What became of the "LEAF TO HOME" Power the house Kit?

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KillaWhat

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 23, 2012
Messages
866
Location
Southeast Pennsylvania
The Leaf as a short-term standby power source.

We were supposed to be able to use the Leaf as a back-up power source for our houses in an emergency.
They made such a big deal about doing this in Japan after the "Big Wave" problem.

From Nissan Article , August 9, 2011

"Nissan says its new electric vehicle, the Nissan Leaf, can provide emergency power to your home during a power failure or brownout (shortage). The charging system that takes power from the wall outlet can, with modifications, run in the opposite direction and provide power back to your house. In Japan, Nissan says there’s enough power to run the average Japanese home for up to two days. In the United States with our higher demands for power, like the beer fridge in the garage, we calculate that you’d fully drain the battery within 20 hours.

Nissan last week said it has a prototype running in Japan and will bring it to market by spring 2012. Systems for other markets would follow later, once Nissan can adapt them for those markets. The system was unveiled at the Kankankyo environmentally friendly model house at Nissan headquarters in Yokohama. The power connection runs from a 200 volt, single phase three-wire connection at the house’s electrical distribution panel to a power control system in the garage to the car’s standard quick charge connector. Normally the switching panel sends current to the car. By flipping a switch, the house can draw power from the car. "

Read the rest of the article here.
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/92314-nissan-leaf-can-power-your-house-for-a-day-or-two" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's not a one-off. There are lots of similar articles out there.

Never heard another thing about it.

This Seems like a project for the Open EVSE folks.

You know, as long as we are building this, can we make it do .... this other thing.

I'd find it pretty handy.
 
Our power was off twice in the last three weeks. I'm thinking of buying a 2300w inverter to power things in my house from the Leaf. I can backfeed in from the garage and keep the fridge running and some other things also. :)
 
Metalman said:
Our power was off twice in the last three weeks. I'm thinking of buying a 2300w inverter to power things in my house from the Leaf. I can backfeed in from the garage and keep the fridge running and some other things also. :)

I don't know how we tell the leaf to allow flow back through the DC charging port though.
Needs a protocol similar to the J1772 to tell the car It's OK to connect / relay close or something I'm sure.
 
Metalman said:
Our power was off twice in the last three weeks. I'm thinking of buying a 2300w inverter to power things in my house from the Leaf. I can backfeed in from the garage and keep the fridge running and some other things also. :)
I wouldn't recommend that. Just buy a nice generator from a home store and be done with it.
 
The Leaf To Home is available in Japan, and was prominently displayed in the Nissan store in Ginza. I suspect with the recent power grid issues relating to the tsunami, having a backup power source is a huge deal in Japan.
 
I wouldn't recommend that. Just buy a nice generator from a home store and be done with it.
What's wrong with doing that? I have a not so nice generator that is a PITA to mess with.
It wouldn't power through the charge port, it would connect to any twelve volt battery. I have two solar charged deep cycle batteries in my garage and the Leaf happens to have a twelve volt battery with a big ass backup. :)
 
Metalman said:
I wouldn't recommend that. Just buy a nice generator from a home store and be done with it.
What's wrong with doing that? I have a not so nice generator that is a PITA to mess with.
It wouldn't power through the charge port, it would connect to any twelve volt battery. I have two solar charged deep cycle batteries in my garage and the Leaf happens to have a twelve volt battery with a big ass backup. :)

Noooo. If you want this to work, you are going to need to access the LiON Batteries.
That little dinky 12 volt battery would be useless in this application.

I have a 64Kw Diesel genset, and yes, It's a PITA.
If we have a "Japan Giant Wave", I'm set. 1000 gallons of diesel, 64kw no prob.
But.... A quick and dirty 3 or 4 hours off the leaf would be pretty cool I think.
 
I'm no engineer , but there is no reason I know of that this wouldn't work. I'm not planning on running the whole house. I would turn off the main breaker and all the others except the garage and the kitchen to run the fridge. The Leaf would be powered up to keep the 12v charged. Tell me why this won't work. :)
 
The maximum output of the DC-DC converter is around 130 amperes at 12 to 14 volts. There are some 12V power needs for the car so perhaps 120 amperes are available at the 12V positive battery terminal and chassis ground. That means the maximum load would be 1440 watts. With that much load from the DC-DC converter, the Leaf's coolant will get a little warm so the radiator fan will need to run in addition to the coolant pumps. This will likely drop the net current available down to about 100 amperes or 1200 watts continuous. Make sure you connect the negative terminal of the inverter to chassis ground or the stud terminal on the DC-DC converter rather than directly to the negative battery terminal. Connecting to the negative battery terminal will bypass the Hall-Effect charging current monitor and cause the DC-DC converter to overcharge the 12V battery.

Gerry
 
Metalman said:
I'm no engineer , but there is no reason I know of that this wouldn't work. I'm not planning on running the whole house. I would turn off the main breaker and all the others except the garage and the kitchen to run the fridge. The Leaf would be powered up to keep the 12v charged. Tell me why this won't work. :)

How many watts does your fridge take to run?
Do you also have a deep freezer with food in that and how many watts will it take for that to run.

The DC to DC converter is going to get overloaded real fast. It might be better to buy a small gasoline generator to run those items during a power failure.
 
