When the Ford F-150 Lightning was unveiled, the Dearborn company announced a number of very interesting features that would cater to the specific needs of its prospective customers. One of the more universal features, however, is the ability to provide power to your home, in case of an outage, thanks to the so-called Ford Intelligent Backup Power. Today, Ford offered a few more details about how this works.
If you’ve been watching the EV space you already know that a number of companies are working and trying to offer the so-called Vehicle to Load technology. That’s meant to allow the batteries inside our EVs to not only receive energy through their charging ports but also feed it into the grid or appliances or even our homes. For some people in the industry, this is a must have in the completely electric future we’re looking at right now, as such tech would help stabilize the electrical grids when a huge number of cars are charging at once.
According to Ford, the F-150 Lightning will be the first electric truck in the US to offer this capability. But how does it work and what do you need to get it going? Customers must install the Ford Charge Station Pro and Home Integration System, which consists of a power inverter, a dark start battery, and a transfer switch that enables two-way power flow, in order to benefit from Ford Intelligent Backup Power and future energy management options.
The Ford Charge Station Pro comes standard with the extended-range F-150 Lightning. Customers who buy a standard-range pickup can get the 80-amp Ford Charge Station Pro and pay for activation separately. This spring, the company will begin selling the Home Integration System, which was created in collaboration with Sunrun. Sunrun will also offer home solar options to customers in select areas who are interested in leveraging more renewable energy.
That means you can deliver up to 9.6 kW of power to your house, using the energy stored in your car’s battery. If you also add a set of solar panels to the mix, considering the F-150 Lightning has a battery capacity of 131 kWh, you could probably have enough energy for as long as 10 days. According to Ford, most households in the US don’t need more than 30 kWh per day so, even without the solar panels, you can still get enough energy for about three days.
With Ford Intelligent Backup Power and the Home Integration System, F-150 Lightning automatically kicks in to power your home if the grid goes down. Once power is restored, the system automatically reverts back to utility power. “F-150 Lightning brings new innovations to customers, including the ability to power their homes when they need it most,” said Matt Stover, Ford charging and energy services director.
“Teaming up with Sunrun leverages their expertise to bring solar power to even more customers, giving them the chance to turn their truck into an incredible energy storage source – and future truck features can help accelerate the development of a less carbon-intensive grid,” he added.
