Prius Prime plug-out, backup power supply for house

In my Gen 2 Prius I attached a 1500 watt inverter directly to the 12v battery. It worked great. Powered the essentials in the house for a few days using about a gallon per day. I used a high quality inverter to get a true sine wave so delicate electronics would work properly. I don't think it should be any different for a Gen 4. Anyone done this with a Gen 4?
Since the car is regularly serviced, none of the separate maintenance and periodic testing for a separate generator is needed. I only expect to use it occasionally for a week at the most. Medical equipment and the DSL router are the important pieces of equipment that need to run when the power is out. Being in the area where PG&E may preemptively shut off power in the summer to reduce the risk of fires, a generator is needed and the Gen 2 Prius worked great last year.

 

I have a 2013 Prius Plugin Hybrid and wanted to use it to power the house during emergency - few LED lights, a furnace (if possible) or a heater fan + the laptop, the wifi router and the modem. Based on one of the forums, I came to know that it is easy to tap power from the plugin hybrid car as compared to the regular Prius. Appreciate any pointers or help me do this. Thanks in advance.

 

On my Gen II there was an extra little wire coming off the negative side battery terminal. After I found out it was what the car used to monitor the 12 volt battery I decided not to mess with it. Don't know where it went at the other end.

 

They can connect, but it is not as simple as just a pair of wires running straight from the one to the other (This would insta-flash the 12 volt battery) The car monitors the state of the 12 volt battery and if it gets low the car will send power - maybe 15 volts but NOT the full voltage of the traction battery.

It does this all the time and doesn't particularly care what the load on the 12 volt is. If your car is sitting there with all its lights on or running your awesome high-power stereo setup or if it is running an inverter, it's all the same to the car. When the 12 volt gets back up to its proper strength the car stops charging it. It can do this all day, this is not hard work, it doesn't mind.

 

I used something called an Anderson Power Pole connector on my setup. One side was wired to the battery terminals and had a DC circuit breaker just out from the battery on the positive side. You could unplug the inverter and remove it bodily from the car when you didn't need it. The connectors are not physically able to connect backwards. I would flip a dust cover over plug when I wasn't using it.

 

Didn't know about the inverter in Rav4Prime and HIHy, but PRIUS PRIME which is called Prius PHV in Japan has always had an option of inverter off from the traction battery to be used for whole house or at camping. In fact, that option even existed in 1st gen Prius Plugin in Japan. But it was and still is a rather expensive option, IIRC. Along with the solar roof panel, Toyota must thought the option was too expensive and too low demands for the US market.

 

If the inverter they're using is the top one described here, then it does run from the higher-voltage system, so the only part of your question left is why they didn't allow much higher wattage. Size/cooling/expense maybe?



The part in Highlander (as well as I can figure it) seems to be 8624A-48010, but I'm striking out finding any actual image of that part.

That wire in Gen 1 and Gen 2 goes to the voltage sense terminal of the DC/DC converter under the hood (but it comes off the battery positive terminal, not the negative). Weirdly, there's still such a connection on Gen 3's DC/DC converter, but the wire only goes as far as the underhood fusebox, so the converter is just controlling the voltage it delivers to the DC bus up front, rather than to the battery itself. (But Gen 3 added a temperature sensor over the aux battery, so maybe that turned out to be a better way to control things.)

 

My Matrix had a 120V/100watt outlet, so these are likely using readily available parts designed for a typical ICE car, which leads to the real reason for not having higher power; cost.

Cost also plays a part in why the Prius doesn't have any. Then people being away from a power source will likely choose a SUV; they are on the SUVs because it is seen being useful for camping, not as a back up power in an emergency.

There is the inverter widget that plugs into the j1772 charge port. It is low power for running a few things when away from a outlet. It shouldn't be too pricey.

The system that lets any plug in, and even some FCEVs, power a whole house in Japan requires the car to have a CHAdeMO DC charge port. The only Toyota that was planned to have a CHAdeMO port in the US was the Mirai. I think that was cancelled, as the charger/power station needed at the house was around $8000 a few years ago. Price may have dropped, but it will still be competing with whole house generators and battery back ups. Why go with the solution that needs the car parked at home, when you can get one that can charge the car?

