Was pondering the viability for the use case of leveraging the Lightning as the power source for a home during on-peak (daytime) hours?

In general I don't drive a lot during the week, and off peak rates are 66% versus standard rates. I was wondering how seamless it would be to leverage the truck as energy storage for on-peak electricity demand? We know it works for emergency outage situations... but is that functionality automated and seamless enough that I could just trip the master breaker and the truck would take over? Thoughts on this concept, as it could reduce my energy cost by $100/month providing even further value to the EV proposition.

I've done some analysis that suggests driving 250 miles per week I can save roughly $215/month given current fuel costs ($4.79/gallon), my off-peak electricity rates ($.084 kWh), recharge efficiency of 90%, and vehicle miles/kWh of 2.4. Almost and iron clad argument I can put together in a PPT for the wife to not understand.

 

If it works, why would it be limited to on-peak times only.

 

Because at some point you gotta recharge it. . .

 

You use it to power the house when the electric company charges the high rate during the day, then recharge during the low rate at night. Essentially offsetting the power timeframe so you're using the cheapest rate available during the 24 hour cycle.

Is it feasible? Yes. Ford says it can outright power a home for three days, eleven if you are careful with your consumption.

What Ford DOESN'T say is how much house they are referring to... I would normally presume right off the bat they are referring to a smaller home with a single a/c unit, single fridge, gas stove and gas water, but Ford claims the truck has the equivalent of 9 power walls of power (extended range trucjs). Tesla claims a power wall can run an average home for 12 hours, and that an average home consumes 28kWh/day. With that information, you can check your meter to find your daily use and figure out what percentage of the truck's battery would be consumed during the high rate hours to know what mileage you'll have remaining... should an afternoon storm take out your power.

Which is my main consideration. If I lose power for 3-4 days, will I be able to power the house, get my *** to work, pickup groceries, and attend to any downfall without having access to a charge station. If not, I'd want to add in some solar at the house.

 

3-4 days without power, it all depends on the time of the year, and how you heat and cool you home. A good home generator is always your best bet, and who knows, you may need to charge the EV, Of course the generator will be an ICE, you may not get the smiles from wokes when you are running it, who cares? When the govt. starts offering $15,000 tax credits for those putting imported solar panels on their roofs, it may be a good time to "sign up". BTW, CA state gov. is planning on buying out of state power, and adding diesel powered generators to their grid, to fend off any blackouts, rolling blackouts and brown outs this summer! Sacramento is getting the job done! Having no AC, or Not being able to charge your EV would suck.

 

I would suspect the wear and tear on the battery makes it not worth it. Current tech EV batteries are only good for 1000 equivalent full discharges or so before it's reduced to 80% max capacity and lower peak output. That's the ideal time to take it out of the vehicle and make it into some sort of a grid assist battery. If you just used it for your intended purpose, you'd maybe get around 130,000 kwh delivered over its lifetime. We're talking under $10,000 saved in off-peak rates.

 

Your use case is exactly what Ford envisions in the future.

"In the future, Ford says it will introduce additional F-150 Lightning features to help customers save money and take pressure off the electric grid during peak hours. For example, Ford Intelligent Power will allow customers to power their homes with their truck's battery when electricity rates are higher and charge the truck when rates are lower—or from their own solar-powered rooftop."

Watch this video, 1 minute in.

 

There is a lot of talk about plugging in the Lightning and pumping power back into the grid, will the owner be paid at the rate (time of day) for their power? Could you charge up when the rates were low, and pump back power everyday when the rates were high? How much would you make? I hope you don't need a special license to sell electricity or be licensed as a public utility! This isn't going to be a big problem in CA, as I posted, CA's gov officials are going to buy electricity from out of state and buy and be ready to bring online Diesel generators as needed.

 

Who completely discharges their vehicle every time they use it? I've never heard of anyone being down to 80% capacity in three years.


You don't need a license, and yes, you get credited for the power you put into the grid. People have been doing this for decades now with their solar setups.

 

Nobody I've heard of. 30-80% counts as half a cycle, etc.1000 cycles would be about 250-300,000 miles.