Vehicle-to-Home (V2H)
Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) is an emerging technology that allows you to use your electric vehicle (EV) as a high-capacity home battery. Instead of just drawing power from the grid to charge your car, you can “bidirectionally” draw power back from the car to run your home’s appliances.
A typical EV battery (60kWh to 80kWh) has enough capacity to power an average UK home for several days.
How V2H differs from V2G
- V2H (Vehicle-to-Home): Electricity flows from the car to your house. This helps you lower your own bills by using stored energy during peak times.
- V2G (Vehicle-to-Grid): Electricity flows from the car back to the national grid. This allows you to get paid for supporting the grid during periods of high demand.
Why use V2H?
1. Massive storage capacity
A standard home battery is usually 5kWh to 10kWh. An EV battery is 10 times larger, allowing you to store much more solar energy or cheap overnight electricity.
2. Emergency backup
In the event of a power cut, a V2H-enabled system can keep your lights, fridge, and internet running for a long period, providing greater resilience than a standard home battery.
3. Financial savings
By charging your car at night (on a cheap tariff) and using that power to run your home during the expensive evening peak, you can significantly reduce your total energy costs.
What you need for V2H
To use V2H, three things must be compatible:
- A compatible EV: The car must support bidirectional charging. Currently, cars with CHAdeMO connectors (like the Nissan Leaf) or newer CCS models with V2H enabled (like the Ford F-150 Lightning or Volvo EX90) support this.
- A bidirectional charger: Standard home chargers are “one-way.” You need a specific V2H charger that can handle the power flow back into your home.
- Home integration: Your consumer unit (fuse box) must be fitted with an automatic gateway or transfer switch to safely manage the power flow and prevent it from “leaking” back to the grid during an outage.
Current status in the UK
V2H is still in the “early adopter” phase in the UK. While the technology is proven, bidirectional chargers are currently more expensive than standard ones, and only a limited number of car manufacturers have fully enabled the feature for UK consumers.
However, with the rollout of the ISO 15118-20 standard, many more EVs and chargers are expected to support V2H in the coming years.
The “One Battery” Future: Many experts believe that V2H will eventually remove the need for separate home batteries, as your car effectively becomes the only energy storage device your home needs.
Impact on battery life
A common concern is whether V2H will wear out your car’s battery. Modern EV batteries are designed for thousands of cycles. Most studies show that the slow, steady discharge used for V2H is much less stressful for the battery than the high-power rapid charging or hard acceleration used during driving.