Is anyone in this community using their electric vehicle as a power source during extended power outages?

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matchstick64@reddit

I purchased a device to use our Prius but we haven’t taken the time to connect it yet.

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Silly_Actuator4726@reddit

You can run a few appliances for a day, but your electric car will then be a brick until the power is back on.

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Unlikely-Ad3659@reddit

If only there was an easy way of moving your electric car to somewhere it could be recharged before the battery was flat.

Shame neither roads or charging points for EVs exist.

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Backsight-Foreskin@reddit

If there is a regional blackout, how far are you going to have to drive to recharge your car? The Northeast Blackout of 2003 affected 7 states.

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It isn't 2003 anymore. The world has changed, there are tens of thousands of people in those 7 states with home ev charging ports, with soar panels, there are thousands of public chargers, many solar powered or using batteries. The infrastructure has evolved, have you?

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Backsight-Foreskin@reddit

Sure, if you want to wait in line for 7 hours in the hopes a solar powered EV charger is still working when you get to it, be my guest.

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Unlikely-Ad3659@reddit

So EVs are shit in your utterly made up fantasy scenario.

So your recommendation is don't use them to power your home because if your SHTF scenario ever happens, they will only works for a few days.

Good luck in life, you will need it.

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Mesa_Dad@reddit

Shame neither roads or charging points for EVs exist.

I know right? They won't be adopted by the masses until they do... /s

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LastEntertainment684@reddit

I run a 30amp sub-panel off my F150 Lightning’s Pro-Power. Works amazingly well.

I can run the house for about a week and then I run my generator for a day or so to charge the truck back up.

Nice thing is there’s no noise or fumes, I just leave the truck parked in the garage and turn on the power.

Eventually I’ll combine it with a full solar setup, but for now I’ve got a 120v solar setup, a dual fuel gas/propane generator, and a diesel generator that are all capable of charging the truck (albeit at different rates).

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Secret-Foundation449@reddit

I looked into the f150 capabilities. A 130kwh battery is very nice. You need to buy special equipment though as it is not just electricity flowing backwards through your charging cable

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TurnbullFL@reddit

I put a 36V LifePo in my golf cart, and have an old 36V ups I can set up to run the essentials.

I figure I can go 6 hour on the battery, and 2 hours of running generator.

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Unlikely_Ad_9861@reddit

Yup, I power the basics. When the power goes out, I attach a 1500-watt inverter to a 2011 Nissan Leaf 12-volt battery. The car has to be fully on and ready to drive so that the traction battery is used to charge the 12-volt. 1000 watts continous seems to be the safe limit. Refrigerator, chest freezer, lights, charging devices.

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Real-Mammoth-9086@reddit

I use my vehicle but not for my entire home. As you said the basics. Fridge, electric stove and garage freezer as needed.

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DancinWithWolves@reddit (OP)

Any issues?

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No_Character_5315@reddit

It's not that simple requires some electrical work in house these guys tried it with some success https://youtu.be/fPCi40bSRWc?si=7vsShXoEeYkDWfWt

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DancinWithWolves@reddit (OP)

V2H doesn’t require that. They have household outlets you can plug into.

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Carmel_Cobra@reddit

I believe using the outlets falls under V2L.

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Real-Mammoth-9086@reddit

This is correct.

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DancinWithWolves@reddit (OP)

V2H isn’t the same. Different connectors and cables as opposed to V2L, which literally has an outlet you can plug an appliance into. V2H requires an inverter usually.

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Real-Mammoth-9086@reddit

I think he's saying the outlet in the car for V2L. At least that's what I assumed when giving my last response

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Carmel_Cobra@reddit

Bingo 👍

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Real-Mammoth-9086@reddit

None at all. When I KNOW there's a storm coming or something that might affect my ability to charge my car, I charge to 100%. Then use the load from my car as needed. And I supplement with a different battery system. I plan to eventually get the separate battery system expanded enough to sustain the house for a few days but the car and other battery work for now.

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DancinWithWolves@reddit (OP)

Awesome. Great option hey, having the car there just in case

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Kenpoaj@reddit

If you are going this route, avoid GM products. I purchased an equinox ev last year to do this, they said it will do V2H. I purchased the V2H charger bundle, and made sure they confirmed that it would allow my solar to be used off grid to power the house and charge the battery with excess during the day and run off the battery when the solar wasnt enough.

On the day of v2h install, the installer told me the solar still wont function with grid down, AND the install failed. So now i have to wait for a redesign of the system.

