Replacing My OFF-GRID Power System With an E.V. (not what I expected) 

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Something I just found when looking at price and specs for a new 2024 lightning. "The ProPower onboard generator now powers up when you unlock the truck, no longer requiring the truck to be powered completely on. These changes are also given to 2022 and 2023 F-150 Lightnings as over-the-air software updates." So that is one problem you can fix with an update. 😀

Would love to see a "Summertime" version of this video. Will you be able to drive the truck all summer off of excess Solar and never have to worry about charging anywhere but at home? (Sounds like a true off grid dream!)

It's not about replacing it, it complements it. I have a 60kWh (soon 100kWh) battery powering my home. I'm also very up north: 63 degrees in Finland. What an EV with V2L (the inverter) allows is to seamlessly integrate both systems. You don't just increase your home battery, you increase your vehicle range with solar that would otherwise go unused. Yes, it serves as a back-up option in winter, but also as an extension to the home battery (as you have noticed on those sunny days). Plus, you drive for free all summer. Saves having to run the generator as often as you might as well buy some power more cheaply in town compared to using generator fuel.

This the most practical experiment for backup systems I have seen. I have heard discussions of the concept, but this is real world. Love that it worked.

The effort that goes into these projects is insane

You are actually augmenting your off grid power system. The best design is to have redundant power generation methods. I see the value in your F-150 as a mobile battery source where you can move energy from the GRID to your home. This is not a replacement for your generators (diesel or gas) which are independent of weather and the 20 mile distance to recharging your mobile battery on the GRID. Capuring excess energy and dumping it into your F-150 is very cool and should work well in the summer!

This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. You didn't hypothesize or talk about it, you did it. A week at a 400 watt hour average consumption, with zero input is amazing. I think I might get an EV at some point now, not because I want it as a vehicle, but because it would be an amazing power station on wheels.

Well, I wouldn't use it to replace your solar setup, but it looks like it is going to work hand in glove with it really well! It looks like the two systems are going to complement each other really well! That's pretty awesome!

Great test! I would have purchased the powerboost F150 over the full EV just for the ability to create that power if needed.. I work for Ford and have ran my home for 15 days on the generator system from my truck for the cost of 60 bucks in fuel.. And no temp protection issues in negative 10 degree nights.. Love the videos!

I think the truck would not supply the Victron system because the neutral is bonded to ground on the truck and in your off grid system. Try removing the off grid side bonding to get the truck to power the Victron charger. Also as someone who has owned 4 EVs it makes me kind of sad this is how your first experience was. It is a learning curve that is for sure. But it should be easier. It will get better with time and you will build up a comfort level to the range anxiety. Hang in there! Oliver is cute as always. We have a son about the same age and he loves watching your videos. He even tries to talk to Oliver when he sees him.

This is an exceptionally well made video. Well done guys, i've never seen this concept actually used in real life.

Glancing through the comments, I was expecting an avanlanche of anti-EV "h8ters", but that isn't the case. That's very encouraging. The energy transition is happening and no amount of "h8" will stop it, so it's good to see that the level of acceptence is rising. At least judging by this audience.

You should be able to set up a “dump load” through the Victron equipment to automatically start/stop charging the car when the batteries and solar meet certain conditions.

20+ year off grid user here, love all the ideas and planing. Something that has always intrigued me is using a prius hybrid as a battery back-up, generator. It automatically starts and runs when the battery bank is under voltage. I believe you can put a big battery bank in the truck, then voltage regulator to house batteries. Load would take house batteries down first, then the car traction battery, then the internal combustion engine to recharge all. Should be efficient and rather “simple” to use, as the toyota has the internal BMS to do the work.

With the setup you guys already have at home the truck is just a really smart idea to add. an electric truck won’t be perfect for every scenario but like you mentioned already it’s a great way to store all that excess power, have a backup for your home and have a great vehicle to work/live with. It’ll be great to work with off site where you don’t have any power so you don’t have to carry all those ecoflows around and in my opinion electric cars are a joy to ride. There are still some things to solve before electric can become mainstream (like charging infrastructure) but there are already a lot of really clever and cool ways to use electric vehicles! Really enjoyed the video, thanks again!

Your content is a shining example of creativity and dedication. Well done!

