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Comment by OneEyedRobot | Hacker News Reader

What required the 400 amp service?

I do like the F150 as a backup power source, but there's probably a catch. I see that a Tesla Powerwall holds 13.5 kWh, and the truck is 115-155 kWh.

Average US house is 30 kWh / day? It sounds doable but not cheap.

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I'm not sure about the 400 A comment either, but there's at least two "catches" to the F-150: it's ~$90k for that configuration and it's unclear how the charge/discharge duty cycle will affect it.

To be clear, even at $90k that's cheaper than buying a pile of power walls or similar. So it seems like it's a power wall array plus a free truck :).

Except if the truck is out of town on a fishing trip but the rest of the family is at home, the powerwall is unavailable to the family where the power is out.

The 90k price tag is for the highest trim model. The entry level is ~40k. We know the entry level won't be able to serve as a battery backup; however, there ostensibly a bunch of trim levels between entry and "ultra" with their own respective price points, and my understanding is that the details are still unclear regarding the lowest tier that supports this feature. If you have details, I'd love to see them.

>We know the entry level won't be able to serve as a battery backup

Why is that? A missing feature?

Originally I read that the inverter is part of the truck and would not be included in the lowest "pro" trim model. After further research, it sounds like the bidirectional charging comes as part of the extended range battery upgrade, which you can apply to any trim model (starts at $10,000 and goes down in price at higher trim levels).

https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/trim-pricing-for-202...

Whoa, thanks! My data was based on the initial announcement.

Judging by this article [1], the bidirectional charging is maybe part of the $1000 "Pro Power" add on.

Either way, sounds like we can get a 100-ish kWh battery backup for $50k.

[1] https://autotrends.org/2021/03/01/what-is-bidirectional-char...

Generally electric vehicles handle wall -> charging.

Taking DC from batteries to connect to a 120V AC house is going to require an inverter which adds cost, weight, and space. Presumably the base model won't have it.

The charge station pro draws 80 amps. To use it safely, you need an outlet rated at 100 amps. My home is currently on a 200 amp service, and an electrician (also a close friend) told me I'd need a 400 amp service upgrade to provide adequate power to the whole house.

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