FCSP - can it power your house on a breaker less than 80amps?

[Basis0439]

My breaker is only 30amp. Can I backfeed into this with the Pro? Obvs getting an electrician to do the work...

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[Maquis]

The FCSP by itself cannot supply AC power from the truck. Additional equipment is required.

 

[TaxmanHog]

You would need the Home Integration System [HIS] as mentioned in another thread you posted on.

 

[Sneakypetie78]

Side question:

What is all the other hardware needed for fcsp to connect to give power back to home?, and when can we buy it from anyone other than sunrun? They're a racket.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Side question:

What is all the other hardware needed for fcsp to connect to give power back to home?, and when can we buy it from anyone other than sunrun? They're a racket.

There are several threads on the site covering the details and vendor who carry the equipment.
https://www.f150lightningforum.com/forum/forums/back-up-power-for-home.88/

 

[djwildstar]

Overall I do not recommend the Home Integration System at this time. If you have 9.6kW Pro Power Onboard, set up a generator plug and transfer switch at your home. You can use Pro Power Onboard as a 7.2kW (240V 30A) generator.

 

[Zprime29]

Overall I do not recommend the Home Integration System at this time. If you have 9.6kW Pro Power Onboard, set up a generator plug and transfer switch at your home. You can use Pro Power Onboard as a 7.2kW (240V 30A) generator.

Which is great if you don't have solar panels. For those who do, the HIS allows the solar panels to tie in and supplement the truck's power. I'm waiting to see if Ford makes some improvements to the HIS setup and to compare it to third party offerings (assuming we can get them to work).

 

[Marcoux]

As someone had mentioned before...get a transfer switch and set up an "RV plug" that goes from the breaker to the truck and it will 100% do the same thing while costing you thousands less.

That being said, you probably will run into problems charging your truck from home if your panel is only 30 amps...

 

[Maquis]

That being said, you probably will run into problems charging your truck from home if your panel is only 30 amps...

I think he meant he wanted to provide backup power by backfeeding a 30A breaker, not that his panel was 30A.

 

[metroshot]

Does the Pro SR or ER have the ability to backfeed energy thru the HV DC pins off the CCS1 port to the HIS ?

 

[TaxmanHog]

Does the Pro SR or ER have the ability to backfeed energy thru the HV DC pins off the CCS1 port to the HIS ?

Yes

 

[djwildstar]

Which is great if you don't have solar panels. For those who do, the HIS allows the solar panels to tie in and supplement the truck's power. I'm waiting to see if Ford makes some improvements to the HIS setup.

Have you gotten a successful power-off test with the HIS?

I have the HIS (but not solar panels) and have not gotten a successful power-off test. Like most of us with the HIS, we are waiting for a software update to address the situation (and getting rather tired of being promised updates "in the next two weeks" for months). Which is why I do not recommend the HIS at the present time: with a transfer switch, you could run backup power off of solar or the truck but not both, and with the HIS as it is now, you can run your house off of solar or go without power.

I may revise my assessment of the HIS if and when Ford, Sunrun, Delta, and Siemens get their respective software acts together. But my experience to date has not been great -- I've spent a good bit of money on an advertised feature of the truck that does not actually work at the present time.

 

[djwildstar]

My breaker is only 30amp. Can I backfeed into this with the Pro?

To provide a comprehensive answer:

The breaker on your EV charging circuit determines how fast you can charge your truck. For most usage, 30A is fine: the maximum safe current for EV charging on a 30A circuit is 24A (for 5.76kW). This is enough to charge an SR Lightning from 10% to 90% in 15 hours, or to replenish ~35 miles of daily driving in about 3 hours.

The breaker on the charging circuit doesn't play a part in vehicle-to-home power. There is a separate high-voltage DC circuit to carry high-voltage battery power from truck through FCSP to the rest of the whole-home backup solution in a power outage.

The rest of the pieces of the Intelligent Backup Power solution is the Home Integration System (HIS). It is a bi-directional inverter (BDI), a whole-home backup/micro-grid interconnection device (WHB/MID), and a Dark-Start Battery. In a power outage, the WHB/MID disconnects the utility feed from the house. The Dark-Start Battery provides enough power that the BDI and FCSP remain on. The BDI notices that utility power is now off, and asks the FCSP for backup power. The FCSP and truck talk and agree to provide backup power: the truck connects the high-voltage traction battery to the CCS DC pins. The power flows through the FCSP to the BDI, which provides up to 9.6kW (240V at 40A) output to the house. In most setups, there is a small "critical loads panel" that routes that power to specific circuits in the house. The HIS costs about $4000, and installation is relatively complex (usually another $4000-$6000). It also requires the FCSP, which is another $1300 for SR trucks.

In theory, any F-150 Lightning can provide backup power through the FCSP to the HIS. In reality, there is a software issue that makes the power transfer unreliable: either the FCSP or the truck detects a fault and stops providing power, usually within a minute or so after starting a power transfer. Ford has promised a software update to address this issue, which has not yet landed for most of us.

Given that the HIS is expensive and doesn't actually work for most people, and since the SR trucks like the Pro don't come with an FCSP, my current recommendation is a generator plug and transfer switch. It is relatively inexpensive (usually under $1000 installed) and reliable. This will work with any Lightning that has the 9.6kW Pro Power Onboard option, and will provide 7.2kW (240V at 30A) of backup power to the house.

 

[Zprime29]

with a transfer switch, you could run backup power off of solar or the truck but not both, and with the HIS as it is now, you can run your house off of solar or go without power.

I'm a bit confused here, how would you run backup power off solar with a transfer switch? Solar has to be cut off when the grid goes down and as far as I know (which isn't a lot, I'll admit) you can't tie in solar to a subpanel without a battery in the loop.

I don't have the HIS, but am following it very closely as I do want its advertised capabilities. @tommolog was able to get his working, with solar tied in. He's got a YT video with very good details on it.

 

[djwildstar]

I'm a bit confused here, how would you run backup power off solar with a transfer switch? Solar has to be cut off when the grid goes down and as far as I know (which isn't a lot, I'll admit) you can't tie in solar to a subpanel without a battery in the loop.

The HIS supports a hard-wired (non-vehicle) battery in addition to the FCSP connection to a vehicle battery. I assume that can run in the absence of grid power, but I'm not 100% sure.

I'm also not 100% clear on the output of the HIS in the solar+vehicle configuration. I'm guessing that the maximum output is still 9.6kW, but with solar some of that can come from the panels, while the remaining demand is drawn from batteries (either hard-wired or vehicle).

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