My Prius is bug out ready and set up to be a power generator today.

I have a natural gas generator installed at my house. It uses an Automatic Transfer Switch to make sure I never try to power the house from Grid Electricity and the generator at the same time. Power goes out. the ATS waits 5 second to be sure power is out, then switches, and starts the generator, which gets up to speed in 5 seconds, and I have power again.

Generac Power Systems - Automatic and Manual Generator Transfer Switches

These come in various sizes. Mine is a whole house unit, as I am unwilling to give up A/C in MS. Like this, but no Wifi as it is old

Generac Power Systems - 20kW Guardian Series Home Generator with Transfer Switch - 7039

This is important so my generator, and your prius, don't electrocute Linemen working to restore power.

 

Guessing that reply was meant for someone else?

 

KaptainKid1

Is that YOUR video, or are you just handing off responsibility to someone else?

 

Please, do not make or use a male to male suicide lead, it is always the innocent that electrocuted, like mum or the kids. Why can't you just plug the power board into the inverter? As you are only using a 1000w inverter, you can't power the house, but you can power the essentials like the fridge/freezer, a few lights and recharge a phone or computer so you remain in communication with the local area.
Here in Australia we have just been through a major fire season followed by a few flooded areas, now we are getting locked down because of an imported virus, so being prepared if a smart thing to do, but do it safely, a male to male plug is not a safe option in any circumstances, it a dead waiting to happen.

T1 Terry

 

But yet you refuse to answer my question. Have you done this yourself? Are you going to show us your home installation from your house to your Prius?

 

Consider the risk reduction of a robust engineered solution, such the power transfer switches mentioned.

Consider the risk reduction of keeping the gun under lock and key, until things finally become so dangerous that they represent something real to be protected against. Actual physical threats.

If your goal is to increase family member's chances of survival, the above will help.

Mad-Max survivalism should not get you or a loved one killed. It's not helping if the risks created are greater than the probability times the severity of the perceived risk.

Though your estimate of the probability of risk and severity is much higher than most others posting here, you still do best for yourself making your mitigations safe, and effective.

 

Let's start by saying: I like your thinking, so view this as constructive criticism.

Does it have enough power to run your fridge? Compressors (which 99% of household fridges have) can have huge start-up currents up to 10 times their normal operating current.

ALWAYS, lets repeat, ALWAYS fuse any wiring you use. A fuse near the battery is NOT to protect the equipment, but to protect the car. If a wire in a car rubs on the chassis, the fuse between that spot and the battery should blow long before the cable becomes hot enough to light the car on fire. That is the function of the fuse. And logic dictates that this fuse should be as close to the battery as possible, so there is virtually no unfused wire anywhere in the car.

My (other) car has an unfused OEM wire between the startermotor+alternator in the front and the battery in the rear. This is NOT fused and poses a real risk even though it is considered to be one of the safer cars in the world... (2004 Volvo). Most newer cars with this setup DO have a fuse, even if it is a 500A fuse (it needs to withstand the starting-current).

I think enough people have said useful things about this. Even if you think you know what you're doing, others may somehow get in contact with your setup and not know that it is a live male plug...
My dad had a tube amp and huge (4x4x4' folded horn) speakers, bought from a collegue in the 70's.
My brother had a party. One of his classmates helped setting things up and saw a 220V~ plug lying around and plugged it in the wall socket. Dad's collegue had build it all himself and used 220V~ plugs for connecting the speakers to the tube amp... The 1970's 12" speaker probably made some noise for a split second before going to speaker heaven.


(Knowing this is a largely US forum: we had 220V~ 50Hz in the 70's and 80's. They raised this slowly to 230V~ (and lowered the 240V~ of the UK to 230V~ iirc) after this. We have never had 110, 115 or 120V~ during my lifetime).

 

KEEP THE PARANOID BS COMING= &Yes=You've been watching too much of the walking dead!!

Your Prius will get a flat tire and you'll run out of gas in a few days in the middle of nowhere.
= Then what are you going to do BIG BOY.

 

Just a note regarding the overload capacity of an inverter. There are two types of inverters in the PSW field, the light weight high speed switching type, and the much heavier transformer type. The high speed switching type can handle a 20% overload for a split second in the cheapie units up to a few minutes in units like the Projecta IP2000, but they aren't cheap. The much heavier transformer type can eat a lot of battery power just sitting idle, but they do have a big overload capacity, over 100% in some models and can maintain that overload for up to 10 mins in some units. The W7 3000/9000 is a good example, not real expensive, can waste up to 2 amps just on standby, but strong as an ox and will start up big loads.

T1 Terry

 

I don't begrudge anyone in California preparing for Armageddon the shit those people have been through. Not sure why anyone would live there the news is horrific. Kaptain is just getting ready for a bug out. Would any catastrophe surprise anyone at this point?

