Thanks primarily to Tesla and its PowerWall
consumer energy storage product -- not to
mention the many other grid-tied and off-grid
energy storage products now available, there
are more people than ever before who can keep
their houses powered when there’s a brownout
or power cut.
But not everyone can afford to put thousands
of dollars of solar panels on their roof or
battery packs in their garage, meaning that
when the power goes out, they’re at the
mercy of the local utility company.
That is, unless you happen to own pretty much
any electric car on the market today.
Because with one of those, a little time,
and a few hundred in cash, you can keep your
refrigerator running, power some low-power
lights, and yes, even edit a YouTube show.
Want to know more?
Stick around to find out next.
Hi there!
My name’s Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield from Transport
Evolved, and today I want to show you how
it’s possible to get emergency backup power
from your electric car with little more than
an inexpensive twelve-volt to mains power
inverter from your local hardware store and
a correctly-rated extension cord.
And while a commercial battery backup system
(and solar panels) are a preferred option,
if like me, you rent, that’s not an option.
So this solution (as I learned,) works perfectly.
Y’see, as regular viewers will know, we
had a powercut at the house on Friday morning
thanks to a major storm passing through the
Pacific Northwest.
And while some of our neighbors got their
power back by the end of the day, our house
-- and consequently my editing studio -- stayed
without power for the best part of thirty-six
hours.
Nevertheless, I was able to keep the refrigerator
cool and some basic equipment powered thanks
to this twelve-volt mains inverter and the
twenty four kilowatt-hour battery pack inside
our twenty-thirteen Nissan LEAF.
Best of all, the solution cost me just two
hundred dollars and with a little extra work,
should be adaptable so that either of our
electric cars can provide a constant one kilowatt
to run our home in any future powercut.
To start, I headed out to my local DIY store,
where I picked up this inexpensive twelve
volt power inverter for just under a hundred
dollars.
Added to that, I picked up a heavy-duty, one
hundred foot power cord, a secondary twenty-foot
extension cord, and a spare power strip.
As a side, make sure the inverter you buy
comes with a way to direct-connect to your
car’s 12-volt battery -- either using post
terminal connections or in the case of mine,
heavy-duty clips.
With all my equipment purchased, I stopped
off at my local Fred Meyers which happened
to still have power and a working CHAdeMO
DC quick charger in the parking lot.
Thirty-minutes later, and I had a Nissan LEAF
with about a ninety six percent battery charge
and by the time I got back to the house, that
was down to ninety-one percent.
Luckily, I rent a townhouse with a garage,
so I can always pull an almost-full electric
car into my garage, pull down the garage door
and leave the car on without worrying about
anyone running off with my car.
Obviously however, if you don’t have a way
to secure your car, this solution will require
a little extra work on your part.
With the car switched off, locate your car’s
twelve-volt ‘starter’ battery.
The location of this does vary according to
your car, but for the Nissan LEAF, you’ll
find it under the bonnet.
Other cars -- like the Chevy Volt -- have
it hidden under the load bay floor at the
back.
With the twelve-volt battery found, connect
the appropriate side of the battery to the
corresponding side of the inverter.
Negative goes to negative, and positive goes
to positive.
Next, power your electric car on.
To keep power drain at a minimum, make sure
you turn off automatic headlights and daytime
running lights (if you can), as well as the
radio, heating, and air conditioning.
It’s important here to keep the car in its
‘ready’ state too: simply turning on the
accessory circuit won’t work, as the car
needs to be able to charge its twelve volt
battery from the main traction battery pack.
I’ll cover this a little more in a second.
With your inverter connected and your car
on, plug in your extension cord to your inverter
and then, when ready, press the power button
on your inverter.
If it’s like mine, you should hear a reassuring
‘beep’ as the inverter powers up.
Congrats!
You’ve now got power running from your car
to your mains lead, and at this point you
can plug in the devices you need to power.
Bear in mind that things like kettles and
microwaves require far more power than your
inverter will be able to provide -- unless
you have a special low-power one designed
for use when camping.
Refrigerators -- at least smaller ones -- should
be just fine operating on just one kilowatt
of power, but to be extra-prepared, check
the specifications for your refrigerator and
other appliances before a power cut so you
know which devices can be powered and which
ones can’t.
