How to use your Rivian as a Power Bank (safe way)

[supervlover]

I've owned basically every Ecoflow power station above 1kWh including the 30kWh Ultras and pass through limiting has always been an issue if using it as UPS/EPS mode. Surprisingly, the only power station that can actually limit pass through is a Gendome Home 3000. You can set charge watt limits in the app and if your usage is above this limit, it will switch over to internal inverter instead of grid.
Now if you go route of inverter and batteries separately, Victron Multiplus can be set to limit grid current while any loads higher will use both grid and inverter (power assist).

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[Dark-Fx]

Now if you go route of inverter and batteries separately, Victron Multiplus can be set to limit grid current while any loads higher will use both grid and inverter (power assist).

Don't do what I did and enable the weak a/c setting and ignore the voltage dropping out. It shouldn't have blown the fuse in the battery IMO, but it did. I think there are probably better options out there for taking in current from the truck's inverter than doing it with the multiplus, but I haven't bothered investigating beyond that, i just set the current limit much lower.

 

[GreggVA]

Thanks all for the great posts and ideas. Just got my 9.2kw solar array up and running and finding my single Tesla PW3 doesn't quite make it through winter nights and starting to suck grid power for the house. Since I added the R1T to the Tesla MYP, I need some more panels as well. With two EVs with about 200kWh of storage sitting in the driveway, I am definitely interested in figuring out how to access those for the longer outages on cloudy days! Lot's of creativity in this group and appreciate all the sharing!!!

 

[fergie]

I've got the Eco-Worthy DC Charger that @Jeff B. has in an earlier reply. It worked during a recent outage but I only have one EcoFlow Ultra battery so I'm more reliant on the vehicle input and I had trouble keeping up. I also have a small solar array but had to unplug it to use the DC Charger. Using the charger highlighted here would let me use the high voltage solar input and keep the solar input active or I could double up with using the existing charger on my EV6 at the same time on the low voltage input.

 

[runwithscissors]

I also blew the fuse AND inverter on the Gen 1 R1S. Didn't know about this pass through mode garbage on the Delta Pro 3 and while trying it out the first, time drew over 1500w. Car shut off 120 once then came back on and then blew fuse.

On a second note, who at Rivian put a fuse where you have to drop the battery to change? W. T. F. Fire that person. Obviously, to be different, had a person who was so Not A Car person they never changed a fuse in their life. Fresh out of school, no real life experience, and it look good on CAD.

Probably the same team that engineered the wireless charging pad twice and it still sucks.

 

[mudito]

I'm curious! Did anyone else gave this a try already?
Last weekend I actually gave my cousin (who was here visiting) a quick run on how I setup things, took lets than a minute to plug everything out and worked perfectly first try. He was impressed

 

[PostMinivanDad]

Understanding this approach is a definite safe way to both fix the UPS mode limitation of most powerbanks as well as the double grounding issue for 2 pole transfer switches…

I still would like the more knowledgeable of us here to chime in ( @ajdelange ? ) : are there any risks to physically isolating the Rivian inverter’s ground when connecting it to a grounded system by cutting off the ground pin of an extension cord or using a 3 to 2 prong adapter? Like discussed here: https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/...n-as-a-‘backup’-power-source.4782/post-600420

Seems to be working well for @Mojave 's furnace with inverter power and house ground. Can this result in any abnormal current between the inverter and the house ground through the powered appliances? If not, why else would it be a No-No?

My use case is to connect the Rivian to my 2 pole transfer switch on house ground for short outages until I decide its worth it to get my little floating neutral generator out and connect it.

 

[mudito]

Understanding this approach is a definite safe way to both fix the UPS mode limitation of most powerbanks as well as the double grounding issue for 2 pole transfer switches…

I still would like the more knowledgeable of us here to chime in ( @ajdelange ? ) : are there any risks to physically isolating the Rivian inverter’s ground when connecting it to a grounded system by cutting off the ground pin of an extension cord or using a 3 to 2 prong adapter? Like discussed here: https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/testing-the-rivian-as-a-‘backup’-power-source.4782/post-600420

Seems to be working well for @Mojave 's furnace with inverter power and house ground. Can this result in any abnormal current between the inverter and the house ground through the powered appliances? If not, why else would it be a No-No?

My use case is to connect the Rivian to my 2 pole transfer switch on house ground for short outages until I decide its worth it to get my little floating neutral generator out and connect it.