You have to get yourself ready and count on yourself there will be no white knight riding in with a bag of food and fuel. Those days are over. Be ready for anything.

Our Govt has done nothing. South Korea has it more together than ours. Not hard to see why. They reacted.

WH has there head up there tookus and there incompetence is criminal. The people in charge now are spending there time trying to figure out a way to make money off this suffering instead of helping US citizens. New News report out today that Trump was briefed at the beginning of the virus months ago and did nothing. We could have gotten an handle on this. He Refused to listen to Intel.
Now we daily get to listen to Trumps ignorant and ridiculous pie in the sky rants then Dr Fauci has to get up there and fix it. Doesn't make you have any hope whatsoever.

And as far as back feeding the ac panel thats pretty common but not recommended for anyone not well versed in AC. At the least I would put some red tape over the main breaker and breakers not used. Everyone I know here either has a transfer switch or back feeds there panel.

I'm personally not a big fan of the death cord. I take the panel cover off and have a empty standby 220 breaker that I use as 110V connection point. I just connect both poles together so it hits both sides of the 110V breakers and connect my 110V generator to that breaker. Then all 110V breakers are being fed. I shut off all 220 breakers and any 100V breaker not being used.

You can use any 220 breaker in your panel just pull the exiting loads off it.

Every 110V breaker except the ones I need powered are shut off and big red tape goes over the main breaker and 220 breakers not being used. That paralleled 220 breaker is a small load rated breaker 15 amps each pole. But my dual fuel gen has breakers too. So I am double breakered.

Works great do it every Hurricane. We lost power on my street for 8 days after Erma. Other side of my street came back on after 4 days.
Idiot at the end of the street rental unit owner out of state let there oak trees with dead limbs get entangled with the power drop to my side of the street and the wind took the tree limbs and our line down. Took Duke a few days to get there and chainsaw this huge tree up and hang a new drop. All in 100 degree heat and 100% humidity and the skeeters were nuts. That's one of the worst parts of hurricanes after there done the humidity and skeeters are intense. Everything is soaked to the bone.

Pre Storm Duke staged about 400 trucks in our county. Maybe more. Lots from different states.

Duke was everywhere and I thought they did an excellent job. I took water to them while they were working on my street and there were 6 guys from all over the country came in to help. They said hundreds of lineman came in from all over the USA. Really hard work.

And now Hurricane season starts on top of all this. Gonna be rough. Don't think Duke is going to come to our rescue like that again.

So yeah be prepared.

 

To be on the safe side, rather than trying to back feed the house power, why not just use a power board and leads to each appliance you need to power. That way you are less likely to over load the inverter and accidentally attempt to power the whole neighbourhood creating a dangerous situation for any line worker who may be trying to repair damaged wiring etc.
We will be taking our house completely off grid when I get the time available to complete what I started over the Christmas/New yr break. Because we build off grid battery/solar/inverter power systems for a living, we have been flooded with work lately, but mostly for RV's of all forms including houseboats as we live on the banks of the Murray River. People looking to self isolate to avoid the whole thing rather than survive a failure of the basic requirements to live in a house, water, power, sewer etc. You can live quite comfortably from fishing in the river and buying/trading for meat and vegies from farms along the river or on the back roads throughout the country.

T1 Terry

 

CRAZY PARANOID PEOPLE= Thinking the world is ending tomorrow!!!

 

I only asked you a practical question. I'm not the one who actually tossed a taunt your way. However, if you are going to preach to everyone how they can do something, shouldn't you should set the example?

I'm not going to rebuild a HV battery on the advice of someone who hasn't done it. In contrast, I would consider advice from someone who failed at it, but owned their mistake.
For your safety, I hope that 2 inverters do not blow the 100A fuse in your Prius. Their combined draw, under rated load, would greatly exceed that number.. You don't say whether you plan to use them simultaneously or if they are as backup. One way is smart, the other way could disable your car. .

You've got a great rig for mobile self-reliance, but adding the part where you endorse a potentially dangerous install without actually having done it yourself, is irresponsible.

 

I'm in LA also. La Palma on the edge of OC. here's my number below. I have some tips on where to bug out to (Friend's ranches at yosemite etc). But my advice is to store all you need up in Ventura county. Maybe we could share a small plot of land and or a storage unit up there. I planned on making a tiny house on wheels up there on land bought at auction. Put some sweet potatoes in the ground at least. they have the most nutrients per ease of growing I hear.

John 310-429-9391

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-RPJ3qOKPs

https://i.pinimg.com/.../3e5c18b49b1d77179280cc06842e45c8...

remember Hurricane Sandy? My friend sure listened to me after that. He went ten days with gas.. but no power to spark the furnace. Newborn baby and wife freezing. It's rare but when you need it..

 

What's the name of the brand of inverter you've up there sir?!