Thomas Edison
Active Member
Does anybody know how many amps the DC/DC converter can put out continuously? I was thinking of doing something similar and just tapping into the terminals under the seat for more power.
You can install our site as a web app on your iOS device by utilizing the Add to Home Screen feature in Safari. Please see this thread for more details on this.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
How big was the space heater?I lived in NY during Superstorm Sandy. We lost power for about a week. I used a 1200W inverter connected to the 12V on my 2012 Volt. Could leave the car on and in Mountain Mode (which kept the battery at about 35%). Worked great to run computer, TV, and space heaters at night.
...it didn't quite work...
About 1000W. The inverter I have includes a digital readout of the consumption rate. We had a newborn at the time, so it was for her. That's where I accumulated a bunch of very long extension cords to run through my house.How big was the space heater?
I didn't realize it at the time, but I should have flipped my master breaker switch off and just plugged the cord into an outlet on the house heater's gas valve circuit.
On a 110v circuit this would be just fine as long as the breaker is tripped to off so that no power can leave that circuit into the house or out to the grid. You'd want to make sure everything non-essential was unplugged from that circuit. If you had a 220v circuit, however, i've heard there may be issues because the neutral line is still going out to the grid around the breaker and the potential for a problem is there.Isn't that illegal and potentially dangerous for a lot of reasons? I know you're talking about a pretty small amount of power, but still.
On a 110v circuit this would be just fine as long as the breaker is tripped to off so that no power can leave that circuit into the house or out to the grid. You'd want to make sure everything non-essential was unplugged from that circuit. If you had a 220v circuit, however, i've heard there may be issues because the neutral line is still going out to the grid around the breaker and the potential for a problem is there.
An electrician may have to pipe in on legality and more specifics. In a power outage would I energize a circuit with the breaker tripped, yes. Is there a better and safer way to do this, yes. Preference should be to use a transfer switch which transfers between more than one possible source of energy for both wires. This would be great for a DIY power wall system as well.It's still mostly illegal and dangerous.
And it I'm not mistaken your reason why is backwards. On a 240V circuit, the neutral isn't used. On the 120V circuit, the voltages comes from one side of the 240V circuit to neutral.
Yep a transfer switch is the correct way to do this. There are transfer switched that support a few circuits, (ideal for limited capacity generators) and there are whole house transfer switches.An electrician may have to pipe in on legality and more specifics. In a power outage would I energize a circuit with the breaker tripped, yes. Is there a better and safer way to do this, yes. Preference should be to use a transfer switch which transfers between more than one possible source of energy for both wires. This would be great for a DIY power wall system as well.