power inverter professional installation

welcome!
ask todd at tampa hybrids. maybe he knows someone

 

+1!
Home - Tampa Hybrids Inc.

Todd is terrific!! Before the virus hit, he was getting too busy to deal with all the customers, but I imagine things are slower now. Give him a call. I never knew there was such a thing as an after market inverter. I thought only Toyota made them. But Todd will know what's what.

 

I would expect audio shops & RV service shops to be the correct sub-specialty for an inverter job.

You are probably thinking of either the traction or air conditioning inverters in your Prius. They exist as a generic item for other purposes.

I interpreted OP's request as wanting an inverter that produced household AC from the car's 12v electrical system, as that is probably the most common modification involving a generic inverter on a Prius.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking.

Never crossed my mind that someone would hire this done. But it would explain the "aftermarket" part.

 

Do a GOOGLE search for " priuschat: house power from a prius " - there are quite a few answers there.

 

So I guess you're talking about the kind of inverter that you use to power 120V equipment and not the one under your hood that charges the traction battery. There are several helpful threads around here that deal with how to choose & install one. I'm on the verge of ordering one myself.

 

I see that you're only about 30 miles from me. How about I let you know after I get mine installed and you can see what I did. Maybe we can install yours together.

Edit to add:
I just ordered this one. Supposed to arrive tomorrow but I won't have time to install and test till next weekend and I'll have to finish fixing our dryer first.

 

I did a quick test with it today. I just used the clamps to connect it to the battery using the positive and hooking to the negative after the sensor. I put the car in READY, ran an extension cord from the inverter to the kitchen and plugged the refrigerator into the cord. When the refrigerator ran, it pulled 185 watts according to the inverter's display. My meter showed about 1.4 amps. The label on the fridge says it'll pull 3.4A maximum. DC current was 22A at the highest I saw. So, no problem running the fridge and some lights.

I should have written down the HV battery SOC before I did this, but IIRC, it didn't change in the 10 minutes or so that I played with it.

Now I need to decide on what to get for a more convenient installation. I like this one (Quick 175 premium Battery Cable Assembly REAL 2 Gauge AWG w lug/terminal/clamp | eBay) that @Krzysiek_KTA found. Then to decide on a convenient & safe way to tie the AC side into my breaker panel.

 

Other places that might do install are RV or stereo shops.

 

If you're really hardcore, you could do THIS for an inverter.

PriUPS-getting electricity FROM your hybrid vehicle

I went this route with our 2004 Prius - long before the plug-in, which would have made things more practical - but have since moved on to other crazy projects
.

 

Looks really thorough!!

Also looks like the web sites I hard coded 15 years ago, but then I'm guessing this is about a 15 year old site. LOL!

 

I got the parts today for the 120V end of the project. Will want to order the 12V cables & connector when I get the chance, but this will work.

Sketch of wiring. Hoped for an 8A breaker. Couldn't find one, so I got 15A for the wiring and will have to trust the inverter to protect itself.



Here's the $55 pile of parts.



The plan is to make a switched cable (14/3 SO cable for durability) with an inline circuit breaker (the handy-box stack at left). After turning off the main circuit breaker to the house and all the others except the refrigerator and maybe one other that's on the same phase for lights, I can connect the inverter to the car and plug it into an outlet on my workbench next to the car that's on the same phase as the refrigerator. Put the car in READY, turn on the inverter, and flip the switch on the cable assembly.

When not in use, the cables and inverter can all be labeled, boxed up together, and kept on a shelf. It's as safe and convenient a method as I can think of short of buying and installing a transfer switch which gets more expensive and involved that I'm willing to dive into for something so rarely used around here. In almost six years living here, we've never had an outage that lasted more than about a half hour, including hurricane Irma.

The one important step left to do, besides putting this stuff together, is find a good way to route the car's exhaust outside in case the ICE needs to run, which is very likely. I'm not keen on cutting holes in the garage door or wall, but leaving it open isn't something I want either. I'll let that puzzle simmer while I work on other stuff. Maybe it's as easy as punching through the screen on the side door and replacing the screen afterwards.

 

Thank you for sharing. I remember reading similar threads during past hurricane seasons and wonder if these installations are specific to Prius owners or whether it may be more practical to try this setup on less expensive, older vehicles that are out of warranty.

Thanks in advance.

 

If by practical, you mean simple, I think it would be the same. If you mean economical, then no, it would be way way less economical with a gasser.

 

@jerrymildred would you mind to post a picture of your negative connection? I want to be 100% certain that I understand the correct place to attach.

 

While Jerry might come back with a photo, the key is that there's a battery state sensor assembly attached to the negative terminal. The "car" side of that, of course, connects to body ground.

That means you can make your negative connection at absolutely any good convenient solid connection to the body, engine, etc. Find a nice unpainted bolt and there you are.

The only place you should avoid is right at the battery negative post, because then you would have bypassed the sensor and your load on the battery would not be counted.