Installing a Home Integration System for Intelligent Backup Power (without SunRun)

[Stonelew]

How many times have you tested it working? Last Friday, my electrician and I got it working once for over 10 mins. Turned on lights and checked the service throughout the house.
Then we tried again and the power stayed on for a couple min then stopped.
On the subsequent tries, the system no longer worked.

I tested it twice with the new update and it works fine. Three months ago we got it working inconsistently. one day it worked eight times and other days maybe once and another day it would not work, this pattern went on for a bit until the not working was the norm. The Ford head honcho said they had seen this pattern and a fix is in being made. I have not had the bi-directional working and then stop without me instigating the stop. Going to test the three more times this week.

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[Jim Lewis]

ETW Energy left a bit of sheet rock damage behind. I'll see if Sunrun "encourages" them to patch it up.

ETW Energy told me they'd send a "sheetrocker" to repair my drywall. The HIS installers just didn't bother telling me that was going to happen. The guy's here today fixing things up. Hmm, along with the double entendre, "The Sheetrockers" could be a good name for a rock band! "Sheet Rockers" better for double entendre purposes!

I tested it twice with the new update and it works fine.

One of the installers came back yesterday to see for his own eyes that the backup was working. For the 2nd time in a row, the truck powered the house within 2 minutes and 20 seconds of cutting grid power. The installer said that from two to five minutes is about standard for most truck HIS backup switches as going either way, the truck wants to make sure the existing condition (grid power or no grid power) is stable and not be rapidly switching back and forth. During the installer's test, though, even when he switched the main breaker back on, the truck did not stop trying to supply power back through the FCSP even though the FCSP turned from a long solid green LED bar (power supplied to the inverter) to a short white bar. I wondered if the installer's monitoring app could be confusing the electronics. Eventually, the monitoring app showed power coming from the grid, none from the truck, even though the truck charging port LEDs still flashed green after many minutes. The installer eventually had me unlock the charging plug from the truck port and put the plug back in the FCSP port, which brought the truck's behavior back to normal. And I got a warning in the FordPass app about an abnormal disconnect!

 

[Stonelew]

ETW Energy told me they'd send a "sheetrocker" to repair my drywall. The HIS installers just didn't bother telling me that was going to happen. The guy's here today fixing things up. Hmm, along with the double entendre, "The Sheetrockers" could be a good name for a rock band! "Sheet Rockers" better for double entendre purposes!



One of the installers came back yesterday to see for his own eyes that the backup was working. For the 2nd time in a row, the truck powered the house within 2 minutes and 20 seconds of cutting grid power. The installer said that from two to five minutes is about standard for most truck HIS backup switches as going either way, the truck wants to make sure the existing condition (grid power or no grid power) is stable and not be rapidly switching back and forth. During the installer's test, though, even when he switched the main breaker back on, the truck did not stop trying to supply power back through the FCSP even though the FCSP turned from a long solid green LED bar (power supplied to the inverter) to a short white bar. I wondered if the installer's monitoring app could be confusing the electronics. Eventually, the monitoring app showed power coming from the grid, none from the truck, even though the truck charging port LEDs still flashed green after many minutes. The installer eventually had me unlock the charging plug from the truck port and put the plug back in the FCSP port, which brought the truck's behavior back to normal. And I got a warning in the FordPass app about an abnormal disconnect!

Just tried the third time and it worked in about thirty seconds and the other tries were at about thirty seconds.

 

[PungoteagueDave]

These are over the air updates that came on June 8, Ford power-up 4.2.3.1, it says " While you may have seen this update before,we're resending to ensure some houskeeping features are included to help further enhance your user experience". The head trouble shooter at Ford said this update should fix the truck communicating with the inverter. The update is on my Ford Pass and truck.

The truck does not communicate with the inverter. It communicates with the charger, which then communicates with the inverter. Everything must work, in the proper sequence and perfectly, including the inverter's handshake with the SunRun server, and the charger's handshake with both the truck and Ford's server. This entire thing is over-complex and fraught with potential error/drops. Ford is still working on an update that will solve the wifi communication issues between the truck and the charger, which is what a lot of the issues outlined in this thread appear to be. After visiting my home Ford Engineering was able to replicate the issues with my system not working by purchasing wifi routers like the ones they sensed around my neighborhood and adding them to the environment at their Dearborn lab. This is a wireless communication issue that they believe can be solved though a truck-level OTA update later this year. Meanwhile I haven't paid anything for the system, but agreed to put the truck repurchase and system removal on hold until it is either solved or proven to not work with finality.

