putting the home backup battery to use (power out)!
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@weezmgk @susankayequinn the Anker f3800 & f3800Plus system @czds and I have allows us to add in our Ioniq5 battery either by disconnecting one f3800 at a time and using 120V AC V2L to charge it and its expansion battery, or by putting the car in Utility mode and plugging the Anker adapter cable for the car’s 12V power outlet into the DC XT60 input of the f3800s, making the EV part of the system. So far, the longest outage we’ve had was >10 hours but we didn’t need the EV battery.
Last year's 4 day outage was in May, which was lucky — power needs were low, sun was plentiful. (Spring/Fall are when we're sending lots of solar power back to the grid).
During the outage we literally had more power than we could use, so I put out an extension cord and taught the neighborhood a little bit about community/mutual aid. The reaction was WILD — people thought it was incredible that I would do this. SIGH.
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@susankayequinn when I set up my system a few years back, I actually tried to get the V2L system set up, but my city had no code that would allow it. They also had significant limitations on "in home" batteries (25kWh).
So you could park a 100kWh Tesla in the garage and drive it around in a way that could damage the battery. And it is fine to park it in the garage. But the immobile battery was limited to a quarter of that.
Anyhow, good job on getting the V2L set up. The couple of times our backups have kicked in, we were really happy to have them. I just hope we can get through more of these administrative and cost hurdles so that we can get more tools like this to more people.
@gatesvp someday, I genuinely believe, everyone's going to have solar, home battery and an EV (apartment people will have residential charging for their cars, collective solar on their roofs, balcony solar, backup power for the whole building etc, preferably on a coop model, and of course we should have better/more public transit and fewer cars overall). This future is further away in America due to the fascists, but it's already arriving in Europe and especially China (and California too).
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@susankayequinn when I set up my system a few years back, I actually tried to get the V2L system set up, but my city had no code that would allow it. They also had significant limitations on "in home" batteries (25kWh).
So you could park a 100kWh Tesla in the garage and drive it around in a way that could damage the battery. And it is fine to park it in the garage. But the immobile battery was limited to a quarter of that.
Anyhow, good job on getting the V2L set up. The couple of times our backups have kicked in, we were really happy to have them. I just hope we can get through more of these administrative and cost hurdles so that we can get more tools like this to more people.
@gatesvp it is also crazy how regulations can be *so far behind* on this, but that's generally not by accident — utilities really do invest all kinds of $ in preventing conversion to solar. Solar (and the battery backups) are radical decentralization of power, and they do not want that. It'll be a fight the whole way.
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why we have backup power...most outages over the last 4 years have been ~5 min...but the last 2 years of record heat? Hours and days, incl that 4 day outage when the big storm hit PGH last May.
More info on how to plan for outages in a warming world: https://susankayequinn.com/2025/01/backup-power-for-air-filters-water.html
someday, everyone's going to have solar, home battery and an EV (apartment people will have residential charging for their cars, collective solar on their roofs, balcony solar, backup power for the whole building etc, preferably on a coop model). This future is further away in America due to the fascists, but it's already arriving in Europe and especially China.
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someday, everyone's going to have solar, home battery and an EV (apartment people will have residential charging for their cars, collective solar on their roofs, balcony solar, backup power for the whole building etc, preferably on a coop model). This future is further away in America due to the fascists, but it's already arriving in Europe and especially China.
oh look, it's going to get worse https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/an-el-nino-is-brewing
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why we have backup power...most outages over the last 4 years have been ~5 min...but the last 2 years of record heat? Hours and days, incl that 4 day outage when the big storm hit PGH last May.
More info on how to plan for outages in a warming world: https://susankayequinn.com/2025/01/backup-power-for-air-filters-water.html
@susankayequinn very helpful for me someday when I can afford solar
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@susankayequinn very helpful for me someday when I can afford solar
@dgodon balcony solar might be an affordable option!
I also highly recommend community solar, which doesn't cost anything (and might save money)
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someday, everyone's going to have solar, home battery and an EV (apartment people will have residential charging for their cars, collective solar on their roofs, balcony solar, backup power for the whole building etc, preferably on a coop model). This future is further away in America due to the fascists, but it's already arriving in Europe and especially China.
@susankayequinn not quite correct. Many people shouldn’t need a car if we’re doing it right.
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@dgodon balcony solar might be an affordable option!
I also highly recommend community solar, which doesn't cost anything (and might save money)
@susankayequinn heard about this on the Volts podcast and sounds intriguing. I think there’s a bill being considered in the WA legislature this session to facilitate this
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@kim_harding Not only does battery demand for EVs *not* work against people getting home batteries, they actually facilitate it:
1 - economies of scale for EV batteries has already shown to help home and utility battery buildout
2- EV batteries are outlasting the car bodies; there will be a lot of car batteries repurposed into home batteries when the car bodies are done
3 - there's a lot of (not helpful) EV/car hate out there; there's no reason we can't do EVs *and* public transit -
@susankayequinn not quite correct. Many people shouldn’t need a car if we’re doing it right.
