110 outlet on FFH 2010

[mczajka]

I've never used the outlet, but I'm doing an event on National Plug In Day (www.bit.ly/pluginday) and I want to plug a small amp into the 110 outlet. Do I have to have the car running? Will gas be used if I need more power?

[akirby]

I've never used the outlet, but I'm doing an event on National Plug In Day (www.bit.ly/pluginday) and I want to plug a small amp into the 110 outlet. Do I have to have the car running? Will gas be used if I need more power?

 

You need to check the amperage limit on the outlet - you don't want to exceed that. Assuming it's within limits you could run the amp for a little while but eventually it will run down the battery unless you start the vehicle. You may not have to run it all the time - depends on how much current the amp is drawing. I doubt that it would allow you to draw more power than the alternator could produce at idle.

[mort]

I've never used the outlet, but I'm doing an event on National Plug In Day (www.bit.ly/pluginday) and I want to plug a small amp into the 110 outlet. Do I have to have the car running? Will gas be used if I need more power?

Hi mczajka,

In the hybrid, if you use a 12 volt electrical load, like the ac outlet, headlights or radio, with the key in the run position, then the high voltage battery will keep the 12 volt system at nominal voltage. When the HVB gets down low enough it will automatically start the engine and recharge to 50% soc. So yes it will use gas from time to time. If your whole load is the 150 watts that the outlet can deliver, (and the energy in the HVB between 50% and 10%, where it starts the engine, is about 500 watt-hours) you can use the outlet for a couple hours between engine starts.

(you know Plug In Day is for cars that plug in to an electrical outlet, not cars that have an outlet - right?)

-mort