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Bidirectional charging during grid outages

What HN thinks

Everyone wants their car to keep the lights on, but the protocols, regulators and vendors are still arguing about who holds the extension cord.

Lack of standards kills V2H
Islanding devices, chargers and cars use proprietary or missing control protocols, so only vertically integrated setups like Tesla's Powershare work; a common spec is needed for mass adoption.
Generators beat batteries for long outages
For week-long post-hurricane outages with heavy HVAC loads, a generator on an ATS is far cheaper than batteries, though others note this mainly applies to hot humid regions.
Solar plus batteries plus backup
Combining solar, batteries and a generator (or EV) gives everyday value and resilience, with load shedding and insulation reducing what's needed.

Consensus: Most agree V2H is currently a fragmented, expensive mess where vendor lock-in and regulation make DIY integration impractical for normal people.

Recommended in the comments

Tesla Powershare (product): Currently the only working integrated V2H option commenters know of.
Ford F-150 Lightning (product): Its bed outlet can power a home panel for days during outages.
Home Assistant (tool): Used to coordinate variable tariffs, car charging and home battery in absence of a standard.
Chargeverter (product): Lets a generator top up solar batteries when the sun doesn't cooperate.

Summarised by Claude from the comment thread 22 hours ago.

Points: 101
Comments: 151
Best rank: #5
Posted: 2026-10-31 by luu
Category: Hardware

vehicle-to-home bidirectional-charging electric-vehicles home-batteries solar backup-power cybertruck enphase

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