Prius as a power source?

If any Prius drivers are looking for a good deal on a sine wave inverter, it looks to me that eBay #300111599234 is low-hanging fruit. I cannot personally vouch for the seller, but the feedback is not bad.

I have also separately found that eBay is a good source for ANL fuses and fuseholders, if you're interested in 'belts and suspenders' system protection. In case I have not said so here before, the reason I am using an (apparently too small) 60 amp ANL in front of a 1000 watt inverter is that the only spec sheets I have seen for ANL fuses show that they melt very slowly. No matter what, I want that to be the first part that fails in the chain.

I also praise all the PriUPS people, because multi-kilowatts is the big leagues. However, if you have even about a kilowatt of 110 volts AC available from the clean quiet Prius, you will likely find it to be very useful.

 

Did you have load on the power tools?
Very low draw without load.

 

Please Mrk, details.
I so want to do this, to power my office during power failures.

It was one of the reasons I bought a Prius, a commercial generator costs a lot to own & operate to deliver the power a Prius can easily do.

A SKU # for the Tripp Lite would help. I'd like to buy a new unit.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MrK @ Aug 28 2007, 07:24 AM) [snapback]503165[/snapback]</div>

What is the power rating on the radial arm saw (aka., volts, amps)?

The modified sine wave worked with our cheap, 800W gas furnace motor but it only has to run a fan. I would expect the radial saw to be significantly more.

Also, I could only draw 1 kW from the Prius 12VDC supply, NHW11 model. This puts a lot of things right at the 'hairy edge.' If you go the 12VDC inverter approach, TEST before the power outage!!

Bob Wilson

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mark Derail @ Aug 28 2007, 05:12 PM) [snapback]503458[/snapback]</div>

One example of doing that: http://priups.com/others/charlie/index.html

Of course, there is the issue of night-time ice storms. (Do you really want to be parked at the office 24x7?)

 

MrK -- where'd you do your tap?
.
_H*

 

Promoting an unknown ebay seller again! Sine wave inverter item number 270163104253 is now bid well below its value. Potential buyers please consult earlier discussions for how to install w/o putting your Prius at risk. Hint, you are not going to be able to utilize 1500 watts. 1000 on a good day.

 

Someone I know hardwired a 1500/3000 Watt inverter ($100 from Sam's Club) to his Prius (Positive to the battery, negative to the frame). The inverter was able to power an electric lawnmower indefinitely (attached via a 100' 12ga extension cord and a 25' 16ga extension cord), drawing about 500 Watts under normal load. Worked like a charm! I describe it at the bottom of this review: http://www.epinions.com/content_152361733764

In case anyone here isn't aware, gasoline-powered lawn equipment produce huge amounts of pollution. Spillage with gasoline-powered lawn equipment is also a huge source of pollution. I recall Jim Stack saying that driving the 2004 prius 100k miles produced as much VOC pollution as allowing one pint of gasoline to evaporate or something to that effect. Think of all of the gasoline that evaporates every time someone opens a gasoline can or gasoline tank. Electric mowers are the way to go if you can't eliminate the grass entirely.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ethereal @ May 14 2007, 04:30 PM) [snapback]442032[/snapback]</div>

Is it true that all I would need is a deep cycle marine battery with an inverter attached, and then connect the battery to the 12v battery in my 2006 Prius?

I"m really not good at electrical stuff so any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.

 

I would like to stress a distinction here. PriUPS is hardwired directly to the high voltage battery, requires relatively expensive external invrter, and can produce about 5 kilowatts.

An outboard inverter connected to the Prius' 12 volt system is limited to about 1 kilowatt. Some folks have discussed adding another 12 volt battery to increase the peak power, or to obtain 110 volts ac with the Prius off. However this is not necessary if your goal is 1 kilowatt or less.

For the latter, a modified sine wave (MSW) inverter is the cheapest available (about $100), but there are some switching power supplies that will not run on MSW. Also most types of electrical motors are less efficient, and heat up, when using MSW. Resistive loads (coffepot toaster small heater etc) do fine on MSW.

For $300-600 (or more!) one can buy a pure sine wave 1 kilowatt inverter. It would present no limitations to equipment use, other than the 1 kw.

Leaving the Prius in 'ready mode' with a 1 kw load will exhaust a full fuel tank in 7-10 days according to a few estimates. I don't think this has been attempted with the ~5 kw PriUPS.