 

Japanese Prius PHV has the inverter sitting under the rear seat. US Prius Prime has empty dead space there.

Wow lots of spare room under the left rear seat | PriusChat

 

I think Toyota started with putting inverters with outlets into their hybrids, because Ford has put such into the F150 hybrid, and for electronic 'toys', some of which can't use USB for power. We've been asking for long enough for that not to be the sole reason at this time.

"Why not the Prius?" The Prius came out before any of the models that have it, and it nearing the end of the generation cycle. Toyota probably feels it is better to wait for the next gen at this point to have something new to boast on the press release.

Much of Japan's grid is lower power than most of the world; it takes twice as long to charge the PHV on residential current with Level 1, with Level 2 not being possible. Their appliances are designed for that, so they don't need the higher power from the car. The inverter in the Prius PHV is 100V.

That inverter may not have any outlets in the car. It appears to be an AC version of the CHAdeMO DC system Japan has for V2H.
Toyota Prius Plug-in in vehicle-to-home tests in Japan

Note, you still need a V2H car charger installed at the home for that back up power.

 

Current Japanese models of Prius both regular and PHV do come with two AC100V 1500W outlets in the car. Sorry, I could not find the English page, but if you click on the left top box, you will see the diagram.
トヨタ プリウスPHV | キャンペーン | 電源供給サイト | トヨタ自動車WEBサイト



In fact, I just found out the same AC100v/1500W inverter system (but only one outlet in the car) is available in the new Toyota Aqua (aka Prius C in the US) as standard on all trims.
トヨタ クルマ救電 | トヨタ自動車WEBサイト

 

Mikhail Bond has recently said he plans to show us his inverted setup.

 

Has anybody here used a Converdant or Plugout Power setup?

 

I have one of the old Converdant units, but I don't have a Prime.

I don't think any of the old Converdant units would be suitable for the 351+ volt battery of the Prime.

It may be possible that Randy's newer company, PlugOut Power, has a product that would work.

Our general thread on those kinds of products ought (we hope) to be the first place to look if you are interested in traction-battery-supplied inverters that will work for a particular model.

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

 

Chapman would you mind sending me a PM with a photo of the product information plate for each of the two devices that are being used to create this. One of the items looks like a 48 volt solar panel inverter. I'm guessing the other one is a rectifier?

 

Dual fuel 10K here much more reasonable than vehicle piggybacking. I can get a built-in 22 KW and it's transfer switch automatic very reasonable but I have no need for this every 7 years it might be used 20 minutes certainly not worth paying 8 to 12 grand for My portable and the plug I plug it into I put in myself in my power panel in an afternoon. The generator is electric start and it sits in one place covered until it's needed and even has a remote to start it which I do not use personally but maybe the women will after I'm gone or like I say it's almost never used I have to go out and turn it on once a season just to make sure everything is up to snuff because it's never used. Sometimes I just use it and plug up my power tools outside to it just to let it work a few minutes it's actually one of the poorest thought out purchases I've ever made. As it's never used. I have 600 gallons of water above ground at all times so if the power goes out I could use a 12 volt pump to move it to the toilet and the sink if I had to but rather than do all that I bought the generator and the flip a switch every so often

 

While I gave a link above to a lot of information on the old Converdant unit that I have, I am not especially well positioned to supply any photos of Randy's newer products that I don't have.

As you can see from my write-up of the old Converdant unit, it was built on a single-phase inverter driving a transformer with center-tapped secondary, in order to produce split-phase output. In the unit I have, there's just one cabinet, with the big transformer in the bottom.

To me, it looks like Randy's newer offerings just have the transformer packaged in a separate cabinet.

 

The potential infrequent use of an emergency generator is the appeal of using the car instead. Once installed, the components are no maintenance, and the car is already seeing regular use and care. A separate genset can be done for less, but now you have another engine to take care of through the years.