Vehicle to Load (V2L) - Any Information or First Hand Experiences?

[BugEyed]

Apologies, I had not realised that you are in France. I am not qualified to advise on French electrical regulations, only to give general comments as to how a similar situation would be carried out in the UK.
Clearly you already have a suitable Earth to use that is to a good standard. Your suggestion of tying the neutral to the Earth is not recommended in the UK as it could cause the whole Earth wiring to raise its potential. The UK principal is that the Earth wiring remains at the same potential as everything else in the house, for example a tap. Whether RCDs will trip is an unanswered question.

 

[Coulomb]

Whether RCDs will trip is an unanswered question.

I believe that it should work. Suppose that you have a 230W load, so 1.00A flowing through the load, from the V2L L output to the V2L N output. The V2L N output near to the car is connected to earth. It's important that N conductors that have passed through the house RCD are not used for this earth connection.

Now suppose that a human comes into contact with a conductor that carries the L output, and that this causes 30mA (0.03A) to flow through them, starting an electric shock. This is an additional 0.03A load, so 1.03A flows through the L conductors. But 0.03A flows through the human via earth to the junction of earth and the N output, and back to the car's inverter. Only the 1.00A load current flows through the house N conductors. So the house RCD(s) should see the 0.03A difference in current, and trip, saving the human.

I'm not an electrician or someone who drafts safety regulations.

 

[AussiePete]

Hello,

For my installation, i have a 3 pole changeover switch to backup grid with my MG in V2L mode.
3 pole for Live+Neutral+Earth.

In grid (normal) mode, i use L+N from electricity provider and Earth from a ground wire (in fact, N).
In V2L (backup) mode, i use L+N+E from vehicule socket.
With this setup, i use earth from vehicule (should be N internally), to activate as many protections as possible.

My use case is only in case of grid shortage (2 to 3 times a year, for some hours).
When using V2L i manually switch off not used circuits in my house (heavy loads, in fact), then switch the 3p changeover switch. I have some lights to indicate power source (grid or vehicle), and also indicates me than grid power is up again.

In my last test, MG ZS furnished as much à 2kW, not tested more.
in one of test case, V2L switched off with one circuit : too much power ? current fault ? don't remember well.
Véhicule switched off V2L by himself, then it automagically restart some tens of seconds later.

Must have occasions to test it, but pretty sure than V2L is really much more capable than 2kW.
I will then take care about cable section if more than 3kW was used.

For my use case, i voluntary limit power use to about 1 to 1.5kW (freezers, lights, adsl, tv, cellphones charger, ...) to keep vehicule battery capacity for up to a 2 days shortage.
No more using a loudly fuel generator !

V2L is very great out of cities.

What V2L cable or connector do you use?

 

[Elec Car Aust]

Great to see everyone thinking out getting more functionality out of their EV's. Just stay safe when working on that DC side

 

[Elec Car Aust]

I’ve read through some of the comments on the V2L being used to supplement the household electricity consumption and would like to share that at least one person is doing this using a Kia EV6 albeit they manual switch between the car supplying the house and the grid supplying the house each day. They have a Kia EV 6 and use the V2L adapter that comes with the car. If I understand it correctly the have a supply switch between the main supply and the consumer unit that takes 2 inputs- one from the grid and one from an external supply. It’s this external supply that they plug the cars V2L into.

When they want to run the house from the car they switch on the cars V2L and switch the main supply switch to external supply. There’s a momentary disruption to the house supply as it switches, but that’s acceptable. Should they need to go for a drive or charge the car, they switch back the supply switch to the grid and disconnect the car.

It’s manual, but works, and takes advantage of the 77kwh battery in their car and will run the house l ad for a few day. It’s has its downsides, supply gets disrupted so oven clock might need reset, and can only supply 3.2 kw - anything above this trips the cars breaker which then needs reset. But it might be an option for some.

It's a great idea Aussie Pete. Another option is to have a separate/dedicated circuit for the EV V2L only. Reasonably easy to do depending on what's on an existing home circuit. For example you can take a powerpoint circuit within the house 'offline' from the normal grid supply and make it 100% fed from an external feed, i.e. the EV's V2L. Doing this just means you wont have electricity on this circuit of EV is not connected but it can work well if it just has a few outlets like washing machine/ dryer pool pumps workshop etc.

Just great to see everything thinking about this stuff to better utilise EV and reduce grid dependence, particularly in all the recent natural disasters happening globally.

