I've just come through the Great Texas Cold Snap, during which I was very fortunate to lose neither power nor water. However, I did get to wondering what I'd do if the power did go out. I don't have a generator, except... I do. My car is a very powerful and quiet generator. But the only way I can see to take advantage of that power outside the vehicle is through one of the 12V/10A outlets. Well 120 watts is never even going to heat a single room. Can anyone think of a way to get a kilowatt or more out of an idling Optima siting out in the cold outdoors?
Optima PHEV as generator?
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@HighMiles, I can't argue with that!
@Xifer2020: Good idea to tap the battery directly with jumper cables. But as my Optima is a plug-in hybrid, I believe its 12V battery is relatively wimpy; all the regenerative braking and so on goes to charge the high-voltage traction battery. I'll look into what the 12V battery should be capable of.
@Xifer2020: Good idea to tap the battery directly with jumper cables. But as my Optima is a plug-in hybrid, I believe its 12V battery is relatively wimpy; all the regenerative braking and so on goes to charge the high-voltage traction battery. I'll look into what the 12V battery should be capable of.
The car's alternator should be able to provide at least 500 watts to the 12v accessory battery (probably closer to 1000). Connect a 2,000 watt pure sine wave inverter and as long as you didn't draw more than an average of 500-1000 watts the 12v accessory battery would be able to handle some brief surges (such as when your refrigerator compressor kicks in).
I wouldn't recommend running a space heater off of it, but you could use a microwave and fridge plus internet router (if your ISP was still up) and TV/radios/Lamps.
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