Power Inverter

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sillyboy @ Apr 10 2007, 03:43 PM) [snapback]420963[/snapback]</div>

Many inverters have car power adapters and could connect to either of the interior power outlets inside the car; others come with battery style clips and would need to be connected to suitable spots - under the hood in the spots used for jumping the car would seem reasonable but keep the cables away from moving parts. The car would need to run if you plan on power more than brief periods.

A 1250W inverter may put out 10 Amps at 120 Volts if it can draw something over 100 Amps at 12 Volts (the fuses on the Prius are unlikely to support this). This inverter when run from a Prius (as opposed to directly from a normal car battery) is suitable for running typical electronic equipment (radio, computer) or a reasonable set of lights that add up to 200 or 300 Watts. Your furnace likely has a 20 Amp breaker devoted to it in your power box. The blower motor draws heavy current, the current is drawn very unevenly (surges), and will be seen as an inductive load, so the blower motor would make for a short life for your inverter when powered properly unless it is built for inductive (heavy electric motor) loads.

 

Try this link for a lot of information on this subject.
http://www.priups.com/misc/intro.htm

 

Last year, I took my 2005 Prius to Burning Man, along with a 39 foot RV. I hooked up a small Radio Shack style inverter to the 12V power socket, and hooked that up (with an extension cord) to a power strip. The power strip fed four 110V flourescent bulb lamps put in the four peaks of our shared camp 20x20 shade structure (essentially just a big tent). The Prius was parked directly behind the shade structure.

I left the Prius powered on, but locked the door with the emergency key. I also turned off everything electrical in the car (climate system, display, radio, etc...) The ICE would go on every few hours for five or so minutes, and the inverter powered the lights constantly. Worked pretty well.

Dan

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sillyboy @ Apr 11 2007, 08:17 AM) [snapback]421476[/snapback]</div>

During or shortly after our December power outage a Seattle area Prius owner posted his use of a Prius and inverter to power his home complete with pictures. I have not been able to find it with the search feature. It looked simple. He mounted the inverter in the cargo space near the battery. I'll keep searching and try to find his post.

 

Couuldn't find the post I mentioned but here are some links that may help you.
Inverter info
http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=22487&hl=

http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=1...emergency+power

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