Yeah..... Saturday, I lost power for 5 hours, and Sunday it was closer to 7. Two different issues according to Rocky Mountain Power. Anyways, I turned the Prius into a generator of sorts. Had to keep the fridge, freezer, wifi and computers running.... I don't have a generator and don't fee like dropping 500 bucks on something that I'll use once every 3 years and will simply act as a reservoir for gelled up fuel.... So I attached an inverter to the Prius and in 12 hours of time, used less than a gallon of gas... The car only idles to power up the traction battery, and then the traction battery powers the 12 volts for 30 plus minutes at a time. Pretty brilliant (I didn't come up with the idea ). Anyways, Prius 1-0 Rocky Mountain Power Another cool way this car can work for you. Enlarge this imageReduce this imageClick to see fullsize Enlarge this imageReduce this imageClick to see fullsize
Good job!!! I do have a couple of questions about the invertor and refrigerator / freezer compressor loads. how does the invertor handle this? Can the invertor handle the on/off cycle of the refrigerator along with the wifi and computer? The setup you have looks simple to install and i might be in the market for the setup that you have. I want to be prepared for future power outages. Thanks, DBCassidy
You could connect under the hood to the jumper points as well. Would be less hassle. Did you make your Prius ready? I believe it would drain the 12v other-wise if not. What size is that inverter? 4000 watt! May have to get me one of these. H
Very simple and cheap setup gentleman. I went to Lowes and bought a 69 dollar stanley inverter rated to 800 watts (I'm still debating whether I should return it in favor of an 1100 watt setup from Amazon.com).... Connected to the 12v battery. Turn the car on to ready (not doing this would drain mr. wimpy 12v in a heartbeat), and then plug in each appliance one by one. The initial "shock" of starting the freezer would send the unit to 1200 watts, but after the plug in and cycle it settled at 290 watts. Once I let it settle, I plugged in the fridge, it then spiked again and settled at 400 or so watts of usage, then the computer and so on. I think plugging them all at once would overload the setup so fast, it wouldn't even be funny. Once everything had powered up and was in a constant state, my usage varied from 350 to 550 watts depending on when the compressors fired up. I thought about the under the hood option, but I thought the closer I get to the battery the better, considering how I was stretching the watt capacity of the inverter. A basic 1100 watt inverter would be less stress and that is why I'm considering sending the stanley back to Lowes. What a setup for less than 100 bones though!
Thanks for the info - last summer I did the same, just on a much smaller scale with a 200 watt inverter and it was enough to keep on a few lights and a fan. I'll need to keep an eye out for a larger inverter now.
