What's wrong with the Ford/SunRun HIS

[world2steven]

I bought my Lightning mainly for its vehicle-to-home (V2H) capabilities – and to date it has been a disappointment. Part of the problem, perhaps a big part, has been Ford’s choice of SunRun as a partner. It looks like it may be difficult to impossible to incorporate a Lightning with Ford/SunRun’s Home Integration System (HIS) into existing solar installations, without losing some at least some of their capabilities. I was well down the road with arrangements for a well-regarded, heavily backlogged solar installer to equip my home power grid with battery backup capabilities using a Sol Ark inverter with 260AH of no maintenance AGM (lead acid) batteries. (Initially, I’d signed an agreement to pay $26k to have them install two Tesla PowerWalls and make the necessary upgrades to make my 20-year-old system code compliant.) When I learned I would be getting a 2022 Lightning, I decided to go ahead with the installation of the AGM batteries on the assumption I could use the Sol Ark’s generator input breaker or, worst case, just operate in parallel a 10k HIS with the Sol Ark – or even replace.

Either of those options may still be a possibility. But to date I’ve not been able to find out. Several of us have had conversations with Sol Ark and received about the same response:

‘You ought to be able to do this but it is up to you to do due diligence to ensure it won’t damage the circuitry of your Lightning or the inverter.’

I also contacted SunRun and received a prompt and enthusiastic response. SunRun sent a site surveyor out to look at my installation and shortly thereafter I received a proposal for an installation that would have cost less than half of what I eventually paid my installer. The proposal, however, lacked specifics and as far as I can see would have, at best, given me a system that connected an HIS to my home power grid leaving my 9kw DC system dangling in the wind.

I told the SunRun surveyor of my intention to go ahead with the Sol Ark installation and furthermore about some architectural revisions that would be required to convert my carport into a garage for the Lightning. When I received SunRun’s proposal, it showed installation of the HIS on a wall I told the surveyor would have to be (and was) removed.

For the last several months I have been trying to contact SunRun to give them the go-ahead to install an HIS that would not degrade the capabilities of my installed and working Sol Ark-based system. Other than a CC’d message from a SunRun employee apparently in the middle of the SunRun chain of command informing her superiors of my request I’ve heard nothing.

Yesterday I saw this post on

“Shocking news which had never been disclosed by Sunrun nor Ford sales people despite me saying over and over how wonderful it was going to be to finally have the PV deliver power during a grid outage. Calling and e-mailing my Sunrun Coordinator has been met with silence. The only information attained was from Sunrun's installation crew manager saying that "Delta and Sunrun are working on this". (emphasis added)

https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...ay-to-the-ford-home-integration-system.14692/

There are lots of things wrong with Ford’s partnership with SunRun, starting with:

• Allowing SunRun to lock Lightning owners into proprietary technology for implementing V2H;
• Ignoring a much larger market for V2H among those of us who already have solar and would like to add battery storage;
• Failure to work with at least major vendors of hybrid inverters like Sol Ark to ensure their products can accommodate the Lightning’s V2H capabilities;
• The use of potentially here-today-gone-tomorrow subcontractors to install systems. (Those of us who are not electrical engineers need the assurance someone will be available to maintain those systems.)

There appear to be sub-optimal solutions for making use of the Lightning’s V2H capabilities, e.g. wiring a 240v connection directly to your critical loads panel . But, if possible, I would like to do it right.



.

Sponsored

 

[Whammy Bar]

Maybe go with one of the other proven V2H providers that has full backwards compatibility with every single previously installed solar/ battery install???

 

[F150ROD]

SunRun straight told me “No” because I had an existing Powerwall and Solar System

 

[GDQ]

Maybe go with one of the other proven V2H providers that has full backwards compatibility with every single previously installed solar/ battery install???

Would you please tell us who they are?

 

[world2steven]

Would you please tell us who they are?

I'll second that. I would like to know - and I would think Ford would as well - how many of "us" there are out there.

Sponsored