Using car as generator for house power

My ancient (circa 1979, cost $150 in 1987) 7kw (B&S Opposing twin cylinder 16hp) generator drinks about a gallon per hour at load. I ran it for 2 hours at a time (a full tank) and three times a day (morning, late afternoon and late evening during the recent outage in CT for convenience and to keep freezers, fridges and the house at temperature. It basically powers the whole house (except AC and electric oven).

Obtaining a supply of gasoline during a general outage is what the Prius does for me in this situation.

JeffD

 

Everything I have read claims the the Prius traction battery will generate 3K and more for a surge. How do you get 5-6K continues (aka and hour strait)? A surge is not an hour. It is a couple of seconds while a motor spins up.

You cannot go to dinner because your house is connected to your only method of transportation. Rigging an inverter to your $30,000 Prius to save $80 bucks the couple times a year the when power goes out does not make sense to me. I guess we will have to agree to disagree.

Before Sandy when was the last time the power went out for more than 24 hours? I bet it has been more than 20 years.

 

I have a TriFuel 10KW generator connected to every breaker in the panel. It is connected to natural gas 24x7. If by a freak of nature the natural gas supply fails I have many tanks of propane around house for the grill and other things. If that runs out I can still use gasoline. I believe that is a better plan then a single fuel Prius. The best thing is I can use the Prius to get more propane or gasoline while the TV stays on and the beer stays cold in the fridge.

 

(1) The Prius is not my only method of transportation;
(2) Even if it was, the frig and freezer don't need power full time, they can be unplugged for such errands;
(3) Power out for more than 24 hours? OK, the Columbus Day Storm and Thanksgiving Day Storm and Clinton Inauguration Storm were more than twenty years ago (just barely on the later), but the Hanukkah Eve Storm was much more recent. I didn't lose power for the major ice storm last year, but many folks just to the south did lose it for many days. And plenty of friends and coworkers had multiday outages for various other unnamed storms. The 2001 reminder quake didn't knock us out, but our overdue Big One, same type as the Japan quake two years ago, will likely leave many people without many services for weeks.

 

It sounds like you live in an area with a lot of issues. If I had the power going out 6 times a year for more than 24 hours I would want a standalone unit even more.

I live in an area were the power might go out 3-4 times a year for 1-4 hours. I think that is more typical for most people. Maybe once every 10-15 years there might be something horrible were the power goes out for more then 1-2 days. In my life the longest I have been without power is 3 days and that was around 12 years ago.

 

The link in my signature and posts earlier in this thread covers your first question (and that info came originally from info at PriUPS-getting electricity FROM your hybrid vehicle). And this post covers your 2nd. It would help if you went back to read the whole thread.

And your third question. Oooooo, ooooo, oooo I know the answer to that. For 2 weeks about 10 years ago. Ice storm. And we loose power for several minutes several times a month, and for an hour or two every time someone hits a pole out on the main road several times a year. I live at the very edge of my power company's service area and then down a windy wooded country road. For those shorter outages my UPS doesn't get hooked up to the Prius, it carries the whole house from the batteries while I sit on my couch.

 

Who says the Prius is my only source? 22 kw battery bank to power either of 2 UPSs. 12 kw LPG Generac. Prius to power either of the 2 UPSs.

 

Oh, and post 185 wasn't me, LOL. But to answer your reply in 186, like fuzzy1 said we have many opportunities to loose power for long periods of time. Many times people very near me have gone for days or weeks without power after ice storms, hurricanes, blizzards. And I already posted about 2 weeks here without power...

 

We had a single Prius with inverter from 2005-2009 when we got our second Prius. The second one got its inverter about a year ago. But even with a single Prius, we had the option to schedule and coordinate when the house would be without power and power it back up when we returned.

