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points by barbazoo 1 day ago | 0 comments
If you have an electric car that supports V2H.

Despite the dealer saying the used one I bought supported it, it turned out to not be available in the trim I got. My fault obviously for believing something a car dealer said.

[–] QuantumNomad_ 1 day ago
This thread is first time I hear about V2H. (I don’t have any car yet, electric or otherwise.)

It sounds amazing. Only thing I wonder if it can even be set up so that it will be like an Uninterruptible Power Supply. So that when there is a blackout, the V2H supplies all the power without any interruption.

I have several computers but no UPS yet. Imagine if I could buy an electric car and when I am not using it, my car is UPS for my whole house including my computers! :D

[–] masklinn 1 day ago
> It sounds amazing. Only thing I wonder if it can even be set up so that it will be like an Uninterruptible Power Supply. So that when there is a blackout, the V2H supplies all the power without any interruption.

That's the point of V2H (or a residential battery, which it emulates). Although you still want a UPS for computers: I doubt "without any interruption" is at the scale of a UPS, and possibly not at the scale a desktop computer will require. Notably it depends how the grids cuts off, if it cuts off in one shot (like throwing the breaker) the failover should be almost instantaneous, but if it fluctuates before failing the battery might need a lot longer to engage.

[–] sroussey 1 day ago
Yes, but you need specialized (expensive) equipment. Expect a $8-12k bill.
[–] QuantumNomad_ 16 hours ago
Will the setup outlive the car? Or will I have to replace it when I buy a new EV?

$10k amortized over 20 to 30 years is not too bad. But if I buy my first EV and only keep it for 5 to 8 years before replacing it with a different EV then I’m less happy if I also have to replace all of the additional equipment that soon.

[–] brohee 8 hours ago
It should be unrelated to the type of car. You need to automatically disconnect from the grid while feeding the home from the car, or you could cause great displeasure to the linemen working on repairing it.

V2H is pretty well standardized, there should be ways to avoue any car specific equipment.

[–] masklinn 1 day ago
V2L will also do the trick, although it's more annoying.

If power loss is a regular event you probably want V2H, but if it's just a remote fear or something that happens once every 5~10 then V2L and a few extension cords will do.