Powering my house with the MB
 

So we are without power in NH right now and to keep pipes and myself from freezing, I took my 240D parked it next to the house and put 1100w inverter under the hood. Ran a male male extension cord to the furnace and fired her up. This is the third time the old girl has run day and night to keep the house warm and a few appliances running.

Man your like MacGyver.

Can you fix the nation debt problem if we gave a stick of gum and empty can of pop.

You rock..

Ha, a suicide cable! Nice idea, be carefull, make sure the mains are off so you don't electrocute any techs out on the line.

I saw on the TV that you guys had some ice. What RPM are you running it at?

Now that is totally cool! Is it not amazing, how amazing these old cars are...She'll just sit there and idle as long as you need her too! You gotta love the ol' girls. She not only gets you from point A to point B, but she looks after and keeps you warm at night.

Saw the news and it looks like you guys really got hit - bad deal! Is this bad an ice storm unusually early in the season? Maybe Gore is right - Global warming....

how many watts are you pulling?

Mom says they just got power back at 8pm in Merrimack. Cool idea! Guess I don't really need a power generator afterall.

I was thinking the same thing. why buy a diesel genset for hurricane season, theres always the coupe

I like that Graminal95 has the heater and the computer powered during this emergency, we need updates

Sweet...

So - a little help here...you have a power inverter under the hood; how does it connect up to your car? I'm not too savvy with electrical issues.

When I search for an 1100w power inverter, I get stuff like this: http://www.dcacpowerinverters.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=PW1100-12

Seems like you need to plug the car into that thing. I'm lost...

It says; "3 FT Battery Cables Included" in the description.

So I would venture a guess that it attaches to your battery.

Exactly so. Except I'm guessing he has a bigger version :D

Diesel gnerators are the hartiest ,longlived powerhouses.Im in the hunt for a 84 2.2 mb diesel motor to build a generator to power my shop .A 240d would use how much Fuel per hour ? Im curious to find out .These 240 motor are easier to find.

and to think that MB never thought to put a PTO on the fronts of our cars.

I had a large diesel generator for a back-up genset at my house, started to realize that at 3GPH x $3/gallon, I'm looking at $9/hour in fuel, x 24hours = $216/day. I could stay in a nice hotel room, order room service, and let insurance pay for the lost food.

Anyway, with a stock alternator on a 240D, 45a, which is more like a 1200rpm output, not idle, you're putting out 45v x 13vdc = 585watts. Most of my inverters are high-end sine-wave units, IIRC around 95% efficient, the cheaper ones are typically less (some much less, and if a square-wave it will lose a great deal more efficiency running an inductive motor like a refrigerator). So, lets figure 80% efficiency from the 585watts = 468watts which is 4amps load at 117vac. It will likely have enough surge capacity from what's in your battery to start the load, but unless your total combined loads are less than 4amps continuous/average, you will drain the car battery until the inverter drops out on low voltage. The current drawn will also increase as the voltage drops so that even a 3a or 3.5a load will be greater than the output of your car's alternator, and the alternator will lose output as it heats up, and we're assuming the alternator is capable of its original rated output even though most aren't after some miles/years of use.

A lot of fuel and car use for a little output, but better than nothing I guess.

KarTek, I used to work as an electrician and yep I have the breaker off for the furnace and disconnected as the neutral is actually ground and the inverter won't run hooked up to ground. But good comment there are quite a few linesmen that get zapped from dumb ass home owners and there generators. Its actually a bad idea to turn off the main if you have not done so in 5 or more years as they usually will not come back on.

The old girl is just idling away well a little higher then normal idle so about 1000 rpm although when everything is running it bogs down just a little.

I just rebuilt a 115amp alternator and installed a higher voltage (14.5V) regulator and its a real Bosch so its good for full output all the time. Right now I have the furnace, 5 circulation pumps, 3 lamps, 2 laptops, a box fan, modem and router for the internet and my cell phone charger. So close to the 1100w max for the inverter and the car, but she seems happy.

We don't usually get ice storms but this one is the worst I have seen. I was talking to some folks today and it seems there are no generators all the way down to RI!! So its a good thing the old girl is happy to work hard for me all night.

I was going to post this all last night but the phone line went down and I lost the internet. The inverter is hooked up to the battery and gets power from the alternator. I have yet to go out and see how much fuel is in the tank but it used about an 1/8 tank in the last 24hr run time so hopefully its not to much more then that today as well.