 

[Stonelew]

The truck does not communicate with the inverter. It communicates with the charger, which then communicates with the inverter. Everything must work, in the proper sequence and perfectly, including the inverter's handshake with the SunRun server, and the charger's handshake with both the truck and Ford's server. This entire thing is over-complex and fraught with potential error/drops. Ford is still working on an update that will solve the wifi communication issues between the truck and the charger, which is what a lot of the issues outlined in this thread appear to be. After visiting my home Ford Engineering was able to replicate the issues with my system not working by purchasing wifi routers like the ones they sensed around my neighborhood and adding them to the environment at their Dearborn lab. This is a wireless communication issue that they believe can be solved though a truck-level OTA update later this year. Meanwhile I haven't paid anything for the system, but agreed to put the truck repurchase and system removal on hold until it is either solved or proven to not work with finality.

Has your bi-directional worked at least once? Mine has worked fifteen or so times with this latest go round it worked for three days straight and the fourth and fifth times... no bueno. This has been the pattern and I'll talk to Ford and relay information and ask when "The Fix" will be fixed. I haven't paid anything yet, but believe it will get resolved. This system is a complete loop, am I wrong in thinking a direct hardwire between the truck, charger and inverter would have been a more simple, elegant solution.

 

[v2h8484]

Has your bi-directional worked at least once? Mine has worked fifteen or so times with this latest go round it worked for three days straight and the fourth and fifth times... no bueno.

Such behavior is consistent with any system that relies on public shared spectrum wireless comms like home WiFi. Unless you are in an isolated area with no neighbors, your system may work for a year then suddenly stop working when a neighbor puts in a new WiFi AP.

 

[PungoteagueDave]

Has your bi-directional worked at least once? Mine has worked fifteen or so times with this latest go round it worked for three days straight and the fourth and fifth times... no bueno. This has been the pattern and I'll talk to Ford and relay information and ask when "The Fix" will be fixed. I haven't paid anything yet, but believe it will get resolved. This system is a complete loop, am I wrong in thinking a direct hardwire between the truck, charger and inverter would have been a more simple, elegant solution.

My system has “worked” and ran the house for seconds to minutes, and one time operated for an hour. But simply opening the truck door, or nothing at all would cause a fault. Every time, no exception. Eventually everything failed and it won’t initiate a generator session. Ford sent the head integration engineer from Dearborn to my Palm Beach home, and SunRun sent their top electrical engineering expert in charge of the east and central US installations from New Jersey, twice to my home. They reinstalled the system, which was initially built in September, last November. Their initial installer, a local contractor, was fired by SunRun and they sent a replacement team from Orlando, put them up for a total of five days (two separate visits). They worked valiantly, did a top notch job, with a lot of little details like adding a soft-start system to my HVAC system so the ramp-up wouldn’t pull its maximum on initiation, overwhelming the system. They were incredulous, frustrated, got the attention of the top people at both companies. We initiated a buyback process, but they eventually had an exec call to request that we defer a decision until this coming November, when we will next return to the home (we’re currently bicycling in Hungary, will go to India next for a Himalayas motorcycle adventure, then will assist our Navy pilot son in his family’s move from Whidbey Island Washington to Germany) so unavailable to do anything further between April and November at the Florida place.

Ford’s engineers explained much of the system architecture, confirming that it is proprietary to them, will never be compatible with other auto manufacturers’ bidirectional systems, and finally identified the problem as interference from adjacent Wi-Fi networks. They were able to duplicate the issues by purchasing same-model routers and Wi-Fi access points and installing them at their Dearborn labs, which is apparently a whole-home mockup of the HIS.

They believe that sometime between now and November they will be able to solve the problems through an OTA update to the truck. They do not think the issues are in the charger or inverter at this point, but are isolated to the truck software. This is after Herculean effort that resulted in finally getting the truck’s software updated to current specifications, which took multiple visits to the dealer, and another engineer, a field guy, flying into Delray Beach to perform the procedure, which was beyond the capabilities of the local techs. They also ensured that the software updates to my phone app, and the charger and inverter and a couple other things were up to date and working properly.

Everything is at spec now in my system and truck but it still won’t work due to the local interference conditions. They get that it is a design issue, are hugely apologetic, and say they will eventually make it right. I am super-patient, it isn’t mission-critical to me, more of an experiment in technology, and they offered a financial incentive to keep moving forward instead of doing the buyback.

am personally skeptical that a software change can solve what feels to me like a hardware and Wi-Fi technology issue, in terms of isolating the truck’s communication with it’s charging system from local systems in adjacent townhomes. This location is in a gated community with 110 homes directly on the ICW, all about 2,700 sq ft each, so most everyone has a multi-access point mesh Wi-Fi network to reach their patios, garages, driveways, boatlifts on the piers, etc. Numerous Teslas and Porsche Taycans reside in garages within a couple hundred feet of my garage, all communicating happily with their mother ships. Given the issues, it seems to this non-engineer that it is overwhelming the process and the fundamental design is the issue. But I am willing to have them run it out fully before making that final call.

