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diy solar

V2H status?

I found an article saying they started in California and the first 3 markets also included New York and Texas.

The DFW zip I tried did not work and the New York, New York zip I tried did not work but 94114 for San Francisco did let me get to the ordering page (I said single family home with no current solar/etc) from this page:


These prices may be reasonable if it does everything it says:

Total for dcbel r16 ivory $8,644
------------------- details:
--- dcbel r16 $4,999;
--- 1st EV Connector DC CCS 19ft 8in $999; (Chademo was same price and AC J1772 much cheaper);
--- 2nd EV Connector AC J1772 19ft 8in $149;
--- dcbel aT (Automatic Transfer Switch) $998;
--- Blackout kit $1,499;

Blackout kit to maintain power during a multi-day grid outage. Includes an automatic transfer switch (ATS) and UPS Power Module and price can vary if you have a Stationary Battery installed.
 
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I reached out to dcbel and here is part of their reply:

"We are currently taking reservations from customers in California and specific regions of New York, and deliveries are slated to begin in mid-2022.
?
We will continue to expand to new regions and states over the course of 2022 based on demand."
 
I reached out to dcbel and here is part of their reply:

"We are currently taking reservations from customers in California and specific regions of New York, and deliveries are slated to begin in mid-2022.
?
We will continue to expand to new regions and states over the course of 2022 based on demand."
Thanks and if you hear anything more please report back as this seems to possibly be a really interesting solution (especially for homes with 1+ electric vehicles or plug in hybrids). It seems to be the closest I have seen to being a fleshed out product actually coming to market.
 
Nice thread eveyone.

Question for those doing the research or actually doing this: what EV do you have / plan to get? (And why). Thanks
 
I have two Teslas and do not plan on using V2H since I already have 42 kWh connected to my hybrid inverter. Also I do not see Tesla implementing V2H in the foreseeable future.
 
I am looking at replacing my ancient Silverado with a new electric one. I've looked into adding dedicated batteries to the homestead but that just seems overkill for outages that only occur occasionally in my area. (although predicted shortfalls in power this summer may make me think twice) The 200 KWh battery coupled with solar should keep the house powered for a long time if needed. And I also have a vehicle I can use when needed. When I priced out standalone wall systems, 200 kwh was close to $200k and the truck is 1/4 that cost so its a no brainer to me. I had one of the first Nissan Leaf's and that made me realize I would never buy a ICE vehicle again, there would be no need soon, and that is now our reality. (and there was no real maintenance with that vehicle, tire rotates, windshield wiper replacements and an occational cabin filter)

To the prior poster, he didn't mention Tesla (Musk) says you void your warranty if you try to power your house with his cars. Probably knows no one would buy his fairly pricey wall mount units if he allowed it.
 
To the prior poster, he didn't mention Tesla (Musk) says you void your warranty if you try to power your house with his cars.
Also the onboard charger on Teslas is not bidirectional and trying to access the high voltage battery connections is dangerous. I have cobbled together a 12volt workaround for ocassions in the field where temporary power was needed. The 12 volt battery on a Tesla is charged from the high voltage pack by a DC to DC converter with a capacity of at least 50 Amps.
 
Also the onboard charger on Teslas is not bidirectional and trying to access the high voltage battery connections is dangerous. I have cobbled together a 12volt workaround for ocassions in the field where temporary power was needed. The 12 volt battery on a Tesla is charged from the high voltage pack by a DC to DC converter with a capacity of at least 50 Amps.
My Leaf could do the same thing with the little accessory battery, but I never needed it so I I never cobbled one together. But the Leaf had the bidirectional Chadmo port too. Which after the Fukashima disaster, Nissan designed and sold a system to allow their cars to power homes. Recently I read something about them starting to sell them globally, if the US is part of the globe, then maybe we will get them too. ;)
 
Nice thread eveyone.

