Hurricane Beryl Report Out: Rivian for home power backup was a game changer!

[BrayBay]

Hurricane Beryl hit the greater Houston area last Monday, and I was out of power for almost a week. Fortunately I remembered I have a huge backup battery in my garage in the form of my R1S. During that power outage, through the use of extension cables and power strips:

• I kept my refrigerator going, saving all my food and providing cool drinks during the sweltering Texas summer.
• Powered portable cooking appliances like coffee makers, air fryers, and single stove tops to get meals because everywhere else was shut down or had long lines.
• Got several fans to keep people somewhat comfortable during those muggy nights.
• I kept all my personal devices charged to be able to stay in touch, but also keep me sane with some entertainment.
• Used the built-in flashlight that practically lights up an entire room.
• Relax a bit with the camp speaker. Never realized how powerful that little thing was!

Overall, the Rivian turned a terrible situation into something a lot more bearable and with less things to worry about. I ended up using roughly 8% - 9% per day, so I could have gone almost two weeks on the Rivian alone before needing to fast charge. Very impressed with the Rivian, and so lucky to be an owner.

There are some general things I would probably do differently in the future:

• Do a similar setup fellow Houstonian @dspray demonstrated in this thread "Video: Rivian house power backup of critical loads WITHOUT waiting for bi-directional charging to be implemented by Rivian"
• Get one of those U shaped window air conditioning units that run off 120V while keeping the window closed.
• Get a second Rivian to have two giant backup batteries in my garage!

I'm curious to hear everyone else's power outage stories, what they've learned, and what else they would do differently.

Bonus question: Is there a more elegant solution to running an extension cord from the outside to the inside? I had to punch a hole in one of the screens of my double hung windows to get the extension cord going from the Rivian to inside the house due to a detached garage. Would be nice if there was some kind of outdoor "inlet" that could power an emergency indoor "outlet" without having to run cords through windows.

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[MidnightRivian]

Try to run the cord along the side of the Liftgate / bottom corner of Liftgate and out the back while still being able to close your hatch / Liftgate.

 

[BrayBay]

Try to run the cord along the side of the Liftgate / bottom corner of Liftgate and out the back while still being able to close your hatch / Liftgate.

Oh yes, I forgot where I saw that trick. That's something I definitely did to run the cord out of the Rivian without keeping it open. The extension cord question was more so how to get it indoors without creating openings on the house.

 

[Mellowyellow]

Pool noodle or towel trick

 

[sd250]

Bonus question: Is there a more elegant solution to running an extension cord from the outside to the inside?

I've taken off a door knob from an exterior door I don't use often, and run the extension cords thru the door that way.

 

[DeafPug]

I bought one of these penetrate the shell of a trailer where I wanted to be able to hook stuff up to a generator or shore power.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07TLNQ328

Use that to get power into the unfinished part of your basement and then run extension cords from there.

 

[LL75]

Yeap. Rivian came and saved my office a month ago when 100 mph wind knocked out the power for the whole block for a day. We were able to power up 2 floor fans , all of the computer equipments and internet modem. Our office was some what functional instead of closing completely.

 

[TipSpa]

Hurricane Beryl hit the greater Houston area last Monday, and I was out of power for almost a week. Fortunately I remembered I have a huge backup battery in my garage in the form of my R1S. During that power outage, through the use of extension cables and power strips:

• I kept my refrigerator going, saving all my food and providing cool drinks during the sweltering Texas summer.
• Powered portable cooking appliances like coffee makers, air fryers, and single stove tops to get meals because everywhere else was shut down or had long lines.
• Got several fans to keep people somewhat comfortable during those muggy nights.
• I kept all my personal devices charged to be able to stay in touch, but also keep me sane with some entertainment.
• Used the built-in flashlight that practically lights up an entire room.
• Relax a bit with the camp speaker. Never realized how powerful that little thing was!

Overall, the Rivian turned a terrible situation into something a lot more bearable and with less things to worry about. I ended up using roughly 8% - 9% per day, so I could have gone almost two weeks on the Rivian alone before needing to fast charge. Very impressed with the Rivian, and so lucky to be an owner.

There are some general things I would probably do differently in the future:

• Do a similar setup fellow Houstonian @dspray demonstrated in this thread "Video: Rivian house power backup of critical loads WITHOUT waiting for bi-directional charging to be implemented by Rivian"
• Get one of those U shaped window air conditioning units that run off 120V while keeping the window closed.
• Get a second Rivian to have two giant backup batteries in my garage!

I'm curious to hear everyone else's power outage stories, what they've learned, and what else they would do differently.

Bonus question: Is there a more elegant solution to running an extension cord from the outside to the inside? I had to punch a hole in one of the screens of my double hung windows to get the extension cord going from the Rivian to inside the house due to a detached garage. Would be nice if there was some kind of outdoor "inlet" that could power an emergency indoor "outlet" without having to run cords through windows.

Same here! My R1S helped our house get through the 6-day outage.

 

[Cte515]

Hurricane Beryl hit the greater Houston area last Monday, and I was out of power for almost a week. Fortunately I remembered I have a huge backup battery in my garage in the form of my R1S. During that power outage, through the use of extension cables and power strips:

• I kept my refrigerator going, saving all my food and providing cool drinks during the sweltering Texas summer.
• Powered portable cooking appliances like coffee makers, air fryers, and single stove tops to get meals because everywhere else was shut down or had long lines.
• Got several fans to keep people somewhat comfortable during those muggy nights.
• I kept all my personal devices charged to be able to stay in touch, but also keep me sane with some entertainment.
• Used the built-in flashlight that practically lights up an entire room.
• Relax a bit with the camp speaker. Never realized how powerful that little thing was!

