Power Outage; But Not For LEAF Owners!
Power Outage; But Not For LEAF Owners!
Times Colonist picked up this story
Electric-car buff uses vehicle to power Saanich house during storm
Manfred Wissemann, head of the Victoria EV Club, attached jumper cables from his Nissan LEAF’s auxiliary battery to an inverter in order to provide power for home appliances during a recent windstorm. Photograph By DARREN STONE, Times Colonist
Michael D. Reid / Times Colonist
March 27, 2016 06:00 AM
Manfred Wissemann doesn’t have to think twice when answering a question common after blackouts: Where were you when the lights went out?
It took just over a minute for Wissemann, the founding president of Victoria’s electric vehicle club, to press his Nissan LEAF electric car into service to supply power to his Saanich home during a recent windstorm.
“Many people don’t even realize you can do this,” he said.
With downed trees falling on wires and knocking out power from Sooke to North Saanich, it was an ideal opportunity for the electric-car buff to test his vehicle’s potential.
Wissemann attached jumper cables from the car’s auxiliary battery to a 3,000-watt power inverter that provides power for home appliances.
Link to the Times Colonist Story
Power Outage; But Not For LEAF Owners!
By Manfred Wissemann/VictoriaEVclub
Easter Sunday
Our club, the Victoria EV Club, has demonstrated how to do this emergency hook-up during car shows for years.
This is the first time I actually was able to use it and here is how.
Familiar cables? Yes! Jumper cables from the 12V auxillary DC battery in the LEAF to an 3000 Watt power inverter provide 120V AC power out for appliances. I turned the power of my LEAF on, in order to receive power from the main battery pack. With the inverter I was then able to power some basic lights for the house. Instructions on how to hook up the inverter are included in the inverter box and should be followed. Also I used my emergency high intensity 1,000,000 candlepower rechargeable LED flashlight.
This emergency power will also be handy in an earthquake, especially if someone in your home is on critical care.
Come to our next Royal Bay Bakery coffee chat in Colwood and I can discuss emergency options available.
Back to my story: I came home to a dark house and only had 20 km range on my LEAF left. Now what do I do?
I hooked up my inverter anyway, with LED lights, but we would be using very little power as the LEAF’s main battery was very low. So fridges were out of the question. While my LEAF was plugged in, I decided to take my daughter’s LEAF down to the Uptown Fast Charger, had a coffee and in twenty minutes was on my way home with more power. My daughter’s LEAF now had enough power for up to 4 days depending on the load.
I repeated the trip with my car so we could hook up 2 fridges; but by then the power was restored and life was back to normal.
I know that many of our LEAF owners have installed inverters to their cars and it works just fine; however, we are doing it under our own risk and you would be too. Talk to your electrician to verify the installation so you may be ready and confident of what to do when you need emergency power.
