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Prius as a power source?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by MrK, Jul 25, 2006.

  1. georgekessel

    georgekessel Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2006
    182
    8
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    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius Prime
    Model:
    Prime Advanced
    I opened the back of my Prius and found only one 12v battery. I ran 8 guage jumper cables from that battery to my inverter and voila, I have power. I felt the cables get warm (not hot), so just to be safe I picked up a set of 6 guage cables. I will put better ends on one pair-side of the cables so they can screw onto the inverter.

    I would appreciate any advice people give, do you use a 6 or 8 guage wire on yours?

    What guage should I connect to the deep cycle battery with (can I use my 8 guage set or should I pick up another 6 guage set?)
     
  2. MrK(2)

    MrK(2) Junior Member

    Joined:
    Dec 20, 2007
    38
    4
    0
    Location:
    southern Illinois, near St. Louis
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Back in April 2007 I wrote that my own installation consists of a 1,500/3,000 watt surge inverter, a 12-volt deep cycle battery, and #4 wire cables. I'm confident that #4 wire is more than adequate to handle the 83 amps that will traverse it when operating a 1,000 watt load, but perhaps one of the electrical engineers can chime in on the capacity of #6 wire.
     
  3. georgekessel

    georgekessel Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2006
    182
    8
    1
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius Prime
    Model:
    Prime Advanced
    I started up my new 'silent' 6.5kw diesel generator today

    The thing is soo00o00000000 loud it's shocking.

    My neighbors are going to want to kill me :(*
     
  4. mary2al

    mary2al Junior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 5, 2004
    57
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    Location:
    SF Bay Area
    Vehicle:
    2009 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    So George, After all this about using your 12v Prius batt to run a 1500 watt inverter why the deisel genset?
     
  5. georgekessel

    georgekessel Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2006
    182
    8
    1
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius Prime
    Model:
    Prime Advanced
    I wanted to have two backup sources of power. It's 1250 watts but the Prius can only deliver 1000 watts steadily regardless. The Prius is a backup to my backup....