I would like to get a power inverter for emergency use, when there is an electrical outage at the house. This would connect directly to the battery, with alligator clips.

I am wondering if the 2016 Honda Fit alternator is sufficient to operate a 1,500 watt power inverter?

I tried two inverters, one a Dewalt, attached directly to the battery with alligator clips. A wattage tester I have showed the voltage coming out of the power inverter outlet is 89 when the car is running running, and 94 when the car is NOT running. So, voltage drops when the car is running, that is counterintuitive, and 89 is low.

This is well below the 110 - 120 voltage from the house electrical outlet.

Also, when I ran a space heater, the wattage from the inverter was 350 watts, while the space heater uses 450 watts when powered by the house electrical.

I don't have a larger auto to test these inverters on.

So, I am wondering if the Honda Fit is capable of powering a 1,500 watt power inverter. This would be to power a refrigerator for instance, during an extended power outage.

I searched the forums and the internet. It seems the Fit is intentionally designed to produce a small amount of electrical power at idle, which may be great for fuel economy.

If the Fit cannot power a 1,500+ watt inverter, I will buy a generator. A power inverter has essentially no maintenance. Thanks.

 

@erich_r

Sorry you do not have enough alternator output to run the inverter. At idle the ouptut is lower than max alternator output. Watts is voltage times current. roughly 12 volts and 1500 watts = 125 amps draw from battery and charging system. the Fit alternator is much less than that. To even get full alternator output unfortunately you would have to rev up the engine which means you would have to push down accellerator pedal with a stick. The reason output went down and battery voltage went down when you were running is if you hooked to the battery plus and ground connection you bypassed the battery current sensor on the negative post and the car did not know you were drawing more from battery in addition to running the Fit. The Fit looks at this sensor and adjust alternator based on load to save gas. Bottom line is small inverter can be hooked up for computer etc but no big stuff. I know it is more maintenance to buy a generator but I would just buy a generator and call it a day.

Hope that helps


James

 

Heck, I've blown fuses by using a tiny portable air compressor on a converter. I don't think the Fit has a robust enough circuit to run that kind of juice. Time to buy a generator.

 

Thanks, I prefer a generator in some way because I wouldn't want to damage the car trying to power a refrigerator, so it is fine with me to get a generator. Planning to buy a Yamaha.

I am surprised with all the shopping I did, none of the sites mentioned the limitation of the car alternator. I think it is a fine tradeoff, better gas mileage with a less powerful alternator, because I get ~ 41 mileage in the city with the Fit. So, will get a generator instead.

So sad they stopped selling the Fit in the US. Bizarre that subcompacts are not selling in the US when the economy is so bad, people still waste money.

Thanks for your information.

 

The new F150 hybrids can be options up to a 7200w generator, with a twist connection to directly power the household transfer board if you like

Not, I will admit, super relevant to me from either a cost or driveway space perspective .. cool nonetheless

 

You're not the first person who has wondered about doing this over the years but it's a bad idea for so many reasons. The current Fit alternator is rated for about 105 amp I believe which isn't enough for your needs. You'd probably burn out the alternator anyways trying to run it continuously at maximum output. As others have suggested, buy a portable generator.

As far as keeping food frozen when the power goes out I have a medium sized chest freezer which I fill empty space with jugs of salt water which are frozen. If my power goes out these home made freezer packs will probably keep everything frozen for a couple days. The largest outage I've had is 5 hours. I moved everything over from the refrigerator freezer to the chest freezer when this happened.

 

I think you could buy a cheap generator from Harbor Freight for emergency use. They are not that expensive. If noise is a problem, build an enclosure around it.
https://www.harborfreight.com/electr...brand=Predator

Inverters are a good idea. I have a 100w unit that I plug into the cigarette lighter socket to charge up my tablet or phone.

 

I just had an power outage for 5 hours.So long as you keep the doors closed the fridge/freezer stay cool for quite a while. Similar to woof, I keep several zip lock bags of water that has frozen in a chest freezer. I've transferred those to the regular fridge/freezer to keep things better regulated. The chest freezer with the typical contents keeps for a quite a while.

I am contemplating buying a small generator to just power the fridge or freezer (alternating) though for longer times. For heat in the winter, I'll use those buddy heaters and during the summers the basement stays pretty cool naturally.

 

In 2003 I had a pretty new fridge (reasonably big Whirlpool, 2 years old) and my power went out for exactly 24 hours (like, to the minute- I didn't have to change the clocks that stopped). I did not open the fridge until the power went back on. The freezer was still below freezing (I think in the mid twenties) and the fridge was at 50- it was set for 38.

This was over the summer.

So, if you don't open any doors your food is probably good for a day.

Generators are not expensive. Just remember to put gas stabilizer in the tank, and to start it every month or so and let it run for a few minutes to warm up.

 

It's funny that the big blackout in North America's anniversary is today.

 

Meanwhile, in the state in which I live, half the households in the state lost power last Monday and a quarter of the state is still without power.

So, congratulations to everyone who has not experienced a severe power outage. Most of us have not lived through a pandemic until this year.

 

Dewalt has a new inverter generator sold through Home Depot for $600, seems a much safer bet than the $500 Predator, though Harbor Freight always has sales and coupons.

Honda are the most expensive generators,and they have had a huge recall. Yamaha is my preference and they are out of stock in several places, and has also had a recall in the past year.

 

There is nothing wrong with the inverter. It is your meter being used to measure the voltage. The inverter is not putting out a sine wave like you get from the utility, but a modified square wave, or a stepped sine wave, looks like a sawtooth wave on an o-scope. Most meters cannot read the voltage properly unless the meter can read "True RMS" voltage.

As others have said, the Fit is not designed to handle this type of application. Get a small inverter generator.

Now I have connected my 2000 watt Sine Wave Samlex inverter using my towing plug in the back which has a direct connection to the battery, but is limited to 40A auto reset breaker, which gives about 400 watts at @120VAC. The most I have ever run is my laptop computer's power supply and a few LED lights when tailgating while being sure to run the engine for a half hour to top off the battery charge.

Another application I have done is used my jumper pack, a Schumacher SJ1332 with a built in inverter, used it for lights and powering my laptop, then using the cigarette lighter adapter to charge the jumper pack when the engine is running. With the engine off, the accessory plug is disconnected from the Fits engine battery.

Give you ideas, know the limitations of your gear so you dont go blowing up stuff thats $$$ to fix