Inverter: How much power? and how?

No, that's what the plugout system is. Somebody who found one on Alibaba (or the like) and ordered a run of them built to match the voltage range of the Prius battery pack.

$2500 is a pretty good price for a large specialty inverter.

 

There is a thread that tries to collect a lot of the knowledge people have accumulated for getting power from the high-voltage system:

Electric power from a hybrid, connecting inverter to the high-voltage system | PriusChat

It touches on products from PlugOut Power, and also older ones from his (Randy B's) older company, ConVerdant, which sometimes crop up for resale. There have been a few other approaches too. There have been some models of commercial, data-center uninterruptible power supplies whose internal batteries are in the right voltage range. Sometimes those turn up at salvage outlets after their internal batteries are toast and, what luck, you don't need the internal batteries for what you want to use it for.

 

So, I think I am at the end of my quest, after reading the history of the AIMS 240VDC inverter related projects in Priuschat and it looks like I have 3 options:
1. Find the “AIMS model PWRI2000S240VDC pure sine wave inverter and connect directly to the Prius 2015 Hybrid battery 201.6v.
2. Bite the bullet and pay the $2500 kit that Plugout offers.
3. Buy the unproven input voltage 200-247VDC “GOWE 2000W 220VDC to 110V/220VAC Off Grid Pure Sine Wave Single Phase Solar or Wind Power Inverter, Surge Power 4000W” Big risk, because not many people have bought this, so not sure if it can replace the AIMS 240VDC inverter. Might blow myself up here. Maybe someone will be brave enough to actually do the install ($700).
4. Do not do the direct 201.6v hybrid connection and instead just do a 12v 3000w inverter to the auxiliary Prius battery. Plenty of Youtube videos on that. I just will not get the power I wanted from a direct Hybrid battery connection.

Any comments?

 

3000 watts from the 12 volt system is a massive overestimate of what the car's DC/DC converter to 12 volts can give you.

I hadn't heard of the GOWE, but it sounds like around the right input voltage range. If it works out, that would be a nice thing for the community to learn.

 

Yup, the Gowe 2000w 220VDC to 110/220VAC inverter is listed now in Amazon, if anyone gives it a try, let me know. Only 1 person has bought it to date and gave it 1 star, so it might be a dud. In the meantime, I’ll go the 12v route. Or maybe someday I will find an AIMS 200VDC. Ha! Cheers!

 

Oh, BTW, I would never do more than 1500w on the 12v and I’ll experiment and test first. The most I need is 1500w for my cooking stove or 800w microwave or 500w AC, with the Prius running. I may not even do that, because I will be using the 12v inverter to charge the Bluetti AC300/B300 6kwh system and plug the 1500w stove to the Bluetti. I hear you can pull about 1000w from the 12v battery with the Prius on ready. Is that true?

 

Yep, that's about right. You probably don't want to count on that for more than a brief surge though. Tone it down to 600-700w and then you'll have something you can sustain until the gas tank is dry.

You could theoretically use a 12v inverter hooked up to the Prius 12v system, to run a battery charger feeding that Bluetti box. Then you could use the Bluetti inverter to provide considerably more power for short bursts.

I guess that means the big question is for that Bluetti box- can you control the charger circuit to keep it from overwhelming the supply?

 

Funny how much that Gowe unit resembles the AIMS ... even the same color.

It looks like about the right animal, assuming the build quality isn't just plain terrible. And considering you could buy three of them for PlugOut Power's price. (That's not quite fair, of course: the PlugOut units have higher power ratings, and I think they all do 120/240 split-phase output too, which this thing doesn't.)

The only possible annoyances I see in its specs are a low-voltage shutoff at 200 VDC and high shutoff at 247 VDC.

The Prius battery can wander below and above those limits during deep discharge or strong charging. But it might not do so when it is in a steady engine-cycling rhythm just supporting your load, so it might not be much of an issue. Worst case, you might occasionally have to turn it back on.

 

Thank you Leadfoot and ChapmanF. You two, pretty well wrapped up this conversation for me. Interesting write up by ChapmanF on Gowe inverter. I’ll be going back to the 12v setup and let someone take a shot at the Gowe. I will also scale back on my 12v inverter to 2000-2500w and keep the charging watts under 1000w to the Bluetti, so when I am cooking at 1500w plugged to Bluetti, I will be short 500w from cooking and charging simultaneously. Thanks again. This is my fun time and enjoy the holidays, as much as possible. Cheers guys!!!

 

I never got the appeal of hooking into the hybrid battery personally.

My setup replaced the OEM 12V with an 85ah battery, then added a second 85ah battery to the opposite side. The 2nd battery cover with USB ports, Power outlets, Victron BMS display, air tank digital pressure display, and smart fan controller are all on the cover. I keep my Victron battery charger with me at all times. It helped me jump the car after it sat for days n the ferry from Alaska back t the states(ABS wouldn't shut up and drained the battery).

The beauty of this, I now have two 2000w pure sine inverters connected to each battery. I'm using 0 gauge wire and an isolator between the batteries and inverters. This way, I can run my air fryer on one and the induction stove on the other simultaneously with the car off, not for long but long enough to cook a solid meal. Next week Im ripping it all out for at least one 100+ah Lithium Deep Cycle Battery, maybe two!

One tip, DO NOT USE THE CABLES SUPPLIED WITH YOUR INVERTER ON THE PRIUS. THEY WILL MELT! Not until I used 0 gauge wire did all work as expected.

 

That's a lot of the appeal of hooking into the hybrid battery right there! Higher voltage/lower amperage lets you safely use smaller, easier-to-install wiring going to the battery, and you get heckin' lots more cooking done with less engine-on time.

 

not really.. 2kw... same as my 2000w inverters. So technically with two 2000w inverters and an extra 12 battery, my setup has more available power.

 

A sprinter has more power than a marathonner, so it depends on what you want to do.

The car can easily replenish 3kW (to 5kW in the larger hybrids) through the hybrid powertrain, by running the engine at idle RPM, for as long as you need it to.

But it can't squish more than about 1.4 kW at the outside through its DC/DC converter into your 12 volt system. So yes, you're able to draw a bunch more than that from your biggo 12 V batteries and inverters, but that's a sprint and won't last. Also, the cable from the DC/DC converter up front to the batteries in back is not 0 gauge, and you're using a chunk of the car's available power there for wire-heating duty.

If the sprint lasts long enough for the use you have in mind, then it serves your purpose.