1500W 120V AC outlet

My '24 Prius Prime SE has (2) 120 Volt 1500 Watt outlets. One of these is plenty to run your fridge.
I installed a manual transfer switch so that I can run parts of my house (including the fridge) from the car battery -- but have not had a power outage to test it yet.

There is also a third party inverter that runs off the traction battery (250-300 Volts) capable of providing up to 4.8 kWatts. See HOME | PlugOut Power, Generator for hybrid vehicles | United States. As far as I know this has not yet been tested in a 5th generation (>2023) Prius Prime, but this model appears in their "supported vehicle list".

 

You probably know this, but just in case, be aware that the two 120V outlets can handle 1500W combined, not 1500W each.

 

Links to that particular supplier of such inverters can also be found in our PriusChat thread on that topic, which covers more than just one supplier:

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

 

That's always the most important wording to watch out for on a power supply system. 1500 Watts COMBINED tells you that a single inverter is tied to two outlets in a parallel connection. You can tie the inverter in the trunk to a camping refrigerator that draws 300 watts while the outlet behind the driver's arm rest is running a 600 watt table saw. Between them, only 900 watts is being sucked out of the 120V inverter. You'd still have 600 watts available to run up to 6 100 watt light bulbs if they were attached to a 6 outlet power strip.

 

I have ran my garage stand up deep freeze (mid size freezer) without issues from my Prime XSE hatch plug during our last big power outage for a few hrs. I never took note of how much battery it actually used from the vehicle because a neighbor eventually lent me a real generator and I was busy with setting that up.

I should have tried running my interior house fridge as well as my garage freezer at the same time, via the second plug and seeing if that worked or would’ve been too much for the inverter. I wonder what happens when you go over the wattage limit, is there a reset button like on a breaker panel somewhere or do you just pop a fuse?

 

My RAV4 Prime has only a single socket, but I won't hesitate to use a power strip to break that out into multiple outlets. The combined running powers of my garage freezer and kitchen refrigerator are well below the 1500W inverter rating. The only issue I'd foresee is possibly the compressor start-up currents if both appliances start at the same time. This can be addressed by manually plugging in the second appliance after the first is already running.

Older appliances from the less efficient era might be a greater issue.

I don't yet know either.

 

Keep in mind that the running watts and amps are different from the surge power ratings. When the compressor first turns on, it will draw more power to get going iirc for fridges and freezers.

 

... which is the exact reason for this passage:

 

And Air conditioners and any appliance that uses an electric motor (washing machine, vacuum cleaner, Power tools, etc.)....all have a starting surge requirement.

 

Inverter 'standard' on the RAV4 Prime? During my shopping over the winter (and acquired two months ago), I found the inverter listed only in an option package in the top trim. If it was showing up outside that package or on the lower trim, that is news to me. With no open models sitting on dealer lots -- all units here are still spoken for before arriving at the lot -- it was not possible to personally check this in my region.

My RAV4 Prime headlights are by far the best I've ever experienced, but I'm comparing it to a 2012 Prius and a 2014 Subaru, not to any current model of any brand.

 

With the power outage from Hurricane Helene I thought this would be the perfect chance to try and run our 25 cu/ft GE refrigerator from the 1500W outlet in our 2024 Prime. It powers the ice dispenser and lights of the refrigerator just fine but the compressor won't run to cool the interior. I'm guessing the compressor start up draw must be too much for the inverter. We have a whole house generator that works fine but I was hoping the Prius would be another backup source of power for us.

KH

 

^ Did you let the refrigerator sit unpowered a while before trying to run it from the Prius outlet? I.e. don't test it by promptly moving it from the whole-house generator to the Prius outlet without some down time to let the compressor outlet pressure dissipate.

When I tested our garage freezer on my RAV4 Prime inverter, it started up fine the first time, but when stopped and quickly tried to restart, the compressor stalled, unable to start. After letting the freezer sit for several minutes, then it could start up again. I'm assuming this was related to the refrigerant backpressure on the compressor.

I don't recall if I ran an extension cord to the kitchen fridge for a separate test.

 

There are compressor surge protectors for fridges and air conditioners that leave power cut off for a few minutes after a momentary power loss.

 

IIRC, this particular small freezer restarts fine when promptly re-plugged into the wall, but trips the Toyota inverter's current limit. So this freezer likely doesn't have this sort of time delay built in. At least, that was the impression I walked away with at the time.

I should re-test it, and also check the kitchen refrigerator, which is larger.

This inverter won't start the farm's portable air compressor even after letting out nearly all the air pressure.

 

There are "soft-start kits" that can be purchased for domestic A/C compressors (with permanent-split capacitor motors); I don't know how hard it might be to adapt a fridge or air compressor in a similar way.

I suspect A/C units with a built-in inverter drive are inherently "soft-start" and might behave better. My car fridge works that way; it's kind of entertaining to listen to the way it spools up.

My pancake air compressor has an unloading valve that vents out the cylinder pressure every time the switch cycles off.

 

The purpose of the protector is that many of these appliances don't have soft-start technology. They run at full load when started regardless of what the refrigerant pressure is at. While grid power supplies the extra energy for this, it doesn't reduce the extra wear the back pressure puts on the compressor. If your home sees many of those quick power cut outs, that wear adds up.

 

I waited probably 10-15 minutes before plugging the fridge into the Prius. I assume that is enough time for the compressor to unload or reset but don't know for sure.

KH

 

That would be plenty of time.

The starting wattage for the fridge should be on the spec label.
How Many Watts Does a Refrigerator Use? - Fridge Running & Starting Watts - Watts Guide
The use of an extension cord could result more watts being drawn.

 

Years ago, I believe @bwilson4web ran a 1000 watt inverter on an older Prius. his recommendation at that time was not to use a larger one, The Prius battery has less capacity than the plug-in variants.