Using AC outlet as home backup

[ryanyoder]

Guys I’m new to the forum and am considering buying a 2023 PHEV and really want to use the AC outlet to recharge my Bluetti AC500 backup system during an outage. It’s capable of charging from 2 solar inputs or AC input with selectable amperage draw up to 15 amps or so. During an outage I would like to enable the AC outlet and charge my Bluetti from the car.

How long can you use the outlet? Is it on a timer?
How powered on does the car need to be to use it? Accessory mode ok? Some other mode?
Will the engine auto start to recharge the high voltage battery when drawing it down with the AC outlet?

Thanks in advance for any info. This looks like a great SUV to replace my 2013 Volt and 2017 XT5 with one vehicle.

 

[ryanyoder]

I bought a 2023 PHEV SEL last night and will report back on this thread in a few days with my experience.

 

[ryanyoder]

Some basic testing and this is what I know so far.

The car must be on and not charging for the AC inverter to power on
The inverter will run for at least an hour but I’ll test longer times. I assume it will run indefinitely.
The inverter will shut off with no notification if it doesn’t like something. In my case it liked my smaller 500 watt charging brick but not the charger in my Bluetti AC500 even when I current limited it to 5 amps. I assume it detected a ground fault.

So far it’s not bad.

 

[Stevepl11]

What sort of power outages are you dealing with that the Bluetti isn't able to cover?

I have a 1kW inverter on standby hooked onto 2 Nissan LEAF modules with about 60% SoH, so Maybe 40AH at 16.x volts. I had to slightly modify the inverter so it would not regard input exceeding 15 volts as a problem. And the battery is maintained by a 5W solar panel in the North Facing window (I'm 37 degrees South). I also made a simple BMS to limit each cell to about 4.15 volts but not with great accuracy. If needed I recharge with a bench power supply that only reaches a maximum of 10 Amps but that isn't really necessary since this is only a backup for very rare occasions.

Still I can keep my house lights on, watch TV, use my broadband and WiFi and keep my beer cold for a short time at least depending on what seems important. (actualy it keeps all the food cold but, ..priorities.. )

Only had two outages recently, both planned for maintenance of the supply, and we went out for the first one while they did that for a couple of hours. They actually placed a few big generators around the area and the outages were to connect and disconnect them.

Oh I also have a couple of small generators should things get a bit drawn out.

Still I would definitely consider hacking the PHEV for what it could offer. The DC-DC Converter is good for 1800W but the current into an inverter is a bit of a bastard so maybe modify another inverter (3000W modified sine wave) to stick 320 volts straight into the middle of it and completely avoid the 12 volt to 300+ stage. Just tap off the drive battery input to the Converter because it's quite accessible, the start the car and choose charge mode.

What could possibly go wrong?

 

[TTDave]

The vehicle is capable of using the battery to power a homw. You need to buy the power cord for that purpose and have an outlet installed in your home.

 

[ryanyoder]

My wife and I both work from home and have to have uninterrupted power 24/7 and we are 5 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricanes can disrupt power in many ways like rolling blackouts, brownouts, short term outages , and full 5 day long outages. We have a lot of battery backup power with multiple Bluetti battery packs but once those drain we can no longer power the essential loads on our transfer switch which includes refrigerators, lights, our offices and a couple mini split air conditioners. I have a Predator 9500 gas and propane powered generator that I can use during the day to recharge the Bluettis but it cannot run late at night. That’s where the Outlander comes in. I can plug two 500 watt chargers into the 1500w outlet on the outlander and pump 1000 watts into the batteries all night long. Also during the day my office is powered partially by a 2000 watt solar array I installed on my shed.

 

[Gosmo]

I'm using my car to power my home during any outages that happen, from time to time. But I always take care not to get to much load on the car, not passing those 1.5KW the car provides, that means I use only the necessary devices, nothing more. My setup was great until now and very useful, using only the drive battery and charging when needed using the car's generator (Charge button)