[booyasauce]

I saw a different thread on this, but then I read this article on Wired (sorry I cant post links) about people using the Leaf for backup during hurricane Sandy.
I would never touch the 480v battery, but this is essentially using the car's own protections and 480->12v conversions to run some stuff from the home. Anyone understand enough about how the Bolt charges its own 12v battery and the limits to the that hardware. Could this work in a pinch? All these hurricanes have me worried and prepping...

 

[David M O'Rourke]

12 v inverter - unto 1500 watts should be no problem according to a Chevy tech video - the Bolt will "back feed" the 12 volt battery at 1600 watts - clamp a 12v DC to AC converter onto the 12 volt battery and you should be fine - I ran a few AC devices via this inverter to try it out…there isn't a lot of experience with this so far - so be careful and don't come to me if there are any problems.

But this particular unit is now permanently in the trunk of my Bolt…

BESTEK 2000W Power Inverter 3 AC Outlets 12V DC to 110V AC Car Inverter

1500 watts is more than enough to run wifi, charge tablets/phones, and keep a home fridge running (although the fridge will take most of the 1500 watts when it's running).

 

[booyasauce]

thanks for guinea pigging yourself. Does the bolt recharge the 12V even when off or do you need to have the car running or something? I don't even know if there is an accessory mode on this thing.

 

[David M O'Rourke]

thanks for guinea pigging yourself. Does the bolt recharge the 12V even when off or do you need to have the car running or something? I don't even know if there is an accessory mode on this thing.

I haven't gotten that far - never needed to run it that long so far - worse case - turn the Bolt on, turn off climate control and the radio and just leave it be while you siphon electrons from the 12 volt battery.

 

[Dyefrog]

Nissan has developed a http://blog.nissan-global.com/EN/?p=4866Leaf to Home converter that is available in Japan. The 24 Kwh battery is enough for 2 days or so based on the Japanese living a much more frugal (energy wise) lifestyle than Americans. It probably won't get through 1 day here before you would need to drive it to a charging station that still had power to top it off again. It's certainly viable and I bought my Leaf second hand on the cheap thinking someday it would be my "powerwall".

 

[David M O'Rourke]

using the Bolt for AC power comes from this thread - and video

http://www.chevybolt.org/forum/10-technical-discussion/11786-very-detailed-video-bolt-systems.html

the relevant portion of the video the discusses this usage is at 10:50 time stamp mark - NOTE: the Chevy representative says it "should work" but "does not sanction" that type of use. So your milage may vary YMMV - don't come to me if there are problems.

 

[surgeonFWW]

I haven't gotten that far - never needed to run it that long so far - worse case - turn the Bolt on, turn off climate control and the radio and just leave it be while you siphon electrons from the 12 volt battery.

Whether the car is "running" or not, how long will it last? Can we simply divide 60 kW by 1500w to get 40 hours (not counting for efficiency loss)?

 

[David M O'Rourke]

thanks for guinea pigging yourself. Does the bolt recharge the 12V even when off or do you need to have the car running or something? I don't even know if there is an accessory mode on this thing.

having an EV "on/running" is really no big deal - since 98% of the battery load comes from the AC/induction motor - which only draws power while it's actually moving - there is virtually NO issue to leaving the car "on/running" in park with the parking brake

turn off the climate control, turn off the radio - and I'm pretty certain the Bolt would sit there almost indefinitely at the sort of electrical loads a non-moving Bolt draws…

we all have to remember 60 kWh - is a _LOT_ of power, an embarrassing amount of power actually -

"In 2015, the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 10,812 kilowatthours (kWh), an average of 901 kWh per month. Louisiana had the highest annual electricity consumption at 15,435 kWh per residential customer, and Hawaii had the lowest at 6,166 kWh per residential customer."

source - https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=97&t=3

60 kWh of power will run the average US household for 5 1/2 days…

the Bolt uses next to nothing if you turn off cabin heating/cooling and it isn't moving under it's own power.

with a 1,500 watt inverter with a. 10% conversion loss - can run from 60 kWh for 36 hours of continuous load. Even a fridge only used 3-4 kWh/day - cause it's not always on.

