Prius Prime as emergency power source

I have not done it.

I remember a few years ago, seeing multiple after-market kits that would allow you to install an invertor to produce 120/240vac from a Prius.

 

How did you do that?

 

We have a thread for that:

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

Randy's company sells some of the products mentioned in the thread.

 

My Honda generator has been working just fine for 40+ years now. Unlimited capacity. Just need to put gas in it and change the oil when necessary. Paid $1000 back then. I think they are closer to double that now.

 

So the post was just an advertisement?

 

I don't know about just an advertisement. People have been interested in using Prii that way since way back. Randy's got a business that sells some products you can use to do that, and he does come around from time to time and make posts on the general topic. The posts usually don't mention his business directly, which I guess you could read as steering clear of outright advertising, or also read as not full disclosure, depending on how you see it. I guess what matters is what's ok the way Tideland sees it.

 

I thought about the PRIME inverter system, but in the end, I concluded that it was not big enough for my need. A portable dual fuel or even better, triple fule if you have a natural gas line to the home, would serve much better and way cheaper for the same power. I currently have a 7.5kW dual fuel portable generator that cost less than $800. But I think I will have to upgrade it with a bigger one if I want to use hot water during a power outage...

 

Tagging on to your post-- I'm in post-hurricane Houston and am interested in using one or more of my 3 (yes, 3) Priuses as an emergency generator for the next freezepocalypse or baby hurricane that comes my way. I like that I already own 3 potential generators so would not have to spend several hundred dollars on a gas- or solar- powered generator and I really like that the car is cleaner and much more fuel efficient than a gas generator. Reading fellow Houstonians post-hurricane comments, I can see that folks spent a lot on gas (gasoline and LP gas) and also used a lot of gasoline which was hard to find for a few days, defeating the purpose of having a stand-alone generator. According to very many post-storm reports, gas generators seem to use about one-half to one full gallon of gas per hour and also require frequent maintenance that I'm not terribly interested in doing.

I've gathered from reviewing possibly every post or video available in the internet that I should not use a larger than 1000 watt inverter on the 12v battery to stay comfortably below maxing out the potential wattage available via the car. I have seen 2 videos and one comment (Anjunaspeak23, below) from folks have used a 2000 watt inverter, I'd like to not put any of my 3 cars in any danger since all 3 are also daily use vehicles.

Is the 1000 watt inverter the best choice for safety in your (anyone who has considered, is knowledgeable about, or has done this) opinion?

I also understand I should stay 20% below the maximum of 1000 watts available using the inverter so I was thinking that I could get a comfortable 800 watts per car. 800 watts would give me a great deal of comfort. I've determined that my fridge uses 379 watts. Caution says I should allow twice that for surges- or when the fridge needs to power up- so I calculated to allow the fridge 758 watts. Caution implies to me that I should use one car and one 1000 watt inverter as a stand-alone for the fridge only. Spending about $200 dollars on an inverter and a heavy duty power cord, and not losing a couple of hundred dollars worth of food makes this seem like a good investment. Do you (anyone who has considered, is knowledgeable about, or has done this) have an opinion on this?

I was thinking I could disconnect the fridge from time-to-time to power other kitchen stuff except that other kitchen items use a surprisingly large amount of power. For example, the coffee pot says it needs 1550 watts. The microwave says it needs 1150 watts. The tea kettle wants 1000 watts. At these numbers, I'm not sure I can actually use these other kitchen items at all if I adhere to my previous "caution" plans of 800 watts max. I guess I'm wondering if I'm being overly cautious or if I should just plan on some other method(s) of food prep.

I still have two other cars and could use one or two of them to run stuff like fans, routers, lights, and even the router household computers, since none of those items are watt-hogs. This would make life much less boring.

A final question- most inverters allow for two extension cords. I presume this means, using my cautious math, that I can only plan on about 400 watts per cord (or 500/300, 0r 200,600, etc.) Is this correct?

I guess I'd like opinions and thoughts on these plans and also opinions and thoughts on if I'm being too conservative on my planned usage of 800 watts per car.

 

I have a 12-volt input, 1000 watt inverter in my gen 3, which is about as large as I would go with something powered from the 12-volt system. Gen 3's DC/DC converter is rated 120 amps, which is somewhere from 1440 watts at 12 volts to 1680 watts at 14 volts, and the car itself uses anywhere from about 400 watts with most accessories turned off, to a lot more when several of its more power-hungry electrical bits are in use (it's safe to assume Toyota didn't go a lot bigger on DC/DC converter capacity than the car's own worst-case usage would demand).

You have posted this in the 2017–2022 Prime forum, and I do not know if that model's DC/DC converter specs are much different from the gen 3's.

