Power Your Home With a Prius

ConVerdant does sell-install the Plug-In Supply kit for "Plug-In" conversions [creates a PHEV]. But the "Plug-Out" kit [creates an emergency power generator] is ConVerdant's product. The Plug-Out Island is just being introduced to the market. I'll try to answer comments as best I can.

 

"Mobile" refers to the car being mobile.
"Efficient operation" and other adjectives refer to the Prius g2-3 and CT200h models.

 

V8Cobra, Part of the efficiency of the Plug-Out kit is that the Prius stays "on" while in Park, so that the engine runs start-stop. While using less than 1kw of power, the engine runs about a 1/4 to 1/5 of the time, greatly improving efficiency and operation time on a tank-full. Even working close to 3kw, the engine still has lots of off-time.
Case in point, my Prius and the 2kw kit was recently used to charge a Tesla. The Tesla has a minimum tolerance of 16 amps at 120v [1.9kw] and had just rejected power from the adjacent building as too noisy. When connected to the Plug-Out kit, charging proceeded without a hitch for the next hour [Tesla had to leave]. The Prius engine was on less than half the time and the kit never even got warm. The Tesla owner was quite skeptical that the charging would work. In fact, the Tesla is notoriously picky about input power quality. It had also previously rejected power from other assorted generators and solar-inverters. All were pleasantly surprised that it did work so well.

 

Anyone have any suggestions about what the best method for connecting the inverter to the 12V battery is? I have #4 wire.

Thank You Kindly.

 

MrBillTulsa, Your conversation with Gary others was informative. Yes, the 2-3 kw kits do use the HV traction battery, and the details are what make this offering special/unique. But, the result is a very quiet, reliable and high quality generator for emergency home use.
My 2kw kit has been through two power outages powering my home and numerous tests powering other things. It works.

If you have a prius and need a generator, this product should be considered.

 

#4 Wire works well.

 

1kW at what voltage? It's best to talk kva because
at 240v, 8amps, you get just a tad less than 2kW
at 120v, 8amps, you get just a tad less than 1kW ... and that runs VERY little of a typical home. Start a well pump? Start a fridge? Even if just a few lights are on, forget it.

You're saying the grid power supplied to a neighboring building is more noisy than a little portable inverter? How can that be? Are you speaking of wave form? ... or something else.

 

The 2-3 kw kits sound interesting, but I'd still like to know more, especially how well packaged is everything, and if it's installed in the car is it in the way, or out of the way (I see it can also be mounted to the garage wall)? Even though I've gone down the 12V route, if this is good enough I might consider upgrading. Is it a nice self-contained package, connecting safely to the HV battery and shielding all the wiring to reduce the possibility of shocks or short circuits? I hope it avoids assembling a mess of wiring, heat sinks, fans, etc. like pictured here (this is for only 1KW with 2 DC-DC converters in parallel; 2-3 KW may require more of these Vicor DC-DC converters): More 12VDC From the Prius

 

Hill, I did not find out the reason the Tesla rejected the building power, but relied on the owner's version which was that the building supply was too dirty [noisy]. The building was a garage and office building together. There were lots of florescent light and the ballasts may have created a very reactive circuit, or there may have been othe rbuilding services that caused excessive surges.. don't know.
Also note that the Plug-Out Island only provides 120v-60hz.

 

Gary, Thanks for the note. The kit installation is quite simple. You get a box, 2 cables and a wattmeter [or 2 w- 3kw]. One cable gets installed onto the Prius battery [by experienced hybrid mechanic], and ends with an anderson connector. Another cable starts with an anderson connector and goes to the box. The box is self contained, fan and all. I'll show a pic soon on the website. Output is available from a NEMA style socket, and a power strip [3 studs]. A longer input cable is available for off-car setups. The wattmeter has male+female plugs and display.
Setup is easy. Just anderson-connect the box to the car, run extension cable to were needed [with wattmeter for power tracking], and connect the power appliances to the extension cable. Of course, house connection requires an electrician to configure. I have jury-rigged my house for testing, but absolutely don't recommend others DIY the house wiring. I've run my [3br] house heating, fridge, lights, tv, computers, network, etc off the 2kw unit.

 

Thanks, I'll look forward to your pictures, to answer the couple remaining questions I have... including where is the car's Anderson connector - under the cargo floor, as a dangling connector at the end of a wire, or is the connector itself permanently mounted somewhere (or is this up to the mechanic)? I started to ask how big it is (now editing that question out), but I see ConVerdant's website does list dimensions and weights. I've not measured yet, but I presume this fits in the storage compartment under the cargo floor, in case I want to always carry it.