Huge EV fan here, have multiple EVs. But I don’t think it makes sense to go to town and charge the vehicle to bring back. You just switched going to town to haul water to hauling electricity haha. However, I think you’ll benefit a lot more in summer when you have excess energy. Trow some better tires on it and it could be your daily truck for hauling things, going to town, and just getting around your property - all for “free” with excess solar.

So what was the verdict on the propane powered generator that broke, company going to replace it or was it a pig in a poke? Jla

I love your content. I have a Tesla Model Y so I have experience and I find your solution very interesting, and loved watching your experience with the electric Ford. I will say the following relevant bits: 1. Tesla Superchargers charge WAY, and I mean WAY faster than what your truck draws at the station in town. CCS is a huge fail in the US market. 2. All batteries will struggle significantly in the cold to both charge and deliver power efficiently (as I'm sure you're already aware) 3. You could rig a wireless Arduino to communicate with another one and turn off your truck charging automatically once your house batteries drop below X percentage ... say 98% or something so that if you have a sunny day you can just leave you truck plugged in and it would cut off the charging without requiring you to go unplug it. * The chargeverter is actually a brilliant piece of tech for a solution. I have a portable charger that won't charge my Tesla, so I may throw a chargeverter in the mix to see if it resolves the car rejecting the power. Thank you for that possible solution.

We're about 1.5 years into our Ford Lightning experience. It hasn't been too bad for early adopting. My 2008 Subaru WRX was at the dealer more. We built an additional 3.6kw offgrid system with used panels, 10Kw of LiFePo4 batts, and a refurb EG4 hybrid inverter for around $4k after rebates to both charge the lightning and run a 12k btu Mini-split for the garage. System should pay itself off in 4-5 years, and we have 10kW (soon to be 20kw) of backup power for the house, allowing us to use the Lightning and still power the house if needed. We're in South Texas, so don't have the cold weather issues. 4-5 years from now, we'll be getting entirely free fuel, and a climate controlled garage for free. Gas station in the back yard. Not sure why everyone that has the room and a few grand doesn't do it.

Not sure if anyone else has already commented on the 7,200 watt output. It is actually two 3,600 outputs at 120v. So if you have more than 3,600 watts on either the same side of the output (L1 or L2), you will overload it.

That's pretty sweet. Tell me about them octagon lights on your ceiling in the shop. Those are so cool.

We have solar and use the truck as a battery backup. We don't use the onboard pro-power, we use the home integration system that we got with the truck. It plugs into the charge port and provides 80amps to our home. When the sun is out and we are getting solar, it charges. When the sun goes down we use the battery from the truck to power the entire home. No need to ever unplug it, no need to leave it on. And the truck fully charges by the end of the day and we only use about 5% from evening until morning. We've had zero issues with it and would absolutely buy it again.

Great video, having multiple backup systems where you live is a must in the winter time. When you have good production from your solar panels, you generate free electricity for the truck and being able to plug in tools from your truck is so handy. Thanks for giving us a great rundown of your testing.

Thanks for doing this real world test, something I've been wondering about for awhile. Seems like the concept could work after your growing pains. I'm sure it will be much more efficient in the summer when you can be completely self-sufficient

Interesting vid, in Europe here we fit charger units for ev’s because wall outlet charging is so slow. In Australia there are people changing Nissan leaf cars at night at a cheap electric rate and selling it back to the grid at peak hours. More relevant to you though is info from my Norwegian friend who says never run an ev batteries charge below 30% because going from anything up to 30 is really hard on the battery life and then there is the 80% rule that says never change it above 80% to save the battery health. Personally, if I were in your situation I’d need the 30 and ignore the 80! Also noteworthy is that grid storage systems are now being made from roped out ev batteries, not good enough for car use but can store sfe capacity so when the day arrives and you have to put a new battery in that truck, keep the old one!

Honestly the honest review of an EV is really nice…. It has good and bads and I’m really happy you chose to let viewers see them.

