems to have a problem above that draw. I believe my inverter is under warranty.. but I'm not exactly using it for it's intended purpose.. so don't...
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Only thing I am really concerned about in the winter is keeing my house warm. This seems like a good cheap way of doing that with a gas furnace. I have done something similar in the past using my portable generator.
Sorry but it won’t work on heat pumps. Or electric furnaces.
Sorry but it won’t work on heat pumps. Or electric furnaces.
For sure, a forced air furnace will work with only a small amount of AC, probably only around 1kw or so. Heat pumps are essentially A/C units run in reverse so they're going to use 4kw approximately and that might work with a big generator but isn't going to happen with a 12V inverter
My furnace has a separate 120V 20A circuit. AFAICT that powers the blower, inducer fan, and a few control bits.
Mine, too. I've already made three three-foot pigtails that have wire nuts ready on one end, and a 5-15P on the other. As a "Plan C", I'll disconnect the circuits of the fridge, microwave and an outlet circuit in my main, and connect them to the pigtails. (I'm not worried about house temp, in So. CA.) The fridge and microwave are built-in, and I can't (easily) access their plugs. I can then plug the pigtail's 5-15P into my backup's backup source of choice. I won't be doing so in the rain, though. My main e-panel is outside.
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