 

[David M O'Rourke]

but if you're in "hilltop reserve mode" - your at 88% capacity when "fully" charged

60 * .88 = 52.8 kWh sitting in the battery…

10% conversion loss from the inverter

52.8 * .9 = 47.52 kWh consumption possible

average US household = 47.54 / 10.182 = /10.182 = 4.66 days of electrical use

47.54 kWh at 1.5 kWh continuous load = 31.7 hours of back up power - I would venture that you'd get a solid 48 hours of usage out of Bolt if you're running stuff off a 1500 watt 12v DC inverter.

thus making the Bolt a reasonable short term power solution and an awesome camping machine, truly awesome for tail gating if you want AC power.

it's interesting to note that 1500 watts is just about the amount of power on a typical US household 120v/15 amp circuit - 120 volts * 15 amps = 1800 watts.

 

[Sean Nelson]

"In 2015, the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 10,812 kilowatthours (kWh), an average of 901 kWh per month...."

60 kWh of power will run the average US household for 5 1/2 days…

If the average household uses 900 kWh per month then it uses about 30kWh per day and the Bolt's battery would only last 2 days.

 

[David M O'Rourke]

If the average household uses 900 kWh per month then it uses about 30kWh per day and the Bolt's battery would only last 2 days.

thanks for correcting my math -I read the 10,xxx number as daily Wh - my bad!!!

 

[Puregsr]

12 v inverter - unto 1500 watts should be no problem according to a Chevy tech video - the Bolt will "back feed" the 12 volt battery at 1600 watts - clamp a 12v DC to AC converter onto the 12 volt battery and you should be fine - I ran a few AC devices via this inverter to try it out…there isn't a lot of experience with this so far - so be careful and don't come to me if there are any problems.

But this particular unit is now permanently in the trunk of my Bolt…

BESTEK 2000W Power Inverter 3 AC Outlets 12V DC to 110V AC Car Inverter

1500 watts is more than enough to run wifi, charge tablets/phones, and keep a home fridge running (although the fridge will take most of the 1500 watts when it's running).

So you just plug it into the cigarette lighter, turn on the car, and plug your fridge in? Would my gas car provide enough juice for this 2000w unit if I leave it running?

To extend the discussion a little, can you charge the system by plugging in 12v solar panels via the cigarette lighter?

 

[David M O'Rourke]

So you just plug it into the cigarette lighter, turn on the car, and plug your fridge in? Would my gas car provide enough juice for this 2000w unit if I leave it running?

To extend the discussion a little, can you charge the system by plugging in 12v solar panels via the cigarette lighter?

Do NOT do this via the cig lighter - you'll need to clamp directly onto the 12 volt battery under the Bolts hood.

As to if this will work with a gas car it all depends on the gas cars alternator rating. The "alternator" on the Bolt is a 1600 watt D.C. To D.C. Converter so we know the capacity is 1600 watts thanks to the video...

Personally if you want to do this and have a gas car I'd just buy a generator which is made to do this sort of thing and the watt rating is well understood.

As far as charging via the 12 v system I would venture a guess of no...I'm pretty sure it's a one way flow - big battery can provide power to 12 volt but not the other way around - and besides charging via 12 volt from a solar panel would take years.

