Man tries to power his parents' home with an EV battery to see how viable and realistic it is

A man decided to power his parents’ home with an EV battery to see just how viable and realistic the idea really is.

Instead of buying a conventional home battery, he repurposed a used Nissan Leaf battery and connected it to the solar setup he had already installed.

The 40 kWh battery cost him just $1,080 and still had around 85-88 per cent of its original capacity.

His main aim was to find out whether an old EV battery could actually become a practical home energy storage solution.

The EV battery was cheap and surprisingly practical

The YouTuber Battery Man had originally planned to put the Nissan Leaf battery into another car but decided that giving it a second life as home energy storage would be more interesting.

He built a custom metal frame to hold the battery and mounted it against the outside wall of his parents’ house.

One of the biggest advantages was its size and weight, with the Leaf battery being considerably easier to move than some of the Tesla packs he had previously worked with.

The 40 kWh capacity was also more than enough for his parents’ needs.

However, turning an EV battery into a home battery isn’t quite plug-and-play.

The Nissan Leaf pack uses a different control system from batteries such as Tesla and BYD packs, requiring its individual contactors to be controlled.

To handle this task, he installed a STARK box that brought together the necessary fusing, communications and contactor controls.

The system was also connected to the solar array and a 10 kW inverter that had already been installed at the property.

The creator believes batteries can be particularly useful because they allow homeowners to store electricity when it’s cheap and use it later when prices are higher.

The Nissan Leaf battery successfully powered the house

Getting the system running wasn’t completely straightforward because when he first switched it on, the battery reported a fault.

After investigating the software, he discovered that he needed to change the normally open and normally closed settings.

Once that was fixed, the contactors closed and the system was ready. The moment of truth came when he switched it on.

The inverter recognized the Nissan battery and began discharging it into the house at around 650 watts, and it worked.

The battery was eventually charged to 100%, and the creator then built a wooden enclosure around it to make the installation blend into his parents’ garden, he also left air gaps around the enclosure for ventilation.

The plan now is to use the battery intelligently alongside the solar panels and the grid. It can charge using cheap electricity, store excess solar energy, and potentially export electricity back to the grid when conditions are favorable.

There is still a question over how long the used battery will last, because the Battery Man decided to run it down to around 60 per cent state of health before eventually replacing it and sending the old pack to a recycler.

For now, though, the experiment appears to have answered the main question.

An old EV battery can power a home, but making it practical requires specialist equipment, careful installation and a good understanding of how the battery works.

Still, getting 40 kWh of storage from an $800 EV battery makes the idea pretty compelling.