For EV owners, the days of needing a generator during hurricanes or other events that may trigger a power outage are over. Here’s a look at an inexpensive way to power some of your home’s essentials with an inverter directly from your EV.
Almost all modern EVs include two or more 12v power outlets (think cigarette lighter). You can use those to power one or more pure sine wave inverters, which will turn the electricity into the same type of current you find in your home’s power outlets.
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All you need to do is turn on your EV in accessory mode and connect a pure sine wave inverter. Next, get an extension cord and run it into the house. There are a few more details you’ll want to be aware of. The most important is making sure not to exceed the wattage of your car’s power outlets.
You’ll want to check your owner’s manual to see how many watts each of your car’s accessory ports puts out. For example, the Ford Mustang Mach-E used in the video at the top of this post comes with two 240-watt power outlets, meaning you can export a total of 480-watts into your home to power things like lights, TVs, computers, fans, etc.
Be careful not to exceed your car’s capability or you’ll blow a fuse or potentially do damage to one of your electronics or the car itself. Also, most cars will automatically shut down accessory power after a set amount of time but many EVs such as Teslas and the Mustang Mach-E offer an override to run your car in accessory mode indefinitely. See the video at the top of this post for a demonstration.
A way to avoid putting more load on your car than it can handle is to measure how much power each of the electronics you want to run consumes. You can do that with a powering measuring device. One popular brand is called the “Kill A Watt.” You plug it into a wall outlet, then plug in the device you want to measure and the “Kill A Watt” will tell you exactly how many watts the device is using.
For example, a LED floor lamp may use 10 watts in an hour, while a 50-inch TV may use more than 75 watts. If your car and inverter has a total output of 240 watts, the light and TV would burn approximately 85 watts or so an hour, leaving you enough extra capacity to still plug in a small fan and perhaps a tablet or computer.
Some EVs, such as the Genesis GV60, Rivian R1T and Ford F-150 Lightning come with built-in inverters that can power much more, such as a refrigerator, or in the case of the F-150 Lightning, even an entire house.
For additional details on how to select and use an inverter with your EV, watch the video at the top of this post, and if you find the video useful, please give it a like and subscribe to the EV Rider YouTube channel.