anyone use an inverter? need quick reply

I have two inverters that I use on the Prius (not simultaneously).

One is 75watts and the other 150watts. No problem whatsoever overheating, short circuiting, or extra "drainage" from the battery. Everything is normal.

I use the 75watts one to power up my laptop and it works just fine.

 

I have a small inverter the type that plugs into the socket and is self contained (no separate box), it has a plug on the end. I can run my computer with it but I do not know the size and am not at home so I can not dig it out.

 

I got one from Radio Shack - the cheapest one they had plugs into the lighter and I have had no problems pluging in a laptop for long trips. The inverter fan is a little louder than I expected on their device though.

 

1,250 Watts

I use a 1,250 watt inverter from Inverters R Us, but it's a direct connect to the battery.

 

Another option is to get an <a href=\'http://www.igo.com/\' target=\'_blank\'>iGO power adapter</a> which you can use to power the computer from the 120VAC wall or from the 12VDC car. Mine let's me charge my mobile phone too.

Though it's rather nice to be read to...

 

Hi Vincent,

Do you have photos or a web page?

This is how I installed ours in an 03 Prius:

PriUPS

Bob Wilson

 

Nothing as Elaborate as Yours

I bought this inverter from Inverters R Us after reading an article on their website. I direct connect my inverter to the 12v battery whenever I need it; and I needed it for a few days following hurricane Wilma 5 weeks ago.

It worked great!

 

For the laptop, I hacked the innards out of a failed battery pack
and simply ran 12V wires from a cig-lighter style plug straight to
the + and - contacts in the pack shell. I clip that into the laptop
and run straight off 12V from the car.
.
The nominal Li-ion pack voltage was supposedly 11.1, but they can
vary quite a bit and the laptop deals just fine with 14V coming in
when the car is powered up. Laptops internally regulate down to
the voltages they need anyways, up to some fairly generous limit.
The more voltage you feed them, the *less* current they draw.
.
I've also put one of those hermaphroditic "anderson" connectors in
parallel with the 12V battery in the back of the car, and can tie
in a 400W or so UPS to augment its internal battery [or, for that
matter, it could jump the car's 12V system if it had to]. This is
yet another quick-n-dirty variant of the "PriUPS" concept, although
everyone who's doing it in the 12V universe is missing out on a
much greater output power opportunity by inverting off the HV
battery instead. Myself included, so far, but I'm not necessarily
stopping here...
.
_H*

 

I like it! I'd bought my 1 kW inverter on sale at Costco, $50, about a year and a half go after using a 125 W. cigarette inverter to handle a wind-storm driven power outage. Its first opertional use was after Katrina came through and knocked out power on our block for 28 hours. But that was using my wife's Echo, not an optimal solution.

A month later, I bought our 03 Prius and I knew I wanted a dual-use, inverter: (1) laptop power on the highway and (2) emergency power at home and/or while camping or fishing. Testing has revealed the HVC unit generates about 1 kW which exactly matches the performance of our inverter. But I have to admit 'dial' envy.

I'd already been thinking about how to get some sort of load indicator. Your unit has it already built in.

Bob Wilson

 

Anyone know how big a power inverter you can reasonably hook up to:

1) The cigarette lighter without blowing the fuse? They sell 'em up to 400 Watts, but I'm pretty sure that's too much.
2) To the 12V battery directly?

I am not brave enough to try to mess with the main batteries.

-->Adam

 

Typical cigarette lighter uses 10 to 15 amps Fuse. I think Prius manual somewhere says about not to exceed 120watts. Fuse does not blow for small increase in instant current, but 120watts is plenty even for a beefy laptop. Laptops typically use around 40 watts max once battery charging is complete. If you load the laptop CPU during charging it may hit 65watts, and some beefy laptops 80watts max.

I think you can safely pick 120watts to 150watts inverter. If you want more current you can upgrade the fuse to max 20AMPs( as the current carrying conductor is same I would say not go more than 20AMPs) and use up 200watts inverter.

If you want more power than that, the connect directly with battery with an in-line fuse and proper gauge of the cable.