On top of that, GM is initiating a buyback for the car because they dont have replacement parts available for the multitude of issues the car experiences. Everything is backordered. The main battery on the car died at around 500 miles, and the main unit that controlls the gps, speed limit sign reader, etc, died at 10k miles. Both were backordered and took over a month to arrive.

You might say "ill avoid the equinox ev then." But its not just that. We had 4 GM loaners through the dealership (non-ev, all 2024 or 2025 models) and EVERY one of them had the same gps module fail. The one we currently have also has android auto, so im not swapping it out again. At least we have a vehicle that can do hands free gps.

GM doesnt have a customer service problem, everyone we have talked to from chevy to gm has been great at pointing us in the right direction for the buyback, agreeing that the problem is GM. They just have a huge supply issue at the moment, as well as a communication issue with their contractors/engineers.

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Kenpoaj@reddit

The reason we DID go the GM route was because after trade in and incentives, the equinox was an 85kw battery for $20k that we could drive too.

The v2h package is about another 30k after parts and labor. The solar company quoted me $130k for 90kw of battery backup installed.

Our house is 100% electric/heatpump. 85kw would last us 3 days in winter on the coldest days of the year. Longer than that, there is a fast charger 15 mins away that we could drive to (almost entirely downhill too!) to charge up and come back home, all main roads which should be clear within 2 days of a heavy snowfall/ice storm.

In summer the solar should be able to run the house during the day AND top off the car, and then just run off the car at night if needed.

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silasmoeckel@reddit

Not yet.

Looking at a ramcharger as my next truck. 14k towing 100+ miles EV only range and just put gas in it to keep going. Having a whole backup battery for the house is nice. Towing the camper if I need to leave the house having the extra battery is really nice, but I already have 10kwh in the camper. A vehicle that I can keep going from the house indefinitely is huge.

House already has solar/bat/gen this should be what your looking to get since it saves a lot of money.

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SignificantGreen1358@reddit

I bought a 2015 Chevy Volt last year. It's a plug-in hybrid with an 11 kWh battery and a 9-gallon gas tank. I installed a 2 kW pure sine wave inverter in it that I can use to power a 1,000 W, 48 V DC charger to charge up my home batteries, which are also 11 kWh. I can charge the car and home batteries during the day with my 11.7 kW PV system. I have a level 2 charger for the car that uses about 3.3 kW for 3.5 hours to charge from empty to full. I haven't had to use it yet, but I'm prepped for it. I still need to test it though, which I'm planning on doing soon. I also store 15 gallons of fuel for the car and rotate it.

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PenguinsStoleMyCat@reddit

I have the capability with my Ioniq 6 but I haven't needed to use it. The V2L on the Ioniq 5/6 in the U.S. is limited to 120v 15amps unfortunately. That's good enough to run my refrigerators, chest freezers, mini split, etc for several days. I put together a whip to connect the V2L adapter to connect to my generator inlet and power 1 phase of my panel. Idea is that I can start with that and pull out my generator if needed.

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Fubar14235@reddit

I'd be careful, multiple fridges and freezers will use thousands of watts if those compressors kick in at the same time.

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myself248@reddit

But once you stagger-start them at initial plug-in, their own thermostats will do the thing. The odds of them all trying to start simultaneously once they're already on their own cycles, are minuscule. I've done this for years on a small generator, never had an issue.

And the consequence is just that the inverter says "nope" and shuts off, it doesn't fry either the inverter or the load. Unplug some things and try again.

Worth thinking about if you were leaving it on a mountaintop and walking away, and had to be guaranteed that it would run without intervention for months; there the odds might start to look unfavorable. But if you're just a few feet away and can go "hey the laptop says unplugged..." and can go investigate, it's fine.

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bothtypesoffirefly@reddit

We have a rivian and it’s supposed to be a software update away from v2h, plus our battery backup brain is also a software update away so at this point I’m just waiting on someone to say yes.

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barascr@reddit

Electric vehicles don't really scream "Prepping", there are FAR TOO MANY other (and cheaper) choices than that overpriced battery with wheels. 🤣

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Real-Mammoth-9086@reddit

Please provide suggestions

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SetNo8186@reddit

Such as a inverter generator for what little power is needed for a fridge and freezer, cycled twice a day to keep them cold. Propane to cook with - we did for a week, while grilling out on the deck or on a campstove right in the kitchen. Hot coffee every morning. We used the solar yard lights as night lights and stuck them back outside to recharge in the morning.

