Using EV's V2L to power On-Grid house which has Solar + Battery

Been running exactly this kind of hybrid setup at my place for the past season and it's genuinely interesting territory.

The core challenge is anti-islanding. Your grid-tied inverter almost certainly has protection that'll disconnect if it detects the grid has dropped — which is exactly what happens when you're trying to use V2L as a substitute feed. Most Victron kit handles this elegantly with an AC-coupled arrangement, but a straight grid-tied SolarEdge or similar will just shut down and leave you with nothing.

What I've found works better is treating the V2L output as a generator input rather than a grid substitute. If your battery inverter (I'm using a Multiplus-II) has a dedicated generator input, you can feed the V2L there and let the Victron manage the whole AC bus. The car essentially becomes a big, quiet, very expensive generator.

Worth noting:

• UK V2L-capable vehicles (Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6, newer Kia EV6) output 230V/3.6kW — enough to be genuinely useful
• You'll want to check your car's earth/neutral bonding arrangement before connecting to anything with an existing earth reference
• Some V2L implementations are fussy about load characteristics — pure sine output but doesn't always like certain inverter loads

My shepherd's hut runs off a standalone Fogstar/Victron setup so I've tested V2L into that without grid complications — works a treat.

Curious whether anyone has actually got this working cleanly with a grid-tied system without full islanding isolation? Feels like a transfer switch arrangement is probably the only clean solution, but interested in what others have tried.

Good point on anti-islanding @SprinterProject, though worth adding that the transfer switch approach is probably the safest route here practically speaking.

What I've seen work reasonably well:

• Isolate your grid-tied system completely before connecting V2L
• Use a proper changeover switch (not just a socket) rated for the load
• Treat the EV output as you would a generator input

The Nissan Leaf V2L adapters and Hyundai Ioniq 5 built-in outputs are both essentially 230V generator equivalents from the grid's perspective — your existing battery/solar setup can sit behind the same changeover.

Main gotcha I'd flag: watch your neutral-earth bonding. Some V2L outputs handle this differently and you can end up with RCBO nuisance tripping if it's not right.

Had similar headaches setting up a backup feed to my static caravan before I sorted the bonding properly.

Anti-islanding is the headline act, but the frequency/voltage matching is the understudy that'll actually kill your kit — your V2L output needs to be rock-solid 50Hz or your grid-tied inverter will trip on frequency deviation before you've even made a cuppa.

Worth noting: some Victron MultiPlus units have an AC input current limiter that plays beautifully with V2L sources, essentially treating the EV as a "weak grid" — proper generator support mode stuff. Set it conservatively and let the Victron do the heavy lifting rather than hammering your car's inverter.

Also, @RetiredPlumber's transfer switch point is crucial — never assume your DNO is happy with any of this. G98/G99 compliance doesn't magically extend to experimental V2H topologies, and your installer's PI insurance certainly won't.

Great thread. One thing worth flagging that nobody's mentioned yet — V2L output quality varies massively between vehicles. The Ioniq 5's V2L is reasonably clean sine wave, but some implementations are modified sine which will upset sensitive inverters and potentially confuse your battery BMS into thinking there's a grid anomaly. Worth scoping the output of your specific vehicle before you commit to any integration. Also, power factor can become awkward when you're mixing V2L with solar generation — your metering may not behave as expected. @SprinterProject what vehicle are you actually running? That'd help narrow down what quirks you're likely to encounter in practice.

Good points all round. One thing I'd add from my boat setup — battery SoC management gets messy when you've got three sources fighting over the same bank.

If your house battery is already near full from solar, the V2L won't have anywhere useful to push power anyway. You end up with the EV sitting there doing nothing, or worse, your BMS starts throwing fits.

Worth setting your house battery's absorption threshold lower on sunny days if you're planning to lean on V2L in the evening. Victron kit makes this reasonably straightforward with some ESS tweaking.

Also — which EV are you using? Some V2L implementations (looking at you, certain Kia/Hyundai models) have thermal cutoffs that kick in annoyingly early on warm days. Learned that the hard way before I got the setup dialled in. 🙃

@IA_Builds raises something I've burned fingers on — worth expanding slightly. Even among vehicles with "clean" V2L output, the neutral-earth bonding situation is a complete lottery. Some EVs float the neutral, some bond it, and your on-grid inverter's ground fault detection will have opinions about whichever one it gets. Victron kit in particular can throw fits depending on how you've got the earthing configured.

Had a similar headache integrating a portable generator into my garden office setup — same fundamental problem, different source. The fix was an isolation transformer between the V2L outlet and everything else, which also neatly sidesteps @OldSailor's frequency matching concerns in one go. Not cheap, not elegant, but it makes the whole thing predictable.

Worth budgeting for one before assuming your EV will just play nicely with existing infrastructure.