This was my Absolute favorite video that you’ve done on the property! Well done! I have watched you since you were in the camper truck! Oliver is always the ⭐️!🙏🙏🙏Blessing’s

I really like the concept. My big question is, will the currently available upgrades that are available that the people in the comments that are smarter than me talk about. I think it would void the lighting's warranty. Not that you wouldn't be willing to do that to make a more perfect system. Eg. Making modifications to the electric utv. The thing i love about you, Riley, is you challenge conventional thinking. Not that they always turn out but you wouldn't have the big wins if you didn't take those risks. I also love how you two work seamlessly together. Love you guys

This was a super interesting Proof of Concept, imho the F150 does not replace the off-grid system, but 100% compliments it, in that you can go without ICE generators, and just go fetch some power in the town. And I bet the propane, gas or diesel for a generator to last 7 days, will cost more than the cheap power you guys get from the grid when charging the F150. BUT WE NEED THE NUMBERS, PLZ 🙂

I am really impressed of you and your wife's knowledge of 'industrial products', for lack of a better word. Totally unbelieveable!!!!

TYVM for the comprehensive home backup test. I'm sure you saw Will Prowse's video where hated his Ford EV truck and returned it.

This guy can literally plug anything into anything!!

You should look at the ford charge station pro charger. It can charge at 80 amps and it can power your house. It's much better than using the bed power.

The complexity of this concept has come a long way from the 5 tube radio schematic I memorized long ago. I worked electronics up till the 90s. Although I understand the concept of what you are doing there is no way in hell i would undertake the challenge. Infact I would further suggest that any retiree over 60 would be foolish to try this. My wife has trouble with remote start on her car. There are things that old-timers just need because we are no longer able to absorb the new technologies. From the windcharger on the smokehouse charging a 6 volt battery for the vacuum tube radio to today's cell phone covers a lot of technology-based advancements. At some point advancement needs to be paused so us old farts can enjoy life and watch as newer generations continue their adventures. Yes I love you adventures across the spectrum of challenges from the old D8 " which I hope you will get it running again " to the electric truck powering your house. Thank you for sharing.

I believe this summer you will see what a GREAT value the Lightning is. It's a truck, it has alot of space in the cabin, it has the frunk! I think because you are new to the idea and the use of an EV, you had Charging anxiety (Not Range). But once you get use to how it works, you will find that you made a fantastic buy. Yes, the cold does effect it, but once again, know the tool your using and how it works, to maximize it's use. We LOVE our Ford Lighting!!!

This is a commercial. Ford should definitely reach out for promo 😊

What brand is that car seat for Oliver? I love that swivel operation! I need that for when I’m driving my grandkids.

If you are looking for another alternative as a backup power supply - consider the upcoming Ramcharger (early 2025). It has a 92kWh battery pack AND 27 gallon gas tank that powers a V6 engine driving a 130KW generator. For short outages you could use just the 92kWh battery. If you had an extend outage, the the V6 engine and generator can provide power to the 7.2kW bed-mounted power panel.

When Ford announced this truck and said you could run your house for a whole week on it as a generator I instantly wanted it. Haven't gotten a chance to get it yet, but glad to see that one of the things they claimed about it definitely was true. And running a solar set up and using the truck to get the overflow energy after the batteries were full was also something I was curious about doing. Loved this video. Answered a bunch of my own questions!

have you thought of a gravity battery? take advantage of the hilly property. just dig a flat surface on a long grade. install a rail and weigh car. connect it to a motor generator and pull it up when your batteries are full and let it out when the batteries are low. also a solar-powered saw mill and wind power in the tree tops. i did this and with your great team and skillset, this will be fun for you. great channel Harv

I think you could build a battery bank trailer that could charge at an EV station. Then it could be towed by any vehicle that wont mega-depreciate like an EV.

I love my EV (not in temperatures and conditions like yours!). I've been driving it for 6 years now. You get over range anxiety in time, as you get used to how it drives, though it does require planning your route and knowing your distances to make sure you can get to the next charger. We have a reasonable charger network in NZ and it's getting better all the time.

Soon you will be able to use the Tesla Supercharger standard and the reliability of their system will make your charging a no-headache proposition. You should make a video about that when the time comes... maybe a short?

Don’t forget cost to top up battery + food drinks and time sat round waiting for it to charge 😊

Okay bro what you need is fords charge station pro for your application as it allows for power to be sent both ways without needing the vehicle to be powered on. Look in to this and I’m sure it should solve most if not all your problems.

Way too much hassle for me

This highlights exactly why the only EV truck I'd consider right now is the Cybertruck. At least until the lightning gets NACS and supercharger access.

You’re living my dream, I had this idea before! I have to subscribe to see the Summer video.