Overall, the Rivian turned a terrible situation into something a lot more bearable and with less things to worry about. I ended up using roughly 8% - 9% per day, so I could have gone almost two weeks on the Rivian alone before needing to fast charge. Very impressed with the Rivian, and so lucky to be an owner.

There are some general things I would probably do differently in the future:

• Do a similar setup fellow Houstonian @dspray demonstrated in this thread "Video: Rivian house power backup of critical loads WITHOUT waiting for bi-directional charging to be implemented by Rivian"
• Get one of those U shaped window air conditioning units that run off 120V while keeping the window closed.
• Get a second Rivian to have two giant backup batteries in my garage!

I'm curious to hear everyone else's power outage stories, what they've learned, and what else they would do differently.

Bonus question: Is there a more elegant solution to running an extension cord from the outside to the inside? I had to punch a hole in one of the screens of my double hung windows to get the extension cord going from the Rivian to inside the house due to a detached garage. Would be nice if there was some kind of outdoor "inlet" that could power an emergency indoor "outlet" without having to run cords through windows.

My R1T saved us in the Beryl aftermath as as well. We did have a Midea u shaped window unit so we were able to get some AC.

 

[Fmc]

I have a backfeed on my panel that I plug an Anker f3800 into and then I plug the Anker into my R1s. I can run my central ac but for efficiency I run a portable ac unit.

 

[docwhiz]

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...ging-national-grid?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Yet many of the people working in the electric car industry think these fears may be misplaced. They argue that the shift to electric cars offers an exciting – and potentially lucrative – chance to build an energy system that is smarter, as well as greener.

This is not just a pipe dream. The home charger company myenergi calculates that if balancing services were enabled on every one of its compatible installed chargers “we could offer the grid more than 1GW of demand shift flexibility – larger than 98% of the UK’s major fossil fuel generators”.

Octopus Energy, which has grown rapidly to become the UK’s largest energy supplier, says that its Go electric tariff manages the charging for 150,000 electric car batteries. They would require 1GW of power to charge at the same time, but smart chargers hold back until the quiet hours of the night, shifting that demand away from the peak. Electricity is also cheaper at quiet times, providing a clear consumer benefit. Octopus says their customers save about £600 a year on average.

 

[KCTompkins]

Thank you for all of this information! We were extremely fortunate with our power not going out during Beryl. I charged our R1S as a standby assuming we would need to use it.
Do we have an idea of when we will start to utilizing bi-directional charging? I know Rivian announced the possibility in June although I have not seen additional details.

 

[Deacon]

Hurricane Beryl hit the greater Houston area last Monday, and I was out of power for almost a week. Fortunately I remembered I have a huge backup battery in my garage in the form of my R1S. During that power outage, through the use of extension cables and power strips:

• I kept my refrigerator going, saving all my food and providing cool drinks during the sweltering Texas summer.
• Powered portable cooking appliances like coffee makers, air fryers, and single stove tops to get meals because everywhere else was shut down or had long lines.
• Got several fans to keep people somewhat comfortable during those muggy nights.
• I kept all my personal devices charged to be able to stay in touch, but also keep me sane with some entertainment.
• Used the built-in flashlight that practically lights up an entire room.
• Relax a bit with the camp speaker. Never realized how powerful that little thing was!

Overall, the Rivian turned a terrible situation into something a lot more bearable and with less things to worry about. I ended up using roughly 8% - 9% per day, so I could have gone almost two weeks on the Rivian alone before needing to fast charge. Very impressed with the Rivian, and so lucky to be an owner.

There are some general things I would probably do differently in the future:

• Do a similar setup fellow Houstonian @dspray demonstrated in this thread "Video: Rivian house power backup of critical loads WITHOUT waiting for bi-directional charging to be implemented by Rivian"
• Get one of those U shaped window air conditioning units that run off 120V while keeping the window closed.
• Get a second Rivian to have two giant backup batteries in my garage!

I'm curious to hear everyone else's power outage stories, what they've learned, and what else they would do differently.

Bonus question: Is there a more elegant solution to running an extension cord from the outside to the inside? I had to punch a hole in one of the screens of my double hung windows to get the extension cord going from the Rivian to inside the house due to a detached garage. Would be nice if there was some kind of outdoor "inlet" that could power an emergency indoor "outlet" without having to run cords through windows.

I installed this {Reliance Control Corporation WKPBN30 Portable Generator Through-The-Wall PWR Transfer Kit, EMW3790037} (Amazon) to connect my generator cord through the wall. Seems like there should be something similar for regular extension cord.

 

[jeeden]

Just a comment on the u-shaped air conditioners. Those are actually heat pumps (maybe yours is different, but it sounds like it). They are really pretty neat and are being deployed throughout New York city. Not only are they incredibly efficient, but they heat and cool and also still allow the window to be functional. There is a neat article I saw a couple of months ago about it here:

https://www.wired.com/story/the-next-heat-pump-frontier-nyc-apartment-windows/

 

[DCFC]

Just a comment on the u-shaped air conditioners. Those are actually heat pumps (maybe yours is different, but it sounds like it). They are really pretty neat and are being deployed throughout New York city. Not only are they incredibly efficient, but they heat and cool and also still allow the window to be functional. There is a neat article I saw a couple of months ago about it here:

https://www.wired.com/story/the-next-heat-pump-frontier-nyc-apartment-windows/

There are U-shaped units that are purely AC. The one you pointed could be considered 'saddle' shaped. I picked up this Midea 8000btu unit from Home Depot recently. $350 before taxes! Pulls a nominal 710W, so it won't be a large current draw on the truck outlet.

https://www.homedepot.com/pep/Midea...4609b9883b971c4dee0edf1d7c0456d4&gclsrc=3p.ds

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