Battery Pack (via V2L)

[smurfy1962]

Well as you know if you have a Trophy like me then you really should get an adapter to use the discharge facility onboard. So far I have cut the grass , done a 4 hr wash/dry, boiled a kettle , ran an air fryer, ran a Dyson heater etc etc ( not attempted the electric oven though ) So who needs solar panels when you can charge over night on the cheap rate ) and then use during the day lol. Warning !! I only used one appliance at a time and the 4 hr wash/dry only used 5% of battery. Happy days lol

 

[pollenface]

Interesting observations.

What's the peak output of the MG4? I believe I'm limited to 2200 W with the ZS.

 

[JonnyG]

Any recommendations for a reasonably priced good adaptor ?

 

[siteguru]

Interesting observations.

What's the peak output of the MG4? I believe I'm limited to 2200 W with the ZS.

The MG4 will do over 6kW (if you use an adapter with an appropriate resistor value), but it's not rated for that - rating is about 2.2kW I think.

 

[tsedge]

Here's a thread on this:

V2L Test. 7kW output...

Both myself and my neighbour have our MG4s wired to our household consumer units to run the house directly from V2L. We were told the MG4 output only 2.2kW, Our old Kia EV6 output 3.5kW. Today we decided to push them as far as we could.. With a meter on the input, we ran 2x 600W IR Heating...

www.mgevs.com

 

[gazza487]

Whilst I commend money saving - are the extra charge / discharge cycles worth the saving. Not picking but a genuine question.

Obviously in a necessary situation - a few days of now power, saving your freezers kind of scenario, being prepared is a no brainer.

I myself bought the eBay cheapo adapter which happily runs 1kw George vac but it is a little flimsy and not massively weatherproof. Soon to chop up an old cable to make something more substantial.

 

[webhiker]

Whilst I commend money saving - are the extra charge / discharge cycles worth the saving. Not picking but a genuine question.

Obviously in a necessary situation - a few days of now power, saving your freezers kind of scenario, being prepared is a no brainer.

I myself bought the eBay cheapo adapter which happily runs 1kw George vac but it is a little flimsy and not massively weatherproof. Soon to chop up an old cable to make something more substantial.

I see 3 use cases:
Power outage
Run (parts of) your house during the day, on power charged at (really) low rates during the night. Of couse, you must save more than degradation
And finally my pet, usage where no grid exists. Road trips, camping in the outback AND my top favorite for us apartment owners, vacuuming the car in a carpark

 

[Alansurfer]

Whilst I commend money saving - are the extra charge / discharge cycles worth the saving. Not picking but a genuine question.

Obviously in a necessary situation - a few days of now power, saving your freezers kind of scenario, being prepared is a no brainer.

I myself bought the eBay cheapo adapter which happily runs 1kw George vac but it is a little flimsy and not massively weatherproof. Soon to chop up an old cable to make something more substantial.

It’s not going to have a big impact as the amps/Kw draw is very minimal compared to the draw from the motor under power or when charging, most users will probably only use 5kwh at 10-20amps at the most so the equivalent to 20 miles of driving pulling hundreds of amps is quite low stress. Compared to buying a 5kwh house storage battery and 3kw dc to ac converter running a simple generator line to the car is far simpler and cost effective.

 

[SteveM]

I see 3 use cases:

I have a fourth, a real edge case I guess:
I want to run a piece of mains powered analytical equipment as I drive. At the moment I have to lug a heavy leisure battery and a separate inverter; even then I don't get much analysis time. Being able to use some of the traction battery energy would be great. Does anyone know of a kit that would give me mains power in the car as I drive? I think I have heard that there is an EV with mains sockets in the cabin.

 

[Ekips]

I have a fourth, a real edge case I guess:
I want to run a piece of mains powered analytical equipment as I drive. At the moment I have to lug a heavy leisure battery and a separate inverter; even then I don't get much analysis time. Being able to use some of the traction battery energy would be great. Does anyone know of a kit that would give me mains power in the car as I drive? I think I have heard that there is an EV with mains sockets in the cabin.

The Ionic 5 has a power socket below the rear seat

Can you not run your inverter from the 12v cigarette lighter?

 

[SteveM]

I need about 800W, so I don't think the cigarette lighter is going to manage

 

[Tig170]

I need about 800W, so I don't think the cigarette lighter is going to manage

You are better to stick with what you are currently doing, as 800w is a lot whilst moving - you could get a simple split charge relay system to the leisure battery, which I use on my old T5 campervan - but on an EV? not sure Id want to attempt this!

 

[Bricktop X PWR]

Any recommendations for a reasonably priced good adaptor ?

Post in thread 'Ebay V2L cable' Ebay V2L cable

Ignore the cable bit m8, this is what you want.
Highly recommended

Post #17 to see it in action.

 

[Tig170]

Post in thread 'Ebay V2L cable' Ebay V2L cable

Ignore the cable bit m8, this is what you want.
Highly recommended

Post #17 to see it in action.

...but it aint going to work whilst driving along.

 

[Bricktop X PWR]

...but it aint going to work whilst driving along.

I'm replying to post #3 which should be obvious no?

 

[SteveM]

800w is a lot whilst moving

It it though? Propelling the car might take ~10kW. I wonder what the heating takes. The whole point of my question arises from the realisation that the traction battery is so much better than a expensive 26kg 1.2kWh leisure battery. The traction battery is kind of free and won't give me a hernia.

 

[Alansurfer]

You can run a DC to AC inverter (separate from the car system) directly connected to the HV DC battery output- there’s even space under the bonnet for the unit- there are some self converted electric vehicles that have done this. Classic Electric Cars recently did a VW camper. You would have to make a custom harness and experiment with set up to establish exactly where to attach the output to avoid disturbing the car’s monitoring systems, if placed correctly it will just see it as another normal power output from the traction pack. But to simplify this I would just swap for a vehicle that can already do this such as a van, some have a 240v output option installed in the cab or the rear cargo area. When I get round to building an ev camper it will have 240v ac directly from the main traction pack.

 

[SteveM]

Well that sounds adventurous! However, the advice to find a venicle that already has the facility is probably more practical. Thanks for the suggestions. If you have any links to descrptions of self-conversions along these lines I would be interested.