Hope V2H Vehicle to House is a priority for Rivian

[kizamybute']

When the Ford Lightning was $40,000, I thought about buying one just as a home backup battery. Couldn't beat that price compared to power walls. Still can't even at Ford's increased pricing.

Have to remember, the cost to get your house set up to accept V2H is quite expensive.

For me, a few extension cords in a power outage work great. I have an EcoFlow battery back up for my office to protect the computers. Then just plug it in and my office is powered up. One to the Fridge and a couple of lamps and I'm good. Have used a couple of portable heaters on it too.

Fortunately, we don't have too many power outages, but was great when we had one last month for a full day. Based on the energy used from the truck in that day, could have gone at last 7 days, probably closer to 10 days. More than happy with that option when necessary. Home backup would be nice, but will save the money.

Unless you're going full solar and use the batteries at night, not worth it just for the occasional power outage.

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[lmr]

I am curious what needs to be installed at your house for this to work when available. I already have my charger hard-wired in to a 60a breaker but I don't imagine it's a simple as letting it back feed the panel.

In Long Way Up they ended up using the Rivians to charge the LiveWires. Of course, they also used tow charging.

Your standard EVSE ("charger") is not in play at all. At a very minimum, you need an inverter which converts the DC from the vehicle batter to 240VAC, and an automatic transfer switch that disconnects the house from the power line, so that you are not trying to power your neighbors lol, but more importantly so you don't electrocute the line repair workers.

This is a mimimum of $3k-$4k to install and up to $10k and more, depending MANY factors. That's why some say a better invesment is trifuel generators.....

A bidirectional EVSE would need to be installed, along with an automatic transfer switch to isolate the house from the grid, if the house does not already have one due to a previous battery backup/solar installation. A sub-panel will also be desired, if you do not wish to use the vehicle as a whole house backup. Right now bidirectional EVSEs cost about $1500-$4000 just for the hardware.

Also, you would need a vehicle capable of V2H that is also compatible with the bidirectional EVSE that you installed, OTA updates for both the EVSE and the V2H capable EV that you purchased, should work this out in time.

 

[PVguy]

As a retired PV designer and installer, I find this all very interesting and I will need to gather more information and get educated on it. One thing that I think that I can say for certain is that you do not want the vehicle to be interacting with the utility grid. There is more than one way that this can be done.
Personally, I think that it is great that Rivian will offer V2H capability. It was possibly the main reason for my hesitation on a pre-order.

 

[Zoidz]

As a retired PV designer and installer, I find this all very interesting and I will need to gather more information and get educated on it. One thing that I think that I can say for certain is that you do not want the vehicle to be interacting with the utility grid. There is more than one way that this can be done.
Personally, I think that it is great that Rivian will offer V2H capability. It was possibly the main reason for my hesitation on a pre-order.

I've been following SolarEdge for a while. They have some of the more advanced offerings out there. Their Home Hub Inverter currently allows EV charging directly from PV or the power line. They also have a battery available as part of their system, so it's reasonable to assume tha tthey will enhance this system to integrate V2H.

 

[PVguy]

I've been following SolarEdge for a while. They have some of the more advanced offerings out there. Their Home Hub Inverter currently allows EV charging directly from PV or the power line. They also have a battery available as part of their system, so it's reasonable to assume tha tthey will enhance this system to integrate V2H.

Yes, SolarEdge has been offering this for awhile. I just saw on another forum that Enphase will be offering an AEV charging unit. We installed a number of SolarEdge systems and liked them, but none with the EV charging unit as I was phasing out of the business.

 

[NY_Rob]

^ Will the SolarEdge or Enphase systems allow EV charging if the grid is down but it's sunny and the panels are capable of producing?

 

[PVguy]

^ Will the SolarEdge or Enphase systems allow EV charging if the grid is down but it's sunny and the panels are capable of producing?