The elephant in the room, tho, is having the vehicle tethered for power - and then, as it usually happens, someone is injured during cleanup and needs medical treatment. You have to disconnect and drive to a facility on whatever remaining power it may or may not have. Sketchy at best, no power at the house, and if you can't recharge, stuck in the parking lot unable to return home.

The entire flaw of the concept is depending on a continuous source of electricity when our grid demonstrates it can't periodically. Leashing transportation to the same grid that isnt dependable and which cannot support the current demand is naive at best. Its already projected that the supply of rare earths wont' be available in large quantities to support EV's in mass production world wide for another 35 years, the grid is certainly not fully optimized for travel - Tesla had to pay to install charging stations cross country as there is too little demand.

We were in Hays KS earlier this month and the big story was the owner of a Tesla truck was searching for a recharging post. Few had seen them in real life yet. Coming back from Denver, which has plenty of Rivans, we saw one one the road near there. It was the only one between Denver and Salina. There were however, dozens of wind turbines not functioning for various reasons, it seems crews can't keep up with repairing them. EV's are not yet ready for widespread travel, they have already been notably incapable of quick transport on vacations with owners abandoning them at the dealer to diagnose slow charging while finishing their plans in a gas powered vehicle. Sales have been dropping as the word is getting out - 2-300 mile recharging puts a significant dent in the time on the road you have. One calculation is that a 6 day trip to the Gulf Coast would leave you one day on the beach where a gas powered car will make the trip leaving 4 days. It's simple, EV's are at the analog bag phone level of development and aren't ready to match the expectations of drivers who are accustomed to 14 hour transit times on the road daily. They were oversold and the public knows better now.

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Real-Mammoth-9086@reddit

Mostly valid points. But what I learned after buying my EV is the charging can be unreliable and I still fear doing very long road trips in my car. For that I use my ICE car. But having said that ice done 6-10 hour trips work mine and do so under certain conditions, that I know there's been no serious weather conditions to affect chatting sites I am aware of, I verify multiple charging options on my route and that I only have to charge at most twice on my route. But I have thought about propane recently for heat and cooking

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Rookie_of_the_Year2@reddit

2025 prius prime for essentials

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SeriousGoofball@reddit

Not quite the same thing, but I recently bought an F150 with the hybrid engine. It has a 7200 watt generator with both 120v and 240v plugs in the bed. It will make a fantastic back up to my regular generator if needed.

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Exciting_Turn_9559@reddit

It's pretty much an ideal system for transporting a few days worth of electricity. If you can charge it with solar on your house you can hold out indefinitely.

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Real-Mammoth-9086@reddit

This is what I'm trying to get to

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Adorable_Dust3799@reddit

The people across the street run their car for maybe an hour at a time during outages, i assume they're charging batteries. Most houses here have at least a small fridge generator.

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voiderest@reddit

I'm sure some people plan for that. Technology Connections on YouTube talked about the idea some. He doesn't market himself as a prepper or anything just happened to talk about this application.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zheQKmAT_a0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO5fJ8z66Z8

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rustoeki@reddit

Recently bought an EV so I can run a lead and power a few things like a fridge but I plan on getting a v2h setup that combined with existing solar will make my house close to off grid if needed.

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fenuxjde@reddit

This question always makes me think of all those videos of guys in eastern Europe or the middle east charging their Teslas off a gas generator.

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Exciting_Turn_9559@reddit

Well planting that memory cost the fossil fuel companies a lot of money, so good to hear the propaganda is working.

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Sys_Guru@reddit

My car has V2L, but I haven’t needed to use it yet. I have another car with a 300AH LifePo and 270W solar panel, so I can run a camping fridge indefinitely as well as Starlink and charge devices. Also have a 2000W inverter and a portable induction cooktop. I have no good way to charge the EV if there is a widespread power outage.

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lumens@reddit

Our lightning can hook into our generac transfer switch and power essentials such as well, heat, Fridge, stove, some lights. It's pretty nifty actually!

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Sleddoggamer@reddit

I don't know if efficiency has improved because it's been almost a decade now, but I remember the losses between charging your vehicle and using it for charging or running other stuff being horrific.

I DO know that it was at least WAS far better investment to use an electric vehicle to get around so you're not rationing gas, using small utilities built in that don't make up to much of a loss, then running a backup battery for things like boiling water