 

Anderson connector normally lies on sub-floor, but mechanic can mount if desired. The case does not mount to car. Lift it to the trunk or leave in garage as desired.
Interested parties, contact us via ConVerdant's website; Hybrid Electric Vehicles - ConVerdant Vehicles

 

Thanks. I meant what goes between the #4 and the battery.

 

I see ConVerdant has added a couple of pictures since the last time I looked. From these, it's hard to see how the stated dimensions 3.5x16x17 of the 2KW unit match the picture, but otherwise, it looks OK.

 

Reading their Nebraska web page - it says the Volt and Leaf are not available there until 2012. It might be time for them to update their site.


On a serious note, I wonder how the manufacturer deals with grounding. Obviously, an inverter in the back of a Prius, ain't. Same issue arises with a portable generator/inverter (especially if it's sitting in a trailor) Some electric appliances (like the portable J1772 charge cords for the Leaf/Volt/iMiev/PiP) won't run with grounding issues. If there were 4 wires, I suppose one could spoof appliances by running a resistor between neutral & ground (so I've heard). Just thinking out loud here.

 

The pictures I see don't show the wiring connection side, so we don't know how they deal with grounding on that 2KW unit (though they do say there's ground fault detection). The 1KW unit doesn't look grounded to me, unless that negative battery cable is also chassis ground. If you require a 3 wire (with ground) connection to an appliance that is already grounded, the grounding might be complete by that path.

A previous post http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-h...1607-power-your-home-prius-3.html#post1443954 said this unit has been used to charge a Tesla (which may or may not have the same ground safety systems as the plug-ins you list).

For my own inverter, which I've only tested for a few seconds with a portable light and no grounding, I do plan on adding chassis grounds before I use it for real. I recently bought some more wiring supplies for this, but haven't assembled everything yet.

I also wonder if they're using any other circuit protection, like fuses or circuit breakers on the battery side, or if there's any protection from surge loads or arcing the HV relay at startup/shutdown - I presume this relay switches power to the unit as was done with PriUPS). Or if there's low voltage protection to protect over-discharging the HV battery (they do say low voltage protection, but it's not clear if this means DC, or the AC output). Hopefully the hybrid system has this covered, as long as the unit (probably not a concern with the 2KW unit) doesn't exceed the car's generation capability, but maybe still a concern if you let the car run out of gas (which of course should be avoided). I'd guess their 1KW system probably does have low voltage battery protection, since it's probably a standard 12V inverter, for which low voltage battery protection is pretty common.

 

I bought a new Champion 4000 watt generator for $299. You can get a 1000 watt generator for about $100. So why?

 

Convenience. If you want it for uses away from home, not only do you have to haul the generator, but also its fuel.

Emissions. The Prius is much cleaner than, possibly unregulated, generator.

For those prices, the generators may not generate as 'clean' a current as the plug outs.

 

Reliability too. Leave one of these small engine generator sitting for months between uses, and you may find it won't start due to gum formation in the carburetor, etc. You might be able to reduce the chances of this with fuel stabilizer or draining the carb, but other things can go bad too... I just helped someone fix one recently that failed to run during a recent power outage because the carburetor float had gone bad while in storage. It didn't get fixed until the power was already restored.

Another issue is noise.. those small, cheap generators are noisy, and you may not want to keep them running all the time, especially at night.

You can get cheaper inverters... small, low wattage modified sinewave (less clean power) inverters are less than $100. For example, 400 Watts $19.99 (on sale), 2000 Watts (4000 peak) $159.99 (on sale).

You can also get better generators. A permanently connected, auto-start, auto transfer generator can set you back thousands. And better quality portable generators cost much more too. This Honda will set you back $1149.95 (list) for 2000 Watts. This has an inverter for cleaner power. Cheap generators depend on an engine governor to keep the voltage and frequency of the power correct, and these can drift out of spec. I'd have a hard time finding one for $100; the cheapest I can find is this one from Harbor Freight, $129.99 on sale, an 800 Watt unit with a 2-cycle engine (think chainsaw or string trimmer engine). Some of these cheap small engines have very short rated lifetimes. Cheap, but probably not the longest lasting or most reliable.

 

Not just convenience, a regular generator is a hellacious noise maker. a Prius ... hyhi ... Escape ... RX hybrid is nice and QUIET when it runs. Same with several of the new generator/inverters. Our Honda runs at 60db of noise ... that's pretty much conversation level. So you can talk next to the device, in stead of yell. Additionally, AC power off a generator is not recommended for use on sensitive electronic equipment. Those are just some of the things one ought to consider. You particulars may vary.

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