I think in the summer you will be getting free mileage in that you will charge the house batteries and then charging your truck. EVs are the way forward in my mind, I am on my second and love them

congrats - you bought the worst EV made (btw - they just ceased production) and I'm a ford truck fan.

Well, I know nothing about solar, except sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But it's kind of interesting to watch you figure it out. I'll be watching again on your next visit. Your family is great and that's good.

I have a F150 lightning and I love it. You can remove the pedestrian warning noise, but it takes an after market item to avoid a warning on the dash. I am sure it is an easy search away.

Love you videos , been watching for a long time but the second I heard you say you don’t even know where the charge port is after buying a 50k truck and plugging into a 110v outlet I just knew this was going to be a massively uninformed video. Please anybody who is interested in buying an EV, do your research. Know what you are getting into, there are far to many people jumping into EV’s that have no clue what they are doing and it definitely gives them a bad look.

I would not say your EV can replace your off grid power system, but it does supplement it quite nicely. Making the vehicle a little smarter, and better able to communicate with the host system (the inverter or the grid or whatever) could make this whole thing a lot simpler. I understand your motivation, being off-grid, to be able to take the truck into town, get a load of juice, then take it home and store that juice in the batteries at home, is much less expensive than running the propane or diesel generation. I would guess that if you can start with a full battery at home, and maybe once weekly trips to town to supercharge the truck, works when there's no sun. When you have one of those rare sunny winter days, top up both the home battery and car battery (and a tank of hot water), you can skip the trip to the supercharger that week.

The whirling sound you hear around the truck when it's parked and running, is more than likely the battery trying to cool itself. My Tesla does the same thing. Great video with the Ford truck!

I think having multiple ways to power your house is a win. In the summer when you have all that excess solar, it’s total win and a huge convenience as you’ve no need to go to the gas station. I’d be interested to see if during the summer you could use that truck as your fuel hauler (for the diesels) and do more of your daily driving in it. So it’d become more of a seasonal truck that gets lots of use during summer and serves more of a backup role during winter. I think the comments here about depreciation aren’t really relevant if you’re going to hang onto it. If you turn around and sell it in a year, then sure. But, to give you a comparison, I bought a Chevy Bolt in 2018 and we’ve been driving it all over the place for 6 years. It has had quirks and some recalls (heck, I even got a whole new battery in the big recall that increased my range!) but it’s been in the shop a heck of a lot less than gas cars ever were. It’s just the yearly inspection, tire rotations and has had one new set of tires. Best car I’ve ever owned. People spend stupid amount of money on trucks and then throw shade at a reasonable priced electric truck like the Lightening. Y’all got a great deal. You have gas cars for those long trips where fast chargers might not be convenient. Everything has a learning curve, I think you made a great choice. Keep us posted and make use of that summer sun!

You are on the "bleeding edge" of technology, with pretty much everything you are doing: solar panels; battery backup; generators; and now the Lightning. Your setup is very much a custom thing, shared by very few other people, if any. Hiccups and small annoyances are to be expected, but by leading the way, you are making it easier for the rest of us to join you with fewer problems. Thanks!

Great video. I have the same whole home cut over switch and plug in my garage with a cheap 240v generator that I manually cut over when there is power outage. Pore man’s generac. I have been pondering hard on this solution and appreciate the work put in to test it.

Great video guys!!!! What I think of when I see this video....is the idea that I could use the truck to drive to my shop...charge it up all day when I am at the shop, and when I come home at night use it to power my off grid house.

Awesome that it works pretty seamlessly considering this is a first gen EV. Definitely going to be buying a bidirectional capable ev for my next ev.

We also charge the teslas when ever excess solar power would throttle back the panels. It works!

WOW 7 Days!!!! I have a lightning and was excited when I first saw it on your show. Why are you not using the Ford app on your phone??? It gives great feedback on the charging, also has other conveniences, like remote starting!?! I did the same with my has and installed a plug to back up my house, just haven't had the need yet, but LOVED seeing you put it through the paces.

Very cool video and info. Some neat ideas both good an bad. Sounds like Ford needs at "Home UPS mode" that reduces all non-essential things, kills the dang fake fan, etc. How much does it cost to charge at different stations?