 

[TotaledJetta]

having an EV "on/running" is really no big deal - since 98% of the battery load comes from the AC/induction motor - which only draws power while it's actually moving - there is virtually NO issue to leaving the car "on/running" in park with the parking brake

turn off the climate control, turn off the radio - and I'm pretty certain the Bolt would sit there almost indefinitely at the sort of electrical loads a non-moving Bolt draws…

we all have to remember 60 kWh - is a _LOT_ of power, an embarrassing amount of power actually -

"In 2015, the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 10,812 kilowatthours (kWh), an average of 901 kWh per month. Louisiana had the highest annual electricity consumption at 15,435 kWh per residential customer, and Hawaii had the lowest at 6,166 kWh per residential customer."

source - https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=97&t=3

60 kWh of power will run the average US household for 5 1/2 days…

the Bolt uses next to nothing if you turn off cabin heating/cooling and it isn't moving under it's own power.

with a 1,500 watt inverter with a. 10% conversion loss - can run from 60 kWh for 36 hours of continuous load. Even a fridge only used 3-4 kWh/day - cause it's not always on.

I am not sure if the Bolt is left in "running" if it continues to charge the 12 V system. I ran my 12 V down over night by leaving it on. Haven't researched this but needs to be checked out. The 12 V battery is small and whimpy.

 

[Pete Blair]

thanks for guinea pigging yourself. Does the bolt recharge the 12V even when off or do you need to have the car running or something? I don't even know if there is an accessory mode on this thing.

The Bolt does not charge the 12v battery while it is off. So to use the Bolt as a backup battery from a feed from the 12v battery you would need to have the car turned on so it would continually charge the 12v battery.

Good thing to know as well is that the 12v battery is the "starter" for the car. When you hit the power button it is using the power from the 12v battery to initiate all the cars subsystems and activate the actual battery. So if for some reason the 12v battery dies, you can't start your car.

There isn't a accessory mode for the Bolt, you just have to turn it on and while it isn't moving it is basically in accessory mode.

 

[Pete Blair]

I am not sure if the Bolt is left in "running" if it continues to charge the 12 V system. I ran my 12 V down over night by leaving it on. Haven't researched this but needs to be checked out. The 12 V battery is small and whimpy.

If the car is actually on it is charging the 12v battery. All the accessories of the car run directly from the 12v battery so if the car wasn't constantly charging it while on the 12v battery would die really fast. It is why when sitting still it shows a 1kWh usage on the gauge. In the thread linked earlier in this thread there is a video that explains it in great detail.

Now what I am not sure about is what happens if you leave the car on and do nothing with it for long periods of time. It wouldn't surprise me that the car is smart enough to put itself into a power save mode after a certain amount of time and stop charging the 12v battery. I know there is a stated limit of 40 minutes for the remote start feature, wouldn't surprise me if it is the same when you walk away from a car that is on.

 

[GJETSON]

David M O'Rourke,

This is relevant to this discussion, as well as others about Bolt behavior.

http://www.motortrend.com/news/chevrolet-bolt-ev-engineers-reveal-11-cool-facts-car-year/

"The Bolt EV does not creep when in one-pedal high-regen mode, so it’s easy to forget you’re in gear and hop out. To prevent this, here’s what happens: Unclick the driver belt, and the electric parking brake sets; open the door, and the car selects park automatically; walk away, and it shuts itself off after an hour—two if you leave the key in the car."

 

[Bazinga]

Two hours is a long time for the Bolt to be draining power from the the 12v battery.

 

[jimmyspeed]

There isn't a accessory mode for the Bolt, you just have to turn it on and while it isn't moving it is basically in accessory mode.

You sure about that? Try holding down the power button for approx 10 seconds without having your foot on the brake. Turned on all the accessories for me. I didn't check, though I'm fairly certain I couldn't shift out of park.

 

[Pete Blair]

You sure about that? Try holding down the power button for approx 10 seconds without having your foot on the brake. Turned on all the accessories for me. I didn't check, though I'm fairly certain I couldn't shift out of park.

That is service mode. Just lets them power the vehicle on and run diagnostics. I guess it is sort of an accessory mode since you can operate the accessories and not drive, not sure if there is any harm in leaving it in that mode for a long time. I don't know if the car will charge the 12v battery in this mode or if it only runs off the 12v battery in that mode. I suspect it would not charge the 12v battery though but I don't see anything in the manual that states one way or the other.