Ford F-150 Powers House for 11 Days During Winter Blackout
When you live in the snowy north, multi-day blackouts are a part of rural winters. But one Tennessee resident was in for a surprise this winter when the power went out for 10 days. Luckily for Robert Ott, he has an F-150 PowerBoost, so he can use his truck as a generator.
Here are the stats: the F-150 PowerBoost uses an EcoBoost internal combustion and electric motor to churn out a combined 570 lb-ft of torque. But hitting 60 mph in five seconds and change isn’t the truck’s only party trick.
When you option a PowerBoost with Pro Onboard Power, you get regular outlets in the bed that deliver 7.2 kW at 110 or 220 volts. Translation: on a job site, you can run heavy-duty power tools off the hybrid powertrain’s battery. But in an emergency, it can do much more. Here’s how Ott described it:
“I plugged in a bunch of extension cords and put my F-150 in Generator Mode. For eleven days, I ran two full-size refrigerator/freezers, tankless water heater, Wi-Fi and internet, TV, and a space heater.” — Robert Ott via Facebook
It turns out Ott wasn’t the first to use this capability in a pinch. He shared his experience in a PowerBoost owners’ group, and the comments poured in.
Nathan Edwards added, “I did 13 days straight here in Northern Michigan last April …had 2 sump pumps running under my house also and the truck handled it great. Used 7-8 gallons a day in gas because of the high load.”
Robert Freeman jumped in: “I did the same in north Louisiana for 6 days. I burned less than a 1/4 tank per 24 hours.”
The PowerBoost’s onboard power and the future of blackouts
Obviously, a stout generator could have handled any of these jobs. So emergency preparedness alone may not justify the PowerBoost price tag. The powertrain costs $10,385. What’s more, it’s only available on premium trim levels, configured as a crew cab, so expect to pay $60,000 minimum. That said, this may be an accurate preview of a future when most new vehicles are hybrids with onboard power.
What’s more, an increasing number of EVs are available with bidirectional charging, allowing them to power houses. And once we have enough EVs plugged into the grid, short power outages caused by surges may be a thing of the past.
You can see how the PowerBoost’s Pro Power works in the Ford video below:
