Electric Vehicles as Back Up Power
Normally we think of electric cars as consumers of electricity and as an environmental friendly means of transport. Nisan however came up with the idea that the electric cars can be used as a back up power source during power outages.
A Nissan leaf has a 24 - 30 kWh battery where the Tesla has a 60 - 100 kWh battery. The average US household uses around 32kWh per day. As can be seen this means that an Electric Vehicle is a viable back up power source for house hold use.
The photo below, shows the LEAF to Home converter. This gets wired up to your home power supply and plugged into the car. When a power cut occurs the car goes from being charged to providing power to the home.
A further use for this technology would be to take some strain from the power grid during peak hours. Instead of reducing usage during this peak hours, the household could uncouple from the grid and use the car to power the house or some portion of the total power consumption. Charging of the car batteries can then be resumed after peak hour, during the night, when the grid has excess capacity.
Also think about the possibility for office buildings. The electric cars could be used as Uninterupted Power Supply, UPS's for computers and sensitive electric equipment. The employer will provide charging stations for employees vehicles. These vehicles will be connected to the office building's electric supply. In the event of a power cut the electric vehicle will automatically switch to supplying power to the computers etc, minimizing down time, disruptions and damage to sensitive equipment.
Currently the problem is that we don't have enough electric vehicles on the roads to use for office buildings, but the few people who have them for private vehicles could be smiling, busy steeming, when the rest of us sits in the dark, waiting for the power to come back on.
Look at the cool charging station below, independent of the grid, this is as green and sustainable as it gets.
Electric vehicles do not have to be boring, just look at the beautiful Tesla below.
I hope you enjoyed reading the post
This is an interesting idea. I wonder how much it costs? I think people may just see this as a backup generator which maybe wouldn't be used too often?
What do you think of Elon Musks idea for Tesla Powerwall? Tesla are taking it to the next level yet again. Your house becomes the energy source (Solar Panels) and charges your car.
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Hi @eroche
I like the Tesla power wall and the solar roofs, that looks better than standard roof, insulate your house better than a normal roof and charge your batteries. Amazing.
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There's definitely potential to use all those batteries on wheels to even out peaks in demand. If they can be charged by solar during the day they could be used at night. It needs the right infrastructure to control everything, but ought to be possible.
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As a peaker or as an emergency supply I think its reasonable. Im hoping prices of all bagteries come down, I hope the Aquion salt water batteries will be cost viable for static applications soon.
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All that an electric car is, is a big battery.
A big battery that is still not the equal of a full tank of gas in a small car.
Converting DC battery power to AC home electric power is easy, but not cheap. If you were to build an off grid house, you will spend $5,000 + on an inverter. (that's to run the whole house) If you only want to run a few things you can get by with a cheaper inverter.
Compared to the price of a large inverter, or the cost of an electric vehicle, batteries are cheap. Lead acid golfcart batteries or Nickel Iron batteries are both, in comparison, far cheaper.
So, if you want something for when the grid goes down, I suggest looking into some DIY kits. You keep a couple batteries charged and an inverter bolted to a block of wood.
(And why would you run an office building off your car battery? You need that electric charge to get home. Also, the wiring necessary to get the power from the parking lot to the server room would be cost prohibitive. Other options are far cheaper and better)
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Hi @builderofcastles
Thank you for your reply
You are correct you can get by much cheaper with a custom built DIY kit. Here in South Africa it will cost approximately R85 000 to convert an average house to solar power and batteries, this includes the inverter. (Provided your stove is gas and your hot water geyser is already a solar geyser.) This is just to show that the vehicle can be used for emergencies, without buying solar panels and batteries, this is if you have the car. (You can of cause just have a standby battery pack with inverter for an emergency or even a generator.) Here in South Africa, where we used to have regular power outages, most people went for the generator option.
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Interesting idea about peak hours. It'd suck if the car's battery was drained when you actually needed to go somewhere or somthing came up. But good idea, I'd prefer it to be a separate battery that's stationary.
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Hi @keverw
Thank you for reading and replying. Yes this will only work for short power outages to keep things going. I would not like to be forced to use a bus or some other means of public transport, to go home, when I have my car available at work, but with a flat battery!!
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I'm curious. Say you don't drive much, you have a second car or goes on a vacation. I wonder if they recommend draining the battery like at least once a month like people say to do with phone's to keep the battery healthy.
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@keverw I think this would be a scenario where you would definitely want to employ the use cases of @rynow's article. The life cycle of lithium-ion batteries (the ones used in Tesla cars and laptops) depletes regardless of use, but can permanently be disabled due to continuous lack of use (i.e. being permanently off). Might as well take advantage of the "free" stored capacity of that unused car!
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Hi @keverw
Thanks for the question, I did not have the answer so I googled it. The link EV Battery Care gives various tips to ensure longer battery life. According to the article it is better to not completely discharge the battery.
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I agree. Especially since the car batteries are very expensive.
Buy a cheap, heavy, industrial grade battery instead. Its not like its going to go anywhere.
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