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I think the idea is that you plug the car after the mains switch, and you disconnect the mains from your utility when you use the car’s batteries as a source of

by xgbi 5y ago

I think the idea is that you plug the car after the mains switch, and you disconnect the mains from your utility when you use the car’s batteries as a source of current. So it’s manual but it makes sense, you don’t want (yet) to send back energy to the network. Maybe later on there’ll be a way for the energy network to broker power from plugger cars in the neighborhood.

mc32 5y ago
That makes sense. I’m trying to make sense of this statement (which seems to indicate it’s happening automatically when no one is home): >” If a weather event knocks out power, or if a car happens to hit a nearby electrical pole, the F-150 will seamlessly transfer its stored energy back into the home and automatically notify the owner via a push notification sent to their phone.”
- amscanne 5y ago
  I assume that they are implying the equivalent of an automatic transfer switch. It's not like Ford just invented the concept of a backup generator. Automated backup generators have existed for a long, long time. There are modifications and components required for your home.
- deleted 5y ago
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occams_chainsaw 5y ago
Article says it's not manual: "F-150 will seamlessly transfer its stored energy back into the home and automatically notify the owner via a push notification sent to their phone"
- quickthrowman 5y ago
  Either the car has an automatic transfer switch built in, or they forgot an asterisk and the sentence “Provided you have an automatic transfer switch, that is also connected to the internet”
bellyfullofbac 5y ago
This comment reminds me of a Mac menubar app I once saw that had an interesting story behind it (which I only remember vaguely): the author lived in a Middle Eastern city with shoddy power delivery that municipal power cuts off a lot. "The market" has a solution in that there are people in the neighborhood who own generators and rent out connections to it so you could just run down stairs, and rewire your apartment's power to that generator. I don't even remember what the app does, a quick google gives me an iPhone app that has a schedule for your neighborhood, and mentioning the city as Beirut: https://archive.is/qrZZr https://archive.is/qrZZr > Sam says he doesn't buy backup juice for his apartment, which he rented last spring. Somewhere along the electrical wires cast like nets across the city, a bootlegged electrical line running from a generator was spliced in his favor: A single “magic” outlet powers his wireless router during outages. It’s one thing to be kept from doing your laundry, and another thing entirely to be kept from your friends or family. Besides, tracking down the generator owner responsible for this one outlet would be a journey of more than 1,001 nights. In the city of Beirut alone, there are roughly 12,000 generators and their owners. Though it is technically illegal, regulators have a hard time squashing the network, which has grown to cover most of the country. Officials aren’t so much paid off to look the other way; they’re paid because, it is said, they own some of the generators.

by xgbi 5y ago

mc32 5y ago

That makes sense. I’m trying to make sense of this statement (which seems to indicate it’s happening automatically when no one is home): >” If a weather event knocks out power, or if a car happens to hit a nearby electrical pole, the F-150 will seamlessly transfer its stored energy back into the home and automatically notify the owner via a push notification sent to their phone.”

amscanne 5y ago
I assume that they are implying the equivalent of an automatic transfer switch. It's not like Ford just invented the concept of a backup generator. Automated backup generators have existed for a long, long time. There are modifications and components required for your home.
deleted 5y ago
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deleted 5y ago

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occams_chainsaw 5y ago

Article says it's not manual: "F-150 will seamlessly transfer its stored energy back into the home and automatically notify the owner via a push notification sent to their phone"

quickthrowman 5y ago
Either the car has an automatic transfer switch built in, or they forgot an asterisk and the sentence “Provided you have an automatic transfer switch, that is also connected to the internet”

bellyfullofbac 5y ago

This comment reminds me of a Mac menubar app I once saw that had an interesting story behind it (which I only remember vaguely): the author lived in a Middle Eastern city with shoddy power delivery that municipal power cuts off a lot. "The market" has a solution in that there are people in the neighborhood who own generators and rent out connections to it so you could just run down stairs, and rewire your apartment's power to that generator. I don't even remember what the app does, a quick google gives me an iPhone app that has a schedule for your neighborhood, and mentioning the city as Beirut: https://archive.is/qrZZr https://archive.is/qrZZr > Sam says he doesn't buy backup juice for his apartment, which he rented last spring. Somewhere along the electrical wires cast like nets across the city, a bootlegged electrical line running from a generator was spliced in his favor: A single “magic” outlet powers his wireless router during outages. It’s one thing to be kept from doing your laundry, and another thing entirely to be kept from your friends or family. Besides, tracking down the generator owner responsible for this one outlet would be a journey of more than 1,001 nights. In the city of Beirut alone, there are roughly 12,000 generators and their owners. Though it is technically illegal, regulators have a hard time squashing the network, which has grown to cover most of the country. Officials aren’t so much paid off to look the other way; they’re paid because, it is said, they own some of the generators.