 

[Major Dawg]

@Major Dawg What size solar inverter do have and was it successfully routed through the HIS? Being able to use my solar in a power outage is big reason for me going with Ford and the Lightning. I'm very curious to know how well they've been able to integrate solar with the HIS.

The BDi_6 is the one I got.
Being a WiFi product test engineer, this is utterly frustrating that Sunrun (Delta) and Ford could not have developed a better solution.

It really feels like Ford and Sunrun need help with quality design, development, testing of this product before this became available on the Market.

I'm really thankful, that Q-Merit/Trout Electrical has been as patient

 

[Major Dawg]

Just got off the phone with the Ford Battery group (not sure of their name) and spoke with a very knowledgeable person (not a technician) Ford OTA is still pending and is scheduled out by the end of June (fingers crossed). Although it sounded like they will use the wave approach to get this update out, I was not charming enough or convincing enough to get added to the 1st wave of updated vehicles.

Argg.

 

[TaxmanHog]

I was not charming enough or convincing enough to get added to the 1st wave of updated vehicles.

I enjoy being a ~middle of the pack~ member, while watching others to see how initial release is going, MoCo can pull the plug if anything goes sideways before it hits my truck.

 

[Kman]

I'm still trying to figure out if this is positive or negative news.
It's positive they have an update coming later this month, but if its not a mass update going to all Lightning owners, it sounds untested and they want to try it out on a small sample of owners before doing a mass release. This doesn't sound very convincing.
Given the headaches we have all experienced as the first adopters, not to mention the massive expense we all went through to purchase and install this system, it doesn't sound like they have worked out all the kinks.

 

[Jim Lewis]

Ford OTA is still pending and is scheduled out by the end of June (fingers crossed).

As I noted in my previous post above, on June 14, the backup worked 2x running. However, on 6/27/23 and today, 6/29, multiple attempts to get the backup to work failed. The FCSP lights would turn green, and the Intelligent Backup screen in the truck would say, "Preparing to transfer backup power..." ( or something like that), but the charging port lights would never turn green, and the truck would never provide power to the inverter.

The installer (ETW Energy for Sunrun) called a "Ford specialist." The specialist said there is a known issue to be fixed by an OTA update, but the most recent word from their engineering department is that the OTA update will not be released until the end of JULY(!). Since the HIS backup worked 2x for me in mid-June, I'm wondering if any of the several OTA updates I've received for my truck since then screwed things up.

The installer had a hard time believing the HIS wasn't working with Lightnings. He said they installed and activated a system that also had solar panels on Monday (6/26), and the backup transferred as soon as they killed power from the grid.

 

[PungoteagueDave]

As I noted in my previous post above, on June 14, the backup worked 2x running. However, on 6/27/23 and today, 6/29, multiple attempts to get the backup to work failed. The FCSP lights would turn green, and the Intelligent Backup screen in the truck would say, "Preparing to transfer backup power..." ( or something like that), but the charging port lights would never turn green, and the truck would never provide power to the inverter.

The installer (ETW Energy for Sunrun) called a "Ford specialist." The specialist said there is a known issue to be fixed by an OTA update, but the most recent word from their engineering department is that the OTA update will not be released until the end of JULY(!). Since the HIS backup worked 2x for me in mid-June, I'm wondering if any of the several OTA updates I've received for my truck since then screwed things up.

The installer had a hard time believing the HIS wasn't working with Lightnings. He said they installed and activated a system that also had solar panels on Monday (6/26), and the backup transferred as soon as they killed power from the grid.

I am told "by the end of the year" by Ford engineering. As noted above, I remain skeptical that a software solution can solve the underlying wifi interference issue. I'm no expert but seems like a fundamental design issue and use of inappropriate technology to do the interface. We shall see, and I remain supportive until they give up or succeed. However, one thing is clear - we were sold a product that wasn't ready for consumer application. Rough for those who paid up front, not as bad, mostly a waste of time for those who didn't.

 

[Kman]

I purchased the F150 solely because of the Home Integration System. I preferred the Rivian, but went with the Lightning because of the home backup ability. So I'm feeling pretty stupid right now. Ford needs to solve this problem!

 

[PungoteagueDave]

I purchased the F150 solely because of the Home Integration System. I preferred the Rivian, but went with the Lightning because of the home backup ability. So I'm feeling pretty stupid right now. Ford needs to solve this problem!

Agreed, but the practical reality is that even when/if operational, the Ford/SunRun HIS is proprietary and will work only with Ford products, and none of the other (many) vehicles that are being released now that have generic bidirectional charging. I understand why Ford went first from a marketing perspective as it was a significant differentiator, but they had to create their own, in hindsight overly-complicated system that has no standard.

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