EVs when the power is out

  • Thread starter Thread starter KarriO
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 22
  • Views Views 3K
KarriO

KarriO

New Member
In the aftermath of hurricane Ian in Florida and Fiona in Atlantic Canada, I've seen a lot of posts on social media about how useless electric cars are when the power is out (surprise, surprise!)

Of course, people forget all sorts of things including that gas pumps don't work without power either, and I guess some of the folks making those posts don't even want to listen. In any case, I made a short video to address those concerns. If you're interested in watching it, it's here:

And I'm curious, what are everyone's thoughts on having an EV when the power is out? How many of the people here have an alternate source of power for when the grid is down?
 
In 2016 I replaced the sun deteriorated house service line and went from 100 A to 200 A. I also added a 16 kW, automatic, natural gas fueled, emergency generator. Other than 12 V battery replacement, it has worked perfectly.

I used to run a 1.1 kW, inverter mounted in the trunk of my 2003 Prius. Backed up to the kitchen door with a three outlet contractor extension cord, we had lights, TV, and either a window AC or the gas fired furnace. It burned 2 gal of gas per day when tornadoes wiped out power 4 days and 6 hours in 2021.

Bob Wilson
 
I live in the city and the power has gone out unannounced twice in over 20 years.

The only natural disaster that would knock out the power for any amount of time would be a very large earthquake. An earthquake large enough to knock out the power for any amount of time would probably damage the bridges and roads so you aren't going to go anywhere.

The only other large natural disaster around here would be one of the volcanoes going off. Here an electric car should have an advantage since they wouldn't be sucking up volcanic ash like an ICE engine.

Anyhow, I thought most folks living in a hurricane area had gas backup generators. It would be interesting to see if the electric cars suffered less flood related damage vs ICE vehicles.
 
Most buy a cheap one with a small, 4 hr, gas tank. Then it sits unused in the garage until needed when the owner discovers it doesn’t work.

My automatic system runs at 10 AM for 15 minutes on Saturday of each week. It also shows a green light if the last self-test worked.

Bob Wilson
 
Recently you are more likely to find gas pumps running dry than having no power to your home. And gas pumps need power anyway.
As soon as there is an “event” everyone goes and fills up their car causing shortages.

If you charge every night your car is always full in the morning whereas your gas tank is only full when you fill it and drops lower daily u til you fill it again. If the “event” happens when it’s low or near low then you have a problem…
 
Lets see when the powers out, I assume you mean the grid is down. When the grid is down my power isn't out. I have 5.5 kw of solar and 20kwhr of back up batteries. I usually keep the car at 70% SOC. Its 25 miles to town and back and at 5 miles/ kwhr that about 5 kwhr per trip. Where I live it almost always sunny (oh I wish it would rain!!!) So I can charge the car and the back up batteries. If it raining or snowing I can always fire up my 10kw propane generator with a 250 gallon tank and charge the car and the backup batteries. Nope not gonna be a problem!!
 
Myself, I'm in Toronto and we don't often experience blackouts here, at least not in my neighbourhood. When the power goes out, it's usually for a couple of hours, though in the December 2013 ice storm some 40% of the grid in Toronto was affected and blackouts lasted for days or even longer in some areas.

I'm getting solar put on my roof, though I'm just in the process now and it seems to be taking a little longer. For now if there was a blackout and I really needed to charge my car while the power is out, I guess I could use the generator I've had in my garage for years. More likely though there would be power in the grid in some other nearby area and I could drive there to charge (as I would not have my car sitting at 0%). In normal use we need to charge our car only once a week or every 8-9 days. We drive every day but only short distance.
 
hobbit said:
I had to explain "anti-islanding" to a couple of folks in FL with vanilla grid-tied systems in Ian-affected
areas. The "fix" is a battery bank, of course, but they're likely to balk at the idea of more cost/complexity...
Click to expand...
Battery bank, micro-grid interconnection device, and perhaps some whole-home load shedding devices or critical loads sub-panel.

It's only worthwhile if you have the cash to pay for a brand new system to utilize the solar tax credit (for the wealthy).
 
teslarati97 said:
It's only worthwhile if you have the cash to pay for a brand new system to utilize the solar tax credit (for the wealthy).
Click to expand...
I would think you could get a loan to pay for a solar system.

Secondly, it's my understanding that the tax credit can be carried over to subsequent years if you don't owe enough taxes to use it up in one year.
 
teslarati97 said:
Battery bank, micro-grid interconnection device, and perhaps some whole-home load shedding devices or critical loads sub-panel.

It's only worthwhile if you have the cash to pay for a brand new system to utilize the solar tax credit (for the wealthy).
Click to expand...


Not necessarily: In California the state has a rebate program up to 100%, if you qualify, for back up batteries as long the grid is able to pull from the batteries during peak demands. To qualify you need to be in a high fire risk area where there are power shut offs. To get the full rebate you either need to show a medical need or be on a private water well powered by electricity. I guess they want to make sure there is water available to fight fires even if the grid is down I qualified under the latter. So I having the state reimbursement for the installation of a 20kwhr LFP backup battery system I did pay for the solar array but there are low income programs for that as well. There are also interest free loans available to install a system which is then payed off with the rebate.
 
Fastnf said:
Not necessarily: In California the state has a rebate program up to 100%, if you qualify, for back up batteries as long the grid is able to pull from the batteries during peak demands. To qualify you need to be in a high fire risk area where there are power shut offs. To get the full rebate you either need to show a medical need or be on a private water well powered by electricity. I guess they want to make sure there is water available to fight fires even if the grid is down I qualified under the latter. So I having the state reimbursement for the installation of a 20kwhr LFP backup battery system I did pay for the solar array but there are low income programs for that as well. There are also interest free loans available to install a system which is then payed off with the rebate.
Click to expand...
That is brilliant actually! Since California law defines low income as 30% of 70% of the medium income adjusted for family size, then you should build a modest home in a very wealthy area for your child's first home with solar and 15+ kWh battery backup. Tuition is expensive and college students are generally poor!

Not that lawmakers would ever make laws that help the poor while allowing the wealthy to exploit. #trickledown :)
 
I'd imagine someone who had solar panels put up along with a battery backup system would be fine if the natural disaster didn't wipe out/extensively flood their home first.

And aside from if the gas stations even have power to run, there's also the issue of they may be out of gas for a while, as Bearded Tesla Guy points out in a video shortly after Hurricane Ian hit:

 
I just have a 220v generator to run your house/ level II charger. Ideally you have natural gas or big propane gas tank to run it. You can dial down the car charger amps to avoid overload. The people having issues didn’t properly plan ahead.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
I charged my car prior to the storms. Our generator can also power my charger if needed. Though considering a whole house generator so there won't be any issues at all
 
As mentioned above. Most EVs aren't driven flat ever day. So the likely hood of a power outage occuring at the exact moment you plug in your EV at a low state of charge is very very unlikely.

Charge semi regularly, change up before extreme weather and you'll be better prepared than you combustion engine owning neighbors.

FWIW I had to explain to my kids teacher that EVs use rechargeable batteries and not ultra long extension cords, when they asked what happens during a power cut.
 
The usual practice if there is no time-of-day pricing, get home and charge up to your set limit. Our car is ready to go within 1-2 hours.

Bob Wilson
 
Except on the rare occasions when I go for a very long drive, I never let my car go below 50%, and usually not that low. I live in an area that has occasional drive-by hurricanes, but you always have at least a couple days' notice with them. If you're a little careful and attentive to things, it's unlikely to be a problem unless some truly unexpected, sudden catastrophe hits -- in which case you may have other things to worry about besides your car.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top