Powering home from Tesla

[Jonas_man]

Tesla could sell the energy that you discharge from the car.
this way tesla would win some cash and sell the car as a backup "power mobile wall"

 

[hiroshiy]

I've got an Inverter in development that can perform this function. The prototype can put out up to 3kW peak and around half that continuously. It provides a pure sine wave, and runs directly of the high-voltage battery. It also has greater than 95% conversion efficiency and is very small.

If there is enough interest, I will do a production run. It's very useful for powering in-car devices on trips, such as laptops, and could be used in an emergency for running critical appliances. I would think if you only used it in emergency, Tesla wouldn't care. (IANAL!) They probably have language in the warranty to prevent people from deep cycling the pack in a non-car application and claiming warranty when it dies young. Since it's obvious when it's used extensively (makes the watt-hour per mile figure go up), it would be easy for them to tell what abuse is. After all, Nissan even sells a LEAF to Home kit in Japan that does the same. Also, it's essentially no different than sitting in the car and running the HVAC without driving. (In fact, the car really can't tell the difference)

Running a 12v to 120v inverter is very inefficient, as there would be double conversion (triple, actually), and 12V inverters are not very efficient to begin with. Plus, you can only pull a limited amount of current from the 12v system without overloading it, whereas pulling a few kW from the high-voltage system is nothing.

Hi, @Ingineer, are you still trying to do this? I'm very interested!

 

[Ingineer]

Yes, development is still ongoing. Having trouble sourcing the high-voltage connectors used by Tesla made by KET. The connectors are essential to make installation safe and easy.

 

[alevek]

I've got an Inverter in development that can perform this function. The prototype can put out up to 3kW peak and around half that continuously. It provides a pure sine wave, and runs directly of the high-voltage battery. It also has greater than 95% conversion efficiency and is very small.

If there is enough interest, I will do a production run. It's very useful for powering in-car devices on trips, such as laptops, and could be used in an emergency for running critical appliances. I would think if you only used it in emergency, Tesla wouldn't care. (IANAL!) They probably have language in the warranty to prevent people from deep cycling the pack in a non-car application and claiming warranty when it dies young. Since it's obvious when it's used extensively (makes the watt-hour per mile figure go up), it would be easy for them to tell what abuse is. After all, Nissan even sells a LEAF to Home kit in Japan that does the same. Also, it's essentially no different than sitting in the car and running the HVAC without driving. (In fact, the car really can't tell the difference)

Running a 12v to 120v inverter is very inefficient, as there would be double conversion (triple, actually), and 12V inverters are not very efficient to begin with. Plus, you can only pull a limited amount of current from the 12v system without overloading it, whereas pulling a few kW from the high-voltage system is nothing.

I'd be interested in that. I also think it's a missed opportunity for Tesla not to offer an emergency backup power option.

 

[Ingineer]

Noted. Hopefully I'll have some more information soon. Watch this thread if you are interested.

 

[Toasty]

any update?

 

[FlatSix911]

Also interested ...

 

[Ingineer]

Getting closer! Because this is a "back burner" project, it's taking longer than expected.

 

[GJ79]

Yes, development is still ongoing. Having trouble sourcing the high-voltage connectors used by Tesla made by KET. The connectors are essential to make installation safe and easy.

Any idea yet on how much you think this unit will cost ?

 

[TonyWilliams]

Yes, development is still ongoing. Having trouble sourcing the high-voltage connectors used by Tesla made by KET. The connectors are essential to make installation safe and easy.

Perhaps, if there is a way to manipulate the charging cycle, you could extract the DC power through the normal charge port. Then, the simple and safe connector is the Tesla plug.

The physical sequence of events is nothing fancier than what the current CHAdeMO adaptor does. A PWM signal of 4 amps to signal digital communication, and a little digital BS to make the car happy might close the contactors. The harder part might be keeping the contactors closed without power going in.

 

[Ingineer]

The Tesla plug is even harder to source (or manufacture) and it would also preclude use while driving, which is how I mainly use my prototype inverter.

That being said, you can extract power from the charge port.

 

[Adrian]

For us Europeans it's a widely available Type2 plug.

 

[joaquinsfy]

interested... watching thread (european version too)

 

[yak-55]

Also interested. My use case would be generator replacement, ie emergency home power during short term grid outages. No need for grid tie capability.

 

[SeminoleFSU]

Same here. My home is wired for 50A panel backfeed and I would love to be able to use my Tesla to do that instead of my noisy generator

 

[GoGoGadget]

I'm highly interested in using my Tesla to temporarily power the house. Subscribed

 

[sbanks]

I'm also interested.

 

[Testwa]

In future scenarios the car will interact more with smart grids. So with having many millions of EVs in 10 or 20 years the batteries in the vehicles can be used to compensate peaks at power stations. The cars can also be used as intermediate buffer for energy from solar panels and more evenly distribute the energy back into the grid when needed.
So the idea of supplying your own home as discussed in this thread is already the start into this future scenario ...

 

[doubleohwhat]

Interested as well.

 

[David99]

There are technical issues. The car's battery is DC at 400 Volt. The grid is 240 Volt AC. In order to feed power back, you would need an inverter that is grid tied. It would also have to have an automatic off feature in case the power company needs to turn off the grid power in one area to do work. There can't be a source still feeding into the grid in these situations. Solar inverters do this but the car does not have the hardware to do that. So without an external inverter it's not going to happen.
The concept is definitely going to happen in the future, but either the current hardware in the Model S or X today, it's not possible.