[Dylan16807]

So you're worried about a weather emergency that takes out your power, followed a few days later by a second emergency that requires you to evacuate a long distance?

I don't think I'd do very much to prepare for that scenario.

[vel0city]

It can be the same emergency. It doesn't have to be a second one.

You might plan on riding out a storm, thinking utilities might be out a day or two max. Day 5, still no utilities, no known date for resumption of services, and supplies are running extremely low. How do you get out?

[ssl-3]

In the best case: Just deal with it proactively. Watch supplies, try to stay informed. You mitigate what you can to stretch things out (making French toast in a skillet outside on the BBQ grill in the aftermath of a winter storm may be the best way to use available energy and feed people a tasty meal, even if it does seem absurd). Plan to leave before things become unmanageable, and adjust that plan as things change, and be willing to resolutely execute that plan before things go from bad to worse.

If you forecast that your supplies will be very slim on day 5, and you haven't left for greener pastures by day 3 or 4, then the the worst case is already unfolding. GTFO before the worst-case ever happens.

But in that worst case: One can call on someone else for help. This is one of those situations where it's time to cash in some favors, and/or where it pays off to always be friendly and helpful with to the neighbors even if they really seem like a bunch of assholes. (The time to start being friendly with the neighbors is right now, by the way.)

(My own backup plan only keeps me rolling both semi-comfortably and independently for about 24 or 48 hours without power in the winter, so I'm leaving after the first night or ASAP. I don't have the complications and niceties offered by something like an F-150 Lightning, but finite resources remain finite no matter their form.)

[vel0city]

You're either not going to have much meaningful backup power or you're not going to have much usable range if your plan is based on consuming the energy on your car while holed up and also using that energy to potentially drive a couple hundred miles. That's my real point here.

[Dylan16807]

Do you have a destination in mind within a couple hundred miles? I hope you're not setting up to get stranded on the highway.

I think I'd be sorting weather events into two buckets: "I can get somewhere that wasn't hit hard with 50-100 miles of range" or "I need to travel a distance measured in states and refueling will be needed". So the difference between "full battery" and "half battery" is pretty tiny, and I can do plenty of house-powering.

When I think of evacuating a long distance, I think of something like a hurricane where you should be getting out of the way before it hits. If you're in the aftermath of a storm, you don't need to go more than 100 but less than 300 miles.

[vel0city]

Waco is a bit over 100 miles from me and would be a potential destination for me in an emergency. It'll probably be massively slammed though if all of DFW needs to evacuate for some reason. Austin is then over 200mi.

Oklahoma City is a bit over 200 miles if I needed to go to the city the next state over. Shreveport is just under 200mi.

If something is making me leave DFW then 50mi isn't going to get me anywhere. That's not even going across the metro area.

[Dylan16807]

What event do you have in mind that very badly affects your location but not those cities, and you don't realize driving there is a good idea until a day or two after the event?

[ssl-3]

It depends on what "meaningful backup power" is.

If I had an EV that I could use to run house-sized stuff with, and the power were off for an indefinite time due to a storm or something, then I'd like to think that I'd use that EV just as sparingly as I would my little Jackery device and portable solar panel (that I can coax at most about 80W from on a perfectly-sunny day).

I can use my rig to [sparingly] run some lights, a small fan, and to keep portable electronics going -- with hardwired Internet if that is something that is useful/extant for information or to pass the time with.

But I'm not going to use it to run the fridge, the home theater, the thirsty desktop PC, or using the laundry machines or the HVAC. I'm also not cooking with it.

I have a portable heater that will keep me warm, and enough fuel to do this for a day or two. I know how to keep the water running to keep pipes from breaking. I don't need the fridge: When the power goes off, I can unload the important stuff into my Orca cooler along with the last contents of the self-refilling ice bin in the freezer and it'll stay fine for days. If it's stupid-cold outside, the frozen stuff that I'd like to try to keep can go outside in a tote. I have a propane grill for quick outdoor cooking with plenty of fuel, and a butane burner for indoor cooking that also has a reasonable amount of fuel for making coffee or frying some eggs or whatever.

I've tested these methods off-grid. They work.

While I do enjoy the wonders of modern electrification rather immensely, and TBH I'd find myself struggling to get through a day without some small aspects of it, I don't need a ton of it to feel reasonably comfortable for a limited time.

In this very limited use (which is not dissimilar to car-camping inside of a house), a suitable EV can probably cope for a few days without substantially reducing its immediately-useful range. It'a a small drop in a large bucket of battery power.

It can probably also keep the fridge running, and run a furnace that burns dinosaurs: If the regular F150 Lightning has a 98kWh battery, and one draws an average of 500W from that battery (which is a rather hefty average if living lightly post-disaster), then one uses ~12% of its capacity (or about 28 miles of its 230 mile range) per 24-hour day.

Over two days (48 hours), that's only 56 miles spent of 230 possible miles.

What kind of disaster can you imagine where "losing" that 56 miles of range would be of any consequence -- where 56 miles means the difference between "Oh, we got this. Everything is fine." and "ZOMG if only we could drive a little further! But we can't! We're RUINED!!!"

I can't think of any that have happened around here in my own lifetime,

[vel0city]

I've actually been through multiple evacuations before, and practically every mile of energy in our vehicles counted. One time one of our cars literally ran out gas rolling into the first gas station with fuel after leaving with a full tank. When major storms are coming my cars stay topped off and don't get touched except for very purposeful reasons.

And given the fact it might be harder to find a working and available charger while leaving in an emergency I wouldn't want to rely on finding one along the way to wherever I'm going.

[ssl-3]

I'm confused.

If you're part of an organized evacuation, you're doing this before the storm -- correct?

And if that's the case, then: It doesn't matter how long an EV will or will not run the stuff inside of your home, because you won't be there.

[edmundsauto]

I think it's more about the long tail of situations that I'm not really able to imagine, or feasible emergencies but ones where my assumptions aren't valid. So not about a specific situation, more on principle that I want to keep my "get the heck out of dodge" energy store separate from my "hunker down" energy store.

I admit it's less efficient to have 2 energy stores, but given we're already discussing potentially life threatening situations, I'm not really looking to optimize for anything except having as many resources as feasible on hand.

[Dylan16807]

> I'm not really looking to optimize for anything except having as many resources as feasible on hand.

Money is limited, so sharing resources between situations lets you be prepared for more situations.

[edmundsauto]

Agreed, there are tradeoffs. But from a principled perspective I recognize the risk in having to choose between escape and home power. Adverse events often stack in unexpected ways at the worst time.

[bruckie]

I get your point, but let's assume that you had separate resources for escape and home power, and then you needed home power for an extended period. Wouldn't you like to have the option to be able to use your escape resources to power your home?

[edmundsauto]

I think so, but the tail risk impact is still worrisome. Guess it also depends where you live - I’m in a fair weather state, so powering my home is not a survival issue for the most part.

If I lived in eg Texas, I’d maybe have a BEV that could power my home and a separate vehicle for long range travel. Bit of a luxury.