Prius as a power source?

[tochatihu]

If any Prius drivers are looking for a good deal on a sine wave inverter, it looks to me that eBay #300111599234 is low-hanging fruit. I cannot personally vouch for the seller, but the feedback is not bad.

I have also separately found that eBay is a good source for ANL fuses and fuseholders, if you're interested in 'belts and suspenders' system protection. In case I have not said so here before, the reason I am using an (apparently too small) 60 amp ANL in front of a 1000 watt inverter is that the only spec sheets I have seen for ANL fuses show that they melt very slowly. No matter what, I want that to be the first part that fails in the chain.

I also praise all the PriUPS people, because multi-kilowatts is the big leagues. However, if you have even about a kilowatt of 110 volts AC available from the clean quiet Prius, you will likely find it to be very useful.

[MrK]

Another PriUPS goes alive!!

Thirteen months ago I initiated this thread, simply to find out whether I could attach an inverter to my 2006 Prius. The answer was, "Yes", and I've been there; done that.

I was also introduced to the research of Richard Factor and the tapping of the HV battery. To make a long, long story short, I acquired two UPSs: an MGE 10 va/8K watt unit, and last week, a Tripp Lite SU6000 UPS and isolation transformer (6,000 va/4,200 watts). I'm still tinkering with the MGE, but the Tripp Lite was new, and it can Cold Start. Saturday, I plugged it in to the Prius, and IT WORKED!

I was able to simutaneously run 1,000 watts of light, a 1,400 watt space heater, a 1/3 hp grinder, and a radial arm saw. (What can I say: these were things that were close at hand in my basement.) I question the readout of the UPS; it said I was using 36% of its capacity. I figured I was using at least 70%. That's a question for the Tripp Lite engineers.

When I have the time, I hope to provide information to Mr. Factor to add to his website.

Anybody need an MGE?

[patsparks]

Did you have load on the power tools?
Very low draw without load.

[MrK]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(patsparks @ Aug 27 2007, 02:15 PM) [snapback]502860[/snapback]</div>

Did you have load on the power tools?
Very low draw without load.
[/b]

Nope, no load. I was just happy that they started, as the radial arm saw would not start off of my 1,500 watt inverter. Maybe it has something to do with the type of motor and the fact that the inverter has a modified sine wave, whereas the UPS produces a pure sine wave.

[markderail]

Please Mrk, details.
I so want to do this, to power my office during power failures.

It was one of the reasons I bought a Prius, a commercial generator costs a lot to own & operate to deliver the power a Prius can easily do.

A SKU # for the Tripp Lite would help. I'd like to buy a new unit.

[bwilson4web]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MrK @ Aug 28 2007, 07:24 AM) [snapback]503165[/snapback]</div>

Nope, no load. I was just happy that they started, as the radial arm saw would not start off of my 1,500 watt inverter. Maybe it has something to do with the type of motor and the fact that the inverter has a modified sine wave, whereas the UPS produces a pure sine wave.
[/b]

What is the power rating on the radial arm saw (aka., volts, amps)?

The modified sine wave worked with our cheap, 800W gas furnace motor but it only has to run a fan. I would expect the radial saw to be significantly more.

Also, I could only draw 1 kW from the Prius 12VDC supply, NHW11 model. This puts a lot of things right at the 'hairy edge.' If you go the 12VDC inverter approach, TEST before the power outage!!

Bob Wilson

[markderail]

[quote=bwilson4web @ Aug 28 2007, 05:23 PM) [snapback]503434[/snapback]</div>

What is the power rating on the radial arm saw (aka., volts, amps)?

The modified sine wave worked with our cheap, 800W gas furnace motor but it only has to run a fan. I would expect the radial saw to be significantly more.

Also, I could only draw 1 kW from the Prius 12VDC supply, NHW11 model. This puts a lot of things right at the 'hairy edge.' If you go the 12VDC inverter approach, TEST before the power outage!!

Bob Wilson
[/b]

Bob - you're still thinking in terms of a 12dc-to-110vac inverter. That's not the case here. MrK says his power saw won't even start with a 1500w inverter off a 12dc battery.

TrippLite UPS - think computer power backup system, usually rack-mount.