I have been out of the industry for a few years and the technologies have changed. Basically there are “grid-tied” systems and “grid-interactive” systems. A grid- tied system will only operate when it sees a grid signal. Thus, when the grid is down, it will not operate even if solar input. A grid-interactive system will operate as a grid-tied system, including battery charging. When the grid is down, it will disconnect and can provide backup power from batteries and solar input. SMA actually has a grid-tied inverter that has a 15 amp reception that is powered if grid is down and solar input.

 

[mwexler2]

As priorities go this has got to be near the very bottom. I have a generator for power back up. That's the right tool. Because I don't want to have to shut down the house every time I have to run to the store if the power is out. It's a neat trick, but not really an ideal backup power supply.

Now that my permit is approved, I will be installing 10 kW of solar and 27 kWh of battery backup. But with multi day power outages in the winter during storms, having an extra 135 kWh would be really nice. No need for a propane generator.

 

[Yellow Buddy]

I’ve got a portable trifuel generator, a battery back up system, a 48vDC propane generator, and I would very much like to add my truck to the backup as well.

With the on site, I can have solar charge my on-site bank and my truck during the day. During the night I can eliminate my propane usage and run off the batteries and truck. It would only use about 10% range and I’d be good for the day again.

 

[Zoidz]

^ Will the SolarEdge or Enphase systems allow EV charging if the grid is down but it's sunny and the panels are capable of producing?

Yes.....but.

From the marketing description, Solar Edge has a "Solar Boost Mode". I suspect that what they are doing is a hybrid approach, so it probably requires their "powerwall" as well. Sounds like you grid charge your "powerwall" when rates are low, and charge your car from the "powerwall" plus boosted from available PV power during the day. The last bullet is telling - if you don't need a dedicated breaker, it sure sounds like they are continuously charging the "powerwall" at lower current from the grid. So if you have an grid outage, would it be able to charge the EV from the "powerwall" without grid? In theory, yes, but they may have limitations? And you would certainly need a large PV array to provide the kw to fully charge an EV battery.

 

[JamesPolk24]

For way less than the cost of setting up your home for v2h (see what it costs to set it up for a lightning), you can get a very nice generator that will run your whole home on natural gas (Or propane or gasoline).

Setting up the Lightning is not expensive. Easily done for less than $100 if you have any electrical knowledge.

 

[NY_Rob]

Setting up the Lightning is not expensive. Easily done for less than $100 if you have any electrical knowledge.

Highly doubtful as your current EVSE will not allow flow in both directions.. and that's just for starters.
The equipment alone will easily be over $1,000-$2,000. Yes, I'm sure you can do the labor yourself if you know what you're doing... but it will need to pass inspection too, so it has to be up to code.

 

[Hopper]

-13 this morning. Power went out an hour or two before dawn. Lay in bed wondering when to pull out the portable generator. V2H can’t come soon enough!

 

[NY_Rob]

Yes.....but.

From the marketing description, Solar Edge has a "Solar Boost Mode". I suspect that what they are doing is a hybrid approach, so it probably requires their "powerwall" as well. Sounds like you grid charge your "powerwall" when rates are low, and charge your car from the "powerwall" plus boosted from available PV power during the day. The last bullet is telling - if you don't need a dedicated breaker, it sure sounds like they are continuously charging the "powerwall" at lower current from the grid. So if you have an grid outage, would it be able to charge the EV from the "powerwall" without grid? In theory, yes, but they may have limitations? And you would certainly need a large PV array to provide the kw to fully charge an EV battery.

Thank you!

Interesting, and sounds expensive because of the added battery pack(s).
I' d be interested in something that could just take whatever is available from my panels during the daytime (when the grid is down) and send that to the EVSE for charging without a battery wall.

I have plenty of panels to charge at a decent rate, even now with the low sun angle at 11:18AM I'm putting out 8kW and in the summer I put out 11kW+ for several hrs/day with some day's totals coming in at 95+kWh.

 

[Honey]

I have solar and 2x powerwalls for this reason. V2h would be a bonus for me but not a necessity.

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