BTW, I use a 75watts compact direct plug-in inverter which is more than enough for my laptop and other things in car.

 

I used and still use inverters with my Prius... but I did end up blowing a fuse once. I also managed to over current the cigarette lighter plug on a cheapie inverter once, resulting in the plug melting.

A big inverter would have to be connected to the aux battery terminals in the back directly. So stick with the ones that have the cigarette lighter connectors... And DON'T even THINK about connecting an inverter to the MAIN BATTERY!!! That sucker will fry your inverter and probably damage the drive batteries... don't do it!

I find the cigarette lighter jack in the front storage compartment actually has a higher current limit than the one under the glove compartment. Get a good 250 to 300 watt true RMS inverter. Ignore the peak wattage as it means nearly nothing. Just so you know some laptops will suck about 500watts during their start up. To deal with this I highly recommend you power up your laptop first (on its own batteries), then plug the sucker in.

Your best bet for laptop is a DC to DC converter. (12Volt laptop power supply.) These are better suited for car use than an inverter. Some laptops fail to understand an inverter and end up sucking more current than it should.

 

I used and still use inverters with my Prius... but I did end up blowing a fuse once. I also managed to over current the cigarette lighter plug on a cheapie inverter once, resulting in the plug melting.

A big inverter would have to be connected to the aux battery terminals in the back directly. So stick with the ones that have the cigarette lighter connectors... And DON'T even THINK about connecting an inverter to the MAIN BATTERY!!! That sucker will fry your inverter and probably damage the drive batteries... don't do it!

I find the cigarette lighter jack in the front storage compartment actually has a higher current limit than the one under the glove compartment. Get a good 250 to 300 watt true RMS inverter. Ignore the peak wattage as it means nearly nothing. Just so you know some laptops will suck about 500watts during their start up. To deal with this I highly recommend you power up your laptop first (on its own batteries), then plug the sucker in.

Your best bet for laptop is a DC to DC converter. (12Volt laptop power supply.) These are better suited for car use than an inverter. Some laptops fail to understand an inverter and end up sucking more current than it should.

 

Yes. I have been using them (up to 450 watts) regularly on every car I have owned over the past ten years ('91 Honda Accord, 1996 Chrysler Town and Country, 2004 PT Cruiser, 2000 Honda Odyssey, and even a 2006 VW Beetle) and have never had any trouble with any of them, EXCEPT for once I had a short in the wires on one inverter that blew a fuse for the cigarette lighter on the Cruiser. I fixed the short, replaced the fuse, and no further problems . . . two years later.

 

I have one that fits in a cup holder that I use regularly for charging cell phones, ear buds, laptop, etc. No problems.

 

I have a 500 watt inverter. you can use up to 100 watts in the plug in, but any higher and you have to hook it direct to the battery or it will blow the fuse in the inverter plug. Use only 1 laptop at a time, as they pull about 60 watts each.... that is how I blew the fuse in the plug.

 

IF:

You replace the 12v battery with a good quality, larger capacity like the Yellow Top series from Optima and connect an inverter as big as about 1.5kW directly to that 12V battery....

You should be able to run a higher power inverter directly from the 12V battery.

Ideally, you'd want to install a separate in-line fuse between the 12V battery and the inverter. Use a 12V power relay circuit to switch on the inverter when you turn the car on. I'll have a look later to find out a suitable wire to tap for the 12V 'ready' signal.

You'll also need some pretty thick cabling, as 1.5kw at 12V would be about 125 amps.

Bear in mind though, that the DC/DC converter in the Prius may not be able to keep the 12V battery charged with a continuous drain at that level.

 

I have a Kodiak Inergy generator that can be charged via DC at 240/270 watts or via AC at about 140 or so watts. Due to small dc inverter at 150 watts keep getting blown, am I better off with the way you suggested earlier, or a hardwire hookup to battery of an additional semi permanent additional outlets (Ac and a DC one for options) with an on/off switch and voltage meter and its own 30 watt fuse via 6 gauge or so cables or better just doing hooking up a inverter to battery w 6 gauge cables?