Home backup power in Canada

[North BC]

I recently bought a 2024 Lightning Flash. I did that expressly to use it to power our rural house where the power outages are frequent. It took me two days on the phone to find out that Ford and Sunrun will not sell the necessary equipment in Canada. Of course no one tells you that to your face. It takes a lot of digging to find out. But here we are.
Is anyone else in the same boat?
And what is to be expected now that Ford has killed its EV truck? I'm afraid that means that the equipment will never be available.

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[potato]

General consensus is the Ford HIS solution was garbage anyway. It never worked reliably. Now that the truck is discontinued one might hope they would open up the interface to allow third parties to do it right, but that's probably a pipe dream for liability reasons.

If you have the 9.6 kW pro power, many people have successfully used that for home backup. Of course it's not automatic switchover, and there are some caveats mostly around how picky the truck is about ground faults. Lots of discussion in lots of threads on here.

 

[Kev12345]

Generac homelink manual transfer switch is the best bet.

 

[Runaway Tractor]

Your annoyance is valid. However trust me you're better off. The Ford Home Integration System (HIS) doesn't work. It was a design failure from day one due to hardware flaws and software flaws on the Ford Charge Station Pro (FCSP) and the truck. Due to the hardware design flaws, it could not be fixed with firmware updates. Last year, Ford decided to stop selling the system. Ford also ceased providing any support and ceased contracting support to their subcontractors like Sunrun and Siemens. All the people who spent approximately $10,000 on the HIS were left with a mostly useless system attached to their house and no recourse. Many are members here. There are many threads about this fluster cluck.

The best alternative is what I and many others have done. Use the Pro Power On Board. It has lots of capacity, especially if you got the 9.6kw Pro Power. It is not automatic like the HIS. But unlike the HIS, it actually works. There's numerous ways to go about this. The simplest is just throwing an extension cord in the house and plug in whatever you want. The better way is using it like a portable generator with an inlet and manual transfer switch. Lots of threads about this here.

 

[Henry Ford]

I agree with everyone above. Even if the Ford system worked exactly as advertised, it is useless when you no longer own a Lightning.

A power inlet box and a neutral switching transfer switch is relatively inexpensive and maintains the GFCI protection provided by the truck. A power inlet box, breaker interlock, and a dedicated modified extension cord is cheaper still but you lose GFCI protection and if done wrong you are setting up a future owner of your home for failure. My preference is a neutral switching transfer switch.

 

[tearitupsports]

Get a Sigenergy V2X system. It is sold in Canada and works great with the lightning.

 

[jwrezz]

Get a Sigenergy V2X system. It is sold in Canada and works great with the lightning.

Been following this for a while. Do you have or use?

 

[Adventureboy]

They won't sell HIS in Canada because it has not been certified here. Given the reliability issues, I expect it won't be. I've been watching it for over 3 years, looking for a solution. I run the power from PPOB when needed. It is a pain because it isn't automatic.

 

[tearitupsports]

Been following this for a while. Do you have or use?

I have both the Ford HIS system as well as a Sigenergy battery system (since March of last year).
I don't have the Sigenergy V2X yet, but have done enough research and talked to enough people that I have one on order that should be here within a few weeks. There are lots of videos on the system, and it does everything I could ever want it to do. Just the instant transfer when losing power (no flicker of lights) makes it vastly superior to the Ford system transfer switch.
The Sigenergy does cost a little more and you need at least one battery along with the V2X to dark start it, but it is a really nice system. The nice thing with the battery is that the truck does not need to be connected to back up the house. You can connect or disconnect the truck as you want/need.

 

[Joe Dablock]

If you already have a generator receptacle installed at your house, with a simple manual main breaker safety, you can simply remove the bare ground wire at the receptacle and it will work.

To code, no.

 

[Adventureboy]

Get a Sigenergy V2X system. It is sold in Canada and works great with the lightning.

Can you let us know what you have set up? I'm interested in this.

 

[tearitupsports]

Can you let us know what you have set up? I'm interested in this.

I have a fairly detailed post about my Sigenergy battery system and using its generator input with the truck here:
https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...with-generator-input-pro-power-onboard.28473/

Once I switch to the V2X model, I will do another write up and maybe a short video.

 

[chl]

I recently bought a 2024 Lightning Flash. I did that expressly to use it to power our rural house where the power outages are frequent. It took me two days on the phone to find out that Ford and Sunrun will not sell the necessary equipment in Canada. Of course no one tells you that to your face. It takes a lot of digging to find out. But here we are.
Is anyone else in the same boat?
And what is to be expected now that Ford has killed its EV truck? I'm afraid that means that the equipment will never be available.

As other have said, count yourself lucky you didn't get the HIS.
The Sunrun HIS only provides 40A @ 240V, when it works - plenty of posts about all the problems.
And it is pretty expensive - about $4000-$5000 USD for the equipment and about the same for the installation.

With the PPOB inverters (if you have the 9.6kW option) you can get 30A @240V from the bed outlet through a neutral switching transfer switch, about a $400 item. Add a bit for installation which is much simpler than the HIS, and a generator cord.

You could pull another 2.4kW (20A @ 120V) from a frunk outlet with a heavy duty extension cord to run something else separately - you can't combine the two however, because the inverters are not synch'ed (in-phase).

And if set up for the PPOB source, you could use it with a portable standby gasoline bonded generator for example, when the truck is not available. Not true of the HIS from Ford/Sunrun which will only work with the Lightning.

The Sigenergy system is another alternative, however, it is still going to be more expensive than a simple transfer switch set up. I think it would make sense however if you combine it with solar and their battery backup system.

As the Sigenergy folks will tell you, if Ford wanted to, they could change the way the truck DC charging/discharging system works and the Sigenergy system would no longer work with the truck. No sign that is imminent but something to ponder.

 

[jwrezz]

As the Sigenergy folks will tell you, if Ford wanted to, they could change the way the truck DC charging/discharging system works and the Sigenergy system would no longer work with the truck. No sign that is imminent but something to ponder.

That would really suck, and add so much to the "right to repair" movement. Who knows how many features could be taken away with a simple software update.

 

[Runaway Tractor]

The Sigenergy does cost a little more

Well yeah but you get something for the additional cost compared to the HIS: a system that works!

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