Hurricane Ike was every bit a monster here in southeast Texas. After Ike passed by, power was out almost everywhere and people were desperate for gasoline, food, and ice. It was comforting to have a full tank and know that I could check on friends and scout for everyone's supplies without having to worry about running out. Another useful feature was the electric air conditioner. With power out, Saturday night was extremely uncomfortable. The temperature was about 85 with over 90% humidity. I took the the wife outside, lowered the car seats, brought out the pillows, and soon we were sleeping soundly in a cool car. After the stress of being in Ike, a good night's sleep was worth a gallon of gas. My prius has made my friends new believers since the storm. Even unknown neighbors are now wanting to know more about it. I believe folks are starting to recognize the methods to my madness of buying the "little car."
bring a couple extra fuses, i played around and blew out like 4 fuses finding things in the house i could power or not power with an inverter tv lights good coffee maker / vacuum cleaner bad! haha
Fuses? My 1 kW inverter with 1.2 kW surge capability has overload protection and shuts itself down when overloaded. What make and model inverter is yours? I have also rigged up a power socket with an inrush thermistor. This keeps the laptop power supply from tripping the inverter. Bob Wilson
I live in Houston and we did not have power for a week. You know I have a plug-in Prius but this time I used the plug the other way around and I did use an 1k inverter to power one light in everyroom, my TV, and my cable box. I used less than 1 gallon a night and that was far less then people using generators.
Which inverter do you have? I've been pondering getting one to have around in case of emergencies. Somewhere between 1K-1.5K. Thx.
Newbie Question ~ We were with out power for sixteen days, how do you get the electric from your Prius to your home? Inverters are mentioned, please let me know what an inverter is, where you purchase it, Brand and model if applicable, and how you do this. An out of town friend had lent us a generator around day five, and we were running it for a few hours at night for fans and lights in some rooms...we were very grateful, but would sure appreciate knowing how our car can help, should this ever happen again. Thank you very much for all of your thoughts and input. LEARNING DAILY with PRIUS CHAT.... Been a Driver and an Owner for 6 days now.
From what I have read, some people have managed to get a lot of power out of their Prius' from hooking up an inverter (with alligator clips I assume) to their 12v battery. It sounds complicated and possibly dangerous though. However if it truly does work, it would be a boon to us Houstonians. Just out of curiosity, I looked up some "box" air conditioners (the ones you see in windows in some cities) and I calculated that at least some of them could be run off the battery from the Prius, given an inverter of course. Although I assume you would only be able to run the air conditioner and nothing else. I am not an electrician so I cannot say for sure. One advantage of using the Prius as a generator though is of course, that the Prius is a LOT quieter than a typical generator, and some people have said it is more gas efficient, while having that whole being-able-to-drive-it-around thing, which is pretty nice. Hopefully someone with more experience with using a Prius as an ad-hoc generator will post a reply.
There are two approaches today: 12 VDC inverter - using commercial, off the shelf, inverters, you can draw 1 kW using the 12 VDC system. Several have done this and a "search" for "UPS Prius" should give multiple hits including mine. 202 VDC traction battery - using UPS inverters that use a 200 VDC range internal battery pack, put plugs on the traction battery and use the inverter to generate up to 3 kW (test) of AC power like Richard did. A 1 kW inverter is enough to 'camp out' at home. It can drive the fan of a gas furnace in the winter or a 5,000 BTU window AC in the summer and a TV, a few florescent lights and a laptop. The 3 kW inverter can also keep the fridge running and a microwave if you are careful about load balancing. Bob Wilson