@dgodon when people no longer need cars, then fine, but that's not happening in the next 10 years, which is when we can (and should) be turning over the car fleet from gas to electric.
Every new gas car that's manufactured locks in gas production pipelines for another 10-20 years. Every EV that's bought NEW instead not only takes those off the road (along with their future gas pipeline support) but creates a future with *more affordable* used EVs.
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@susankayequinn not quite correct. Many people shouldn’t need a car if we’re doing it right.
@dgodon @susankayequinn As of yet we aren't doing it right.
I live in a very walkable downtown area. Today I will be taking my car out (an EV) for the first time in a couple weeks to go to the recycling center. The recycling pickup in my complex is practically useless. -
@dgodon when people no longer need cars, then fine, but that's not happening in the next 10 years, which is when we can (and should) be turning over the car fleet from gas to electric.
Every new gas car that's manufactured locks in gas production pipelines for another 10-20 years. Every EV that's bought NEW instead not only takes those off the road (along with their future gas pipeline support) but creates a future with *more affordable* used EVs.
@susankayequinn for sure they’re needed to the extent people need cars. But cities can (and some are) making it much easier to do without (or with fewer). A growing number in Seattle are. And I hear e-bikes are having a bigger impact than EVs. Again, not disputing that switch to EVs is not important.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/11/280-million-e-bikes-are-slashing-oil-demand-far-more-than-electric-vehicles/ -
@dgodon @susankayequinn As of yet we aren't doing it right.
I live in a very walkable downtown area. Today I will be taking my car out (an EV) for the first time in a couple weeks to go to the recycling center. The recycling pickup in my complex is practically useless.@GalbinusCaeli @susankayequinn that still sounds like an improvement over the car centric lifestyle that the US is known for
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oh look, it's going to get worse https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/an-el-nino-is-brewing
"If you want a sense of how close we’re dancing to the brink, check out this new study from some of the heavy hitters in climate research, documenting the approach (or in too many cases the passing) of various tipping points in the earth’s climate system."
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/11/point-of-no-return-hothouse-earth-global-heating-climate-tipping-points -
@kim_harding Not only does battery demand for EVs *not* work against people getting home batteries, they actually facilitate it:
1 - economies of scale for EV batteries has already shown to help home and utility battery buildout
2- EV batteries are outlasting the car bodies; there will be a lot of car batteries repurposed into home batteries when the car bodies are done
3 - there's a lot of (not helpful) EV/car hate out there; there's no reason we can't do EVs *and* public transit@susankayequinn @kim_harding
, esp #3 -
@susankayequinn for sure they’re needed to the extent people need cars. But cities can (and some are) making it much easier to do without (or with fewer). A growing number in Seattle are. And I hear e-bikes are having a bigger impact than EVs. Again, not disputing that switch to EVs is not important.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/11/280-million-e-bikes-are-slashing-oil-demand-far-more-than-electric-vehicles/@susankayequinn here’s an article about how the increasing number of people in Seattle going carfree: https://www.seattlebikeblog.com/2025/09/10/balk-20-of-seattle-households-are-car-free-and-we-have-barely-added-cars-to-our-city-since-2017/
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@susankayequinn @kim_harding
Though there is an issue of resource consumption, and everyone owning an EV with extended range is a problem. (Ensuring everyone has access to the appropriate mobility is important, and we really need to revisit shared "personal" vehicles (personal as opposed to transit,) -
@susankayequinn here’s an article about how the increasing number of people in Seattle going carfree: https://www.seattlebikeblog.com/2025/09/10/balk-20-of-seattle-households-are-car-free-and-we-have-barely-added-cars-to-our-city-since-2017/
@dgodon that's great and I think there's a belief out there that the way to have more people going carfree is to do social pressure campaigns on people, give out lots of car hate, especially (for some reason) pointed at EVs (and not gas cars, which is wild), and I disagree with that methodology... making it *possible* to go car free is great and the biggest incentive is COST (cars are crazy expensive, all cars)...
I don't disagree with the objective, just the tactic/approach.
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@dgodon @susankayequinn As of yet we aren't doing it right.
I live in a very walkable downtown area. Today I will be taking my car out (an EV) for the first time in a couple weeks to go to the recycling center. The recycling pickup in my complex is practically useless.@GalbinusCaeli @dgodon @susankayequinn
Well recycling is another thing we're not doing right, so...
