Powerboost 7.2kW Powering House - My Home Setup and Hurricane Beryl Power Backup Experience

[Tigmd99]

I know that there are some threads about this. I am just posting this to show my experience and what I did.

Here are the parts needed:

Generac 6854: https://a.co/d/i7HMHUV

GearIT 30-amp generator extension cord: https://a.co/d/4PGNGsO

I did hire electrician to do the install.

EDIT: if you live on Houston or surrounding area and want installer, then PM me. I have no association with installer nor get any commission at all. This is just me passing along info.

Thanks to Beryl, I was able to use generator of PB and get actual usage stats:

At 11:30 am, when my car started generator, miles to empty was 466.

At 5:30 pm, miles to empty was 437.

In 6 hours of continuous use, 29 miles was used up with generator use.

Average use is 4.83 miles per hour.

On a full tank, I get around 600-635 miles of range.

Take the low number of 600 miles range.

600 / 4.83 = 124.22.

124.22 / 24 hrs in a day = 5.17 days.

So my truck can power my house for 5 days.

And the best part was that I can drive to gas station that has power and tank it back up! (EV would be an expensive paperweight!)

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[Tigmd99]

After this hurricane Beryl, I will be a Ford owner for life as long as the generator option is offered. It is a LIFE SAVER! Saves my family from a lot of headache and suffering!!

Only 3 homes in my subdivision have power during Beryl. Two of them have whole home Generac generator (which is surprisingly loud...i can hear it clearly 4 houses down!!). And then there is mine with my little truck that runs (intermittently) so quietly. We (family and mother in law) slept at night in the master bedroom at 76 degrees AC + fan + charging my Jackery units! My truck generator works as advertised!

We can't even go to a hotel since power outage is city and neighboring cities-wide! And because of job requirement, the option of getting out of town to escape hurricane is not on the table.

I highly recommend my truck without reservation. Proud of it.

 

[Tigmd99]

I did find the limit of the 7.2 generator.

I had the lights on in the house, fans running via active outlets, 2 Jackery units charging, 2 fridges (main big kitchen fridge + smaller fridge + freezer), and 1 central AC for master bedroom. The generator would shut down when everything was ON. Main culprit(s): the Jackery Explorer Pro 2000 drinks A LOT of juice when charging it (1560 watts continuous!)…….which my truck can do easily…..but then when the two fridges would turn on AND then the AC kicked on….overloaded my poor truck generator!

So, when charging the Jackery Pro 2000, i had to shut off the AC unit……and my truck did it with ease (along with powering everything else above). Once i finish charging the Jackery 2000, then i can run AC again. My smaller Jackery units (1000 & 1500) had no impact at all when charging them…so i could run AC and charge these smaller Jackery units. But boy, that big Jackery Pro 2000 is a juice hog!

 

[Tigmd99]

And due to my experience above, I just bought: https://www.microair.net/products/easystart-flex-home-ac-soft-starter

Hopefully, this will put less stress on the truck's generator and allow me to run AC easier along with everything else.

 

[madsend81]

Glad to hear you got it running in time. My sister lives in Galveston and they have been without power but have no backup.

How big is your AC for your house?

 

[Tigmd99]

Glad to hear you got it running in time. My sister lives in Galveston and they have been without power but have no backup.

How big is your AC for your house?

My house (fortunately) has 3 TRANE AC units. 1 big unit for upstairs, 1 big unit for most of downstairs, and 1 smaller one for masted bedroom & bathroom.

My master bedroom Trane AC unit is 13 amps. The other AC units are 32 and 34 amps I believe. Thus, the master bedroom Trane unit is the only one that is under 30 amp (requirement for Powerboost 7.2kW); thus i chose that unit to run off my truck. And I will also install the soft-start for the this AC unit to lighten the load of the initial startup.

 

[Gros Ventre]

What I don't get is why a whole house transfer panel is not offered. With the exception of a few large loads (eg A/C, H/W heater, oven & dryer) the 7.2 kW and others around that rating, can carry a whole house, single family to be sure. So what if you have to turn off those few large loads... it's just part of the setup. When I had to spend some 10 days on a generator a small 4 kW (really 3 kW because of altitude) did just fine.

 

[Snakebitten]

Love the stories!
My personal Powerboost bounced from one house to another for several days. Last night was the first night it got parked in the barn and shut down.
A full tank of fuel managed a combined 300 miles of running around, along with ~115 hours of "runtime".
A second Powerboost ran a crucial stack of routers/switches/servers at the office. Non-stop. The truck was re-fueled once with fuel cans so that it could deliver the 24/7 grid without interruption.

Just an amazing vehicle when circumstances are what they have been.

However, I do NOT agree that an EV is a paperweight if power is out. I have a Powerboost and a Mach-E. The Powerboost can be keeping the fridge/lights/fans running while the Mach-E makes grocery runs. And if the Mach-E needs a measure of electrons, the Powerboost is happy to let it tap it for a jolt.