Metalman said:
I'm no engineer , but there is no reason I know of that this wouldn't work. I'm not planning on running the whole house. I would turn off the main breaker and all the others except the garage and the kitchen to run the fridge. The Leaf would be powered up to keep the 12v charged. Tell me why this won't work. :)
I really don't recommend this! All it takes is one careless moment to turn the main breaker on with the inverter still connected to make a large boom! At a minimum, you will destroy the inverter. You get unlucky and you'll have an arc flash at the breaker panel (where you're standing) and get 3rd degree burns or burn down your house!

Do it right: have a transfer switch and generator installed.
 
I haven't checked my fridge, but I think an average one uses about 750W. So it would be OK with a smaller inverter and a cord direct to the fridge?
 
Metalman said:
I haven't checked my fridge, but I think an average one uses about 750W. So it would be OK with a smaller inverter and a cord direct to the fridge?

With a fridge, it's not the running load, it's the start-up compressor load that gets you.
Enormous unless you buy a special fridge, like for a motor home or something.

Anyway, There is no reason the Leaf to Home setup wouldn't work well.
All the doom and arcing talk would be remedied by the same type of transfer switch a generator uses.
The panel feeds from "A" or "B", but the car can never be connected to both at the same time.
Physically impossible.

Just seems a shame to waste the opportunity to do something else cool with the car, which obviously can be done, and done cheaply by a DIY person.

Make a plug to fit the Chademeo (sp) DC , a board to negotiate access to the batteries, which would also trip your A/B switch to allow safe connection, a solar panel system inverter, and Bob's you Uncle (never understood that btw)
 
I think that any alternatives to power outages are fine .. assuming you do a study as to what you need, when you need it and how long you will need it .. sort of like sex, but pray don't let me digress. We have an auto-start and auto-switch over natural gas powered generator purchased from Home Depot. It is a Generac which I know from 30+ years of experience to be a very reliable genset (assuming it is the low RPM type, 1800 RPM -- the high rpm types, 3600 RPM tend to beat themselves to death after a few hundred hours of continuous full load use). The genset has a dual-fuel carb on it so that I can switch between natural gas and LP gas or BBQ tanks, etc. This is good in case the NG supply is interrupted. It is quiet, about 55 db and stis on the garage side of the house so it can't be heard in the bedroom or even in the house. This setup will cost about $2500 and another $500 or so for electrical hook up. Our gas company hooked our up for free, charging only for the pipe. 10KW runs everything including the LEAF, clothes dryer, etc. NOw, as to gasoline and diesel gensets, having cursed them for 30 years of Army service, they are high in maintenance and tough to refuel if there is a major disaster. Of course, the aural signature is bad too, and there is actually a military standard now which limits the amount of db the genset can make -- due to watchful (earful?) enemy locating your positions by the sound. The bigger the genset, the bigger the target, which is why is always nice to not be there but safe in the air, but that's another story. Assuming the Apocalypse, if you are a Born-Again, you of course, will not need a genset since The Last Trump and Rapture will immediately take you into a State of Grace; thos who have Surrendered to al-Islam will be translated into Paradise. Not sure about the rest of the folks ... Catholics get their own heaven, I was told by my Primitive Baptist pastor some 50 years ago but they are not allowed to know that The Baptists are already Up There. But I Digress again ... . Also, an Apocalyptic Event will most likely cut off NG and other fuel supplies as well. Assuming you and yours are still alive, have plenty of GUNS and AMMO, you will not be worrying too much about the freezer and fridge working. OR the TV, unless there is a Titans or Padres game playing. So, the recapitulate, have an alternative source of power which is an alternative to the alternative. My choice? Solar panels, 2x3 feet in size on the top of my workshop building and trickle charging 4 huge surplus sealed batteries taken out of computer center service, each weighing 190 lbs and with enough capacity to run a small dorm fridge, all of my radio transceivers, 12v LED lights and the electric powered ammo reloading station. Having a stock of re-loadable shells and bullets is essential, especially if it is a Zombie Apocalypse caused by the secret experiments of Certain US Government Laboratories hidden under Area 51 and the Denver International Airport who accidentally or purposefully allow Zombie Infections to escape in order to Cleanse the World for the re-entrance of the Super Race now in Suspended Animation under the Antarctic Ice. OK, I'm am going back for another cup of "Midnight Black, Double Express Coffee. Black. Once Black, Never Back, so to speak.
 
KillaWhat said:
The Leaf as a short-term standby power source.

We were supposed to be able to use the Leaf as a back-up power source for our houses in an emergency.
[..]
This Seems like a project for the Open EVSE folks.

You know, as long as we are building this, can we make it do .... this other thing.

I'd find it pretty handy.

I think this is a great idea! Seems to me, though, the power would have to come off the traction pack, not the 12v accessory battery. If Nissan already has this for sale (in Japan) it would suggest provisions to support it already exist in the car / firmware. Perhaps they connect to the QC port and tell the car (via can bus) to connect / enable the battery? Presumably everything else would then be handled off board (inverter, control, etc).

Does the official Japan product connect to the QC port?
 
A Prius, Volt, or other hybrid still makes much more sense as a backup power source.

What are you going to do when your Leaf runs out of power? You can't even drive somewhere to get it recharged.
 
adric22 said:
A Prius, Volt, or other hybrid still makes much more sense as a backup power source.

What are you going to do when your Leaf runs out of power? You can't even drive somewhere to get it recharged.

Amen to that. i would rather get a generator that has the capability of charging the house AND the LEAF
 
What are you going to do when your Leaf runs out of power? You can't even drive somewhere to get it recharged.
That's what the gas and diesel cars are for. The Leaf is not good for all the same uses as a gas or diesel powered car, but I think it would be just fine to run an inverter to power some things during a power outage.
 
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