My wife is about to take a 1,500 mile road trip with the Prius. She bought a Belkin 300W AC inverter. It has 2 outlets to plus stuff into. My concern is it's going to either pop fuses, or even worse, damage wiring? I didn't think the DC outlet can handle much? What do you all think?
Sounds like at full load it would be too much for the 12V socket, maybe up to 30A full load. I'm not sure what the 12V accessory socket is rated at on the Prius, but on most cars it's only 10 to 15 amps. (hopefully someone else can come in with more specific details on the Prius) What devices specifically does your wife want to use. Something like a laptop computer or a mobile phone charger should be ok (as long as it's not one of those laptops that runs ridiculously hot). If she wants to use something like a hairdryer however, then that definitely could be a problem.
sockets are rated at 10 amps... only use them to power phones and possibly if anyone has a cigarette lighter charger for a computer or something. 10 amps is just a tad over 100 watts... not a whole lot... any inverters should be hooked up to the battery. inverters should never be ran unless the car is in READY mode. the battery may be able to handle it for short term.. but you'll take the life out of it.
