Posted on 07/26/2011 12:15:56 PM PDT by Red Badger
So many people here have no sense of humor, it seems. Yes, I realize that cigarette lighters don’t put out household voltage, nor can they supply the amount of watts being talked about.
Just trying to have a little fun.
You could run a 100W light bulb. If you can still find one. ;-)
Seriously, a crock pot on low will run 100W and keep your sausages warm during your tailgate party.
OK, I looked up comments on that 2000Watt/5000 watt peak converter, and it looks like it’s made for dual-battery trucks; it has two sets of cables.
I purchased this as a large capacity inverter system for my truck. It is a continuous duty inverter with DUAL positive and negative cables. I have no idea why they are like that but it won’t run without all of them hooked up.
This inverter never shuts off fully. The switch will only shutoff the AC output, the DC continues to draw power so I’ll wire in a switch and relay to prevent dead batteries. It’s best to use this while the vehicle is running because the power draw is too much for a car battery and not much better for dual truck batteries. I’d recommend a secondary deep cycle battery for the inverter system.
If your battery is standard 12 volt accessory, I doubt your numbers are correct — the battery would have to deliver more than 500 amps in order to drive an inverter at 5000 watts.
They are deep cycle marine starting batteries. 160 minutes at 25 amps according to interstate. Model SRM-27
http://www.interstatebatteries.com/cs_eStore/content/product_info/marine_f.asp
The biggest car battery I could find was around 62 amp-hours, which would run your system for about 10 minutes.
I get 30 minutes between engine starts. sometimes more depending on load. My most demanding items are heaters. They cycle on and off so it can very a bit.
A car alternator can put out about 50 amps max at 14 volts; you could have a larger one, but not 500 amps. 50 amps at 14 volts is about 5 amps at 120 volts. This is about 700 watts.
Mine puts out a tested 204 amps. I linked to it on my build sheet someone asked for. It is designed to run high powered car audio systems. I also stated my car only runs the inverter at HALF power. or about 20 amps otherwise the alternator can not keep up.
IN order to get 500 amps out of a car battery, assuming the battery could do so for more than a few seconds, you would need wires big enough to handle 500 amps. The largest common rated wire is 0000 gauge, which is about 1/2 inch diameter wire. It can carry about 300-380 amps.
At half power the inverter pulls 250 amps. I run it right at the cars limit or around 195Amps to allow a little bit to keep the cars systems running. I also have to have a idle stepup to get the engine turning fast enough to allow the alt to produce the full out put. I’d have to hook it all up to check but I think it turns out to be about 1400 RPM. The jumper cable set I have is heavy duty truck cables. From a wrecked wrecker. Not sure of the gauge but they are plenty thick. Likely 0 gauge. Also, the longer the wire, the larger it needs to be. My total wire length is 48” Just enough to get from the car through a opening in the back of the building.
Long-term amp max for 4 gauge wire is about 60 amps.
The clamps are where you have problems. I have NO clamps on my system. My system uses a connector just like an electric fork lift and is directly connected to the main battery in the car and the inverter on the other end.
A typical car lighter has a 10 amp or 20 amp fuse. That translates to a wattage of 120-240 watts. But you said you hooked directly to the battery.
The Prius pulls a lot more wattage from their battery, but that’s because the battery is hundreds of volts, cutting down the current.
If you have a 24-volt battery system, all the numbers above are cut in half — but it would still be hard to pull 5000 watts from any normal configuration, even with the 32-volt battery system.
I have fiddled with a 2500/500 watt inverter driven by six or eight 225 amp/hr (6 volt) golf cart batteries hooked in series/parallel with 12V output. The batteries were charged by a heavy duty alternator on an older E350 diesel. Cables were 2 gauge and they didn’t get very warm.
This was used to run a typical 5000 btu window air conditioner. I think the placarded steady state current consumption was around 7 amps (120v).
The combination “worked” but only after I switched to a different brand inverter (about same rating). The first inverter would not usually start the A/C compressor due to the start-up surge requirements. I forget the peak current drain but I looked at all that.
The interesting thing was how wildly fast the running air conditioner would draw down the battery bank. It would suck out the current like the eye of a hurricane. Running the diesel did keep up with the current drain but just barely. The is about what you would expect from a 125 amp alternator given the voltage conversion and inverter inefficiencies.
Another interesting thing was much current the inverter used at an idle state (no load). Again, I don’t want to quote from memory but it was a whole bunch. In other words, the inverter wasn’t very efficient. The highest quality inverters are better but you still need to take the inefficiencies into account.
Kill the EPA ....give me a turbo diesel that gets 100mpg an is made of nerf !
.....:o)
Set it up as a roadside deer stand, TV, corn popper, jack light.
Over the road truckers have been using a device called an inverter for decades . It plugs into the cigarette lighter & the more expensive ones $400.00 - $500.00 range beat the kW rating of this Prius gadget. Ham radio types homebrew a small one lung engine with a car alternator & battery/inverter to do the same thing for their radio stations . It provides the needed power & it sips gasoline . These options are a hell of a lot cheaper than a $40,000 car. Hell you can go to Sam’s club or Costco & get a contractor grade generator in the 3-4kW range for $400.00 - $500.00 .
Don’t got one of those piddly things got one from the truck stop. can plug into the cigarette lighter but also comes with heavy gauge wire & jumper cable clamps to connect to the battery. 1.2kW continuous 2kW surge. $35.00 at the local truck stop.
“These options are a hell of a lot cheaper than a $40,000 car.”
Except a Prius is around $24k, new.
I’m just saying, if they lower the cost, and provide function, the car is worth considering.
Oh please $30 gees and a satellite radio....what a deal. /sarc
Let them put me in the dark. I’ll start my 8000 watt generator, with the Briggs and Stratton 16 HP gasoline engine, and about 30 gallons of gas. I’m a child of the light and won’t be in the dark! I’ll save my Prius for driving.
I’m looking to install a 10kw natural gas auto-start generator, because I also hate being in the dark. And our power hardly ever goes out, but I just hate the few hours when you don’t know.
I think you are confusing the Prius with the Chevy Volt. In that case, I agree with you.
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