Great experiment. I'm 45,000 miles into my Lightning (and first EV), and its perfect for my ~205 mile commute. Saves a ton of money compared to ICE truck.

Very interesting vid. I ended up buying the F-150 Powerboost so I wouldn't have range anxiety but also be able to have power for the house pellet stove, lights and frig/freezer if grid goes down. I've been very happy with the truck, and get 23-24 mpg combined. Of course I also joke that I can take my table saw and lathe camping if I want. My wife rolls her eyes..

Our little farm consumes 6 to 10 times the electricity you use, time of year dependent. Before I took steps to reduce consumption our winter electric bill was $800/month. We reduced that to $500/month. We have twice the amount of photovoltaics that you do, yet there is only about 2 months of the year that it completely covers our usage. F150 lighting no way. I think a Tesla Semi with the large battery pack might cover us.

I’d love to see a report on your various power costs; diesel generator vs propane generator, vs charge station. Any thoughts of another solar array? BTW, Oliver is THE CUTEST BABY on RU-vid, maybe EVER!!

I think this is a great concept. After you have build the tool container building I was curious if you could just plaster it with solar panels to remove the need to run the generator. Now that you have such a vehicle you can even dump the access from summer into the truck and in such sunny days, you could get a weeks worth of electricity

Interesting experiment and outcomes. We are dedicated townies so we will most likely never have any off-grid infrastructure except for grid failure backup. That said, we never imagined using an EV as our home’s auxiliary power source. Traditionally, we would expect to invest $10K for a more typical auxiliary power system (e.g. Generac), but now you have our mental wheels rolling in an entirely different directions. Well done! 😊

Not ideal to replace the current system, but a great addon. You should keep both, it will be extremely useful in summer. My favorite video so far, thx ! :)

For the cost of that truck, you could buy a really huge solar array to suppliment your current array in winter so you just have enough power year round without any hassel or messing around. I bought used 250 watt solar panels for $50 a panel ($70 each including delivery). The used panels have an estimated 10 year life. You could double your solar array power for under $3,000.00. Add another $1000.00 for the needed frame to mount them on. If you only plug the extra panels into the system during winter, then you won't need any other support equipment except maybe Y cables to be able to put the two arrays in parallel. Put in series would lead to a potentially over voltage situation on a good day of bright sunshine. Having too much amperage should not hurt anything, it will only use what it needs. You could quadruple your solar for under $12,000.00, figuring $5000.00 for wiring and racking. Having only 25% of the light in winter would then give you full power, and on good days, you would have power to burn! Your electric vehicle would never have to buy power again.

Truely heroic effort. Just not something us normies would be able to pull-off. On the flip - our good ol' Hybrid SUV is a simple and error free emergency power supply when ERCOT has one of its very few black-outs. Glad there are geniuses like you two to show us what it possible.

Awesome to see the tech put through its paces. The reality is the whole world has to keep shifting towards energy independence and resilience and you guys have shown what is possible right now at a household scale. I like the idea of buffering the grid with car batteries during peak demand and allowing them to charge during low-demand hours. This is a realistic solution to a growing problem. Anyways, thanks for taking the time to give us a real life perspective.

Your summary was spot on! There's your answer. Cheers from Oz

This was fun to watch and I hope to see it get better as you tweak it into the future. I just decided with my electrician to not install a backup system at my home for my lightening, our home power goes out at most 2-4 hours in a year. When it happens I just run an extension cord in the kitchen for the keurig or hot plate 😁.

Excellent Test. I would prefer the F-150 Hybrid, but for you, it’s just another generator, this is a unique test and glad you did it. Great Job.

since you guys are so into projects, AND you have lots of heavy equipment, what about building a pond up the hill from your house. In the summer use excess solar power to pump water uphill. In the winter, drain the water back downhill to generate power. Of course, you would lose some power to the pumping process efficiency AND regenerating it again, but if it's excess power anyway, maybe not a deal killer?

The blow dryer was on only one side of the line and may have spiked the line. 7200 w 3600 watts per line side.

Just fell in love with this track. Waw!

17:25 You guys turned on my kitchen light !!!!