Question for those doing the research or actually doing this: what EV do you have / plan to get? (And why). Thanks
We have a Prius Prime and may get a Rav4 Prime & I wanted them because of their hybrid engines with plug in capability. Their plug-in ranges are fine for basic/regular local trips to/from school/store/Church and their hybrid engines let them do long road trips without needing to recharge. Not sure they will ever be really optimal for V2H but I had to get at least 1 vehicle. I do like that the Toyotas do have an extended climate control mode that uses very little fuel (switching between the battery and the hybrid engine) to keep someone safe/comfortable.
 
We have a Prius Prime and may get a Rav4 Prime & I wanted them because of their hybrid engines with plug in capability. Their plug-in ranges are fine for basic/regular local trips to/from school/store/Church and their hybrid engines let them do long road trips without needing to recharge. Not sure they will ever be really optimal for V2H but I had to get at least 1 vehicle. I do like that the Toyotas do have an extended climate control mode that uses very little fuel (switching between the battery and the hybrid engine) to keep someone safe/comfortable.
Keep in mind to use V2H technology you MUST have a vehicle with DC fast charging. (Not the typical AC charging via a J1772) If your vehicle doesn't have DC fast charging capability you cannot power your home from the main battery. Currently you need a Chadmo or CCS fast charging connector. -Bill
 
The other thing to mention with regard to V2H with a hybrid is that the battery is typically pretty small. The only way to get any benefit from a hybrid is to do major surgery on the high voltage pack like some have done with hybrids. Alternatively you could cobble a 12 volt inverter on to the 12 volt battery and find some way to get the hybrid engine to provide power to charge the 12 volt battery. But that is really not V2H and a cheap generator would be more practical and consume less fuel.
 
The other thing to mention with regard to V2H with a hybrid is that the battery is typically pretty small. The only way to get any benefit from a hybrid is to do major surgery on the high voltage pack like some have done with hybrids. Alternatively you could cobble a 12 volt inverter on to the 12 volt battery and find some way to get the hybrid engine to provide power to charge the 12 volt battery. But that is really not V2H and a cheap generator would be more practical and consume less fuel.
The 2020+ Prime Rav4s have 18+ kWh battery packs & the 2020+ Prime Prius's are ~9 kWh. As I mentioned above the "Prime" variants are Plug-In Hybrids (PHEVs) with more than basic Hybrids. Again I do NOT think these are ideal for V2H but the Plug-In Prime variants are not exactly the same as their standard Hybrid cousins. Unfortunately I could no longer wait for the perfect V2H combination to materialize and had to get at least 1 more vehicle. This is just my 1st foray into my options... I have 5 kids which will be coming of age and leaving the nest and I want to set up each with a safe mobile option for emergencies (in addition to emergency use at our main house).
 
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Keep in mind to use V2H technology you MUST have a vehicle with DC fast charging. (Not the typical AC charging via a J1772) If your vehicle doesn't have DC fast charging capability you cannot power your home from the main battery. Currently you need a Chadmo or CCS fast charging connector. -Bill
Understood. As I alluded to above my goals are multifold and V2H was not my #1 priority & I just could not wait anymore for the perfect solution. Though not out of the box there are several options that could allow a Toyota Hybrid (especially a Prime Plug in Hybrid) to help your home in at least an emergency. For example:


The following site has some examples on leveraging the high voltage batteries of multiple EVs for multiple uses (which likely could include some V2H support):


I have not researched it in full detail but, in addition to AC uses, it may be that solutions like that from PlugOutPower can maybe go DC-to-DC & take the high voltage hybrid/EV battery and go straight to recharge/supplement a 48V DC Home battery bank (haven't had time to research all the options)... That is not my immediate focus but I hope to do some testing with something like that as well.

During snowmageddon here in Texas for example, there were lots of people without power and I don't want my kids to be without options in extreme cold nor heat when they leave home... That was/is my first priority...

The above being typed, as I alluded to above, my higher priority over V2H is more like this for emergency use:




In addition to emergency use here at home or at rental properties, I want to make sure my kids can also at least power an external fridge/freezer, etc in an emergency when away at college... In addition to training them how to take emergency refuge in heat/cold inside the vehicle I also plan to test/train them how to take an external plug/cord to at least be able to power high priority external devices (sump pump, fridge, etc)...
 
