How can I drive external electrical items from my car?

Question

Can I use my car's engine as a generator, as its a 2.0 litre with 200bhp and 180lb/ft of torque, how much electrical power can it send out?? And how?

need to get around 8kw ideally, hoping to run several 1kw floodlights...

Answer 1

Hi You can get a thing called an inverter to run 240v electrical products from yours car, the largest one i know if is about 2000 watt but they do drain your battery pretty fast if the engine is not running!

Answer 2

Jack is correct. Of course you can run 240v from a car. You could run them off a 850cc 1975 mini if its got a lighter socket!

http://www.batterymegastore.co.uk/cgi-bin/megastore/commerce.cgi?page=Inverters.htm

Its best to get a good power rate, don't go for anything less than 400w as they just aren't worth it.

On very long journeys, my kids run a playstation off of one of these in the back of a car. Worth every penny so as not to listen to "are we there yet?" over and over and over.


edit: you can get 12v-240v inverters that go up to about 5000watts. May be worth getting a couple of these and using a second vehicle to power it.


EDIT2: Have a look at this baby!!!!
http://www.made-in-china.com/showroom/wshk186/product-detailDGuQHaUlonAM/China-DC-AC-Power-Inverter-8000W.html

Answer 3

U have a car, think u think ur car is a fairground truck with its engine running as it drives a generator via the propshaft connection from gearbox.

Answer 4

Consider Buying a Landy with a PTO to drive an alternator, or even buying a Generator van off a travelling fair.

Answer 5

Only 12 volt D/C equipment can be run via the cigarette lighter socket. Anything more powerful will just knacker you battery.

Answer 6

it will only give you what the alternater puts out unless you put some form of geny on it
how much money do you have?

Answer 7

go to lowes to buy a little eletric generator