How Big of a Power Station is OK

Discussion in 'Gen 4 Prius Technical Discussion' started by PriusDweller5280, Apr 25, 2026 at 4:00 PM.

  1. PriusDweller5280

    PriusDweller5280 New Member

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    newbie here!

    I have a 2020 Prius LE. I am full time in it in a big hot city where I work full time.

    I have a need to run a DC refrigerator and small usb fan 24/7. I also run a 900 watt air fryer and 16oz electric travel water kettle for 15-30 minutes a day. It doesn’t use much power during the cooler months but in summer when it’s 100°-130° all day in the car it uses more power.

    For many reasons I was not comfortable setting up a piece-meal battery and inverter so I have a power station instead.

    The power station is an Anker 2000C gen 2 which is a 2000watt unit. The specs say it charges at a continuous 12 amps. I had a car audio place run a dedicated wire for it which they ended up having to run direct off the 12v battery instead of through the fuse box. It goes through the fire wall to the back of the car where the power station lives.

    I leave the car in READY mode at night to run the air conditioner and charge the power unit 8:00pm to 4:00am while I sleep.

    The wires are getting pretty warm during charging. An engineer friend told me that 12 amps is a lot.

    Is this too much for the Prius system! Will this damage anything? Shorten the 12v battery life too much? Do I need to get a smaller power station?

    my knowledge and understanding of all this is very limited. Please make all answers in simple laymen’s launguage.
     
    #1 PriusDweller5280, Apr 25, 2026 at 4:00 PM
  2. Robert21PrimeLTD

    Robert21PrimeLTD Member

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    Am I to understand that you are running a refrigerator, fan, air fryer, and kettle in your Prius off a power station and run the AC for 8 hours while in READY mode? Is this some kind of a joke?

    But seriously, if the wires are getting “pretty warm” that is because the wire gauge is too small for the current going thru the wire. I can’t imagine what leaving your vehicle parked and on for 8 hours does to everything.

    Are you using the Prius to charge the power station? I’m confused.
     
    #2 Robert21PrimeLTD, Apr 28, 2026 at 5:39 PM
  3. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    12 amps is just a number- it doesn't tell us the whole story. It's like knowing that you have a set of size 10 shoes without knowing how big your feet are. Maybe they fit fine, maybe they're way too tight- we don't know and we don't have enough information to go on.

    If you could tell us the size of the wiring, we'd be able to tell you if 12 amps was a problem or not.

    But as a general bit of info? 12 amps is a pretty easy load for the car to handle. There is such a thing as wiring good enough to support that all night every night for as long as the car lasts. We just don't know if the wires the stereo shop ran are fat enough for this to be true.
     
    #3 Leadfoot J. McCoalroller, Apr 28, 2026 at 9:20 PM
  4. BiomedO1

    BiomedO1 Senior Member

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    The "proper way" to hook it up and reduce stress on your 12V system.

    Anker SOLIX Alternator Charger - Anker SOLIX US

    If this works like the Bluetti system; this unit increases voltages thereby reducing amp draw and speeds up recharging.

    Wires shouldn't be getting warm - that indicates that it's under-specs for the current it's drawing. Is that wire on a fuse? Hate for you to get scorched while your sleeping......

    You should probably also move to 5K miles or 6 month oil changes; since your going to have a lot of undocumented engine run-time. The maintenance minder is setup for miles ONLY. DO NOT use that cheap Jiffy-lube oil - there's a reason Jiffy Lube recommends 3K mile oil changes. IMHO; that junk will kill your engine.
     
    #4 BiomedO1, Apr 28, 2026 at 9:49 PM
    Last edited: Apr 28, 2026 at 10:08 PM
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