Notwithstanding all the electrical problems with the Lightning, the biggest problem here is that the battery composition of the Lightning is lithium ion so the cycle life is far more limited than that of your SOK batteries. Given the price of a replacement pak, I think I'd only use the Lightening for backup in an emergency or for a limited amount of hours where you keep the charge between 30-70 percent to avoid dendrite formation in the Lightening battery. NOT keeping the battery warm (not in the shop) will also shorten battery life by a huge amount. Look at the chemistry data and you will agree...Cheers...and good vid.

Sound your hearing is the batteries fan as well. They have optimal temperature range and will have a fan either blowing cool or hot air across the batteries accordingly.

It's important to note that the battery in the truck is Li-ion for most home backups you'd want LFP for longevity and to put up with the duty cycle.

A really good experience to share with us all. Will always get the no EV crowd's criticism but for the rest of us you are showing something i would not have come up with myaelf. Ill be interested to see how it develops.

I owned a powerboost with the 7.2kw pro power and it wouldn't run my 15 amp dewalt saw. I opened a case with Ford and they told me the problem was with my saw. But, I created a video that demonstrated I could hold more than 20 amps constantly by hooking up a space heater that has a dial, and a blow dryer. Then I slowly increased the power consumed using the dial on the space heater. I measured that with an electrical meter and demonstrated the difference was the saw called for 17 amps immediately, whereas I could get my two devices up to nearly 22 amps constant power if I did it slowly. That was when Fors responded that they have a software update for the pro power on board. I got that update and saw it retested and it worked. This was after months of back and forth of me proving my point that they advertise the system can handle way more than one 15 amp saw at a time. Essentially, the update acted as if I installed a soft start on my saw and slowed the inrush current. They had this software update available for a long time during my ownership of the truck, they should have issued a recall or installed it when I bought the truck. Instead, Ford just waits for you to complain, then you have to prove the point as if you are an electrician. Anyways, perhaps your pro power on board needs that soft start software update?

There’s a neighbourhood in Holland experimenting with this exact concept. All the cars (small EVs) are integrated into the local grid system to supply power to houses or charge when the cars are not in use. You just plug your care to the thing at the curb.

That's wild! It's also wild how little power you use per-day. That truck would power my house for 1 day, before needing to be recharged (46kW/day, average, with super-efficient appliances, no AC, no hot tub or anything, mostly just HWH and computers that run 24x7). The biggest problem in the Northeast US, is the EXTREMELY high cost to charge at a public charging station ($0.30/kWh), so the Chevy Silverado EV for example, would last 4 days powering my home, but then cost $60 to fast-charge at a public station. That's $420+/month to charge to power the home fully from the EV.

To power your house the generator outlet in the bed works also. It was intended to use the charging port with the wall power that Ford offers.

We just had a near 48 hour grid power failure here in SE Idaho (I was off grid for 28 years, grid tied solar, wind, and hydro the last 16) and my Toyota Prime hybrid plug in made it a lot more comfortable. The car remained ON for 40 hours. A 1000 watt inverter (it can handle 1500 watts being pulled out of the 12 v. battery, constantly being replaced by the big high voltage traction battery) let me run some lights, a circ pump, and the fridge. During that 40 hour outage, my total gas consumption was .14 gallons, note the decimal point...., as I had started with a fully charged traction battery. I added 3 KW more of PV to my property, and it seems to be more than keeping up with the extra watts using charging it, with about a 40 mile EV range.

We're going to attempt to take number 2 💩 😂 25:38

When you told google to turn on your kitchen lights, my google went crazy. Lol

Props! Your video was super insightful in respect to the utility of the Ford Lightning. Thank you for sharing!

Great video guys honestly changed my opinion on EVs being a lot more practical as a "tool"! Please post a summer version of this!!

I was waiting for you to get a lightning! Congrats on the purchase. Keep the content coming!

What an epic video, thanks for putting it all together! I think the EV with onboard inverter would work great for my use case (live on the grid, power critical loads like my fridge/freezer during power outages) but for your use case I can still see times when a separate generator would come in handy. I hope you have good luck with your vehicle. While I have had good luck with Ferd's, I have also heard a few too many Ferd stories where things go poorly. Thanks again!

Choice and more options is always good! This truck is not for everyone, but works great for many!

This is so cool and informative. Amazing your vehicle can power what you need in an emergency. 💛💛💛

That is pretty amazing, and it actually seems like it's a better battery pack than it is a truck! This is pretty awesome for your off grid setup, and makes it last way longer on your house when the sun doesn't come out!