My question was assuming the ICE is running at idle, how much current (wattage) can be pulled off the battery continuously? Thanks.

 

More than you can get an inverter for!
The generator is rated much higher than any inverter you will find.
The generator can make up to 40,000 watts, but most often runs in the 15,000 watt range.

With the key in, the engine will cycle, and you could probably run any inverter on the market for at least 48 hours.

I run the 150w built in inverter to charge my camera and cell phone while out in the field. I need to run the gas engine for 5 minutes, then the 150w inverter will run for 90 minutes with GAS ENGINE OFF. Repeat as needed.
( Need to move the key to "unstart" the car so engine does not cycle to maintain temperature. )

Do you have the Navigation screen with Hybrid battery display?
That's how I know when to manually start the car.
If you don't have the screen, you'd need to leave the key in run, and let the car cycle on it's own. It normally cycles more often than needed just to keep the catalytic converter hot.

Look at it as watt-hours. You have about 300 watt hours to "spend" between engine cycles. So if you draw 300 watts, you will need to have the gas engine run 5 minutes per hour. If you draw 600 watts, you will need to run the gas engine 5 minutes every 30 minutes. If you draw 1200w you will need to run the gas engine 5 minutes every 15 minutes.

If you pull 2400w, the car will need to run 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off.
This is about what it does to simply maintain temperature.

If you pull much more than that, the car will probably run nearly continuously, but will be capable, but at 14v, you are going to start getting into monster amp draws. 2400w / 14v = 171 amps right there.
You will need wires of about 0 gauge, or double the thickness of most jumper cable wire to handle that kind of amperage.

( Most jumper cable wire is 6 gauge, and can hande 500 amps for 5 seconds, but only 100 amps continuously )

-John

 

Thanks, John.

So if I read you correctly, one could pick up, say a 2KW, inverter, bolt it in the engine compartment somewhere, connected to the battery with adequate cables and just plug in to it when you need power to run a furnace or sump pump, etc. in a power outage. That is actually pretty cool and a lot better than having some loud generator screaming away. I have seen 1KW inverters at Costco for less than $100. Maybe a couple of those would do the job.

Tom

 

If I recall correctly, the HV DC to 12V DC converter is rated at 110 amps, so you if you have most of the vehicle 12V loads off, you should be able to draw 90-100 amps of 12V DC voltage. You should be able to run 1000 watts for as long as you have fuel, assuming you have a direct connection to the battery. (Written from somewhere in the middle of Alaska).

 

I did a little digging in the 2006 Escape / Mariner Modifiers Guide - it appears that the max 12 volt output is 110 amps which is 1320 watts.

From the manual:

DC/DC Converter

The DC/DC converter is a liquid-cooled component that converts high voltage (216-397 volts) DC power to low voltage (12 volts) DC power while maintaining electrical isolation between the 2 DC power systems. The converter steps down the high voltage to 12 volts, providing power to the
vehicle low voltage battery systems. The powertrain control module (PCM) controls the operation of the DC/DC converter through an enable input from the PCM to the DC/DC converter.

Generator Output

The Escape/Mariner Hybrid generator is different from that used on the standard Escape/Mariner. The Escape/Mariner Hybrid has a 110 amp generator.

 

Does the hybrid even have a 12v generator (running off the ICE)?

I thought all its 12v needs came from the HV system, and run thru the DC-DC converter.

 

The DC/DC converter is an isolated down converter that replaces the alternator (generator) on conventional vehicles.

The conveter is isolated becuse the high voltage circuits are electrically isolated from chassis ground while the low voltage (+12V) circuits are referenced to the chassis.

The converter is mounted to the passenger side firewall. I think the liquid cooling is from the same cooling circuit as the transaxle HV power controller. THis circuit has its own pump and heat exchanger (radiator) mounted in front of the ICE radiator.

There is also a smaller isolated DC/DC up converter that converts +12V to 320V. THis allows the HV battery to charge from the low voltage system when the HV battery charge is too low to start the ICE.

 

For continuous duty, the system appears to support a 1 KW inverter.

If you install a larger inverter (1.5 to 2 kw), you can use the extra capacity to start inductive loads like motors. When a load over 1 KW appears for a short time, the +12V battery provides the extra capacity.

 

DavidH, good point re using 2KW for surge capacity. I'm not sure what the consequences of exceeding the alternator output for a long time would be other than a dead battery. There must be some kind of internal protection to the vehicle's inverter.

 

Most large inverters will shut down on low battery voltage.