Love to help save the earth

[KT Chiu]

I just join the forum. I am an electrical engineer in Northern California who love everything related to environmental friendly. I have solar battery with 10KWh battery backup. Looking into how to connect my Leaf internal 60KWh battery to power my house during power outage.

KT

 

[Bombastinator2]

I didn’t pick a leaf for environmental frienliness, I did it because it’s cheaper. I also found out after the fact that it was a LOT quicker than I expected. So much so that I keep it in eco all the time not to use less power but because it slows it down a bit. The thing scares me. I also discovered that IF you’ve got a charger at home, it’s really indecently convenient to the point that I wouldn’t willingly drive a gas car again.

 

[cornbinder89]

Yes, fueling at home is one of the greatest things. Also having the fuel costs less volatile.
The Chademo protocol is one that allows for two way control. Unfortunately, as far as I know at present, there isn't a commercially available inverter that will work with the Leaf's Chademo and provide the "split phase" (120/240 volt) power we use. A future project for you?

 

[Bombastinator2]

There was one. The problem is it’s old not new. If you’ve got one you can use your car to power your house.

 

[cornbinder89]

There was one. The problem is it’s old not new. If you’ve got one you can use your car to power your house.

I'm fairly sure the one that one member here had was 240 only, no "neutral" and couldn't be used without a transformer to provide a neutral for 120 volt loads.
My understanding is it is still made but no retailer or supplier in the US, so you'd have to import it "gray market" and would have no support.
I could be wrong, and am open to being corrected.

 

[Bombastinator2]

That might be it or might not. I live in a low-rise now so my interest was academic and I didn’t pay a lot of attention. Others may know though.

 

[Radek Uchytil]

Mé důvody jsou ryze sobecké. Proto jsem si postavil pasivní dům a koupil Leafa. Jsem líný vydělávat peníze pro ropné a energetické společnosti.

 

[Radek Uchytil]

Mé důvody jsou ryze sobecké. Proto jsem si postavil pasivní dům a koupil Leafa. Jsem líný vydělávat peníze pro ropné a energetické společnosti.

My reasons are purely selfish. That's why I built a passive house and bought a Leaf. I am lazy to make money for oil and energy companies.

 

[duncan-s]

love everything related to environmental friendly

I'm right there with you. I feel like I'm late in getting on board with the EV technology, and happy and slightly surprised to find out my sense of responsibility to future generations is so nicely in line with all the self-interest considerations too (digging the reliability, fun, and low operating cost of the Leaf). It's great to reflect that the environmental benefits don't depend on the motivations of the drivers.

Welcome to the forum.

 

[nlspace]

Looking into how to connect my Leaf internal 60KWh battery to power my house during power outage.

On a 2012 mitsubishi i was able to expose the HV DC of the internal battery at the 9.5mm sockets of the Chademo connector using 2 jumper wires. But that car only requires that the dcqc contactors engage to access the pack.

On the nissan laef it will require activation of the main contactors inside the battery pack, and the Chademo contactors inside the PDM, in order to see HV DC at the Chademo port.

If the car does not have a Chademo, then only the main contactors would be needed to energize the HV buss inside the PDM. From there a custom cable could be made to connect to your home inverter.

A couple of jumper wires can energize the main contactors, but i don't know how to manually energize the Chademo contactors in the PDM.

 

[Juicebox]

Enphase is saying they will have a Bidirectional EV Charger in the near future.
But they have been promising this for about a year.
I bought a 21 Leaf Plus to add to the battery backup system of our home.
Great car for local use. Waiting for Enphase to market the item I need to make that happen.

 

[EV2Power]

I just join the forum. I am an electrical engineer in Northern California who love everything related to environmental friendly. I have solar battery with 10KWh battery backup. Looking into how to connect my Leaf internal 60KWh battery to power my house during power outage.

KT

Hi KT - Welcome to the forum. I use a Setec Vehicle to Load power station to power my home from my 60Kw Leaf. I can draw 6Kw from the battery at any one time. I also occasionally use it to power events or machinery where we don't want to use a diesel generator. The unit produces 230v single phase which might not suit you in the USA. Let me know if you need any more information.

 

[cornbinder89]

Yes, that was the brand I was trying to think of. Where are you located? US power is 220-240 single phase with a neutral so you can have 120 volt loads. The Setec can not supply that but either an autotransformer or a regular transformer center tapped can.
Some have reported not being able to get the Setec to work in the US? No experience myself.

 

[KT Chiu]

On a 2012 mitsubishi i was able to expose the HV DC of the internal battery at the 9.5mm sockets of the Chademo connector using 2 jumper wires. But that car only requires that the dcqc contactors engage to access the pack.

On the nissan laef it will require activation of the main contactors inside the battery pack, and the Chademo contactors inside the PDM, in order to see HV DC at the Chademo port.

If the car does not have a Chademo, then only the main contactors would be needed to energize the HV buss inside the PDM. From there a custom cable could be made to connect to your home inverter.

A couple of jumper wires can energize the main contactors, but i don't know how to manually energize the Chademo contactors.

Thanks so much for the info. This can be a head start for my research. Thanks.

 

[KT Chiu]

Yes, fueling at home is one of the greatest things. Also having the fuel costs less volatile.
The Chademo protocol is one that allows for two way control. Unfortunately, as far as I know at present, there isn't a commercially available inverter that will work with the Leaf's Chademo and provide the "split phase" (120/240 volt) power we use. A future project for you?

My house has an inverter converting the 10KWh DC battery to 120/240 volt AC for my home to use. The issue I have is how to connect the Leaf's battery DC output to my home's battery terminal. I assume I am not so lucky that the two battery group happen to operate at the same voltage

 

[MillerLF]

That's an interesting project! Hope you can share your progress