Does anyone know the output capacity of the 12V battery charger? After reading the stories about guys hooking up an inverter to use their Prii as generators, I wanted to look into it. My understanding is that the 12V is charged off of the traction battery. When the traction battery gets low, the engine turns on. However, I haven't been able to find any definite answer about the spec on the 12V charger. I realize that the system should allow for fairly large surges, but I want to know how much the maximum continuous average is.
To the best of my knowledge, no one has these specs. The best I've been able to do is measure the NHW11, 12 VDC inverter output, and it seems to be ~1 Kw in addition providing power for the vehicle electronics. I haven't started on my wife's ZVW30. Bob Wilson
Wouldn't it be far more effective to tap into the traction battery directly? You may not be able to buy an off the shelf inverter, but I believe the power output would be much greater.
Bob Wilson (above) has the 12V answer: ~1KW. He's done the experiments and the measurements. The traction battery, with suitable voltage conversion, will give you 3kW continuously, and much more for peak motor starting loads. More info at PriUPS.com Richard
