From Transport Evolved.
As part of its planned upgrade work in our neighborhood, our local utility (Portland General Electric) is working to replace older wooden power poles with steel ones – and given our energy usage, its also upgrading our transformer can to 50 kVA. That normally means we’d be without power all day – but we’ve got a secret weapon: Nikki’s F150 Lightning. The question is: can the (historically rather temperamental) Home Integration System save the day?
Nikki has owned a Ford F150 Lightning now since the summer of 2022, and she opted to buy the Ford Home Integration System alongside her truck to provide backup power to her home (and her business, TE) when the power goes out.
To date, like many Home Integration System owners, Nikki’s backup system hasn’t been 100% reliable, but for the past six months or so, it’s been rock solid. But aside from a few very short power cuts, and a few Utility-encouraged Peak Power Events (where the house is run off the truck to earn some extra money by shifting electrical use away from the grid), Nikki’s yet to have an honest-to-goodness, multi-hour power outage.
Today, as the utility company makes some improvements to the local grid to improve infrastructure resilience in an increasingly fire-risk area, the power to the studio is going to be out between 8am and 3pm. So it’s the perfect time to test this truck’s system out for real. Here’s how it fared.
Are you someone who just hunkers down when the power goes out and survives without any backup? Or like Nikki, do you need to keep working even when the power is out? How do you cope? And what’s your solution look like?
Start the conversation in the down below, or come on over to our Discord (it’s free!).
(Seriously, if you haven’t tried our discord yet, please do. It’s easier than you might think, and you can chat with other TE fans in a non-judgmental, troll-free space).
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⏱️ Chapter Breakdown:
00:00 – Start ⏯️ (Music: Lalinea – Cup O Tea – https://artlist.io/royalty-free-music/album/cup-o-tea/6997)
01:11 – It’s early – Let’s talk about the plan ☕📝
01:52 – Why is the power going off? ⚡❓
02:55 – Preparing for the power cut 🧰🔋
06:45 – Switched Power to the Truck 🚚🔌
09:47 – Home Assistant Details 🏠🤖
15:42 – Update: 1:30 – There’s been a lot of progress 🕜📈
18:49 – Everything’s Back Up – And here’s how much energy we used! 🔄⚡📊
24:01 – Thanks, and Goodbye! 🙏👋
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🎙️ Credits:
Host & Script: Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield
Camera, Edit & Color: Vi Horton
Art & Animation: Erin Carlie
Producer: Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield
Music: via Artlist.io
© Transport Evolved LLC, 2025
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🔗 Links:
HomeAssistant: https://www.home-assistant.io
Power Flow Plus Card for HA: https://github.com/flixlix/power-flow-card-plus
Nikki’s open-source local-fcsp on GitHub: https://github.com/aminorjourney/local-fcsp
Ford Home Integration System Information Page (Ford) – https://www.ford.com/support/how-tos/electric-vehicles/home-charging/what-is-ford-home-backup-power/
