200 VDC - 240 VAC INSTALL PLEASE HELP, I will pay you if you get me lead for an inverter

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Yeah there is a lot of crappy design in this market segment of this type of equipment that is a fact. Similar types of antics are going on in the standby home generator market also It's actually pretty big I had to get a friend of mine who's an electrician and a millwright and those a lot about this sort of thing to help me round up some inverter and generating devices that I wanted and I only wanted to do it once and boy there is a lot of crap equipment and advice in this market people will try to sell and tell you anything and I mean anything even educated folks fall for this stuff because they let their guard down for a minute

 

Paging @Randy B to the thread

 

Those were the right answers for the longest time, but for a couple years now we've had a PriusChat Knowledge Base article about it, which makes for a better one.

Electric power from a hybrid, connecting inverter to the high-voltage system | PriusChat

 

If you're living near me I can work with you and we can build a high quality safe one... But if you want all the warranty stuff and willing to pay way more for a quality product, your search starts and ends here: https://www.plugoutpower.com/

 

The fundamental problem here is that grid-tie inverters like that Aurora are configured to add more power to a much larger power system- the grid. If you try to make it add power to a tiny little inverter's output, bad things will happen. They are dependent on the impedance of the grid to equilibriate their output.

An offgrid, standalone or hybrid inverter (in offgrid mode) can self-regulate its output. It pushes current until the voltage target is hit, and then it backs off. Grid-tie inverters like the Aurora never back off. They push it all, because the designer assumed it would be pushing against the impedance of the entire power grid.

EDIT: adding:

Just to put this another way-
Let's say you successfully trick the grid-tie inverter with AC from a second inverter. Do you realize what happens next? The Aurora immediately draws all the power it can from your Prius battery to make all the AC power it can, because that's how it is built.

You probably don't want that. Offgrid inverters are wired to only draw what they need to support the load, adjusting instantly along the way. Grid-tie inverters are built to take all there is, because they always get hooked up to something that makes electricity for free.

End edit​

I think you've got a great idea overall for your off-grid power system, but that particular inverter simply isn't suitable. I suggest selling it off and using the recovered funds to get one of the solutions found in the link @ChapmanF provided above. Those are proven to work, people have run houses off them for extended periods.

 

Okay, the first problem is that once the Aurora decides "okay, that's real grid power" it starts pulling all the power it can from the DC side. Because that's connected to solar panels and there is no cost to that power, remember?

Except it's not connected to solar panels. You're supplying that energy via gasoline, and theoretically paying money for the gas. So the moment you get this thing on, it will start pulling a full 6000 watts because it is available, not because it has been demanded. Because again, it was designed with the assumptions that the grid could never possibly be "filled" by an inverter this small and all incoming DC power is free for the taking.

Now let's say they put a safety sensor in it to notice an output going over-voltage. How would it react? By going into fault mode and shutting down, telling you to call for service. At best it'll have an auto-reset that forces it to listen to the grid power for 5-10 minutes before allowing a restart, which would just endlessly loop.

But we have another problem. During that moment when it was pulling 6000 watts out of your Prius battery, it was stuffing that power... somewhere. Your small inverter is now a medium-sized cloud of smoke. Maybe other things too.

You should get the right kind of inverter for your needs. The one you have now could lead to some real danger.

 

Overall, a BAD plan.
Maybe even a VERY bad plan.

An actual home generator would be MUCH better........even if you have to buy a large propane tank to run it.

It is very likely that your total home energy needs will be MORE than the Prius can supply.
And in the end, you will have wasted a LOT of time and money finding that out.

Have you investigated "off grid" solar solutions ?

 

The car won't keep up with that, either.

I mean, 6000 watts is small change compared to the car's overall power-handling capacity when you're going down the road. But the engine needs to turn higher revs to reach the higher power levels. (And going down the road means more airflow for cooling.)

When the car is just sitting parked and the engine is only cycling to keep the battery charged, the car's firmware doesn't have any rule programmed in to rev up the engine for additional power, because the engineers never thought it'd need to. It just gives you as much as it can while growling along around 1200 RPM, which turns out to be more in the 3000 watt ballpark. 3600 maybe, according to a recent post from Randy.

 

Dang it was only a $50 consult on the other thread. These guys are offered $100.

For someone who limits any knowledge about himself your offer may be a hard sell. There is a way but one of several baseline assumptions has to go.

The fundamental problem is a grid tied inverter is looking for a perfect non-deviating grid waveform that will sink a small to large current. Without that the grid tied inverter shuts down in less than 100ms. Even a powerful 24kw Generac generator can't match the specs needed much less some 12v to 240v inverter full of waveform distortions and frequency shifts.

Much better to buy the $6,500 Generac for whole house or a $1,500 version with 8.5 kw and a mechanical interlock, both of which far surpass the Prius power backup capability. Leave the Prius for driving unless a 1200 watt 12v to 120v direct to the Prius is enough.