Anyone purchased a V2L adapter that works on Clarity

Honda sold this $9K box to export power from the Clarity Fuel Cell car; I think it may have also worked with the Japanese PHEV, which has a second charging port for DC power. The US Clarity PHEV cannot export power (not even Teslas can do this).

 

There's a definite market for options to access the traction battery on each electric car for backup power. With climate change, the need for a simple option keeps getting greater. I'd seriously consider buying a Hyundai or Kia (i.e. EV6) just for the V2L feature, and no not kidding.

I hope manufacturers pay attention.

 

There are lots of articles and videos explaining how a Ford F150 Lightning is a better deal for powering a home than the Tesla Powerwall.

In 10 years will there be Ford F150 Lightnings for sale with 10 miles on the ODO because they were used only for power back-up?

 

Yep I have a 100 kwh battery in my Lightning and have used it to power my house during power outages. It has a 30 amp 240 volt plug in the bed and a 120 v 20 amp plug in the frunk. I can run my heat pump, my well pump and my water heater off of the 240 volt plug (not simultaneously but individually) and my refrigerator wifi and microwave of the 120 volt plug. I have 9.6 kw of power available. And yes it was cheaper than a few powerwalls. Plus I can drive it. Love the truck.

 

There are posters on FB (I think that is where it was) that have done so with a converter (inverter?) from the 12v and used the power from the traction battery to power parts of their house. Car has to be running to do so.

Actually, it was here.

https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/thanks-clarity-for-saving-our-200-food-thanks-honda-engineers-for-charge-mode.15483/

 

Yes, Clarity's 12-Volt battery can run an inverter and it can keep the 12-Volt battery charged from the traction battery as long as the Clarity is ON (and not stolen while left ON).

The OP was looking for a way to tap the Clarity's traction battery directly the way his friend can do with his Hyundai EV.

 

It will not work with the Clarity.

What is your objective?

 

Highly doubt that will work on Clarity. If I am not mistaken these connectors work with DC direct. The charging port is a 240v and have a ac/dc converter to charge the batt. The on-board converter can't reverse the flow.
the best bet is to use an inverter and run it off the batt with the car on. Make sure the car is not in a confine space like closed garage as the eng might start on its own. You don't want carbon monoxide to get into the house and make you sick or kill you.

 

There are many ways to provide “back up power” to a home that don’t involve buying a $50K-$100K vehicle.

One drawback to using a vehicle for this purpose is that there will be no battery back up when the vehicle is not at the house.

 

You could do this with an inverter connected to the cars 12 volt battery. Prior to getting my F150 Lightning. I had A Kona electric that I connected to an inverter and powered my lights, wifi, and refrigerator when the grid was down. I powered every thing off an extension cord so no transfer switch was needed to isolate from the grid. I know people have also done this with a Prius so it should be possible with Clarity as well.

 

As mentioned, some owners have used an inverter that is connected to the 12V battery. If I recall, it was determined that the maximum capacity inverter that could be used was around 2000 watts. A 1500 watt inverter, for example, would easily power a residential refrigerator. Assuming that your furnace is a natural gas unit, you could be looking at running a blower that might use a ~400 watt motor. There would also be a control board that would consume a few additional watts.

Both the refrigerator and furnace could be operated using a 1500 watt inverter. The challenge is that the furnace is quite likely hardwired to a dedicated 15A circuit. The refrigerator can simply be plugged into an extension cord. Using the inverter, or any source other than grid power, to run the furnace will require some modifications and may require the services of a licensed electrician.

 

I found this to be a clever way to make a slight alteration to your furnace such that it can easily operate on backup power when needed:

 

Thanks @MrFixit! In the winter, my little 120-V Honda generator naturally powers only half of my circuit-breaker box and I have to drag the wire powering the furnace over to that side (bad planning by the electrician who installed the generator socket/grid-cutoff switch). The solution you provided would eliminate having to do that rewiring.