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Tesla Powerwall + F150 lighting intelligent backup

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Don't worry, I am still in line for the cybertruck :)

Ended up ordering a F150 Lighting during wave 2. Was #2 in line at my local dealer. Landed on the XLT SR with a few options (9kw onboard, tow package, etc), $57k all in. With the potential to get the $7500 back.

The 130kw ER battery just did not make sense to me for the price (almost $19k more).
The 98kw SR battery is plenty, and is about 2x the size of my MY SR battery.

Would love to find a way to hook things up to my existing tesla solar + tesla powerwall setup.

Had anyone looked into this? Or planning to do the same?
 
Don't worry, I am still in line for the cybertruck :)

Ended up ordering a F150 Lighting during wave 2. Was #2 in line at my local dealer. Landed on the XLT SR with a few options (9kw onboard, tow package, etc), $57k all in. With the potential to get the $7500 back.

The 130kw ER battery just did not make sense to me for the price (almost $19k more).
The 98kw SR battery is plenty, and is about 2x the size of my MY SR battery.

Would love to find a way to hook things up to my existing tesla solar + tesla powerwall setup.

Had anyone looked into this? Or planning to do the same?
compared to the price of that much powerwalls, why would a person not buy the f150 instead?
 
compared to the price of that much powerwalls, why would a person not buy the f150 instead?
Exactly right.

One the the primary reasons I opted to buy it. Assuming there will be a way to seamlessly connect everything, it would be adding a mobile 100kw of storage to our home.

Plus I have a feeeling it will hold its value incredible well for the 2-5 years I have it while waiting for the CT. Demand (and inflation) is bunkers.
 
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You’ll want to spend time on the ford lightning forum and figure out what will instruct a F150 lightning to charge and discharge. And you have some weird 320A setup to contend with.

I think there will be no pragmatic way you could sync up a F150 to import/export energy based on instructions from your Tesla Gateway PCS.

But 60% of the time, I’m wrong 100% of the time, so I’m interested to see what you could come up with.

 
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I have also wondered how well these two could be integrated. A big question I have is is it possible to have the immediate switchover to battery power that we have with Powerwalls. We use our Powerwalls as part of running our business where without power we are greatly impacted. I would also like to understand the integration with the vehicle charging to limit or prevent charging the F-150 when the grid was not present and other integrations of the solar and vehicle battery management.

My hope is that the F-150 integration is more than the commercials portray, which is as a power source you manually connect and engage like a standalone generator after power has been lost.
 
It should be relatively straight forward to add the Sunrun F-150 Lightning Intelligent Backup Power setup as if it were a whole home generator according to the Tesla system layout. It would be a backup when the Powerwall runs out of juice and the two batteries don't see each other.

According to the Tom Moloughney video about the F-150 system, if you don't get the larger battery on the truck, there may be an upcharge for enabling Intelligent Backup Power. Ford also hasn't disclosed the cost of the Sunrun hardware kit needed to install Intelligent Backup Power. Sunrun also hasn't talked about typical installation cost. At least they said that you don't have to use them for install and you can buy the kit and install yourself or use your own electrical contractor.
 
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I have also wondered how well these two could be integrated. A big question I have is is it possible to have the immediate switchover to battery power that we have with Powerwalls. We use our Powerwalls as part of running our business where without power we are greatly impacted. I would also like to understand the integration with the vehicle charging to limit or prevent charging the F-150 when the grid was not present and other integrations of the solar and vehicle battery management.

My hope is that the F-150 integration is more than the commercials portray, which is as a power source you manually connect and engage like a standalone generator after power has been lost.


You'll probably want to read these links.

Even if you have the Charge Station Pro, you'll need the Ford "Intelligent Backup Power" kit that Sunrun is the authorized installer. It seems to act more like an off-grid generator than it does your fancy Tesla Gateway. The Backup Power kit also has what is known as "Dark Start" battery and inverter that can actually backfeed the house. It seems like the DC from the F150 charges the Dark Start, and the Dark Start is actually the thing feeding your house.