When plugged into the TrippLite UPS system, which can deliver a sustained 20 amps] 110vac, then you have a much higher rating than 1500 watts, and can power heavy equipment just like your wall socket.

MrK is not using the 12dc battery of the Prius, rather, the HV (high voltage dc) 245 (225?) battery that's under the rear seat. This is then hotwired into the commercial grade TrippLite UPS battery pack, Positive to Positive, Negative to Negative.

So basically the TrippLite UPS "thinks" it's still using it's internal battery pack - in reality - wired in parallel, is the Prius HV battery.
__________________________________________________ ____________________________

What I want to do is using 50' of cabling between the TrippLite and the Prius, leaving the TrippLite in my rackmount powering my servers and my network.

High voltage doesn't drop as much over distance as 12 volts will. So leaving the car to my rackmount 50' later, I might lose a few volts, but not the amperage.

I could then outlast any ice storm in my office, and justify the "extra" expense of getting a Prius company car instead of a cheaper car, by not having to buy a diesel generator system.

[crichman]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mark Derail @ Aug 28 2007, 05:12 PM) [snapback]503458[/snapback]</div>

What I want to do is using 50' of cabling between the TrippLite and the Prius, leaving the TrippLite in my rackmount powering my servers and my network.

High voltage doesn't drop as much over distance as 12 volts will. So leaving the car to my rackmount 50' later, I might lose a few volts, but not the amperage.

I could then outlast any ice storm in my office, and justify the "extra" expense of getting a Prius company car instead of a cheaper car, by not having to buy a diesel generator system.
[/b]

One example of doing that: http://priups.com/others/charlie/index.html

Of course, there is the issue of night-time ice storms. (Do you really want to be parked at the office 24x7?)

[hobbit]

MrK -- where'd you do your tap?
.
_H*

[MrK]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hobbit @ Aug 29 2007, 07:48 PM) [snapback]504083[/snapback]</div>

MrK -- where'd you do your tap?
.
_H*
[/b]

Hobbit, I tapped into the HV battery at the relay terminals. Please follow the link provided by crichman for a picture of the relays. I used 10 gauge wire and heavier lugs, as Charlie was building a 3000vA/2700 watt system. Mine is 6000vA/4200 watts. Richard Factor's PriUPS website goes into much detail and was my guiding light on this project.

Bob Wilson, my radial arm saw says it's 120 volts/12.3 amps. Again, I didn't apply a load, but it wouldn't start off my inverter. I concur with your research that shows the maximum wattage that can be drawn from the 12 volt system is about 1,000 watts. When I tried to start that saw off the 12 volt system, it just sat there and made noise.

Mark D, the reason I went with Tripp Lite was that I could find the necessary components at super bargain prices. (I've been watching ebay and other sites for months.) I agree that any computer server system should be protected by a UPS, so regardless of the system you get, you should have one. The costs I've seen for a complete, new system are much higher than the cost of a generator of the same capacity, but the generator doesn't provide the immediate backup, and the uniformity of the power from an economical generator isn't necessarily consistent. Still, if you already have a UPS backup, it would be much cheaper to connect a generator to the UPS, and the UPS would clean up the inconsistent power it provides.

That having been said, my Tripp Lite UPS was the SU6000RT3UPM, and the related transformer is SU6000XFMRRT3U. I didn't buy a battery pack, but to use it primarily as a server backup UPS on in any cacity where you'll want immediate backup power, I think you'll need it. I also acquired a backplate for the transformer with ten 120v outlets and three 240v outlets, so I can plug in rather than hard wire. You can daisy-chain your Prius into the battery pack for those extended power outages. By the way, Tripp Lite also has a 5,000vA/3500 watt unit as well as larger units. The larger units still operate on 240vdc, and they there are 4U units in 5000 and 6000 vA that operate on 192vdc. I'm told by a Tripp Lite engineer that the 235 vdc output of the Prius would not overload the 192 volt units.

I'll conclude by saying that my purpose was not to truly have uniterruptible power for my home, but rather to have the benefits of available power in sufficient quantiity that would enable me to selectively run nearly any appliance in the house, especially the furnaces (which ran on the 1,000 watt inverter, too), fridge, freezer, and my wife's television without the noise and maintenance of a free-standing generator. Although my testing isn't complete, initial results indicate I've met my goals.