It’s was a rough week for Texas. A historic winter storm wreaked havoc since Valentine’s Day on the Lone Star State. I’ve lived in Texas for most of my life and I’ve never seen all 254 counties under a winter storm warning. The climate has changed folks — pay attention. But that’s another post. What the latest weather setback afforded me was a way to test an option we have on our 2019 Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-In Hybrid (PHEV). The video aptly tells the story but I wanted to capture a few thoughts in a post in case folks miss the video.
Vehicle to Grid (V2G) technology will increase in importance as the battery era continues to unfold. Is it too far-fetched to imagine an app-driven scenario that lights up your EV battery to power your backyard studio? I know I’m making a leap with our PHEV and its 110V outlet, but using EV batteries to power parts of the grid is already happening. VW’s chief strategist commented to Reuters a while back. “By 2025 we will have 350 gigawatt hours worth of energy storage at our disposal through our electric car fleet. Between 2025 and 2030 this will grow to 1 terawatt hours worth of storage. That’s more energy than is currently generated by all the hydroelectric power stations in the world. We can guarantee that energy will be used and stored and this will be a new area of business.”
Our power outlet pilot project (say that a few times) really made us think about other sustainable ways to create and store energy. Things like the Tesla Powerwall and tile-like solar panels steal the headlines, but there’s also more rudimentary ways to generate heat and energy. Post-snowpocalypse, we revisited some of the things we already own to assess how we can extract more value and utility. The low-hanging was our camper and sun oven. The Gulfstream Vintage Cruiser RBS19 has a built-in integration with Zamp Solar. All that’s required is the suitcase models from Zamp Solar and we can connect directly to the factory installed side wall solar port using the integrated SAE plug. We’ll have to do more research to figure out how much of the camper we can power with the panel, but juicing up the 12 Volt battery alone coupled with propane is already a win. That was the other revelation: propane. It’s cheap but not always plentiful especially during the pandemic. Looking ahead, we’ll have more propane reserves on hand. Often core RV functions like the furnace and fridge will only run on propane when there’s no shore power.
And what about the sun oven? The little oven that could wasn’t much of a factor in the heat (or lack thereof) of the storm but that doesn’t detract from its long-term value. One of the misperceptions of the sun oven is that it has to be hot outside to use it. Remember, it’s called a sun oven because it needs SUN. The reflective and magnification properties of the oven’s design allow it to generate high enough temperatures to cook all types of food. Over the years it’s been a revelation in terms of what it can do. We’ve cooked everything from soups and stews to almost any vegetable you can imagine. The lesson from the sun oven is simple. Always have a plan B when it comes to food preparation.
