Can a DC to AC power inverter be hooked up to the 12 volt battery on an Insight; like on any other car? I'm wanting to use my Insight to power my house with a 3k or 5k watt inverter, in case of a power failure.
__________________ 2010 EX with DDM 4500k HID Low Beams; with relay harness. Honda Splash Guards. Honda Vent Visors. Honda Rear Bumper Applique. Honda All Weather Floor Mats and Cargo Tray. Honda Leather Steering Wheel Cover. Yokohama Avid Touring S 195 60 15 Tires. Insulated doors for road noise with Quick Roof. kjanracings window rattle fix. Oversized Amsoil EAO44 Oil Filter. Honda Accord Low Horn Upgrade.
There is a thread about your question posted last week, can't find the link.
Willie
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01 MT "Little Red Rocket"
The first "TURBOCHARGED" Hybrid, Insight G1- (01/2003)
MaxIMA Battery (Serial #2), on 8/25/12 @ 301,520 miles
Use: 320,000 mi. @ 57.8 LMPG
Can a DC to AC power inverter be hooked up to the 12 volt battery on an Insight; like on any other car? I'm wanting to use my Insight to power my house with a 3k or 5k watt inverter, in case of a power failure.
I've attached a 300W inverter to my Insight to power my 20W laptop, but I'm not sure you could get away with a 3KW or 5KW inverter. Even a 3K inverter would draw 250 amps from a 12V battery if fully loaded. The 12V batteries in these cars are really small and probably could not provide that much current even for a short time. The engine would have to be running, but even if the IMA motor can generate 3KW, I'd be surprised if the DC to DC inverter in the insight is designed supply that much power to the 12V charging side.
There is a kid who works next door to me that showed me a 3000 w(peak) inverter that he ran off his Honda Fit to power things in his home during Hurricane Sandy. He said he went through 1 gallon of gasoline per hour. It's one sold by Harbor Freight Tools for around $130.00.
__________________ 2010 EX with DDM 4500k HID Low Beams; with relay harness. Honda Splash Guards. Honda Vent Visors. Honda Rear Bumper Applique. Honda All Weather Floor Mats and Cargo Tray. Honda Leather Steering Wheel Cover. Yokohama Avid Touring S 195 60 15 Tires. Insulated doors for road noise with Quick Roof. kjanracings window rattle fix. Oversized Amsoil EAO44 Oil Filter. Honda Accord Low Horn Upgrade.
There is a kid who works next door to me that showed me a 3000 w(peak) inverter that he ran off his Honda Fit to power things in his home during Hurricane Sandy. He said he went through 1 gallon of gasoline per hour. It's one sold by Harbor Freight Tools for around $130.00.
I can believe that, it's probably very situation dependent. If you attach a 3kW inverter and only pull a few hundred watts of average power to run lights and other light loads you will probably be OK. You can probably put the fridge on as well if the system can handle the peak starting load. But I think you will have problems if you try to draw several thousand watts continuous (I don't know what the continuous rating is on your friend's inverter is).
Most small cars like the fit have around an 80 amp alternator. Even if that's a continuous capacity, it would limit the continuous power to around 1000 watts (at 12V), so as long as his average load was less than 1000 watts, he might be able to pull it off.
On the good side, I doubt you can damage the car by trying if you do it carefully (maybe you can borrow his inverter to test it out before buying one). The 12V charging system in the insight does not use a conventional alternator, it uses the IMA motor and a DC to DC inverter. If the DC-DC inverter is designed to be equivalent to an 80-amp alternator, you might be able to get away with something around a 1000W continuous load. Not knowing the exact load capacity of the DC-DC inverter or how tolerant it is of overloading, I would gradually increase the load to what you want and make sure the ECU does not throw up any error codes and also monitor the battery voltage to watch for any signs that the DC-DC inverter is starting to show strain in keeping the voltage up.
Well, I think it's worth a try, but increase the load slowly and monitor the battery voltage and the car's display for errors. As a side benefit, you will have determined the actual capacity of the charging system in the car.
I wouldnt go over a 70 amp max model or 840 watts at least in use. Surge is ok for start up, say a thousand or 1200 watts.
A gallon an hour? My Insight uses .19 of a gallon an hour of fuel at idle. Id say a week at that load.
My idea was to get a grid tie inverter that accepts 100 volts on the intake side and hook it to the ima terminals in the back and cut out the step down of the dc to dc converter as well as step up of the 12 to 120. Only problem is this needs to be interconnected with a generator or a 2nd inverter to generate a signal for it to copy. I planned on using it in conjunction with a small 8000 watt generator we have.
I wouldnt go over a 70 amp max model or 840 watts at least in use. Surge is ok for start up, say a thousand or 1200 watts.
A gallon an hour? My Insight uses .19 of a gallon an hour of fuel at idle. Id say a week at that load.
My idea was to get a grid tie inverter that accepts 100 volts on the intake side and hook it to the ima terminals in the back and cut out the step down of the dc to dc converter as well as step up of the 12 to 120. Only problem is this needs to be interconnected with a generator or a 2nd inverter to generate a signal for it to copy. I planned on using it in conjunction with a small 8000 watt generator we have.
The idea of a 100V input converter to bypass the DC-DC step down and step up is really good, especially since the IMA motor can probably generate a lot more power than the DC-DC inverter can supply to 12V side. It is more complex though (need to hook in to the 100V terminals), and probably more expensive since 100V input converters are not a dime a dozen like the 12V ones. Probably a good thing to consider though for people who have already gained access to their 100V terminals.
Several years ago I had a surplus commercial UPS that used a 96V stack of gel cells and probably would have been perfect for this use, but I sold it because I didn't have space for it (it was BIG), and it didn't run very long on the gel cells when powering a lot of stuff in the house.
Here is one or example. They are all over the place with lots of spec misprints and grammar issues. The only problem with this is that you need something already producing 110 volts ac and it will match it. So lets say you already got a generator or a small inverter on the 12 volt side, you can plug this into it and as the load increases this will pick up the slack.
Ths model has bare wires to aire up to a plug or panel. A trpical circuit or extension cord tops out at 1525 watts.
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Can power inverter be hooked up to Insight?
