Rivian and Bluetti AC180 Portable Power Station Keep Appliances On For 4 Days During Storm Power Outage

[KBabione]

On July 4th, we had a storm with high winds (I heard 123 mph in areas) that either broke or pushed over thousands of trees in the Lancaster PA area - with up to 30,000 homes without power. While we didn't lose power once (all underground power lines and no trees older than 25 years), friends of ours just 6 miles away had multiple trees down and no power.

I grabbed my Bluetti AC180 and a bunch of extension cords and headed over to their house. They were mostly concerned with keeping their refrigerator/freezer running. It turns out the AC180 would power it for about 8 hours before being completely drained. When they learned it would be at least 3-4 days before they had power back, I added an extension cord to run to their gas hot water heater. After I added my Starlink to the mix, the AC180 would power everything for about 6 hours. I just took the Rivian over 3 times a day and in an hour the AC180 was back to 100% and would power everything for the next 6 hours or so. It got them through the 4 days until their power was restored. As the Rivian is our only car, I couldn't just leave it there, although that would have saved a bunch of trips. I just ran the plug end of an extension cord out under their garage door so I didn't have to disturb them when I came by to charge the AC180. It worked!

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[Coskigirl]

Last December we had a 4 day power outage as well. After that I bought an Ecoflow battery similar to the Bluetti and got Starlink. Just got my Rivian this week and while I hope I never need to use it like this, my neighbors with one also used theirs to power things in their house.

 

[NY_Rob]

You're a good friend @KBabione!

That same storm ripped through Long Island later on Sat evening just as folks were setting off fireworks. It was a surreal sight because you had bright flashes and explosions from the fireworks coupled with thunder and lightning plus squall winds, breaking branches and leaves flying past at 50mph+.

 

[KBabione]

You're a good friend @KBabione!

Thanks - I wished I could have helped more people. His neighbor drove about 40 miles to buy a generator. It's still a mess with trees pushed alongside the roads. I was afraid that it would be a lot longer for them to get power back because a pole in the back corner of a neighbor's property was broken and it serviced only two homes, but Asphludh came in with chain saws and a chipper truck and cleared the trees and then PP&L came in to replace the pole and connections.

The biggest takeaway for me was that a 1152KwH battery pack would power a single full-sized fridge/freezer for 8 hours. They definitely had 3-6 hours a day when it wasn't running, but it wasn't for more than an hour or two at a time and they kept it closed.

 

[BanditTA]

We had a Kia EV6 with V2L capabilities previously connected directly to our home’s electrical panel via a Nature’s Generator transfer switch.

After getting rid of the Kia and losing V2L I picked up an electric generator (Anker F3000).

Now, after buying the R1T last week I’m planning to chain it to the Anker. I think this should work pretty well until Rivian provides V2L/V2H.

One caveat is that you have to lower the power input on the F3000 to 1200 watts to play nicely with the Rivian. But the only goal here is to keep the generator full of power so that should be fine.

Gemini created a diagram of how this setup works in case anyone is interested.

 

[justinkitswa]

x2 on being a good neighbor and friend.
Out where I live we've had days long power outages after storms, usually in the winter.
I've powered the house through our generator transfer switch with the R1S inverter for a couple days at a time, and it runs all the refrigerators and lights without issue.
I keep a 240 volt generator to run our water heater - after 24 hours without hot water things get serious in my home. A future V2H 240 volt system would be great.

 

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Our power hasn't gone out in 10+ years thanks to our awesome local electric co-op, but I just had to say 'awesome job!' and use this meme somewhere.

 

[SDEV]

You should invest in solar panels, maybe the portable ones for traveling. Would have helped extend the power.

 

[tivoboy]

You should invest in solar panels, maybe the portable ones for traveling. Would have helped extend the power.

Charging from the Rivian was probably 1/4 to 1/6th the time of a couple large (400w) portable solar panels.

 

[SRO]

You should invest in solar panels, maybe the portable ones for traveling. Would have helped extend the power.

My solar panels and Tesla power wall worked very well but the foot of snow on the two story roof totally defeated my system. Once I drained the power wall I was SOL. I couldn’t figure how to hook up my R1 to run the forced air furnace.

 

[SDEV]

My solar panels and Tesla power wall worked very well but the foot of snow on the two story roof totally defeated my system. Once I drained the power wall I was SOL. I couldn’t figure how to hook up my R1 to run the forced air furnace.

I was talking about solar panels for the portable power station. At this time of the year it would have supplemented power.

 

[KBabione]

One caveat is that you have to lower the power input on the F3000 to 1200 watts to play nicely with the Rivian.

It's your caveat that has been the issue with every battery system I've seen: As soon as they are plugged in to charge, the others immediately pass the full draw through to the source. You have a 3600W battery and it's really happy powering 2000W of appliances, but as soon as you plug it in it will pass that 2000W to the Rivian and trip the inverter. I'm glad to hear that Anker has finally allowed you to use it as a "buffer" between the 1500W limit of the Rivian inverter and appliance draw.

I had been looking at the Pecron F3000LFP because I read in the app that you could limit the input by percentage. IIRC it would charge at up to 1800W and you could drop that to, say, 50% (900W) to limit the draw on the source. Pecron tech support was very responsive. I specifically asked this:

"Please confirm this: The F3000LFP can be plugged into a power source in ECO mode or with the input limited to less than 100% AND output more watts than the F3000LFP is taking in. Specifically, I'd like to be able to have it charging while drawing between 1000-1500 watts AND output up to 3600W at the same time."

I got this response: "When AC output is activated during AC charging, the unit will automatically switch to UPS mode. For the F3000LFP: The maximum output in UPS mode is 15A, equivalent to 1800W"

So - I was looking at buying a battery capable of 3600W output UNLESS IT WAS PLUGGED IN (in which case output was limited to 1800W)!

Clever boy that I am, I asked about disabling UPS mode...

"UPS mode cannot be disabled; the unit will automatically switch to UPS mode when AC output is activated during AC charging. If you need to obtain an output of 3600W for a short period, you may consider suspending AC charging first, and then resuming it when the power of the connected loads drops below 1800W."

So - I just stuck with my Bluetti. I did buy a 500W DC charger for it that I can plug into the DC input. That allows me to pull 500W from the Rivian and push it to the battery while outputting up to 1800W. It seems to be working so far.

If you haven't found it, @mudito had a great thread on something very similar:
How to use your Rivian as a Powerbank (safe way)

 

[BanditTA]

If you haven't found it, @mudito had a great thread on something very similar:
How to use your Rivian as a Powerbank (safe way)

Thanks! I hadn’t seen that thread before. The little Anker generator is pretty nice and flexible. I’ve been happy with it.

 

[josh0]

Charging from the Rivian was probably 1/4 to 1/6th the time of a couple large (400w) portable solar panels.

Yes, but the solar panels can sit there all day and add charge, while the Rivian has to sometimes leave.

 

[tivoboy]

Yes, but the solar panels can sit there all day and add charge, while the Rivian has to sometimes leave.

Sure assuming the power station was outside or near outside where the panels could get sun all day. It’s a lot of ifs.

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