How to Install a Hardwired Inverter in a Chevy Bolt (or other EV!)
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- In this video, I install a hardwired inverter in our Chevy Bolt, allowing us to use the car as a mobile or backup 120v power source.
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Here is a video showing us powering our house with this inverter: • Powering our House wit...
Nice DIY project and an outstandingly edited video. I especially appreciate the test cookie **with** before and after mileage.
🍪🍪🍪🍪
Amazing job. I have the same car and Renogy inverter but my setup is way more ghetto 🤣
As long as it works!
Fantastic DIY. Thank you for sharing.
You're welcome! (:
Great video. Exactly what I'm trying to do. There should be a site out there to buy kits to do things like this.
Thank you, and I agree! Probably too much of a niche market for anyone to make money in, though.
I just wired my bolt for an inverter and found this while searching for ways to permanently mount the inverter itself. Nice job. It doesn't seem like anyone has made any brackets for mounting commercially available yet which is a bummer. For now I may just store the inverter in the 'sub trunk' area and plug it in when I need it.
I thought about mounting it in the "sub-trunk," but the problem with leaving it there permanently is the lack of ventilation. Otherwise I would have just mounted it there.
@@jkfeatherranch getting the proper wire sizing all the way back there without too much voltage drop would be pretty extreme too.
Great install! Amazing. Ima try install on my model 3. But use another battery that draws from the 12v. Then the inverter attach to the extra battery. Seen it work youtube tesla too sensitive sensors.
Got a chevy volt but its battery isnt as big compared to the m3
I've heard there's a way to do it on a Tesla but you have to hook directly to the DC/DC converter and use a resistor or something to prevent a current spike from the inverter's capacitors when it turns on. I don't remember where I saw it, but I recall coming across it somewhere.
Awesome idea and execution!
Thank you
This is great, and super useful!! BTW, that box on top isn't the drive inverter, that's called the "High Power Distribution Module" - basically just a box with some contactors in it to enable high voltage to the various components. The motor inverter sits below that one.
Thanks. Ah. Close enough.
There’s always that one person that makes you reevaluate your skill set and cleverness.
Great job and excellent video skills.
How’s the temp working out for the inverter so far?
Haha thanks. But all I know how to do, I learned by watching RUclips. So if you're watching this video, you can do it too!
It's held up just fine, but both times we've used it camping have been in cooler weather. Our (not so) friendly local electric company has decided they need to turn off our power next Thursday so we'll get another use out of it then. It's not going to be 107 out though, like it was during this test 🥵
very clean install.
Thanks!
Nice job, sweet setup👍
Thank you!
That was really neat and creative! Good job. Looks great.
Thanks 👍
Very nicely done and captured on video. Could you perhaps post some links of the items you used like the power plug used in the back ?
Sure. I'll put that together. Please see the video description (:
@@jkfeatherranch thanks a lot !
Let us know the long term review down the road, if it’s still working!
Still working great, used it on another camping trip we just for back from!
You made allot of mistakes - I just didn’t find any to tell you 😊. Nice job.
I'm sure I did 🤷♂️
Oh well thank you lol
Another great video!
Thanks 👍
Is a box necessary? Can you just mount it under the hood or is it to prevent it from getting wet?
I feel like it helps somewhat with water, bugs, dirt, etc. Not sure if it's completely necessary 🤷♂️
How is the inverter holding up over time? I've seen temperatures under the hood of my EUV reach 165f when fast charging, that can't be great for the inverter long term. If it's not an issue under the hood seems like the most convenient place by far!
We used it a couple weeks ago when the power company shut off our power all day for "maintenance." Weather was in the 90s that day, and ran our house for ~8 hours with no issue other than I had to take the lid off the box.
Is this stressing the small 12 volt battery? Is the 12 volt battery constantly being recharged from drive batteries?
The car's onboard DC/DC converter can supply up to ~1.6 kw continuously, so as long as you do not exceed its output (which you can determine by monitoring battery voltage and making sure it doesn't drop below 13.something), then you are "pulling" from the DC/DC converter and the battery is basically just "there." If you exceed the output of the converter, then yes, you will start to draw down the 12v, which is "ok" as long as you don't do it for too long, and it will recharge when your usage drops below the limit.
