My Prius is powering my house

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(paulccullen @ Dec 16 2006, 03:06 PM) [snapback]363152[/snapback]</div>

Paul,

That just rocks! I hadn't ever thought of a Prius being used in this way. And, anyone, what is this 1kw inverter? Is this something I can buy at a hardware store? Seems like a great thing to have around in case of emergencies. Although to use this method in Chicago, I'd need to get a boot to put on the car to keep it from being stolen. :huh: --Scott

 

How many of your neighbors and friends have noticed that your Prius is providing you power?

Just another Prius perk.

 

A 1 Kw inverter is a 1000 watt inverter. You can get them at Costco sometimes, maybe even at Costco.com all the time. I picked one up to use with my 75 watt solar panel that I use to power my rechargeable cordless lawn equipment.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?...browse=&s=1

57.99
When I got mine, it was $80.00.

In an emergency, I could connect it to my Prius, but I would like to one day put it in there full time.

 

The Prius in 'ready mode' can deliver up to 100 amps to its 12 volt system. This is where most people connect outboard inverters. The low-priced ($60 - $160) options provide 'modified sine wave' power. Some motors and switching power supplies are offended by this power. Pure sine wave invters in the 1 kilowatt class can be found for $350 or higher, and they provide a waveform just as nice as the (sometimes absent) power companies do.

A Prius with a full fuel tank will deliver 2 to 7 days of electricity thus; sorry, the definitive data have not yet been published. Certainly it is quet and low-emission, compared to standalone portable electrical generators.

If you use a large inverter, protecting the Prius' electrical system with a separate fuse is very important; how to do this may have already been covered in a Priuschat thread. It is not difficult to add this capability to your Prius, and it will provide benefits in emergency situations as described here.

 

Another PC member (bwilson4web) did the same. Here is his detailed description of installation and testing:

http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/priups.html

 

Well done!

BTW, Doug has a nice inverter setup too. We are both using the same corner of the trunk in our NHW11 model Prius. Doug also has a nice diode protected, backup battery setup.

One thing not mentioned is inrush loads. Some equipment, TV and laptop power supplies, have a significant inrush that can trip the overload circuit in the inverter. To solve the problem, I'm mounting some inrush thermistors in a 'pig-tail' outlet.

Bob Wilson

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(paulccullen @ Dec 16 2006, 11:44 PM) [snapback]363330[/snapback]</div>

That's so cool. I'm surprised at how inexpensive the inverter is. I'm going to have to look into that myself, although we've only rarely had power outages that last more than a few hours in Cheney. I saw in "The Olympian" this a.m. That there are still 48,000 homes still without power. I don't know if that's just the Seattle area, or Olympia or over the whole west side of the state. I didn't read the article, just the headlines.

Most of the street lights were out as I came into Olympia yesterday afternoon.

Dave M.

 

Just curious. Has anyone tried a configuration using the high voltage battery vs. the 12volt to get to 110VAC?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(unruhly @ Dec 17 2006, 04:50 PM) [snapback]363458[/snapback]</div>

Yes indeed. See Richard Factor's fabulous site documenting how he did it at priups.com. With a little help from him, I have too.

Charlie

 

I wanted to do something like what they did at priups.com but I'll be damed if I can find any actual info. on how to do it, seems like just a bunch of talking about the concept of doing it.

Crichman do you have the little house on the Prius screen when plugged in?

Viro

 

Does the car sense when the 12v battery is drawn down and then starts to charge it? I thought that was only for the HV battery. If this is true, the inverter is a must have mod!

 

Back around Thanksgiving, when St. Louis got hit with the ice/snow storm, my sons were without power for a week :angry: . My wife and I, with our 2005 prius happened to be visiting. hooked up a cheap 750W invertor to the prius and powered their pellet stove for heat, tv, stereo and a couple of lamps. Worked like a champ. Used less than 3 gallons a day (much more efficient than the generator I have at home in Kansas).

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RBW111 @ Dec 19 2006, 11:44 AM) [snapback]364254[/snapback]</div>

The 12v battery is maintained by the HV battery since the Prius has no 12v generator or alternator. The ice will only come on to charge the HV battery. Some have found that this system (Prius+ Inverter) can run for several days on a tank of gas.

 

What size of an inverter would you need to keep a refrig and maybe the fan on a furnace going? Like a 2000w plus?

Viro

 

Virodeath, a fridge is a difficult starting load and a whole-house fan can be also, if its motor is large. Prius will not support simply larger & larger inverters; there are only 100 amps @ 13.8 volts available, then something expensive is going to happen. Without knowing more about your equipment, I do doubt that you can run it all from the car.

The most capable inverters are 'pure sine wave' which cost about 3.5x as much as 'modified sine wave". Pure SW do much better with these inductive loads, but I have not read of anyone using them yet in Prius.

All who add large inverters are urged to add additional fuse protection to 'sacrifice' before the main Prius 100 amp fuse blows. It would render your car inoperative until a non-trivial fuse replacement.

Of course, PriUPS leapfrogs over this limitation, but that is a big job in itself.

 

During the power outage here after a huricane I was able to power our refrigerator (Energy Star model) with an APC Smart UPS 750xl. I was able to use it for awhile to keep the refrigerator cool, then take it to my in-law's house to get it recharged, then back to our house for another run on the refrigerator. I tried to use it at my mom's house which was without power too, but her older model refrigerator pulled too much and I couldn't use it. So that was another benefit of the Energy Star model.

I've wondered if I couldn't recharge the Smart UPS with a small inverter through the lighter, but I didn't want to try it until I knew it would work. No sense in blowing fuses.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Virodeath @ Dec 19 2006, 12:40 PM) [snapback]364197[/snapback]</div>

Sorry, no icons.

This is the entry to the part of his site that I found particularly useful: http://priups.com/misc/bonus-15mar06.htm

My little bit can be found here: http://priups.com/others/index.html

In brief, the Prius traction battery powers a pair of modified 48v power supplies, which together run an HP/Compaq R3000XR UPS in lieu of the regular internal battery pack. With the addition of some big capacitors to help handle surge loads on those supplies, I can run my fridge and my furnace fan from that UPS. (Without them, the fridge alone sometimes drew too much current from the 48v supplies and made the UPS drop out.) Computer UPSs aren't the best match to motor startup loads, so be aware that you probably won't be able to run them at their full nameplate capacity.

You do have to remember to have the car in ready mode, so the ICE can cycle on as needed to keep the traction battery charged. Locking the car with the mechanical key seems a good idea when you do.

Charlie