When you get an electric car (EV), you might already have one, then you will hypothetically be able to use the battery in it to power your home. The technology is called a bi-directional car charger, and it’s kinda here now, but mostly it’s coming in the next 1-5 years.
Currently, there is equipment that plugs into the outlet of any gas car when it is turned on or an electric car when it’s off, it’s a hack to get some amount of power out of the car to power your home when the grid is down. The system is from FranklinWH, check it out at https://www.franklinwh.com/homeowner/.
Then you have the Ford F-150 that can power many items directly off grid and it advertises a system to get that power into your home as well, check it out here https://www.ford.com/trucks/f150/f150-lightning/features/intelligent-backup-power/?intcmp=vhp-featcta-intell-backup.
In the near future, we’ll be able to do a firmware upgrade to our Savant chargers and enable true bi-directional charging from supported cars once the Feds pin down the standards (expected late 2024) https://savant.com/power/ev-charger
When I look about 5 years into the future I see electric vehicles from every car maker offering an easy way to get the car hooked up to your home to deliver power when the grid is down. This creates a new opportunity for people that want battery back up because before bi-directional car chargers you’d have to get a battery pack installed in your home, but now you can reduce the size of the battery in your home or skip it entirely and just rely on the battery in the car. The opportunity expands out to battery cycling on the grid, in States that pay homeowners to empty their batteries onto the grid at certain times they will also allow the vehicle to do that as well. This means you could get paid dollars per day to let the grid use your car battery. The battery in the car is large, larger than the one you would get in your home, so draining the battery even just 30% per day is a lot of energy.
Being able to connect decisions around choosing an electric vehicle to choosing how to back up your home when the grid is down is how Universal Electric & Solar PNW delivers value to our customers. We have comprehensive energy conversations with our customers so they understand the full context of their energy decisions. The world is electrifying and we want to help you make that transition pro-actively. So, before you make another major decision about your home contact Universal Electric & Solar PNW to get the best advice. www.universalelectricpnw.com.
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