@@jkfeatherranch the 12v battery is basically a big buffer in the 12v electrical system after a car is started. It allows for some variance in load over time without stressing the other components of the system (i.e. the fuses and wiring).
You can use an auxiliary 12v battery (or several in parallel) isolated from the main 12v battery with a special voltage relay that charges the aux batteries when they are low but disconnects the primary 12v so you don't drain IT. that way you can have a giant buffer for something like the startup load of a refrigerator.
Don't ask me how I know all of this.
Pretty legit dude 😂🤟
Thank you!
Shouldn't there be about a 200 amp fuse or circuit breaker between the inverter and the 12 v battery?
If you're not a hack, there should!
I think the 2000 inverter has a built in fuse
Nice setup! What is the wattage of the toaster oven, and about how long did it take to bake the cookies? Does your inverter have a GFCI outlet? And if so, do you have to take the cover off of the box you built to reset the GFCI outlet?
The toaster is 1500 watts, that's pretty much the upper limit for cooking appliances. I think it took ~20? minutes to make the cookies, since it had no problem hitting 300 degrees it shouldn't have been any more than using our home oven. The inverter does have a built in GFCI, but it can be reset from inside the car simply by turning it off and on again.
@@jkfeatherranch Thanks for the reply. That is what I was expecting. Thanks for the reassurance.
@@paulstough2995 you're welcome 👍
why did you make that big box? The inverter could be unprotected in the engine compartment. Why did you go the complicated way of running a cable to trunk instead of just plugging it in at the inverter?
Because I had to justify buying a sheet metal brake and spot welder, of course!
Wouldn’t the inverter get wet?
wait.... what ? the small 12V battery is connected in with the main car drive battery ??? Impressive. Geeze, why buy a powerwall ? Great job.
Thanks. Every EV has the equivalent of an alternator to take power from the big battery and charge the 12v. This is the easiest way to run an inverter.
Maybe use aluminum hardware with bolts to avoid welding?
If you don't have a welder, there are certainly other options!
Couldn't you plug in an inverter into the 12 volt plug and use that instead of having to do all that work?
The problem with that is that the 12v plug only provides 10 or 15 amps, so 120 or 180 watts max. The hardwired inverter gives 2000, or enough to power our house during an outage if we're careful with what we use.
@@jkfeatherranch I've heard that since you're running off the 12v battery that the main battery is only able to keep the 12v battery charged up to 1000 watts of use. If you go over that then you will eventually drain the 12v battery. Have you considered this?
@@IndiaUploadsEngrav Once the inverter shuts off, You'd think that the main battery would eventually charge up the 12v battery. Although not sure what the repercussions are of doing this. ( as far as car settings / memory )
@@IndiaUploadsEngrav You are correct. The car can provide approximately 1,000 watts (seems like slightly more in practice) continuously to recharge the 12v battery, however it is perfectly fine to exceed this for short periods of time such as for ~30 minutes when baking cookies. It's even less than 30 minutes in practice, since the toaster oven was cycling the heating elements on and off to maintain temperature. If you're going to be doing this for long periods of time, however, a way of measuring the 12v voltage would be useful. I recommend an OBD2 dongle and Torque (or the equivalent iPhone app) to keep an eye on it from your phone.
For what it's worth, after shooting this video, I was able to run a 1,500 watt space heater for an hour straight without killing the 12v, and when I turned it down to 1,000 watts, the voltage shot back up to 13+, indicating that the car was charging it while also supplying the full load of the inverter.
@breeeep It would at the very least severely shorten the life of the 12v battery. They don't like being ran completely dead :(
Why couldn’t they just include this , jeeeez
Would have saved me a bunch of work!
Why not go to the main battery of the car?
Although this is probably technically doable with the car running, I don't know if the electronics would freak out from an unaccounted-for drain on the main battery, plus I haven't come across a readily-available inverter with 400v input.
$20,000 inverter battery
If you already have the car, why not? *shrug*