4 ms·

It would be cool if i could use an electric car parked at home during the day to store some of that cheap electricity then spend it from the car back into the h

It would be cool if i could use an electric car parked at home during the day to store some of that cheap electricity then spend it from the car back into the house at night. When i looked into this last, it wasn’t common to have that bi-directional power flow capability. There was one, very expensive, Mitsubishi solution on the UK market around 2 years ago.

headmelted 6y ago
Nissan were looking into V2H for years but not sure what happened with it. I was registered for a pilot at one point with a third party but never got invited to participate and have since forgotten who the company is. EDIT: Looks like these can now be purchased and imported from China by end users: https://www.setec-power.com/product/vehicle-to-home-v2h-6kw/ https://www.setec-power.com/product/vehicle-to-home-v2h-6kw/
- Tade0 6y ago
  Second gen Leafs are equipped with the proper hardware - at least in Japan.
  - Reason077 6y ago
    I believe all current-generation LEAFs worldwide are V2G-capable.
    - goodcanadian 6y ago
      Basically every Leaf since 2012. Also Mitsubishi Outlander PHEVs work too though their batteries are quite small.
- Reason077 6y ago
  > "Nissan were looking into V2H for years but not sure what happened with it." In the UK, there are a few companies offering V2G packages for the Nissan Leaf. For example, Octopus Powerloop (available in London and parts of South East England): https://www.octopusev.com/powerloop https://www.octopusev.com/powerloop
- goodcanadian 6y ago
  We are involved in (so far as we know) the largest residential V2G trial in the world (certainly, the largest in the UK). Some links: https://www.indra.co.uk/v2v-grid-to-vehicle https://www.indra.co.uk/v2v-grid-to-vehicle https://www.ovoenergy.com/electric-cars/vehicle-to-grid-charger https://www.ovoenergy.com/electric-cars/vehicle-to-grid-char... https://www.cenex.co.uk/projects-case-studies/sciurus/ https://www.cenex.co.uk/projects-case-studies/sciurus/
  - headmelted 6y ago
    OVO Energy that’s the one! Sadly I appear not to be in the pilot area.
    - goodcanadian 6y ago
      The trial included people all over the country. Alas, the original trial is coming to an end, so they haven't been accepting new participants for quite some time. If you want a V2G, you might try contacting Indra though we really sell more to installers rather than direct to customers. Alternatively, if you have a local(ish) installer that installs Indra's smart chargers, you could try inquiring through them. I know it is possible to optimise to octopus's tariffs, but I don't know how available that is yet from the commercial side of things (I work on the technical side).
pydry 6y ago
Cycling car batteries is expensive. The cost of wearing out the battery is probably not going to exceed the value you get from drawing on it most of the time. That said, if you leave a car plugged in overnight and it charges fastest when the wind is blowing and slowest when prices drift up that will have a similar effect - for free.
- goodcanadian 6y ago
  If you were to fully charge and then fully discharge the battery, it might be an issue; however, that is not what you would typically do. If you cycle between say 25% to 90%, there is some evidence that it is better than just letting it sit. (The biggest issue seems to be leaving it fully charged for a long period of time.)
sliken 6y ago
Buy a powerwall or equivalent, they are designed for this use case, they tune the battery chemistry, cooling, weight, etc for this use case. Wearing out a expensive electric car, with a high load, while it's not moving (harder to cool), to save a few pennies per Kwh isn't worth it. Keep in mind that there's power losses just charging and discharging, so you need a pretty big swing to make it worth while. A powerwall (11kwh) costs $7500 or so installed and is generally enough to "peak shave" by charging when power is cheapest and discharge when it's most expensive. It does lower electric bills, but generally isn't really a good financial decision unless you put a financial benefit of having power when during outages.

headmelted 6y ago

Nissan were looking into V2H for years but not sure what happened with it. I was registered for a pilot at one point with a third party but never got invited to participate and have since forgotten who the company is. EDIT: Looks like these can now be purchased and imported from China by end users: https://www.setec-power.com/product/vehicle-to-home-v2h-6kw/ https://www.setec-power.com/product/vehicle-to-home-v2h-6kw/

Tade0 6y ago
Second gen Leafs are equipped with the proper hardware - at least in Japan.
- Reason077 6y ago
  I believe all current-generation LEAFs worldwide are V2G-capable.
  - goodcanadian 6y ago
    Basically every Leaf since 2012. Also Mitsubishi Outlander PHEVs work too though their batteries are quite small.
Reason077 6y ago
> "Nissan were looking into V2H for years but not sure what happened with it." In the UK, there are a few companies offering V2G packages for the Nissan Leaf. For example, Octopus Powerloop (available in London and parts of South East England): https://www.octopusev.com/powerloop https://www.octopusev.com/powerloop
goodcanadian 6y ago
We are involved in (so far as we know) the largest residential V2G trial in the world (certainly, the largest in the UK). Some links: https://www.indra.co.uk/v2v-grid-to-vehicle https://www.indra.co.uk/v2v-grid-to-vehicle https://www.ovoenergy.com/electric-cars/vehicle-to-grid-charger https://www.ovoenergy.com/electric-cars/vehicle-to-grid-char... https://www.cenex.co.uk/projects-case-studies/sciurus/ https://www.cenex.co.uk/projects-case-studies/sciurus/
- headmelted 6y ago
  OVO Energy that’s the one! Sadly I appear not to be in the pilot area.
  - goodcanadian 6y ago
    The trial included people all over the country. Alas, the original trial is coming to an end, so they haven't been accepting new participants for quite some time. If you want a V2G, you might try contacting Indra though we really sell more to installers rather than direct to customers. Alternatively, if you have a local(ish) installer that installs Indra's smart chargers, you could try inquiring through them. I know it is possible to optimise to octopus's tariffs, but I don't know how available that is yet from the commercial side of things (I work on the technical side).

pydry 6y ago

Cycling car batteries is expensive. The cost of wearing out the battery is probably not going to exceed the value you get from drawing on it most of the time. That said, if you leave a car plugged in overnight and it charges fastest when the wind is blowing and slowest when prices drift up that will have a similar effect - for free.

goodcanadian 6y ago
If you were to fully charge and then fully discharge the battery, it might be an issue; however, that is not what you would typically do. If you cycle between say 25% to 90%, there is some evidence that it is better than just letting it sit. (The biggest issue seems to be leaving it fully charged for a long period of time.)

sliken 6y ago

Buy a powerwall or equivalent, they are designed for this use case, they tune the battery chemistry, cooling, weight, etc for this use case. Wearing out a expensive electric car, with a high load, while it's not moving (harder to cool), to save a few pennies per Kwh isn't worth it. Keep in mind that there's power losses just charging and discharging, so you need a pretty big swing to make it worth while. A powerwall (11kwh) costs $7500 or so installed and is generally enough to "peak shave" by charging when power is cheapest and discharge when it's most expensive. It does lower electric bills, but generally isn't really a good financial decision unless you put a financial benefit of having power when during outages.