Recommendation for new accessory pure sine wave inverter

About a 1000 watt continuous rating (which may have a larger 'surge' rating) is the maximum that makes sense given the capacity of the car's DC/DC converter and the amount of that power that is needed by the car.

For Gen 3, there's a published figure for the DC/DC converter capacity: 120 amps, which comes to around 1600 W. The car itself uses around 400 of that at a minimum, up to more like all of it if you've got the lights and defoggers and seat heaters and supplemental heater elements going.

I keep seeing threads where people are wiring up inverters of double that rating or so, as if bigger were better. If it's because you found a spectacular price on a 1.5 or 2 kW unit, I can understand that, as long as you're not seriously planning to draw that much.

I've been happy with Xantrex's Prowatt SW line, maybe because they were the first ones I found that brought the price of sine output down from the stratosphere compared to "modified sine". But now there are lots of affordable sine options.

 

Try plugoutpower.com they have 3kw and 5kw inverters.
They get power from the HV battery not the little 12v.

I used code 7373

 

Always and everywhere an added branch from an electrical system gets a fuse appropriately chosen to protect the branch.

In a Gen 2 Prius, there is a convenient and obvious place to tap in, where your tap is electrically between the car's DC/DC converter and the 12 volt battery, and is protected from both sources by high-current fuses. That location is not where the cable's attached in this image, but where the arrow indicates. (The plastic fuse block has a foldable 'door' that opens there, revealing the bolted connection on the protected side of the fuse.)



Here's a picture from a Gen 1 (used a similar fuse block) with the 'door' opened showing the connection. (Green arrow at lower right.)



Unless your added wiring or equipment can all safely handle a fault current as large as the Toyota-provided fusible links in that cable, you then add a fuse appropriately sized for what you're adding, as close to the tap point as practicable. You can choose fuses and fuseholders knowing that the maximum fault current they'll have to withstand is limited by the Toyota fuse links.

If you keep the car for a while, it could grow a collection of things back there, with their various separate fuses.

 

I tend to be kind of minimal about mounting (not a fan of making new holes in my car). When I had a Gen 1 (trunk instead of hatch), I had it hanging at the left of the trunk by the battery, just low enough for the trunk lid hinges to clear.



In my Gen 3, it sits on top of the spare tire, under the cargo box. The tire kind of leans forward, so there's space for that at the front.

Gen 3 does not duct the traction battery air exhaust all the way to the quarter vent; it just kind of exhausts into the space under the cargo box (where it can only eventually get to the quarter vents anyway). That's kind of handy for me, having an inverter under there.

As Gen 2 does confine the traction battery air into a duct, that might be a more questionable arrangement in a Gen 2.

I just run an extension cord from wherever the inverter is to a convenient spot in the cabin



and wire from the remote control jack to the dash

 

It has its own fan, which it turns on if it starts feeling warm. That has happened.

It can also complain and shut down if it gets too warm. I don't think I've ever had that happen.

But I'm not a super heavy user of it; it's there more for convenience than for, you know, running heavy stuff day in and day out.

If I were planning to run a power tool for an extended time or something like that, I might think about propping up the cargo box for the duration. Or do that if the inverter complained.

 

More details on that in this older post.

 

Looks like you meant Amazon B01G2JMEUQ ?

Looks decent to me. Appears to want ring terminal connections. On wiring of that size, unless you've got the pretty expensive properly sized crimp tooling yourself, it is easiest to stop by your local automotive electrical shoppe and say "please make me a wire of such-and-such gauge, yea long, with this size ring terminal on this end ...".

 

There's a section in your Gen 2 owners' manual about things that need various dances after reconnecting power. Some you might not naturally think of, like the power windows.

 

Could people who've got a 1500-2000w pure sine wave inverter and is comfortable with using a voltmeter to test AC voltages, please let me know if you've got models that generate all the voltage on the AC outlet's hot wire (the little one)?

I bought a great, used Vector 054D inverter (modified sine, floating grounds, slow-start technology for large motors) but it puts out 60VAC on hot and 60VAC on neutral, which is incompatible with house wiring/transfer switches.

I'm trying to see what my options are for inverters that do the 'correct' voltage only on the hot wire - and so can be connected to a transfer switch, assuming they have floating grounds.

I've been told that a Samlex line, the PST series can do this, after the bonded ground is disconnected by the user (which the manufacturer allows under warranty via an access panel). That unit is about $700, so I'm hoping to hear from owners of less expensive 1500-2000w especially. Thanks

 

I see that someone has written that in a review on Amazon. Have you confirmed it yourself, and if so, can you describe your measurement setup precisely? What do you measure if you bond the neutral and ground together?

(If you are concerned about such a test letting the smoke out, you could begin by bonding the two through something like a 4.7 kΩ 1W resistor and measure what actual current flows. I expect you will find it to be negligible, and can then proceed to checking with the neutral and ground bonded. Or if you don't like large leaps of faith, you could repeat the test with one or two smaller resistance values and plot the measured current.)

 

Here is mine --works perfect:

 

That review is mine; yes, it has the VAC split over hot and neutral.