What if there is no power to charge the LEAF?

[lonndoggie]

The duration of the outage got me thinking a small generator is actually a pretty good idea - not for the car, but for the fridge, some lights, maybe internet (if the cable plant is up) - will a 2000w Honda or equivalent keep a refrigerator running? I did hear what sounded like one or two generators in our suburban neighborhood. Then again...realistically, this isn't likely to happen again for quite a while, and $1500 not spent on a generator will replace a LOT of spoiled food.

We took a walk around the neighborhood about 9:30 last night--it was really nice, super quiet and dark, as far as artificial light, but everything was bathed in moonlight.

One house had a generator going--a guy named Bob, who is an electrical contractor. He has one because it's part of his line of work, but for average folks like me, I can't see getting one for such (hopefully) rare events.

 

[Deleted member 3147]

I heard a statistic the other day that 1/3 of San Diego EV owners have solar PV power. It's at times like this that we really hate that our PV shuts down when the power goes out. It seems so futile, and I'm sure that technology exists that could protect the utility and its workers fixing the lines during outages if solar homes continued being able to use their own power.

It does exist but you have to spend the extra money to add batteries to your solar system. You don't want to be running right off of your panels without batteries to smooth things out. You don't want your power to dip if a cloud momentarily blocks the sun.

[edit]Sorry, I didn't notice there was another page of posts that beat me to it.

 

[smkettner]

No power for the LEAF? I have both a generator and a bicycle. I just need 15 mile range to rescue my gas guzzling truck from storage.

If power was out more than 24 to 48 hours I think there would be bigger stuff to worry about. Gasoline would be just as difficult at that point.

 

[SanDust]

If power is out for a day or two, you're not going anywhere since everything is shut, and therefore the range of your car is the least of your concerns. Being able to tap the car's battery to run the refrigerator and a few lights and to charge your phones and so forth would be nice.

For longer term outages you'd want a generator. A Volt or a Prius both have generators and they should be able to keep the lights on for quite a while.