F-150 Lightning Intelligent Backup Power: 15 questions answered by Ford

[biers]

I’d love to pick up the 80A for my SR (if I ever get to order it ).

I’m blissfully hopeful Tom is wrong on the pricing from ford. Hope it closer to $1,500.
EVSEs are a riot. I get the R&D and certification costs. But my goodness. There’s not much to it and the parts can’t be more than $100-200 at scale.

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[CoyoteJim]

I’d love to pick up the 80A for my SR (if I ever get to order it ).

I’m blissfully hopeful Tom is wrong on the pricing from ford. Hope it closer to $1,500.
EVSEs are a riot. I get the R&D and certification costs. But my goodness. There’s not much to it and the parts can’t be more than $100-200 at scale.

According to this chart it appears it’s a waste to get the 80a charger for the SR because it can’t make use of more than 48a of AC current:

 

[GarageMahal]

According to this chart it appears it’s a waste to get the 80a charger for the SR because it can’t make use of more than 48a of AC current:

True for charging but it is the only way to get Intelligent Home Backup power

 

[CoyoteJim]

True for charging but it is the only way to get Intelligent Home Backup power

Yeah, given that - according to Tom - SR people have to pay extra to get intelligent backup enabled and extra for the 80a charger - even before you get into the costs from SunRun - I’m less enthused about it.

 

[GarageMahal]

Yeah, given that - according to Tom - SR people have to pay extra to get intelligent backup enabled and extra for the 80a charger - even before you get into the costs from SunRun - I’m less enthused about it.

I am also less excited, mostly because I was hoping it would support charging from solar while the grid was down. Power has been very reliable where I live so I cannot justify a large investment for backup options, but I guess that is a good thing

I'm sure things with change over time however as more is learned about the systems and people start to have real world experience with them.

 

[Ken]

that's too bad about not being able to charge from solar while using the backup power, but i can understand the hardware limit of power going out the DC pins and not having it coming in via the AC connector. I guess you could potentially disconnect the house from the backup and swap to charging from solar for a time period during peak solar production, but that would be something you had to do manually.

 

[Gary Gattis]

Ford is on the cutting edge and I understand that's not cheap. The problem for me is the cost and I was hoping to take advantage of going early away from gas with tax incentives. Now the BBB is on hold, Sunrun doesn't have a price and there is no place to get a bid on installing the 80 amp / home back-up. I called Sunrun and Sunpro and all they wanted was to rent or sell solar and only knew about some parts of the Tesla system. Hopefully more answers will be coming so I can plan on a total cost and which way to go with a EV.

 

[PA Lightning]

True for charging but it is the only way to get Intelligent Home Backup power

Based on the estimated cost of the intelligent home backup power, it may be best to price out a home generator for price comparison.
I would guess you could get a generator installed for around the same price. Vehicles come and go, but the generator would stay with the house.
As of now, I am leaning towards the Ford Connect Charge Station.

 

[Tony Burgh]

Based on the estimated cost of the intelligent home backup power, it may be best to price out a home generator for price comparison.
I would guess you could get a generator installed for around the same price. Vehicles come and go, but the generator would stay with the house.
As of now, I am leaning towards the Ford Connect Charge Station.

That’s how I came to my decision. I have a 10 year old hardly used 5000/6500 watt gasoline generator. I installed a mechanical interlock safety (NFPA/NEC approved) from Siemens on my panel. I can run everything in my house except central air and electric oven. I have a spare small window a/c for our bedroom that the generator can run and a Weber grill in the backyard.
I may put a switch box on the A/C condenser unit and run it from the truck 240 line. I haven’t figured out grounding problem yet but the 4 ton condenser only draws 19 amps on 240v.
If I get real ambitious I might swap out that noisy old generator for a new inverter type said to be much quieter. But probably not.

 

[Normanrabbit]

Hi everyone. I just published the Intelligent Backup Power video that I promised.




I'll be checking for additional questions left in the comment section, and I'll try to get the answers from Ford.

Hi Tom,
Thanks for the great information. I have a question. If I have 24 solar panels installed (suppose to be a 9Kw+ system), is there any way to charge the truck without powering the home? I saw what you mentioned about the Sunrun can not do both at the same time. Thanks in advance for the answer.

 

[shutterbug]

As of now, I am leaning towards the Ford Connect Charge Station.

FCCS is $100 more than ChargePoint without really adding anything.

 

[Nick Gerteis]

I’d love to pick up the 80A for my SR (if I ever get to order it ).

I’m blissfully hopeful Tom is wrong on the pricing from ford. Hope it closer to $1,500.
EVSEs are a riot. I get the R&D and certification costs. But my goodness. There’s not much to it and the parts can’t be more than $100-200 at scale.

Probably correct, and that’s why you can buy them brand new on eBay for $350. Granted that’s “only” 240V 30A, but even that’s plenty for almost every use case.

 

[adoublee]

Who thinks an additional down payment will be required prior to Sunrun shipping the Charge Station Pro in advance of vehicle delivery for ER orders? I'm sure if it gets installed, you bought it no matter whether you accept vehicle on delivery or not. Advantage to those that already have an EV and charging in place (or plan for different charging hardware).

 

[jefro]

If one only wanted emergency power then the 80A is basically useless. Emergency could be a number of extension cords or some ATB/MBT to house or various circuits via a conventional gen set cord.
Yes the SR doesn't have dual onboard chargers.

 

[LightningLover]

I’m planning on Lariat ER and sell the pro charger. I’ll go with a 48 amp evse and not pay the thousands required to upgrade electric service.

The Ford Charge Station Pro has hardware switches that can be used to limit the power. Thus you can use it as a 48A EVSE.

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