V2H hack

[M3noob]

For my sins, I have researched Nissan Leaf EVs as a candidate for a Spanish car. Along the way I noticed several YouTube posts where the 12V battery was connected to an external 2kw inverter and said 12V battery was kept charged from the main HV battery.

Anyone tried this? Or is the Leaf (and Chevy Bolt) uniquely capable?

 

[LoudMusic]

There have been projects for connecting an inverter to the 12v battery in a Tesla. 2kw isn't going to power a house, but it would definitely help keep your refrigerator and internet equipment powered through an extended mains outage.

It's best to attach straight to the battery rather than using one of the 12v outlets, as those outlets are fused to 15A I believe. Which isn't much power.

You'll want to verify the maximum output of the battery and the DC-DC inverter of the particular Tesla you're working with, as I believe they may vary.

Also, newer Teslas are no longer using 12v batteries, and not all inverters are compatible with higher voltage input.

I had wanted to do this in my 2020 Model Y a couple years ago and never got around to it. I wish I had - we had a few power outages here that lasted upwards of 7 hours. Being without internet and trying to make polite conversation with the wife for that long is tedious!

 

[M3noob]

There have been projects for connecting an inverter to the 12v battery in a Tesla. 2kw isn't going to power a house, but it would definitely help keep your refrigerator and internet equipment powered through an extended mains outage.

It's best to attach straight to the battery rather than using one of the 12v outlets, as those outlets are fused to 15A I believe. Which isn't much power.

You'll want to verify the maximum output of the battery and the DC-DC inverter of the particular Tesla you're working with, as I believe they may vary.

Also, newer Teslas are no longer using 12v batteries, and not all inverters are compatible with higher voltage input.

I had wanted to do this in my 2020 Model Y a couple years ago and never got around to it. I wish I had - we had a few power outages here that lasted upwards of 7 hours. Being without internet and trying to make polite conversation with the wife for that long is tedious!

I'm driving a 2020 M3. We have enough batteries and panels to power the house unless we get 2 or 3 rainy/cloudy days. Which, as unlikely as it seems, happens even in Catalunya. And short days in winter can limit our use of the heat pump. Fortunately we have a wood to feed our stove

 

[Durzel]

I would assume in a Tesla if it detects the 12v battery is not holding a charge (because it’s constantly draining) it will simply determine that it is failing, throw an alert that will then have the attendant consequences (car not sleeping, not updating, etc)

 

[M3noob]

There have been projects for connecting an inverter to the 12v battery in a Tesla. 2kw isn't going to power a house, but it would definitely help keep your refrigerator and internet equipment powered through an extended mains outage.

It's best to attach straight to the battery rather than using one of the 12v outlets, as those outlets are fused to 15A I believe. Which isn't much power.

You'll want to verify the maximum output of the battery and the DC-DC inverter of the particular Tesla you're working with, as I believe they may vary.

Also, newer Teslas are no longer using 12v batteries, and not all inverters are compatible with higher voltage input.

I had wanted to do this in my 2020 Model Y a couple years ago and never got around to it. I wish I had - we had a few power outages here that lasted upwards of 7 hours. Being without internet and trying to make polite conversation with the wife for that long is tedious!

2nd thought...our big Victron inverter has a port for a generator. Thinking of plugging the Leaf hack in through that and top up the house battery rather than try to run the house on 2kw

 

[LoudMusic]

2nd thought...our big Victron inverter has a port for a generator. Thinking of plugging the Leaf hack in through that and top up the house battery rather than try to run the house on 2kw

This is what I was going to try to explain but I think you've already got it!

According to my power bill, I usually use around 35kWh/day (after subtracting the vehicle charging). So if I had your home power system and wanted to supplement with my car, I'd just need to maintain about 1.5kW from the car to the Victron. That would extend the no-mains/no-solar run time by a full two days.

Now I have a Model Y, 75kWh, and an R1T, 135kWh. If I turn off the aircon and water heater I could probably run this house for a month on car battery power

 

[MrT3]

I would assume in a Tesla if it detects the 12v battery is not holding a charge (because it’s constantly draining) it will simply determine that it is failing, throw an alert that will then have the attendant consequences (car not sleeping, not updating, etc)

Yes, I would imagine it would only charger the 12v battery at 5 to 10 A, anything more and it would detect a short in the battery and throw an error.

You would need to have the car powered up, then the load on the 12v feed would be from all the systems and any accessories you have plugged in - although even then I suspect Tesla could monitor which feeds are drawing the power and detect foul play if they wanted to.

 

[M3noob]

I would assume in a Tesla if it detects the 12v battery is not holding a charge (because it’s constantly draining) it will simply determine that it is failing, throw an alert that will then have the attendant consequences (car not sleeping, not updating, etc)

I've been carrying a spare 12v battery around for a year + I do a lot of off piste weekend driving. Admittedly an over-reaction to the legion of 2 year failure reports. I top it up regularly. It's my lucky charm

 

[andyorkney]

Not quite the same thing, but just had a 2 week trip away and we had a 12v camper fridge running all the while. My setup is a 700wh power station that has built in inverter, a 12v outlet, 2x usb c, 2x usb a, and wireless charge pad; this was left plugged in to the model 3 12v outlet and the fridge powered 24/7 off the 12v power station outlet. We also used a 700w induction hob for boiling water and heating food. Initially I charged the power bank while car was in use or charging, but after forgetting to unplug it from the car a few times left it attached permanently to no ill effect. I also carried an emergency boost start battery so that if we did get 12v problems I’d hopefully be able to attach that and get the car computer to boot so we then get the HV relays open to start charging the 12v system again.

In our Nissan env200 we have a similar setup but powered from the battery directly and stepped up to 24v but unfortunately the 12v battery will go flat if the vehicle is not switched on, seems it does not auto charge on low current, so had to fit a low voltage protection device to protect from flat battery. In that vehicle we camp for days so more often connect to solar and that works well.