How To Power Your Home With An Electric Car

PowerStream and Nissan Canada have teamed up to show that your very own electric car can power your home for a definite amount of time. The idea is simple. Charge your car and then use the electricity whenever you want. Think of it this way. Charge when electricity is cheapest, then use it later when utilities charge the most. This means cheap electricity all the time, as long as you don’t need to drive.

PowerStream and Nissan Canada are demonstrating how a fully or partially charged battery pack in an electric car can provide power to a home. The vehicle-to-home, V2H system developed by Nissan Motor Company can be used by any home owners on best time-of-use, TOU rates for their advantage. This particular demonstration will last the entire weekend and show yet another high point for electric cars, namely that its storage capacity that can also be used for more than powering its wheels.

Technically Speaking. The electric car's battery pack powers lights, appliances and other devices inside the home. Using an automatic transfer switch, ATS and power control system, PCS to give the home electricity from either the utility or the EV. Get used to these terms folks, this will be common household items in a few year.

Benefits To Using Your EV. Of course, the benefits of driving an EV compared to a gas car are many. Ranging from no tail-pipe pollution to using clean energy, if the choice is available, it also builds national security by using home made energy. EV can also cut down costs further by supplying electricity for your home appliances. Depending on the size of the house and size of your battery pack, a Nissan Leaf was able to power a home approximately a full day using air conditioner, stove, refrigerator, washing machine and dryer at the same time.

PowerStream Inc., the second largest municipally-owned electricity distribution company in Ontario and is eager to push this technology onto the hands of residential users. By testing it on its fleet, it makes sense a utility would want to allow residential owners to help smooth out peak use in demand. By giving its client V2H, it effectively helps demand curb its power by allowing its clients to use more electricity at night when demand is low and availability is high. At the same time, these same users should not tax the grid the following day when demand is high and availability lower. It’s a win-win situation for both parties.

In the meantime, it is great to see technology as V2H pushed by utilities such as PowerStream to allow electric car owners to power their home whenever they want, for the cheapest price yet.