We haven't had power since 7pm on Saturday but having the Prius has made life a little easier. We're using a 1500W inverter hooked up to the 12v battery to run the fridge, lights, charge batteries, and occasionally run a small heater. The heater was more of a test than anything since we would have to run it for a long time to produce any noticeable heat in a house that is 52 degrees. Any one else doing this during the extended outage here in parts of the northeast?
Careful with your 12v it wasn't designed for constant draw at that amperage. The onboard charger wasn't either. You need the 12v to boot the computers that start the car. All kinds of bad things happen with a degraded 12v just search this site to see.
James, Assuming the Prius isn't going to be driven anywhere, what about replacing the stock 12v with a "normal" 12v battery out of another vehicle. Would that help matters? I'm intrigued by this as inverter business for tropical storms/hurricanes scenarios here.
I could be mistaken, hopefully someone more knowledgeable than me will comment here, but I thought there was a 100 amp fuse between the 12v system and the DC/DC converter that supplies your 12v battery with charging power from the high voltage system. If this is true, there may be some risk of blowing that fuse if you draw 1500W from the system with your inverter (1500W / 12v = 125 amp).
fotomoto, Search this site. There are some details from people who have connected a higher voltage inverter directly to the high voltage system in the Prius (rather than the 12 volt system). This would allow you to draw a lot more watts without concern for the 12 volt system. The high voltage system is designed to handle a much higher continuous draw to power the A/C and electric motors.
One thing I didn't mention is that the car is on while I am drawing power so the hybrid system is constantly supply power to the 12v battery. The most power I've drawn so far is about 1,000 watts with the electric heater set on Medium. The car ran that wattage just fine but I didn't run it long because I don't want to stress the car any more than I need to. The refrigerator/freezer is our main concern. Also I only run the car for a few hours at a time and then give it a rest. I think 4 hours is about the most I ran it for continuously.
When we retired we moved to a small mid western town where my wife grew up. We learned that it suffered about a half dozen power outages per year. I went and got a Generac 17 kilowatt automatic standby generator connected to a natural gas supply. When the power goes off for 12 seconds it will start then via a transfer switch run all the house electrical. When the power is restored, it will transfer back and shut off. It has made life much easier. We can be on vacation and not worry about the frig/freezer. Most outages are in the three hour range but one was three days.
Day 6 on Prius power and grid power should be restored by this evening. Every day I'm running more on the car, another light here and there, tv and dvd player as well. The largest draw on the car so far is a small heater with a fan that I borrowed from my neighbor. The inverter was showing around 1,220 watts but that isn't the most accurate readout. I'm going to test it with the Killawatt when power is restored to get a true reading. The heater puts out a lot of heat but I only ran it for 5 or 10 minutes because the power strip I was using tripped and that made me nervous so I shut it down. Flushing the toilet with melt water from the snow on the roof is getting old. The end is in sight and I'll actually be able to drive the car again soon. :cheer2:
A simple 12V inverter is all you should need. Leave the vehicle turned on in "Ready" mode while you use it: Cobra CPI 480 12V DC-120VAC 400 Watt Power Inverter : Power Inverters | RadioShack.com
There is a battery (46 amp hour I believe) located in the right rear of the car that is easy to get to. I would think you could connect your RC charger there. Roger
Make a good low resistance connection from your charger to the 12 volt battery, and most important make sure the car is in Ready mode whenever you are drawing power or you'll quickly be needing a jump start before you can drive your car. As was mentioned previously the 12 volt battery is quite small as it is only used to boot the car to Ready mode.
Well, this seems like a "Best Tool For The Job" deal to me. I know in the OP's case part of it might be an "emergency" situation. BUT...I'd still avoid using my Prius as a high wattage inverter system. Even if it does work? You're still putting expensive components of your vehicle at risk. For every person who can do this carefully and "right", how many people are going to read this, and do it wrong? Not worth the risk to me. The Prius wasn't designed to be an emergency generator. The cost of actually buying an emergency generator? Actually relatively inexpensive. The cost of potential electronic or electrical repair on your Prius if something get's hooked up wrong or the drain is too drastic? Potentially huge, and perhaps leading to a shortened lifetime for the entire vehicle if computer components become damaged. Until Toyota release guidelines or specifications concerning what is possible? I wouldn't risk it. I think just like any normal vehicle, you could probably use The Prius for your usual inverter supported "camping" like equipment...but I'd be nervous about running refrigerators, lights and heaters...
