Rivian as backup for house power

[mkhuffman]

Based on......??? Do you have any idea how much simpler it is to turn AC into DC?

I'm not an EE, I have an EE-adjacent background, BTW. I can build a converter in five minutes from parts laying around in the house. I cannot build an inverter.

No, you are correct and I wasn't thinking it through.

I have also built a small AC to DC converter using diodes and a capacitor. Thats not how you build a DC to AC inverter. Stupid me.

Oh well. I didn't buy my R1 for that anyway.

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[Zoidz]

Good questions. I assumed it would become available via a future software release, but as you said, they have not done that yet so probably they are referring to DC, not AC export.

I don't think the hardware necessary to run the AC to DC converter backwards is that significant. It just needs to be part of the design from the beginning.

I think the 120V is on its own 12V to 120V inverter, and it is not a DC to AC conversion going on.

The Rivian 120 VAC inverter uses the ~400 VDC HV Battery as its power source. @Dark-Fx did a detailed teardown.

Regarding bidirectional, It does need to be part of the design from the beginning. I looked at a generic design of a bidirectional inverter a few years ago when the this topic came up. Keep in mind that charging is 240 AC -> ~400 DC, while V2H is the opposite. That reference design used two sets of IGBTs - one set for "inbound" charging power, the other set for "outbound" home power, with additional supporting circuitry to manage the bi-directional operation. In a sense, it is two separate inverters on a single board. It's nowhere near as simple as just reversing the power flow through the existing hardware. Here's a block diagram, note the opposing pairs of rectifiers and phase controllers.

 

[mudito]

Has Rivian ever talked about enabling their cars to share power back to your house in the event of a power outage? It sure would be great to have that feature in the event of a short term outage.

Just wrote/described my setup here, you might want to take a look at it

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/...ian-as-power-bank-for-storm.55112/post-950671

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