Prius owner uses car to power home during power outage...

Agreed. I was limited by what was available at the hardware store and my fold-down, inverter mounting.

Bob Wilson

 

Bob I love this you could further subsidize your costs by putting in a big window (low "E" of course) and selling tickets for people to come and fawn and wonder at the magnificent achievement... except, what happens when we actually want to use the prius as a ..CAR?!...the house will freezze unless it falls back on the dreaded "Utility Power".

 

And of course your run is very short. The run on my boat is about three feet.

Tom

 

I'm sorry, but while I think some of this is a whizz bang idea, it seems to me that considering the Prius as a complete standby power source is kind of silly.

The idea that we are going to spin an ICE to get charge batteries/get heat to heat our house and hot water, using natural gas to power it etc crazy. If you have natural gas available, then burning it in a high efficient furnace/space heater/water heating system has to be more efficient!

While the idea of using the Prius as a UPS has a certain appeal, as noted above the idea of using it a a whole house energy system is not, IMHO, very efficient or practical.

Now if you could figure out how to take the heat generated during normal driving, and instead of giving off through the radiator, if you could put it into bulk storage, and then transfer that thermal mass to the house to give back over time would be slick. The problem that I see is that carrying around a vast thermal mass of water say, the energy required to move it would exceed the benefits, unless you could find a thermal storage medium that has less (much less) weight, or if you could get an ICE to like to run much hotter, with a pressure vessel in the 300f range.

 

with a big power out maybe even the gas pressure may drop of you lose that to
then a prius using for power and heat is not a bad idear.

 

I don't see a problem with this:

• 9 hrs - utility power, generally during the day when the heating load is lower and without me taking a shower, doing laundry, or cooking because I'm at work.
• 15 hrs - at home and having a life.

Bob Wilson

 

A few weeks ago, our home experienced a three-day power outage, during which I used my Prius and a 120V inverter to supply power for one full day. While I acknowledge that a Prius combined with an inverter is less efficient than a dedicated small inverter generator, here are some advantages I found:

1. Reliability Without Frequent Maintenance: Generators require regular maintenance to ensure they work when needed. A friend of mine ran into this issue when his generator failed during an outage. In contrast, my Prius was ready to go without any special preparation.
   
   
2. Quiet Operation: My Prius sat in the driveway powering the house, and its occasional engine starts were barely noticeable indoors. This was much quieter compared to the constant noise of a traditional generator.
   
   
3. Extended Runtime: The Prius has an 11.3-gallon fuel tank, allowing it to run much longer than typical small inverter generators without frequent refueling.
   

For my setup, I connected two 100Ah LiFePO4 batteries in parallel with the Prius’s 12V battery and used a 120V inverter. This configuration minimizes the risk of overloading the Prius’s DC-DC converter fuse since the inverter draws over 100A directly from the added LiFePO4 batteries. At night, I brought the LiFePO4 batteries and the inverter inside to continue powering the house, which avoided keeping the Prius running continuously.

Regarding concerns about idling engine damage discussed in other threads, I believe this doesn’t apply to the Prius. The Prius’s software actively manages engine temperature, reducing potential wear and tear, though this does come with some energy losses.

The only downside to my setup is that the Prius’s DC-DC converter outputs a fixed 13.2V, which isn’t ideal for fully charging my LiFePO4 batteries.

 

How big of an 120v inverter did you use and what home loads did you run?

 

Actually, I used a 500W modified sine wave inverter, which presented a few challenges. For instance, two of my AFCI breakers refused to work with it. To get around this, I used the modified sine wave inverter to charge another 600Wh pure sine wave inverter (a power bank), which then powered the house.

Due to the capacity limitations of the 2nd inverter, I couldn’t power the furnace. However, I was able to keep the broadband network running, use the gas stove, and meet the needs for lighting and phone charging. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it covered the essentials during the outage.

 

You might need a soft start for the psc furnace motor.

 

Thanks. Will try that if the 2000W pure sine inverter is still not enough.