Both systems have some electrical safety issues, so study up and ask specific questions if electrons are not your thing.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MrK @ Nov 12 2007, 07:15 PM) [snapback]538684[/snapback]</div>

To all you people who think this is a good idea: I suggest that you go to the following link http://www.wind-sun.com/ForumVB/index.php and read information written by people who REALLY know what they are talking about. To most of us we don't know the difference between a volt or an ampere much less the relationship between the two. We don't know how modified sine wave inverters can (and do) destroy electonic componets instantly, that true sine wave inverter are expensive and not available at Wall Mart, and on and on.

It just seems crazy to modify a ~20k car for the sole purpose of keeping our lights on. The Prius hv battery is not big enough to power all the loads of the overgrown modern house, including furnace, fridge freezer tv etc. First rule is turn off what you don't need! For $1000+- you can buy a Honda eu3000 generator that WILL run most houses. Very fuel effecient, very quiet, very reliable. It's a no brainer. (As to effeciency, we run our entire house on 150 watts of solar panel, 850 amp/hours of batteries and a 300 watt pure sine wave inverter! 'tis a function of being careful.

Just one mans opinionated opinion.

Icarus

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(icarus @ Nov 12 2007, 09:36 PM) [snapback]538692[/snapback]</div>

Crazy is having a vehicle with an 18 kW MG1 generator and no way to plug-in the house. The GM Silverado, Ford Escape and Toyota Estima all have at least a 1.5 kW AC power option. My $17k car should do more than leave us stranded in the cold and dark in a power outage and such power is useful when fishing or camping.

I agree that the modified sine wave needs more attention to load testing. Not everything does well on it but it does provide an efficient source of power. But the folks who sell inverters are very open about the types of loads to use and avoid.

Bob Wilson

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bwilson4web @ Nov 14 2007, 03:16 AM) [snapback]539354[/snapback]</div>

I agree it would be a nice option, and indeed all the components are there, but the idea of an amatur rewiring a sophiticated electronic system makes no sense. If there were true "plug and play systems", then I would be more enamoured of the idea, but I am not going to risk my warrantee with some backyard design however good it may be.

I don't know what the GM, or the Ford or even the Toyota system is, but I suspect that it is connected to the starting battery with a 1500 modified sine wave inverter. I say once again,, you aint gonna power your house with such an item. TV, yes, radio, yes, Drill, for a while. Well pump, furnace blower, fridge, water heater? No way!

The Prius HV battery and Inverter are big enough to do such a thing, but are not designed from the ground up to do so. The voltages, and charge and output rates are designed for the high amperage draw of a motor load.

As I say, most people have no clue what a volt or amp or watt is, and especially don't really understand batteries, charging, discharging etc. People have it in thier minds that batteries are things you pour electrcity into, and then pour it out when you need it. Fact is it is much more complcated than that.

Icarus

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MrK @ Nov 14 2007, 10:47 AM) [snapback]539557[/snapback]</div>

THree points: I am mostly addressing the idea of using an inverter on the starting battery cirucit. Clearly you know and understand why that is a terrible idea to run your house off of.

Second: congrats on on having the knowledge and skills to build your system. As I said before, using the hv battery makes great sense technicaly. My point is for the average layman it is still a crazy idea.

Third: As to cost benefit. A Good honda sine wave generator can be had for 2k as stated. But it can also be had for way less. I have a eu1000 bought for $225. I just bought a 3kw Mitsubishi for $50 in perfect running order. I still contend that the idea of risking your entire warrentee for the sake of convience is nuts. When my Prius has fallen apart to the point where I am keeping it together with bailing wire and tape, I'll consider messing about with it's wiring. Until then, I'm letting the pros work on it, and I won't mess with it. (Plus my wife would kill me!)

Lastly: Except in certain parts of the country weather related grid outages are fairly rare and (generaly) short lived. I am not going to go into the subject of the grid crashing as result of any number of factors that come under "end of the world" scenario's as that is a completly different discussion. Suffice to say that if the grid goes down due to that problem, your local gas station is going to be out of fuel soon enough anyway, so all the Prius mods aren't going to keep you warm (or cool) for very long.

I think in the name of emergancy perparedness every one should have a way to keep critical loads running. TV's and Air conditioners are not critical. Frieges, furnaces, well pumps and freezers are. What we have done in our neighborhood, (where we have frequent weather outages) is have 1 10kw generator, hooked to several houses with proper transfer swithes, keeping the critical loads going throughout the neighborhood. I nthe case of the last real blizzard we took in the non-connected neighbors until they could return home.

Enough of this soap box.

Icarus