| | | | | Illustration by Emily Sabens/The Washington Post | | As winter storms knocked out power across the country, I looked into how electric vehicle owners are powering their homes with their cars. It's a new way to back up your home, and it might be the future of managing a clean electrical grid, as I wrote in this week's Climate Coach column. | | A few takeaways are: 1. Why you should consider powering your home with an EV in the first place. A typical EV has three days' worth of backup power in its battery pack — a handy reserve as power outages become more common in the United States. Some EVs are also cheaper than home batteries. 2. How an EV battery can power your home. Most new EVs can do it. You just need some extra equipment: a bidirectional charger and a home integration system, which is a hardware unit that allows you to disconnect your house from the grid and power it with the car. 3. Will it help the climate? The best way to curb emissions is to stop driving a car, even if it's an EV. But by tapping into EVs' enormous storage potential, you can help utilities ramp up renewables and stabilize the grid as extreme weather intensifies. | |  | | When the power went out at Nate Graham's New Mexico home last year, his family huddled around a fireplace in the cold and dark. Even the gas furnace was out, with no electricity for the fan. After failing to coax enough heat from the wood-burning fireplace, Graham's wife and two children decamped for the comfort of a relative's house until electricity returned two days later. The next time the power failed, Graham was prepared. He had a $150 inverter, a device that converts direct current from batteries into the alternating current needed to run appliances, hooked up to his new Chevy Bolt. | | The Bolt's battery powered his refrigerator, lights and other crucial devices with ease. As the rest of his neighborhood outside Albuquerque languished in darkness, Graham's family life continued virtually unchanged. "It was a complete game changer making power outages a nonissue," says Graham, 35, a manager at a software company. | | Today, Graham primarily powers his home appliances with rooftop solar panels and, when the power goes out, his Bolt. He has cut his monthly energy bill from about $220 to $8 per month. "I'm not a rich person, but it was relatively easy," says Graham. "You wind up in a magical position with no [natural] gas, no oil and no gasoline bill." | | Graham is a preview of what some automakers are now promising anyone with an EV: An enormous home battery on wheels that can reverse the flow of electricity to power the entire home through the main electric panel. The economics are compelling. Beyond offering an emissions-free backup generator, vehicles can act like energy traders, recharging when electricity prices are low, replacing grid power at home when prices are high, and then selling electricity for a profit during peak hours. Learn more in my column. | |  | | And did you know I read all your emails? Be part of the Climate Coach community. Write with clever ideas, bad jokes and ways I can make this newsletter better for you at climatecoach@washpost.com. | | See you on Thursday, Michael Coren, Climate Coach | | | | | | | | | |
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