They really are a great package deal overall.

 

[fordtruckman2003]

Miles are sucky way to calculate generator usage but that is all FordPass gives you at moment. You can probably get much longer real world run time than you calculated as the other PB owners I'm sure could detail.

 

[Snakebitten]

Miles are sucky way to calculate generator usage but that is all FordPass gives you at moment. You can probably get much longer real world run time than you calculated as the other PB owners I'm sure could detail.

Agree.
But I learned pretty quickly that 2 Powerboost trucks in generator mode simultaneously can have very different fuel consumption rates.

The Powerboost running the data center stack used more fuel and simply had a larger average load on it. The second Powerboost had more load for some periods, and less load for other times. But overall went far longer before needing to be refueled.

Having said all that, both trucks are tea-sipping in generator mode vs the Honda and Yamaha inverters that I have owned and still own. And by far the quietest mobile grids I personally have ever encountered.

I'm certain there is coming a day where every brand will offer a ProPower option with one or more of their vehicles. And when you think about it, it doesn't even have to be a truck. Ford accomplishes this amazing utility with nothing more than a 1.5KW HV battery.

A Prius could slam dunk the Powerboost as a generator with the tiniest of effort by the manufacturer.

I am stunned that 4 years later the Powerboost hasn't been sucker punched by anyone in the industry. Makes no sense to me.

 

[Tigmd99]

Agree.
But I learned pretty quickly that 2 Powerboost trucks in generator mode simultaneously can have very different fuel consumption rates.

The Powerboost running the data center stack used more fuel and simply had a larger average load on it. The second Powerboost had more load for some periods, and less load for other times. But overall went far longer before needing to be refueled.

Having said all that, both trucks are tea-sipping in generator mode vs the Honda and Yamaha inverters that I have owned and still own. And by far the quietest mobile grids I personally have ever encountered.

I'm certain there is coming a day where every brand will offer a ProPower option with one or more of their vehicles. And when you think about it, it doesn't even have to be a truck. Ford accomplishes this amazing utility with nothing more than a 1.5KW HV battery.

A Prius could slam dunk the Powerboost as a generator with the tiniest of effort by the manufacturer.

I am stunned that 4 years later the Powerboost hasn't been sucker punched by anyone in the industry. Makes no sense to me.

Toyota still used Nickel battery in their hybrids.

 

[Samson16]

And due to my experience above, I just bought: https://www.microair.net/products/easystart-flex-home-ac-soft-starter

Hopefully, this will put less stress on the truck's generator and allow me to run AC easier along with everything else.

I use one and it reduced inrush current significantly.

 

[Cobraman428]

Agree.
But I learned pretty quickly that 2 Powerboost trucks in generator mode simultaneously can have very different fuel consumption rates.

The Powerboost running the data center stack used more fuel and simply had a larger average load on it. The second Powerboost had more load for some periods, and less load for other times. But overall went far longer before needing to be refueled.

Having said all that, both trucks are tea-sipping in generator mode vs the Honda and Yamaha inverters that I have owned and still own. And by far the quietest mobile grids I personally have ever encountered.

I'm certain there is coming a day where every brand will offer a ProPower option with one or more of their vehicles. And when you think about it, it doesn't even have to be a truck. Ford accomplishes this amazing utility with nothing more than a 1.5KW HV battery.

A Prius could slam dunk the Powerboost as a generator with the tiniest of effort by the manufacturer.

I am stunned that 4 years later the Powerboost hasn't been sucker punched by anyone in the industry. Makes no sense to me.

Snakebitten, sounds like you are doing well with your PB fleet... Was curious how you made out since I see you are coastal TX.

 

[Samson16]

Agree.
But I learned pretty quickly that 2 Powerboost trucks in generator mode simultaneously can have very different fuel consumption rates.

The Powerboost running the data center stack used more fuel and simply had a larger average load on it. The second Powerboost had more load for some periods, and less load for other times. But overall went far longer before needing to be refueled.

Having said all that, both trucks are tea-sipping in generator mode vs the Honda and Yamaha inverters that I have owned and still own. And by far the quietest mobile grids I personally have ever encountered.

I'm certain there is coming a day where every brand will offer a ProPower option with one or more of their vehicles. And when you think about it, it doesn't even have to be a truck. Ford accomplishes this amazing utility with nothing more than a 1.5KW HV battery.

A Prius could slam dunk the Powerboost as a generator with the tiniest of effort by the manufacturer.

I am stunned that 4 years later the Powerboost hasn't been sucker punched by anyone in the industry. Makes no sense to me.

Pretty sweet how clean the PB AC supply is for those servers eh?
Great pic of you on the website btw ?

 

[Snakebitten]

Toyota still used Nickel battery in their hybrids.

I don't think the HVB chemistry would negate it from being the power source for the inverter/generator.

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