The beauty of the DC power supply is that the Rivian is always isolated from the house AC Circuit. For what is worth, you could be using a hair dryer in the outlets that the Rivian would treat it the same as the DC power supply.

Both my 'big' inverter and the Ecoflow would never try to 'suck more' from the DC side. They absorb whatever the DC PSU provides and hence why I set it to a very comfy 1000-1200w max. It stays way below the 1500w limit from the inverter.

Now that I'm getting hotter days here in Texas, I'll start experimenting with longer runs just to see how reliable the inverter is providing a constant 1000w for a few hours. So far, I had it for about 1.5 hrs continuously w/o issues.

 

[Ratchickens]

There was another thread on this a while ago. My setup is documented in there.

 

[mudito]

There was another thread on this a while ago. My setup is documented in there.

Nice!
You ran closer to the 1500w limit, ballsy

 

[BrayBay]

Wanted to revisit this thread to see if anyone has used one of the newer EcoFlow DELTA 3 Ultra Plus power station. They advertise what they call "X-Fusion 3.0" technology but according to their FAQ and manual it apparently overrides the AC input and will deliver the full 3600W power. This is the first power station I've seen that can do this, and might be a nice off-the-shelf solution that mimics the setup in this thread.

 

[mkhuffman]

Wanted to revisit this thread to see if anyone has used one of the newer EcoFlow DELTA 3 Ultra Plus power station. They advertise what they call "X-Fusion 3.0" technology but according to their FAQ and manual it apparently overrides the AC input and will deliver the full 3600W power. This is the first power station I've seen that can do this, and might be a nice off-the-shelf solution that mimics the setup in this thread.

Thanks for sharing this. It looks like a very reasonably priced system for what it offers. It would be perfect for me to use for backup refrigerator power in the event of a grid failure, especially since battery capacity can be easily added.

One thing that concerns me is the charging power:

DELTA 3 Ultra Plus supports 6 charging methods:

1. Wall charging: 1800W input (0-80% in 91 mins, 0-100% in 120 mins)

I think if you try to pull 1800W from the R1 it will shut off. I suspect you can control the charging current and limit the power to less than 1500W, but I didn't see that functionality.

 

[mudito]

Thanks for sharing this. It looks like a very reasonably priced system for what it offers. It would be perfect for me to use for backup refrigerator power in the event of a grid failure, especially since battery capacity can be easily added.

One thing that concerns me is the charging power:

DELTA 3 Ultra Plus supports 6 charging methods:

1. Wall charging: 1800W input (0-80% in 91 mins, 0-100% in 120 mins)

I think if you try to pull 1800W from the R1 it will shut off. I suspect you can control the charging current and limit the power to less than 1500W, but I didn't see that functionality.

It will shutoff. The question is: Can you limit the Delta 3 Ultra Plus AC input to (lets say) 1200w while outputing ~3000w AC at the same time?

If so, that's a huge win in terms of efficiency, specially for those with a Generator Port without a battery system installed. I might look into this to see if I can get my hands on one of these units

 

[BrayBay]

It will shutoff. The question is: Can you limit the Delta 3 Ultra Plus AC input to (lets say) 1200w while outputing ~3000w AC at the same time?

If so, that's a huge win in terms of efficiency, specially for those with a Generator Port without a battery system installed. I might look into this to see if I can get my hands on one of these units

Looks like you can! Saw this review

It's not the exact same model, but within the same series. There's a physical toggle between "Fast" and "Adjust" for AC charging. The charge rate can be set up in the app any where in-between 200W and 1800W.

This might be the unit I get, outputting up to 3600W while AC charging and not tripping the onboard Rivian outlet would make a great "Rivian Power Bank" in an emergency.

Gonna keep an eye out on a sale. And I mean a real sale, not the discount they always show on the product page!

 

[mudito]

Looks like you can! Saw this review

It's not the exact same model, but within the same series. There's a physical toggle between "Fast" and "Adjust" for AC charging. The charge rate can be set up in the app any where in-between 200W and 1800W.

This might be the unit I get, outputting up to 3600W while AC charging and not tripping the onboard Rivian outlet would make a great "Rivian Power Bank" in an emergency.

Gonna keep an eye out on a sale. And I mean a real sale, not the discount they always show on the product page!

I have the same toggle in my unit, but as soon as I'm outputting AC, it will override the limit set in the app and go as high as 1800 if it cans

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