The guy in the video/link I posted above from the Lightning forum also answers a bunch of questions. But it sounds like the F150 cannot operate in parallel in the way we're kind of accustomed to with Powerwalls. I don't see a reasonable way a F150 could do TOU shifting or "self powered" mode the way some may want.


I think if you want your F150 to be a secondary backup, you'll be better off running an extension cable from the truck to the power strip in your office lol.
 
You'll probably want to read these links.

Even if you have the Charge Station Pro, you'll need the Ford "Intelligent Backup Power" kit that Sunrun is the authorized installer. It seems to act more like an off-grid generator than it does your fancy Tesla Gateway. The Backup Power kit also has what is known as "Dark Start" battery and inverter that can actually backfeed the house. It seems like the DC from the F150 charges the Dark Start, and the Dark Start is actually the thing feeding your house.

The guy in the video/link I posted above from the Lightning forum also answers a bunch of questions. But it sounds like the F150 cannot operate in parallel in the way we're kind of accustomed to with Powerwalls. I don't see a reasonable way a F150 could do TOU shifting or "self powered" mode the way some may want.


I think if you want your F150 to be a secondary backup, you'll be better off running an extension cable from the truck to the power strip in your office lol.
Thanks for the info and the links. It seems considerably less integrated than what we have come to expect with Powerwall setups. I think your description of an "off-grid generator" is appropriate.

But, for many people not used to never seeing a light bulb flicker, this may be good enough. My family members in Texas lost power again last night (thanks ERCOT!) because of the weather. I am sure they would like to have a F-150 lightning to plug into to.
 
It should be relatively straight forward to add the Sunrun F-150 Lightning Intelligent Backup Power setup as if it were a whole home generator according to the Tesla system layout. It would be a backup when the Powerwall runs out of juice and the two batteries don't see each other.

According to the Tom Moloughney video about the F-150 system, if you don't get the larger battery on the truck, there may be an upcharge for enabling Intelligent Backup Power. Ford also hasn't disclosed the cost of the Sunrun hardware kit needed to install Intelligent Backup Power. Sunrun also hasn't talked about typical installation cost. At least they said that you don't have to use them for install and you can buy the kit and install yourself or use your own electrical contractor.
You are correct about the upcharge. And there may be some level of upcharge unless you move all the way up to the Platinum edition, which is $90K or so. My order is a cheap version, $40+K, and if I do go through with it I will look closer at the additional costs.
 
You’ll want to spend time on the ford lightning forum and figure out what will instruct a F150 lightning to charge and discharge. And you have some weird 320A setup to contend with.
320A is not required and Ford has corrected their web site. What is required is a 100A circuit.

I think there will be no pragmatic way you could sync up a F150 to import/export energy based on instructions from your Tesla Gateway PCS.
I agree. Tesla has no incentive to work with Ford or Sunrun on this.
 
Thanks for the info and the links. It seems considerably less integrated than what we have come to expect with Powerwall setups. I think your description of an "off-grid generator" is appropriate.

But, for many people not used to never seeing a light bulb flicker, this may be good enough. My family members in Texas lost power again last night (thanks ERCOT!) because of the weather. I am sure they would like to have a F-150 lightning to plug into to.

Fundamentally V2H can't be as integrated as dedicated home battery systems as it's not always connected or enabled. The huge demand for generators shows most people don't mind a few minutes of outage before backup power kicks in for hours long blackouts.
 
Fundamentally V2H can't be as integrated as dedicated home battery systems as it's not always connected or enabled. The huge demand for generators shows most people don't mind a few minutes of outage before backup power kicks in for hours long blackouts.
The home and vehicle are connected in many scenarios. I often leave my 3 connected to the charger so it can charge based on the vehicle's defined schedule. And the demand for generators may wane as people start realizing their EV could power their home for a while in the event of an outage.