110v Receptacle

You might well find that the Ford hybrid simply has an inverted installed in the car. The only difference may be the power rating.

Check around you may find a solution that regulates 12 volts to what the laptop needs without the need for the inverter and charger.

BTW, my wife was looking for a way to power our laptop in the car, and my suggestion was for the inverter. The regulator cable would only work to power the laptop and was about the same price as the inverter. There are more options with the inverter.

 

I stumbled upon this thread when investigating if anyone has tried installing the Japanese AC receptacle accessory in the Prius.

It appears to be availabe in Japan. Here is the thread where I found the link and some discussion related to it. It doesn't seem too expensive, and I really like the idea of installing a official Toyota accessory into the system (b/c Toyota has tested it and come up with a definitely kosher way of adding the receptacle). I'm a bit concerned about the possible AC standard differences (they use 50Hz in either east or west Japan, and 60Hz in the other half) as well as attempting to install a modification that has Japanese instructions. There are a one or two people on this board who have been nice enough to translate Japanese instructions into English, so that's probably not too big of an issue, tho'.

Hope that helps; I'd be most interested if you or anyone pursue this further!

 

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has anyone tried this?

I'd like to use my laptop in my car...

Bob Andersen

 

I've used an AC inverter in my car before with a laptop and otherwise. They are pretty commonplace and you can just buy one at your nearest electronics store. If you only want to use a laptop, you may want to consider a DC adapter for your laptop, which is probably more efficient and less bulky. An AC inverter basically has a three-prong socket which gives you the flexibility to plug any AC powered device in it (assuming your device does not draw more power than your AC inverter can supply).

 

I've used an inverter in my cars ( not prius yet) with no problems.

One caution. Inverters usually have a larger number (ie 200 watts) in big print on the box and a smaller wattage number in fine print. The larger number is a maximum figure while the smaller number is the continuous wattage rating. Be sure the smaller number exceeds the needs of your accessory.

 

I used a 1 KW Inverter to power my refrigerator during a power outage for a day.
Worked great. I just clip the leads to the battery. Draw would be around 30 amperes.

Got a 2 kw one but will not hook that up till I get my larger battery installed.
Plan to limit that one to 70 amps, but need the extra for some motor starting surges.

Just remember to keep alll car loads like fans and headlights turned off.

 

1KW = 1000 watts = 1000 VA (sort of). So if you are inverting from 12V, 1000W/12V = 83A, and that's assuming no losses. That's a bit more than nominal output of the DC-DC converter.

Now if you connect an inverter directly to the HV battery (not recommended) then you can get more power.

I have been using a 75W inverter to run my laptop and charge my electric razor.

 

Did you hear about the modification kit from a San Francisco area firm ( about $ 3k )which includes an extra battery nd a 110volt AC charger-electronics package and gives a 50 mile cruising radius without running the engine. I heard that Toyota cancelled all warranties.
I also understand that there is actually space provision in hte latest Prius for an extra or larger battery. Any comments ?

For laptop use just buy a DC-to-DC car power supply from RadioShack or ? Cost about $ 50. Works like a charm.

 

No for the $3k, but $12k.
http://www.edrivesystems.com/Edrive-FAQ.html

Using the $12k, we can buy 4k gallons of gas($3/gallons) and 40MPG will be easy task by normal Prius.
Then, we'll be able to drive 16k miles by that 4k gallons.