Truck As A Generator

ccmtwo · February 23, 2008

We lose power frequently in my neighborhood and I'd like to retrofit my Yukon to hook into my house electrical system in order to power essential circuits during these outages, namely HVAC, refrigerator/freezer and some light circuits. Is this a crazy idea, or has anyone aware of an application that allow this kind of power conversion?

alaska511 · February 23, 2008

buy a portable generator or a home generator, it is much cheaper

there are belt driven and hydraulic driven generators available but none will fit on the vehicle you have and they cost $5K

Your vehicle does not generate AC electricity, and an inverter to drive what you want would be 5000 watts and would require more DC amperage and capacity than your vehicle can generate

By a 5kw generator

stillen · February 23, 2008

ditto......

Before I was in software, I did every job under the sun. One involved moving heavy equipment around in remote areas. One of the trucks had a Alternating current hookup, it was "turned" by an accessory belt of the engine. The vehicle had to be in stop, parking brake on, and the idle was brought up to 2500 rpms via a seperate throttle control. I've seen mobile rug cleaning companies with something similar. Its not worth beating on your engine that bad plus all the cost of hookng to your house with a transfer switch...... Like said in an earlier message, hit your local Home store and grab a generator. I have one, and it powers my furnace, and two select outlets inmy house in case of power loss......

redvett · February 23, 2008

You can buy a generator 5000W for about $1200 add a Transfer switch/disconnect and for under $2000 your in business. Look at Lowe's,Home Depot or similar stores for a good deal.

ccmtwo · February 24, 2008

You can buy a generator 5000W for about $1200 add a Transfer switch/disconnect and for under $2000 your in business. Look at Lowe's,Home Depot or similar stores for a good deal.

Thanks for the great advice.

ccmtwo · February 24, 2008

ditto......

Before I was in software, I did every job under the sun. One involved moving heavy equipment around in remote areas. One of the trucks had a Alternating current hookup, it was "turned" by an accessory belt of the engine. The vehicle had to be in stop, parking brake on, and the idle was brought up to 2500 rpms via a seperate throttle control. I've seen mobile rug cleaning companies with something similar. Its not worth beating on your engine that bad plus all the cost of hookng to your house with a transfer switch...... Like said in an earlier message, hit your local Home store and grab a generator. I have one, and it powers my furnace, and two select outlets inmy house in case of power loss......

Thanks for the informed advice...heading out to HD now to pick up a coleman generator.

bigBP · February 25, 2008

Yeah, I agree with the other posts above. I've been slowly outfitting my truck for some "backwoods" camping, currently including a 1000W inverter (12V DC to ~120V AC) and dual battery system (soon to become quad battery, one crank and three deep cycle, and a beefer inverter and "heavy duty" alternator, plus new wiring/controls and some other stuff). However, in my situation, I'm more worried about capacity rather than amps. With the stock alternator and wiring system, you probably aren't going to want to go to much above 1200W (aka drawing about 100 amps from the 12V alt, so that's around 10 amps @ 120 V) for a long period of time (my thoughts anyway).

Off the top of my head I have no idea what a fridge/feezer or a home HVAC system draws for amps, but I'm guessing it's pretty sizable.

Anyway, looks like your already buying a generator, so have fun with the new toy!

BRZ71 · February 25, 2008

Average Sized Refrigerator requires 2000 watts to start, and about 500 to 700 to run.

4 Ton Central AC is going to require 6000 to 10000 watts to start and about 2000 to run.

Sounds like you need a Natural Gas Standby unit, like the Guardian products made by Generac.

You don't need to do anything, they start on their own and transfer the load on their own.

Waiting to get mine. Trust me after a while dragging out a portable generator and plugging it in, starting it up

waiting for it to warm up, transferring the loads, then when the power comes back on, transferring the load back, unplugging the generator, allowing it to cool down, putting it back up, etc. Not to mention if you are out for an extended period and need fuel.

You can get a decent one in the 7000.00 range installed (16KW).

Here is a good chart to go by, there are several out there on the internet.

Generator Wattage Guide