Prius/Prime traction battery inverter?

I don't have any superpowers of merit evaluation ... I've written detailed reviews of a couple inverter models, just because I happened to buy them (bought one, it arrived DOA, so bought the other, it got pummeled in shipping, then fixed the first one, etc.). I probably won't personally be looking at any others in that level of detail, unless the two I've got start to breed or something.

But I'll read reviews with interest when others do.

 

I've never worked with a setup like that solar one. It looks like it's designed for its own 48 volt battery bank, which I hope you can just omit, and connect the car's system as its "solar" input, of course.

I also notice it says it can supply 60 Hz or 50 Hz as its output frequency, "auto-sensing". I trust that means you can interconnect it with your utility grid, and it "auto senses" what the grid frequency is. So it might be worth checking whether it will function on its own, without a grid connection to auto-sense.

At 34 kg, it's not any lighter than the ConVerdant one that nearly dismantled itself in the UPS truck on the way to me. That's a bunch of mass.

 

I'm not sure I grok the question.

 

After a quick Google, I'm thinking they use 'hybrid' to mean that it contains all of:

• one inverter to turn DC from solar panels (anywhere between 120 VDC and 450 VDC, for this one) into standard house AC
• another inverter to turn DC from a local battery bank (48 VDC for this one) into standard house AC, for when the sun don't shine
• a charge controller to sock away juice into said battery bank, either when the sun do shine or grid power is present

To use it as a PriUPS, of course, you would probably just omit the local battery bank, so the 48 VDC inverter and charge controller would never be used, and wire the Prius battery to the unit's solar input.

If a non-hybrid solar controller is just one that has the part you want and not the other two parts you don't need, that will probably be smaller, lighter, and cheaper.

How the "standard house AC" comes out of the box is another thing. One box might produce only, say, US familiar 60 Hz 120 VAC. This one, I see, produces 120/240 VAC split phase: a neutral, two legs each 120 VAC away from it, but 180° out of phase with each other, so you can also power 240 VAC stuff by connecting it from one leg to the other.

Whether the box produces that by actually synthesizing two 120 VAC waves in perfect sync but 180° apart, or if it just synthesizes one and feeds it into a big old-skool transformer with a center-tapped secondary (as the ConVerdant does) is kind of an internal detail. Though you might be able to guess by trying to lift the thing.

 

Does seem like a roof rack mount flat solar panel/cargo carrier that also tops off the traction battery AND runs HVAC would be a niffy FACTORY option, but sounds like would be major project and void warranty if after market.

I doubt a roof rack sized panel would do much to charge if driven daily but would still sell well.

 

The A/C compressor can use a couple kilowatts. I think that would still be a pretty big set of panels.

The Gen 3 Prius with the solar roof can make about 60 watts, enough to run the A/C blower a little and keep hot air from building up in the cabin. Granted, that's ten-years-ago solar panel tech.