EVs Keep Power Flowing During Hurricane Beryl

By Kevin Douglass, EVA Member

Living in Houston means dealing with the occasional monster storm that knocks out the power. Hurricane Beryl was one of those times. Losing electricity is a major bummer, especially when it means saying goodbye to all the food in your fridge. That's why having a portable power station is a lifesaver. It kept our fridge running and our internet connected, making the power outage a lot more bearable.

We kept it charged using our Tesla Model Y cigarette outlet that is located in the back cargo area. The reason we used this outlet is that it stays on all the time. Modern refrigerators use around 4kWh of energy a day. The cigarette outlet can supply up to around 4.8kWh per day. This difference allowed the battery to stay charged. The reason one needs a battery in between the cigarette lighter outlet and the fridge is that the cigarette lighter outlet only supply’s around 190 watts but the refrigerator power consumption when on is around 300 watts.

The cigarette outlet can’t power the fridge directly but it can continuously charge a battery that has the power to power the fridge. The power supply we used can supply 1500 watts. More than enough to power the fridge. Because we had a little extra energy, we also powered the internet modem which only draws about 360 watts per day. Even though we did not have all our creature comforts, it was nice to have our refrigerator working so we could keep our food from spoiling and it was nice to have internet so we could keep up with email, news, and watch a few shows to pass the time.

EV’s have a great potential as power supplies for our homes. Several EV’s like Kia and Hyundai have the capability to power appliances through their power wand. More EV’s will have this capability and eventually we will have Vehicle to Load capability that will truly open up the opportunity to power our homes with our EV’s during power outages.