 

[TheArcher]

for me its useful for astronomy. Sure I can use its own battery pack for my scope, or rig some other larger rechargeable battery pack, but being able to plug it directly into the car would be very handy.

I can drive my car to some isolated, dark sky spot and even set up an entire astrophotography rig. I can stay nice and toasty in the car whilst i leave my rig on an exposure. Hell, I could even edit and stack the images on site. Would make the car an awesome astronomer/astrophotography rig.

I'm looking forward to doing just this once I've retired!

 

[adamback]

I have done some test on my V2L plug.
Type 2 - 3phase CEE (All phases connected)
Phase - Neutral 220V
Phase - Ground 76V
Neutral- Ground 143V

 

[Coulomb]

Type 2 - 3phase CEE (All phases connected)

You didn't report the phase to phase voltage. From what I've read earlier, it would be zero, meaning that this isn't 3-phase at all. If the line to line voltage is 381 V, then it's real 3-phase.

 

[adamback]

You didn't report the phase to phase voltage. From what I've read earlier, it would be zero, meaning that this isn't 3-phase at all. If the line to line voltage is 381 V, then it's real 3-phase.

You’re correct. No 3phase.

 

[smoked]

could you power a one of those coil heaters from a v2l cable?

thinking if i should buy one or not. not technically confident enough to make something like this

 

[adamback]

could you power a one of those coil heaters from a v2l cable?

thinking if i should buy one or not. not technically confident enough to make something like this

Yes! And most likely a toaster at the same time 2200W+800W. I have tested it for 3500w.

 

[Liandada]

anyone had experience on these? seems reasonable value!

EV Cable Adapter 2022 MG ZS MG4 MG5 Discharge V2L Vehicle to Load UK Power Cut | eBay

You will receive adapter(s) as shown on pictures and item title.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[MichaelJHunt]

anyone had experience on these? seems reasonable value!

EV Cable Adapter 2022 MG ZS MG4 MG5 Discharge V2L Vehicle to Load UK Power Cut | eBay

You will receive adapter(s) as shown on pictures and item title.

www.ebay.co.uk

V2L - useful ?

I see that the new MG5 has a 2.2kW V2L facility, which sounds great - but I'm just wondering whether I'd ever use it. For canvas campers I can understand the possible appeal, but those days are long gone for me. If it was V2H I would certainly want to use it to load shift from my solar panels...

www.mgevs.com

 

[Liandada]

Thanks Michael, now i just need to think of a good use to get one!

 

[JCFlippen]

Thanks Michael, now i just need to think of a good use to get one!

Home power cuts. Sorting out low energy LED lights for blackouts will be my priority and perhaps the router and TV. Just few extension cables behind the sofa for emergencies.

 

[MichaelJHunt]

Thanks Michael, now i just need to think of a good use to get one!

With the price of electric set to go through the roof - take your car to Tesco and charge for free. Bring that free electric back with you and use it to power things in your home.

 

[adamback]

A small update.
I opened the CEE conneter and terminated ground in a “isolated fix”.
Now I can connect it to my central box in my small summer cottage.
Everything is working including ground fault protection.
BUT I have no true ground. This is not good. It could not be used as everyday V2G/V2H. But maybe under emergency situations. WTSHTF

 

[PoinDexter]

Very interesting stuff here. I know V2L is not V2H but I’d like to be able to run things in my home in the UK during a power cut. Yes I could run lots of extension leads (although the fridge & freezer are on fused spurs not sockets so they’d be more challenging) but I’d rather have a Transfer Switch so I could plug the car in then switch to V2L. Does anyone have experience in doing this? Thanks

 

[MichaelJHunt]

Very interesting stuff here. I know V2L is not V2H but I’d like to be able to run things in my home in the UK during a power cut. Yes I could run lots of extension leads (although the fridge & freezer are on fused spurs not sockets so they’d be more challenging) but I’d rather have a Transfer Switch so I could plug the car in then switch to V2L. Does anyone have experience in doing this? Thanks

It’s V2L. All the playing you do will not make it 100% secure and safe as a V2G/H system.

It’s official limit is 2.2kW, so you would would have to disable everything that used a lot of power in your home.

 

[BugEyed]

Converting an existing house to be able to handle a limited V2H is not cheap, and frankly probably not worth it. Do what you can with extension leads for emergencies and be very careful with them.