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Powering my house with the Ford F-150 Powerboost Generator! Preparing for Texas Ice Storm

3:55 video

A quick test showing my PowerBoost F-150 powering my house. (Hybrid trucks are awesome!)

The setup

  • The truck is running, but the generator is off. I turn off house power at the main panel on the side of the house (a 60 amp circuit), which kills power inside; the garage fridge light is off to prove it.
  • The truck connects over a 30 amp connection to the Generac 6852 manual transfer switch, where I’ve moved 10 circuits I want for the house. It lights up when generator power is coming in.
  • In the truck, I turn on Pro Power (generator mode). It’s using less than 200 watts at first. Then I flip the switch at the panel, and the house runs off the truck: the fridge light comes on.

What it runs

Two furnaces, a microwave, upstairs and downstairs lights, the master bathroom and bedroom, kitchen outlets, the kitchen fridge and a bathroom. The furnace fans were running (not the heat itself), and the load was only about 1,200 watts out of 7,200, which also shows in the FordPass app (about 1,200 to 1,400 watts).

I then turned on everything I could on those circuits (two fridges, two furnaces, a space heater, a microwave, bathroom lights and fans and the rest of the lights) and was still well under the generator’s 7,200-watt limit, which is pretty dang amazing.

Simulating utility power coming back

I turned the main back on while the generator was still running, so the utility service was live and the generator was still feeding those 10 circuits. At the panel, I switched back to utility power: we’re off the truck, the house is on regular power, and the truck’s generator clicks off.

Notes from the video description

Ran into an issue with a circuit that has the kitchen lights on it because of a shared neutral that we weren’t able to resolve at first (so those circuits weren’t working during the demo). It’s apparently a common mistake when connecting the Generac 6852 or 6854: connecting all the neutrals to the sub panel bus bar. I reworked it the following day, and it’s alive.

Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I may receive a small commission. See my ethics statement.

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