• The 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning will be capable to energy a house for up three days when linked to Ford’s out there Cost Station Professional, Ford says.
• The wall unit would require a 100-amp circuit, which may show pricey.
• The F-150 Lightning will arrive at sellers subsequent spring and can begin round $42,000.

When the electrical Ford F-150 Lightning is not blasting to 60 mph in a claimed 4.5 seconds or doing truck issues with as much as 10,000 kilos in tow, will probably be capable of act as a knight in painted aluminum within the occasion of a pure catastrophe or energy outage by feeding its saved power again into homeowners’ houses.

In earlier experiments, we have powered a home and likewise fed some juice to a Ford Mustang Mach-E utilizing the 7.6 kW out there from the bed-mounted plugs of the F-150 Hybrid. Equally, GMC not too long ago introduced the 2024 Hummer might be able to bleeding 6.6 kW from its Ultium battery pack. The Lightning will take it to the subsequent stage. Ford’s 80-amp Cost Station Professional with Clever Backup Energy incorporates a CCS charging plug, which is the kind discovered at Stage 3 quick chargers. When linked to the Cost Station Professional, elective with the Normal Vary battery however customary with the Prolonged Vary pack, the F-150 Lightning can feed 9.6 kilowatts of energy by way of the CCS plug’s bigger backside ports, by way of the Cost Station Professional, and again into a house’s energy panel. When energy is restored to the grid, the Cost Station Professional reverts to replenishing the Lightning’s battery.

Ford claims that primarily based on the nationwide common of a house utilizing 30.0 kWh per day, the Prolonged Vary battery can provide a house for as much as three days. Ford has but to launch the official capability of the batteries, however we predict Ford may have some baked-in fail-safes to forestall the Lightning from being absolutely depleted whereas powering your sizzling tub. At a later date, Ford will reveal Ford Clever Energy, which is able to use the Lightning’s saved power throughout high-cost and peak power hours. When there’s much less pressure on the grid throughout in a single day hours and prices are decrease, the Cost Station Professional will then recharge the Lightning.

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With the 80-amp Cost Station Professional comes a yet-to-be-determined price of putting in the trick charging unit. For one, Ford has not introduced how a lot the choice might be for vans outfitted with the smaller battery pack.

There’s additionally the complexity of really feeding the station sufficient energy. Most trendy houses are constructed round a 240-volt and 200-amp feed from the ability corporations. When factoring in 30-amp attracts from an air conditioner, drying machine, water heater, and anything pulling energy, there’s not sufficient juice left to feed the 100-amp circuit required to provide the Cost Station Professional. Older houses might solely have 100 amps equipped to the whole service panel. An answer for that is pricey: improve, or add an extra service line equipped by the ability firm, which may range wildly relying on location. Additionally, a switch swap might be required to backfill the house’s energy provide. Ford has introduced a partnership with photo voltaic provider Sunrun to assist with set up and residential integration, however particulars have but to be launched.