Purchasing the HIS modules

[majorgearhead]

Before we start, I know I can integrate a generator link and manual transfer switch to use my pro power onboard for outages. I still want to get the HIS components. I already have a FCSP that has worked for years flawlessly. I am moving into a new home house and don’t have a backup generator. I have most of the latest updates for the trucks modules and I want to give the HIS a run. I have a well seasoned sparky who knows how to install them. I see that SunRun still sells them.

I know more we’ll know folks like @Aminorjourney have exhaustively reviewed and share info on the HIS and I am truly grateful for this.

I perhaps have a few questions for them or others who have the HIS:

1. With the latest updates to the truck, how is reliability?

2. Does the semi new energy site energy.ford.com work?

3. Is energy arbitrage possible now meaning can I transfer to the truck in peak times and back to grid in off peak thus beating the time of day increases?

4. SunRun lists the same price for the 4000, 6000, or 8,000w inverter versions. I have no intention of adding solar. Should I just get the 8k JIC or are their drawbacks?

Thanks for any info

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[Aminorjourney]

Hi hi!

Soooo.

1) Since I STOPPED Ford's latest update on my FCSP (I blocked one from the network) AND I fixed the software bug after gaining root access, my FCSP and HIS automatically transfers power within 60 seconds of a power outage.

2) I've never tried it. I'm doing everything locally now. - That includes being able to change the current of my charging station using ModBus over TCP.

3) Not unless your utility offers it, or your'e willing to really go off the usual plan.

4) The same price eh? That's *interesting*. The difference isn't for backup power, it's for being able to feed power back to the grid IIRC.

 

[LightningDoug]

Hi Willam,

I had a dream that one day my solar powered EV's bidirectional battery would not only power my all electric North Texas ranch house, but also tie my 22 kW solar array into the house to have energy independence. So when I purchased my 1st EV in November of 2022, my fantastic Lightning, of course I purchased Sunrun's HIS: installed in February 2023... my boyhood dream come true!

Except this dream hasn't ever been realized! Sunrun electricians returned in 2023 twice to diagnose/rewire without success. Ford engineering has filed multiple case reports, even offering me a $1276 refund in 2023... but never truly fixing the system/truck interconnect. For '24 & '25 their "solution" for me when our local grid dropped, was for me to "wake up the truck": go out to the garage, unplug the truck, open the front door, replug the truck. Then after ~30 seconds the HIS would turn the truck battery on to power the home. In '26 this hack has failed twice: nothing worked to get the HIS to work. I'll be adding a home battery soon.

This "Ford promise" is a lie. Don't fall for it. I love my EV, I absolutely love charging it for free from my 12 y/o solar array, but that ~$9,000 HIS is a pipe dream/POS. Sunrun washed their hands from mine, Ford Engineering keeps assuring me that a software update will fix it. More failed promises. My dreams has been smashed.

Hard pass!
Doug

 

[RickLightning]

If you are willingly going to shell out money for the discontinued HIS system, I would suggest that an intervention is necessary. If you do research, and still want to buy it, one would have to question your intelligence. Ford bought back Lightnings when with engineers deployed from Ford and Sunrun, they couldn't make systems work. One situation had them buying new network equipment for neighbors, convinced that interference was the issue. It was not.

In addition to HIS being discontinued, the Ford Charge Station Pro was also. Why? Better quality and less expensive 80amp EVSEs on the market would top my list.

When HIS was announced, I was interested. Then I thought about Ford and software, and slapped myself back to reality. I also thought about enjoying my Lightning driving places, then realized it would not be in the garage powering my house if it was in Utah with me skiing...

A few of the people that have made it work are what I would call geeks, and I don't use that term in a disparaging way. @Aminorjourney is a real geek, and does things that I can't understand even when she writes about them. And is hers working 100% of the time? Nope.

Don't do it.

 

[Zprime29]

You have better alternatives, please consider them over the HIS. One example:
https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...-way-bi-directional-charging-should-be.35203/

 

[majorgearhead]

If you are willingly going to shell out money for the discontinued HIS system, I would suggest that an intervention is necessary. If you do research, and still want to buy it, one would have to question your intelligence. Ford bought back Lightnings when with engineers deployed from Ford and Sunrun, they couldn't make systems work. One situation had them buying new network equipment for neighbors, convinced that interference was the issue. It was not.

In addition to HIS being discontinued, the Ford Charge Station Pro was also. Why? Better quality and less expensive 80amp EVSEs on the market would top my list.

When HIS was announced, I was interested. Then I thought about Ford and software, and slapped myself back to reality. I also thought about enjoying my Lightning driving places, then realized it would not be in the garage powering my house if it was in Utah with me skiing...

A few of the people that have made it work are what I would call geeks, and I don't use that term in a disparaging way. @Aminorjourney is a real geek, and does things that I can't understand even when she writes about them. And is hers working 100% of the time? Nope.

Don't do it.

Fair enough. I am a 30 year Linux/Unix engineer/architect so I fall squarely into the geek category. That being said I am in the discovery phase and was intrigued by @Aminorjourney experience with this. I think part of this discovery phase has turned up too many negatives and I am no longer considering the HIS as a viable option for me at this point. What this has also made me realize is I don’t want to root my FCSP just to fix their zombie files making it run out of space. I am at an inflection point where I can just get another 80A EVSE, and I may just do that.

One of the other solutions I was looking at is the Generlink. I will have soft start on my ac compressor and can power the whole house on under 7.2kw if I am judicious, so this may be the solution.

