Some EVs can power our homes. So if you lose power at home, you could temporarily run your home off your electric car until power is restored. One YouTuber even decided to power his home from a Chinese Leapmotor B10 EV.
YouTuber Efficient Alex wanted to try to power his whole home for 24 hours via his EV using V2L, also known as Vehicle-To-Load. The goal was simple. Alex wanted to prove that you could indeed power a home with an EV without changing your daily routine.
In order to do this, Alex turned off the power in his home and connected it to the car using a specialized V2L adapter. This enabled him to plug in household appliances, which included a fridge, vacuum cleaner, dishwasher, microwave,e and a toaster, to name but a few.
It wasn’t just about whether the car could give power to the house either. It was whether it was good enough to power the house for 24 hours, without Alex needing to change his personal habits. Otherwise, the YouTuber wouldn’t say that the car had passed the test.
How Did the Leapmotor V10 EV Fare?
The Leapmotor B10 EV is a compact electric SUV made in China, one of several available in Europe from various Chinese manufacturers. The appeal of these cars is that they are often cheaper than many of their Western rivals, and the B10 costs around $41,600. So if it were on sale in the United States, it would be priced quite competitively.
In terms of how it fared in the test to power the home, it appeared that the Chinese EV fared quite well. “It’s amazing how easy it is to just power the entire routine and house for 24 hours,” Alex said in his video. One thing that the YouTuber monitored was the temperatures of several appliances, as well as how well they performed. In other words, did they function as if they were on a mains power supply, or did it seem like they were down on power?
Well, on that front, it looked good too. Inside the fridge, the temperature remained as it should have. Appliances such as the vacuum cleaner, dishwasher, and oven all worked. In fact, Alex was even able to cook his dinner with no trouble at all. After 24 hours of use and a 15-mile drive, the battery on the Leapmotor dropped from 100 percent to just 76 percent. Losing just 24 percent of its battery capacity over that period was incredibly impressive.
Is This a Long-Term Solution?
The question is, can you power a house via an EV long-term? Well, clearly, an EV can power a home for a reasonable amount of time. To do so for 24 hours and lose less than 25 percent of its battery capacity is mighty impressive. And you can even recharge another EV from your own EV. But in terms of a long-term solution, powering a home from an electric car, be it a Leapmotor, a Ford, or a Tesla, probably isn’t the way to go.
If you can’t recharge the EV due to having no power, then that is, of course, an issue. But the battery may deteriorate faster from having to power so many appliances, especially if it is doing so constantly. There may even be fluctuations in the power provided as well, so it’s not a clear-cut solution.
However, for an emergency situation, it’s clear that an EV is more than capable of keeping you going for a while. At the very least, you can cook yourself dinner.