I have a six-quart Instant Pot in my kitchen, which draws too much for a 1000-watt inverter, but I have a three-quart version that uses 700 watts, and so runs quite comfortably in the car. It is quite a versatile appliance.

It is, of course, possible to get a good deal more power using an inverter powered from the car's high-voltage system, which was the idea Randy opened this thread with. As I understand it, though, Randy's company is no longer selling any of those at the moment.

 

800watts? Ouch

I have 4400watts of solar panels powering my house.

My wife would freak if she could not run her coffee percolator.

My biggest load is out wellpump, following by the septic transfer pump. Both run at 7amps, but both surge at 15 amps. Sometimes if they both kick on at the same time [or maybe the refrigerator or a freezer kicks on] it will be too much of a surge for our invertor, and it will reboot.

Are you really sure that 800watts will be enough?

 

Thanks so much!

I missed that this was the 2017-2022 Prime forum and I do not have a Prime. There was one available locally a while back but someone else got it before I did. It was Candy Apple Red or Red Pearl of something, if I recall correctly. I've (my personal vehicle) got a Gen 3. I think I also have another Gen 3 and a older Gen 2. I'll have to check.

I greatly appreciate your advice on what I could reasonably expect in Watts from the 12 volt battery. It seems I'm safe to consider the 1000 Watt inverter and to have plans to use it at 800 Watts. My plan was to use the 1, 2, or even all 3 cars as generators in case of a severe weather event. The Texas power system isn't reliable at this time.

I saw that PlugOut Power is no longer in business and I did not find any other company that is filling that void. I'm not willing to mess with the HV myself (at least this year. Let's see how this hurricane season shakes out!) so I'm looking at just 12v solutions for now.

I'm thinking of getting some emergency/hurricane/freezpocalypse appliances that run at less that 1000 watts such as the small Insta Pot you mentioned. I saw Walmart has a cheap-o, $10.00, 5-cup coffee pot that runs at 700 watts. We're toiugh folks and could get by with just a few necessities such as coffee, a way to heat some food that's not the fireplace or the Coleman stove (outdoors, rain), some light at night, and some fans to keep cool with.

 

No, 800 Watts isn't enough. But I live in the 4th largest city in the nation so I'm planning for a (hopefully) short term alternative to loss of electricity, and not running a homestead. But I also have 3 Priuses so I can have three 800 Watt generators if I plan things well. I think that would be enough to give me coffee, fans, lights, computers, charge my phone, allow some cooking, and to run my fridge (and not lose hundreds of dollars worth of food) for a few days to weeks during the next weather emergency.

The last time I looked into solar panels for my house, the seller/org said my house was not a good candidate for solar panels. Perhaps that has changed but I'm really planning right now on how to deal with this year's hurricane season. We just had an early Cat I that shut the city down. I'd like to use the cars to avoid the unpleasantness we just suffered these last couple of weeks without power.

I do appreciate your advice about planning for the surge Watts.

 

Just to follow up- I don't have a Prime but I did finish the Prius-As-Generator project: How I Prepared My 2012 Prius Hybrid For Use As An Emergency Generator To Run My Refrigerator In A Power Outage. (Long)

 

That was an interesting article about using an inverter to convert 12V to 120V using the 12V battery of a regular Prius. My understanding is that the traction battery of the Prime will not recharge the 12V battery if the car is just sitting and if it is depleted sufficiently, you cannot start the car. So am I correct in concluding that we cannot use an inverter like that on our Primes?
Ray

 

I had the same thought reading this thread for the first time yesterday. There are certain conditions while in ready mode that can bring the 12 volt battery below 12 volts within a mile while driving. I stopped watching the 12 volt battery voltage drop at 10 volts during one test.
There might be a workaround for that issue, but if there is I haven't heard about it.

Oh I'd forgotten about the one workaround for camping in a prime I was told about recently that I haven't gotten around to trying,
And it's not relative to using an inverter in the Prime, but to use the HVAC system heating or A/C while camping
One suggestion is to Plugin the Prime and have a 12 volt trickle charger or jump pack available. Than, I'm told the Prime works almost like a regular Prius while camping in the car overnight.

Dang, thinking about that Prime camping mode bends my mind.
Since the Prime doesn't allow going into ready mode while it's plugged in.
It will go into ACC and ON modes, but in On mode the Prime (at least my Prime) shuts itself off after 2 minutes.
PreConditioning works anytime Prime is plugged in or not plugged in,
but it only run the HVAC system for 10 minutes before shutting off completely like On mode does,
and starting the hybrid battery charging top off routine.
PreConditioning can also be run several times in a row, but it needs to be restarted every 10 minutes.

Not anything like a regular Prius is said to work while camping, from what I've read about it.