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Also the onboard charger on Teslas is not bidirectional and trying to access the high voltage battery connections is dangerous. I have cobbled together a 12volt workaround for ocassions in the field where temporary power was needed. The 12 volt battery on a Tesla is charged from the high voltage pack by a DC to DC converter with a capacity of at least 50 Amps.
Interesting workaround & thanks for sharing. If I understand correctly in this video James Klafehn thought his testing was getting between 82 - 113 amps out of the DC-to-DC converter from the high voltage EV battery to his 12V battery sub-system (discussed throughout and particularly at 9:54 through the end):


I cringed several times watching it but it is interesting that the DC-to-DC converter can handle that much power. I wonder if in an emergency you could safely take another DC-to-DC converter and relatively safely go from the 12v subsystem to help recharge a 48V house battery system without having to tap into the dangerous high voltage EV battery directly (in addition to having options in the field or a remote work site). Also curious what kind of power loss you typically would get going through 2 DC-to-DC conversions (EV Highvoltage -> 12V ->48V). I guess in an emergency you don't care as much about the losses but curious regardless.
 
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I had a RAV4EV and Tesla did the drivetrain. However talking to the Toyota engineers, they told me that Toyota insisted that the DC to DC converter only operate when the "ignition" was on so it was much harder to implement than the “always on system that Tesla used. That is the fundamental assumption that needs to be checked.
I have watched Klafen's videos. He does not have or share a lot of technical information. He spent a lot of money and did not make any significant breakthroughs. In my opinion he would have been better off buying an EV with more range. The RAV4EV was just a compliance car for Toyota which allowed them to sell more Tundras. Also, I am of the opinion that charging one battery from another is an inefficient exercise. I also do not want to add wear and tear to my EV batteries when I can buy inexpensive and safer LFPs to power my house.
 
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I had a RAV4EV and Tesla did the drivetrain. However talking to the Toyota engineers, they told me that Toyota insisted that the DC to DC converter only operate when the "ignition" wason so it was much harder to implement than the “always on system that Tesla used. That is the fundamental assumption that needs to be checked.
I have watched Klafen's videos. He does not have or share a lot of technical information. He spent a lot of money and did not make any significant breakthroughs. In my opinion he would have been better off buying an EV with more range. The RAV4EV was just a compliance car for Toyota which allowed them to sell more Tundras. Also, I am of the opinion that charging one battery from another is an inefficient exercise. I also do not want to add wear and tear to my EV batteries when I can buy inexpensive and safer LFPs to power my house.
Overall I agree and would not want to do it as a regular every day solution.

If I recall correctly I think James has/had both an older RAV4EV (pure battery) and the newer Rav4 Prime PHEV (plugin hybrid) and that most recent testing video was with the Prime PHEV.

That being said, in an extended grid power down situation to my home/neighborhood, having an emergency option to be able to help safely recharge a house battery bank from the hybrid gas engine &/or HV battery could be helpful. In my initial testing it seems the Prime systems, even with the EV battery fully charged, doesn't really let you drain the EV battery much before kicking in the gas engine to recharge the battery. After plug-in charging overnight had the plug-in hybrid's HV battery fully charged (between 9-18 kWh depending on which Prime model) I unplugged it & tried to just run the car's air conditioner while sitting there in the sun with the gas engine off and the programming would not let the EV battery go down much before it would briefly start the gas engine and recharge the HV battery (could not see an option in the UI/settings to try to adjust that behavior). With that in mind it looks likely the HV battery will just go down a little and then recharge from the gas engine if I tried to tap into the DC-to-DC system on the 12V side in an emergency.
 
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in an extended grid power down situation to my home/neighborhood, having an emergency option to be able to help recharge a house battery bank from the hybrid gas engine &/or HV battery could be helpful.
Yes it could be helpful. However a propane generator would be more efficient if you were going to use fossil fuel. During a major power outage buying gas is going to be an issue so I would not want to empty my vehicle tank to keep my ice cream cold.
Of course, since I drive two EVs and like playing with solar, inverters and batteries, I am going to see different solutions
 
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