1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

Hurricane season is near-I use an Inverter on my Prius to run my fridge

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by ski.dive, Apr 7, 2024.

  1. ski.dive

    ski.dive Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 11, 2008
    896
    232
    0
    Location:
    Hutchinson Island,FL. Mt. Snow,VT
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius

    Note:

    I've been doing this for the last 7 years
    =I run the inverter-directly from the 12v battery.
    ***During the Hurricane outages - The inverter runs my full size refrigerator,

    Two square floor fans and a few other small electrical items in the house
     
    #1 ski.dive, Apr 7, 2024
    Last edited: Apr 7, 2024
  2. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Nov 29, 2020
    9,218
    1,618
    0
    Location:
    Durham NC
    Vehicle:
    2009 Prius
    Model:
    Base
    I would imagine you can do that and if you had like four or five 12 volt batteries you might even have more headroom I don't know how often it charges the full size refrigerator is about a 7 amp draw I think on startup and then just sitting there maybe 7 amps or something along those lines the floor fans pretty much no issue and the small appliances I'm assuming phone chargers and that sort of thing shouldn't really be a problem to put that in perspective to run my property here if I wanted to do such a thing when the power is out would take a about 20,000 Watts 23,000 somewhere right in there I could get by with essentials with around 10,000 but if I'm going to get $10,000 I might as well get closer to the 20 or 23 and be able to run it all problem is I don't want gas or propane it has to be diesel Diesel will be here forever the military runs on diesel Diesel's never going anywhere.
     
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    108,987
    49,521
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    we have a propane full house generator. power isn't too reliable around her, even in the best weather
     
  4. pasadena_commut

    pasadena_commut Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 2, 2019
    1,502
    454
    0
    Location:
    Southern California
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    P=IV, and the power it needs is the power it needs. 7A at 120V is 70A at 12V. A continuous draw of 70A would certainly be a problem for a 45 AH battery. But it isn't 7A, it is usually 3 to 6 amps. And it only draws current when it is running (or a little when the door is open for the bulb).

    https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Power-consumption-of-an-old-fridge-and-an-old-freezer-in-site-S5-during-a-time-interval_fig4_275974446

    So let's say a fridge uses 4.5A (average of that range), with a 25% duty cycle (this is probably optimistic). That is equivalent to a continuous 1.125A at 120V, which is only 11.25A at 12V. Seems like the 12V would only run for about 4 hours before it was depleted. The OP never said the fridge was plugged in the whole time though, nor that the car was turned off, just that the inverter was attached directly to the 12V. The car's inverter can definitely supply more than 11.25A at 12V, so as long as there is still gas in the tank, it would keep the fridge happy.
     
  5. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2005
    19,902
    8,206
    54
    Location:
    Montana & Nashville, TN
    Vehicle:
    2018 Chevy Volt
    Model:
    Premium
    Between our tri-fuel 220v Honda 5,500kW (100% duty cycle) genset in the garage, & the 3,500kW diesel Onan built into the MB motorhome ... bring it on! (plus, we live up on a hill ... so when/if the city's sewage pump dies, we won't have to go "dig a hole" for several days)
    ;)
    .