Can an EV Really Power Your Home?

You don't need to be an electric vehicle (EV) expert to know that charging your EV at home offers a plethora of benefits. It lets you charge very affordably on your own schedule, typically at a slower rate than at public stations, so your car is always ready for your next trip. Adding a home charger can also make your property more attractive to future buyers.

Another relatively unknown benefit is vehicle-to-home (V2H) charging. Using two-way or bidirectional charging, where electricity flows both from the grid to the EV (for charging) and from the EV to the home (for powering), a car's battery can send power back to your house during a power outage or to optimize your home’s energy use.

Read on to discover how this innovative technology works, its latest developments, and when we can expect it to become available to Canadians.

What Is Vehicle-to-X Charging?

The idea of using an EV to power a home is part of a broader bidirectional charging concept known as Vehicle-to-X (V2X), where the X can stand for load, home, grid, or vehicle. It evolved from academic research and early engineering projects in the late 1990s, primarily to demonstrate the potential of two-way charging; not just drawing electricity from the grid, but sending it back.

Many of today's EVs, like the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV9, Ford F-150 Lightning, and Rivian R1T, as examples, already offer vehicle-to-load (V2L). This is where you can plug small appliances such as microwaves, power tools, or laptop chargers into an EV, allowing it to act like a mobile generator. It's a useful feature for off-the-grid camping, outdoor activities, worksites, and emergencies such as short-term power blackouts, and it requires no additional equipment to purchase or install; there’s usually a household outlet located in the trunk or bed.

Another form of two-way charging is vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), in which one EV can charge another EV's discharged battery. Unfortunately, this feature is not universal across all EVs. It requires specific hardware and typically only offers Level 2 Alternating Current (AC) charging. Two examples of a current EV with V2V capability are the Lucid Air and Tesla Cybertruck.

How Can an EV Power a Home?

If you think of an EV as a giant battery but on wheels, the practicality of using it to power your home becomes appealing. Especially given that power outages are becoming more frequent in Canada due to increasing extreme weather events, aging infrastructure, and higher electricity demand.

An EV is charged with electricity, either from your local grid or from a renewable source such as solar panels. An EV with a bidirectional inverter converts the stored Direct Current (DC) power into usable AC power. Like a common portable gas generator, an EV's AC power can be directed to the home's electrical panel to run appliances, lights, and other devices. Some systems conveniently integrate with an automatic transfer switch for a seamless transition during an outage.

The potential to use your EV to power your home during a power outage is not just a theory. In practical terms, a typical EV battery holds 40 to 100 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy. To put that in perspective: a small EV (like a 40-kWh Nissan Leaf) could power essential appliances for a day; a larger EV (80+ kWh vehicles, like a BMW iX3 or Tesla Model 3) could keep an average Canadian home running for two days or more; and if you only power essentials (like lights, the fridge, and phone chargers), you can stretch the energy even further.

Even if there’s no power outage, using an EV to power your home can help lower electricity costs. If you charge your EV overnight during off-peak hours at a cheaper rate, you could then use it to power your home during more expensive peak hours, lowering your monthly electricity bill and your dependency on the grid. Vehicles with V2H capability can also be programmed to only power a home until a certain state of charge remains on the car, so there will always be enough to drive away if needed. The speed of energy transfer is also regulated to preserve battery life and longevity.

If you already own an EV, the benefits of a V2H system are tangible. But so are the extra costs.

While an electric car with V2H capability can deliver more power than one with only V2L, it still requires additional equipment to power an entire house via the car's charging port. You'll need a bidirectional home charger (to transfer power from your vehicle to your home), an energy management system (to distribute electricity safely), and a qualified electrician to install and properly set up the system to work with your home's power supply.

Installing a vehicle-to-home (V2H) system is expensive, with total costs ranging from around $7,000 to over $25,000, depending on the EV, the system's manufacturer and your home's existing electrical setup.

​​What EVs Offer V2H Charging?

Currently, only a handful of EVs on the market offer V2H bidirectional charging capability. A few examples of EVs that are available in Canada capable of bidirectional EV charging beyond simple V2L applications at the time of writing this article include:

●      Cadillac Escalade iQ, Lyriq, Optiq

●      Ford F150 Lighting

●      Genesis GV60

●      Hyundai Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6, Ioniq 9

●      Kia EV6, EV9

●      Nissan Leaf

●      Volkswagen ID.4

Can My EV Power My Home in Canada Today?

Having a backup power supply for your home in case of a power grid emergency is reason enough to make V2H charging a standard in the EV industry. Beyond the benefits EV owners could derive from V2H charging, the general public can benefit as well. Charging EVs when electricity demand is low and then selling the power back to the grid at peak times could enhance the electrical grid's resiliency. The trick is getting the infrastructure in place.

In some countries, like the United Kingdom, homeowners can already participate in vehicle-to-grid programs. Unfortunately, at the time of publishing this article, Canadians were not able to purchase a Canadian Standards Association-approved bidirectional EV charger, have it installed, inspected, and operational in their home for the purposes of backing up their home (V2H) or the grid (V2G). There are pilot projects proceeding. But widespread adoption of the technology cannot happen before achieving full CSA electrical certification for bidirectional chargers.

While these infrastructure limitations pose significant challenges to Canadians getting access to V2H charging, a promising area of research is the development of solid-state batteries, which offer higher energy density, improved safety, and longer lifespans than conventional lithium-ion batteries. These advancements could make bidirectional charging more viable by reducing the impact of frequent cycling on battery health. V2H bidirectional charging might not be viable in Canada right now, but could become more feasible with the next generation of electric vehicles.