What's required for Ford Intelligent Backup Power

[Stonelew]

Has anyone installed the Ford/SunRun Intelligent Backup Power (IBS) and have it running?
I am planning on building a house and need some advice.

I was planning on having a 200amp service in the house. The only highwattage item would be central air conditioning and Ford Lightning charger. Stove & Dryer would be natrual gas not electric.
* Would this be sufficient to run IBS?
* Where would the IBS Located? At Main Breaker Panel in basement?
* Should I install a SubPanel 100amp in the garage?

This is very confusing I dont want to spend money foolishly!

Have it running is a relative term. Does it work ...Yes, does it work everytime No. This spottiness leads me to believe it is a software issue, between the inverter and the truck. I am willing to wait for the technology to catch up. This is the first one in Austin Texas and I believe it will get resolved.

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[Yesko]

Thank you for your reply very knowledgeable !

 

[Major Dawg]

I too, have actually seen my system work, twice. After the third attempt, the BDI (bi-directional inverter), never seem to trigger the truck to start delivering power. With the Truck in Manual start mode, it just seems to timeout. It gets to Pre-Paring to transfer power but never starts.

Again, I have a video showing this working, and we even walked around the house turning on and off various lights, appliances etc. It was on powering the first time for over 10 min. The second time the power dropped off after about 2 min. From that point on, we could not get this working again.

I'm now waiting for Sunrun to call me back with access to the Ford Technician.

The big issue for me was a Friday install, and Saturday troubleshooting, which led to no Ford Tech on call. Bummer.

 

[Stonelew]

The recent update 4.2.3.1 has worked in allowing the bi-directional to kick in and power the house. I will be re creating a power outage this week and hoping to get consistent results.

 

[latapie]

Has anyone installed the Ford/SunRun Intelligent Backup Power (IBS) and have it running?
I am planning on building a house and need some advice.

I was planning on having a 200amp service in the house. The only highwattage item would be central air conditioning and Ford Lightning charger. Stove & Dryer would be natrual gas not electric.
* Would this be sufficient to run IBS?
* Where would the IBS Located? At Main Breaker Panel in basement?
* Should I install a SubPanel 100amp in the garage?

This is very confusing I dont want to spend money foolishly!

*Yes, 200 Amps should be more than enough, but do a load calculation with your engineer. I installed the HIS myself, and I am trying to get it to pass the City of Lincoln, CA permit office requirements. The biggest hurdle is that there is no DC disconnect, so no way for an emergency shutdown under load from outside the building assuming fire fighters can't enter the garage.
Also, I have a 125 Amp service, and we are still working to get my load calculations correct. I'll have to provide feedback later if 125 Amps are sufficient, but the engineers thought so.

*Check the Sunrun install guide layouts for location suggestions, but near the main makes sense to me. Sunrun shares all guides on google drive.

*Consider installing the subpanel next to the main so you can easily move the house loads to it.

Also, consider asking the permit inspector to advise if you need a DC disconnect to safely disconnect the truck while it is powering the home. I have a ticket in with both Ford and Sunrun to figure out this safety issue. More to come...

 

[Jim Lewis]

The biggest hurdle is that there is no DC disconnect, so no way for an emergency shutdown under load from outside the building assuming fire fighters can't enter the garage.

consider asking the permit inspector to advise if you need a DC disconnect to safely disconnect the truck while it is powering the home.

This is an old thread compared to some of the more recent discussions of installing the Home Integration System. There have been updates issued in the fall of 2023 for the Lightning, the Ford Charge Station Pro, and the Delta BDI in the Home Integration System that make the backup power transfer more reliable, but all the kinks are not out yet, at least for me (FCSP charging rate now locked at 30 A for me).

I have quick disconnects for the FCSP and the Delta inverter in the garage next to the units on the wall. My main panel is outside and has a dedicated 100 A breaker to shut down grid power to the FCSP. Theoretically, the FD could break into the garage through two obvious ground-level windows, but the truck and a lot of "stuff" next to the truck are blocking access to the quick disconnects on the interior garage wall opposite the exterior window wall. If the FD were incredibly inspired, they could knock down the back gate of our fence, knock out the outside door to the laundry room/mudroom, enter the back hall through the laundry room/mudroom, smash open the back hall door to the garage, and get access to the disconnects on the interior garage wall. The inverter feeds the regular subpanel of our house, which has a main breaker. So if they threw that main breaker or the inverter quick disconnect or pushed the button on the charging/transfer port of the truck, power to the rest of the house from the truck would be shut off. Presumably, they'd only attempt to do any of this if the truck itself were not the source of the fire, in which case, they probably just break the ground-level garage windows and attack the fire from there if the truck were in backup transfer mode and on fire (seems like a really low-probability event). My setup has already passed inspection by the City of San Antonio, so COSA must be more lenient than CA jurisdictions on quick disconnect locations.

IIRC, quick disconnects are specified in the Sunrun installation instructions for the FCSP and the Home Integration System. So, not having them is an omission.

FCSP Wiring Only: Ford Charge Station Pro Installation and Wiring SOP - INS-SOP-0158 - Google Slides

FCSP Wiring with Home Integration System-Acrel Meter in Jbox: Shows AC Knife Disconnect for Inverter: Ford Home Integration System Installation and Wiring - INS-SOP-0226 - Google Slides

Since I have little electrical knowledge, I could be misinterpreting the diagrams. Another diagram implies the need for the inverter AC disconnect is an AHJ determination.

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