I haven’t ruled out Powerwalls but it seems counterintuitive since I have 9.7 powerwalls worth of energy in the truck I will continue to own for a long time.

 

[Heliian]

the Ford Charge Station Pro was also. Why?

Because there was no longer a need for an 80a evse. It's a great unit, mine has run flawlessly for nearly 4 years. It's made by Siemens if i recall correctly.

 

[majorgearhead]

You have better alternatives, please consider them over the HIS. One example:
https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...-way-bi-directional-charging-should-be.35203/

This is certainly neat but I am unclear as to what I need to make this work. I haven’t ruled it out, but I have no intention of integrating solar as our net metering in my state is dreadful. Do I also need their battery banks or is there a system where only the truck is used as an alternate source?

 

[Zprime29]

This is certainly neat but I am unclear as to what I need to make this work. I haven’t ruled it out, but I have no intention of integrating solar as our net metering in my state is dreadful. Do I also need their battery banks or is there a system where only the truck is used as an alternate source?

Gemini AI claims it is possible to use their back up without stationary batteries. Probably worth contacting Sigenergy's customer service center to ask for further details.

Having stationary batteries helps make solar more palatable for areas where net metering is not viable. You can store the excess energy and discharge it overnight. You do suffer more loss in the extra conversions between AC and DC, but it probably works out better than a poor net metering offering. You'd have to do the math to see by how much and determine if it's worth it.

 

[v2h8484]

1) Since I STOPPED Ford's latest update on my FCSP (I blocked one from the network) AND I fixed the software bug after gaining root access, my FCSP and HIS automatically transfers power within 60 seconds of a power outage.

2) I've never tried it. I'm doing everything locally now. - That includes being able to change the current of my charging station using ModBus over TCP.

Kudos on all the effort you've put in on a now dead-end V2H system. I also admire your work with the OpenEVSE guys salvaging the JuiceBox chargers. But that's also a dead-ender. So, for a likely longer lived version, perhaps you could work with the OpenEVSE or the OpenInverter guys to make a V2H charger (open source of course) that would work with the Lightning (and Tesla) based on the CCS hack like some of the Chinese vendors (e.g. Sigenergy) have done. I can certainly see many interesting videos coming out of such a project.

 

[chl]

With the Lightning, the MOST you can get from it with an HIS type system is going to be 240V x 40A = 9.6kW

What you need for an HIS type system is a ton of money.

If you have solar, or an area prone to outages or high electricity costs (or other factors), and the money for the system and install, I think it might make sense to buy the Sigenergy system (linked above).

But for about $400 and the cost of install you can have 7.2kW backup with a manual transfer switch as you already know.

I am an electrical engineer.
I have too many shade trees here to get much solar output to justify the cost - maybe a low-cost DIY 'balcony plug-in solar' proving up to 1.2kW could be justified here, but...

We don't have frequent outages.
Our electricity rates are not exorbitant (yet).

So all things considered, an HIS type system would not make sense for me.
A manual transfer switch powering 10 emergency circuits from the 7.2kW PPOB works fine for my needs.

The NEW Ford UEV truck will have an on-board system for time of day control and an on-board V2H/V2G system, though the details are not known yet.

 

[majorgearhead]

With the Lightning, the MOST you can get from it with an HIS type system is going to be 240V x 40A = 9.6kW

What you need for an HIS type system is a ton of money.

If you have solar, or an area prone to outages or high electricity costs (or other factors), and the money for the system and install, I think it might make sense to buy the Sigenergy system (linked above).

But for about $400 and the cost of install you can have 7.2kW backup with a manual transfer switch as you already know.

I am an electrical engineer.
I have too many shade trees here to get much solar output to justify the cost - maybe a low-cost DIY 'balcony plug-in solar' proving up to 1.2kW could be justified here, but...

We don't have frequent outages.
Our electricity rates are not exorbitant (yet).

So all things considered, an HIS type system would not make sense for me.
A manual transfer switch powering 10 emergency circuits from the 7.2kW PPOB works fine for my needs.

The NEW Ford UEV truck will have an on-board system for time of day control and an on-board V2H/V2G system, though the details are not known yet.

I had a 22kw Generac at my last house. I live coastal, think very close to the coast but not right on the beach. We get hurricanes, though where I am at it is not horrible. I am wrestling with getting another Generac for the new house but I just don’t want to commit to that when u can use my perfectly good truck to power the house. I work from home so it sits in the charger all day long. I thought about Generlink but my meter is on the opposite side of the house. I may just end up doing a generator port and lockout to prevent backfeed. It’s 7.2 and u can bring up the breakers I need for AC, lights, fridge. Those loads with the soft start on ac are well below that.

I can’t justify the cost of the system above though it’s almost perfect in spec.

 

[tearitupsports]

I have had both the HIS, and I now have the Sigenergy system (I wrote the thread linked previously). You will definitely want to spend more money and get the Sigenergy system. It works on multiple EV's too. It does need at least one battery for home backup function (for black start), but trust that you would want that anyway so the truck doesn't have to be always plugged in. You don't need to have solar either, and can add it later. The installation is about half of what you need to do for the Ford HIS as well.
To answer one of your questions, the Ford HIS is for off-grid only. Except for a couple pilot programs that have never progressed much, there is no way to use it on grid. The FCSP has to lose power to even try using the truck as backup. Sigenergy on the other hand works seamlessly with the truck, even while on-grid to only use the truck on a time of use schedule or even on demand.
The Sigenergy system is amazing. The HIS is not. Again I have owned and installed both. I actually gave away my Ford HIS components for free, because I couldn't bring myself to charge someone for it.

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