Whats the real skinny on V2H or V2L with a Leaf?

[connellbsd]

I read a few posts below that made me think its being done, but possibly badly. My Cuz is buying a new battery from someone here in San Diego (San Marcos) that will give him ~200+ miles range on his ~2016 Leaf with Chadmo. I'm curious what the options are for powering his house during blackouts? -Bill

 

[LeavesThatAreGreen]

In terms of powering things from a Leaf's DC CHAdeMO connector, you used to be able to buy Setec V2L 3kW and 6kW units from www.evsiphon.com, but no longer. There is still information about V2H more broadly on that site, however. (And there might still be alternative sources for the Setec units.)

However, just in general you can connect a "12V" inverter to a Leaf just as you could to an ICE car; even better, since there won't be any exhaust emissions to deal with. (You can run it in a garage with the door closed!)

Perhaps connecting under the hood to the 12V system is what you mean by "being done, but possibly badly", but I think "badly" is overstating it. The biggest limitation is that you can only go so far in inverter wattage before exceeding the current budget for the Leaf's 12V charger. You won't be getting 3kW+ that way.

If by badly you just mean "home-brew" in the sense of cables everywhere and the solution not being "tidy", there's some assistance for that.

First, if you don't like using jumper-style cables to connect to the Leaf, there are cleaner wiring kits available here:

www.evextend.com

Second, if you'd like the inverter itself to be more packaged (and ideally weatherproof), there's this source:

www.cargenerator.com

 

[knightmb]

I read a few posts below that made me think its being done, but possibly badly. My Cuz is buying a new battery from someone here in San Diego (San Marcos) that will give him ~200+ miles range on his ~2016 Leaf with Chadmo. I'm curious what the options are for powering his house during blackouts? -Bill

You have two options. One is using the ChaDeMo port which is how it was intended to draw power from the Leaf to power something. The other is to tap the 12V system with an inverter, but this has a limit of roughly 1,500 watts. About the same as having one working 120V outlet in your home. Both can be done in a safe manner when wired correctly and setup for the proper power loads. I've been using the 12V tap method for nearly a decade now because it was the cheapest setup for me, though limited as it is, still plenty of power for a blackout if you need to keep food cold, run a microwave to cook food, lights, TV, etc.