Tornadoes knocked out my home power for days, but my Rivian became a backup energy savior

The title says it all. Heavy thunderstorms and tornadoes ripped through the Midwest Thursday evening, leaving thousands of homes without power or internet. Luckily, my home dodged severe damage, but I was without power and internet for days. Luckily, I had my Rivian R1S in the garage that I used as a backup energy source, which I documented below (because I honestly had nothing else to do without power and internet).

You may or may not (probably not) have noticed that I was MIA from the Electrek homepage last Friday. That’s because the night before, around 10 PM, my neighborhood was hit with one of the nastiest storms I’ve seen in quite some time. By about 10:30 PM, my home’s power and internet were knocked out, and I’d come to find I wouldn’t be back online on the grid or the web until Sunday.

Multiple tornadoes, mangling trees, boats, and power lines, touched down nearby. In that sense, I was pretty lucky as all I had were some dead fallen branches, a couple of backyard items tipped over, and a pool cover with another pool’s worth of water sitting atop it.

Still, I was without power or internet, and my home used a well pump, so there were no showers or toilets either. Fun!

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I’m a millennial who grew up before and after widespread ISPs and smartphones, so I can deal with the lack of internet and the fact that we decided not to purchase a backup generator (although hearing all the neighbors’ humming with lights aglow did strike a nerve of envy each night). My genuine concern, however, was the fridges and freezers.

We had two fridges full of food, and one freezer had just been stocked with an entire box of Farmer’s Dog for our pooch Lily. If you’ve ever ordered Farmer’s Dog, you know that it is EXPENSIVE. So, letting it all thaw out and spoil was not an option. We needed backup power fast, so I turned to my Rivian R1S.

It delivered to the fullest.

My Rivian gave me days of seamless backup power

I want to start by saying I’ve only had my Rivian for a few months, so I don’t have a holistic home energy management system in place. Therefore, I couldn’t use the R1S as backup power for my entire home, but that was fine, to be honest.

The Rivian provided all the necessary backup power I needed for vital appliances and electronics, with plenty of additional energy leftover when the lights inevitably came back on.

As you can see from the diagram above, the Rivian R1S offers a slew of power ports to fit various needs, whether it’s while driving, out in the wild, or providing backup power to your home. To power my garage fridge (with the dog food in the freezer), I simply ran an extension cord from the truck’s rear 120V plug through the garage and plugged in the fridge directly.

It was as simple as that. It was music to my ears when the fridge lit up inside and began to hum. Lily’s food was still frozen solid, and my beers were still cold to the touch. What a win. I also moved several essential food items and medications from the kitchen into the garage to prevent them from spoiling.

As you can see from the image above, I also set my Rivian on a timer for backup energy, allowing at least two days of full use to ensure the fridge stayed on. At the same time, I used the backup power stored in my Rivian to charge devices like my phone, watch, and smaller portable battery packs.

I could have plugged in a lot more, and will keep that in mind if and when there’s another blackout, but the Rivian provided more than enough backup energy for what I needed. When it was all said and done, I only drained about 25 miles of range from the battery after powering my fridge and other devices for days.

Not only was I impressed by how much stored energy I had at my disposal, but it was also incredible how easily I could access the BEV’s two 120V plugs and abundant USB-C ports.

Thank you, Rivian, for helping me keep Lily’s food frozen. You don’t want to see her without her Farmer’s Dog. It’s ugly.