Another point here is that while laptop computers
are generally really happy operating from
power from a cheap inverter, some desktop
computers, televisions, and other large appliances
aren’t, even if their power drain is lower
than the max continuous power output of your
inverter, cheap inverters output something
called a ‘modified sine wave’ rather than
the ‘pure sine wave’ you’ll find coming
out of the wall in most houses.
I’m not going to go into the technical differences
between the two here, but the important thing
here is that the sensitive power electronics
inside some devices need a pure, clean power
signal, while others can happily work with
the choppy, blocking output of a cheap twelve
volt inverter.
Again, if you’re worried about which devices
can and can’t use the modified sine wave
output of a cheap power inverter, check with
your device manufacturers ahead of time.
Or, alternatively, invest in a more expensive
twelve-volt inverter that produces a cleaner
mains signal.
As always, your mileage may vary, and while
some say modified sine wave can damage appliances,
most modern equipment does seem to withstand
the fluctuations without a problem.
As for buzzing?
You may find some things ‘buzz’ when you
use them from a twelve-volt inverter, either
because the power is too dirty for the appliance,
or because there’s no ground (since most
12-volt inverters have none).
It’s up to you if you decide to continue
using devices that buzz or unplug them (I’d
err on the side of caution).
So, you’ve got all your things plugged in,
you’re not overloading the circuit, and
everything is operating as it should.
What next?
Well, you’re going to want to keep an eye
on your car, so make sure to check in on it
every hour or so.
Based on my experiences, a fully-charged car
like the LEAF will happily keep things running
for hours without breaking into a sweat, although
if you’re pulling the full 1 kilowatt for
example, you’ll have about twenty hours
of battery power before you need to think
about disconnecting your system and finding
a functioning charging station.
Why?
Well, while the house is running off the twelve-volt
battery, your car has a DC to DC circuit in
it to ensure the twelve-volt battery stays
fully charged when the car is on and running.
In the LEAF, this circuit can provide about
one kilowatt of power from the traction battery
pack to the twelve-volt battery under load,
which is why I went for a one kilowatt inverter.
You could technically go for a larger one,
but you’ll ultimately drain the twelve-volt
battery if you do.
This is also the reason why your car needs
to be on and ready to drive, as the main contactors
on the battery pack need to be engaged for
the DC to DC to keep the twelve-volt battery
topped up.
Yes, this is all a bit lossy, and there are
inefficiencies at every step here.
However, if this is the only choice, it’s
a good one.
Disconnecting everything is of course the
opposite of connection.
Unplug devices first, then switch off the
inverter.
Then you can switch off your car and disconnect
the twelve-volt cables.
And of course, this works best if you know
there’s a nearby charging station that works
-- if not, you’ll need to ensure you keep
enough power in your car’s battery pack
to make it to the charging station (and back
home) otherwise you’ll be stuck.
As for me?
Well, having spent nearly two days powering
my house from my LEAF, I’m going to invest
in a couple of extra connectors so that I
can wire a permanent solution into both my
LEAF and my RAV4 EV.
That way, even in a major disaster, I can
use both cars to keep the house powered if
I need, switching one out for the other so
I can find a local charging station.
Given that I live near both a solar-powered
CHAdeMO DC quick charging station and a major
city, I’m hopeful that even in a major earthquake
I’ll have enough power to keep the house
running until local hubs get their power back,
and then I can use both cars to keep things
running at home.
Of course, the best option would be for me
to purchase a LEAF to Home backup power solution
for my home, have a powerwall, or solar panels
on the house.
And when I finally get my own home stateside
we may do just that.
Until then, this is a solution I think works
pretty darned well.
What do you think?
Have you used a similar solution before?
Have you used an electric car to power your
home in an emergency?
And how was it?
Leave your thoughts in the Comments below,
don’t forget to like, comment and subscribe
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If you’d like to see more videos from Transport
Evolved, please consider supporting me through
Patreon (there’s a link below and at the
end of this video) and I’ll be back tomorrow
with more clean, green, awesomeness.
Until then, I’m Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield,
thanks for watching and as always, Keep Evolving!