In the eight years we've had Prius inverter power:

• at least once per year from 2-8 hours
• 18 hour outage after high winds knock out neighborhood power
• 4 day, 6 hour outage when tornadoes wipe out the TVA transmission lines
• provides power to the work shed where I'm rebuilding N19WT
• provides power when fishing at night
• provides power for laptops when on cross-country trips
• provides power at areas of our property that extension cords can't reach

For us, having 1kW of Prius-based, AC power has mitigated power outages and expanded the quality of life were line power are not available.

Bob Wilson

 

Lucky you I had been out of power for 14 days straight not having heat was the thoughest !!! .. but Prius Gen will not helped ... my prius was drawned by Sandy on my driveway :-( ... Got a new one and I posted my project here .. I have a 1KW inverter (surge 2Kw ) now I have a tested setup for at least for TV/Phone/and the heat (if we have natural gas) .....

During my rebuilding I am making the eletcrical system switchable to external power either prius or something else.

 

We have a forced-air high-efficiency natural gas furnace for central heat, but we hate all that dry air and the gas and electricity bills.

So for primary heat we use a compact and efficient wood stove with a catalyst that burns the smoke as well.

The wood stove functions as a heater for 90% of the house (one 400W radiant panel runs in a far bedroom for comfort), but we could get by without any electrical for heating at all. The wood stove also humidifies (pot of water on the stove), dries clothes on the indoor line, and in a pinch can be used for cooking as well.

We used to routinely lose power every time a storm blew through, and though our power is more stable now, we want to reduce our dependence on it. Reducing the loads in the house and figuring out how to connect the Prius in case of an extended outage are on the to-do list, so thank you for this thread!

 

If you have a Prius (Oh, is this PriusChat?) we don't have to 'curse the darkness' . . . leave that for others.

Bob Wilson

 

The last time I 'cursed the darkness' was the President Clinton Inauguration Disaster of Jan 20, 1993. The windstorm, not the presidency . That prompted me to put up a small solar panel (50W), with storage battery and small inverter. That has provided both 12VDC CCFL (now LED) and 120VAC CFL lighting, and later enough power to run the broadband modem for a laptop, for all power outages since.

A wood stove provides backup heat.

This system is too small to run the refrigerator and freezer. A Prius inverter will cover these at home. Plus, for expected work at my dad's place:

 

I bought the Prius to save money. I have 104,000 miles on my 2010 and it has saved close to $20,000 in gas compared to my last car over 3 years.

I strongly agree that buying a standalone $1,000 10KW TriFuel generator connected to every breaker in the house is a better idea then rigging an 2-3K inverter to your Prius to power a few devices.

I do not see the benefit of saving $80 a day with a rigged inverter on the Prius when the power might go out 2 days a year at the most. That is small in comparison to the $20,000 I saved on gas. The best thing is I can leave the generator running and drive to the store to get some milk.

 

Powerland Tri-Fuel Gasoline Propane Natural Gas Generator 10000 Watt 16 HP

 

Gotta love wood heat. Probably 75% of the time our wood stove is our primary heat source for the whole house (2700 sq ft). It keeps the upstairs bedrooms at a comfortable 67 for sleeping, our family room at 70, and for those times you come in from the cold, the room with the stove is a toasty 214 degrees. I go through 4-5 cords each winter - my pile is just about gone this year. Definitely a good way to heat the house with very little electricity.

For years I went through the trouble of keeping the pot of water on the cook plate. Last year I decided to try without and surprisingly we've discovered we feel warmer at cooler temperatures, and we don't feel any drier.

 

The standalone generator is yet another engine to maintain. For some of us with too many engines already (two tractors, multiple chainsaws, two daily drivers plus a farm truck, and a tiller for the spaces that a tractor cannot go, the prospect of avoiding another engine to maintain is attractive.

In truth, I would like to combine the backup generator with extensive solar panels, since I read that the 30% tax credit will continue through 2016. Of course, as extensive battery system would be required as well for all the hours when panels are not generating.

 

Our wood stove is only rated for 700-1400 sq. ft., but our house is close to 2000 sq. ft.

It used to be an old 1930s farmhouse, and the insulation in the second floor was this awful 1930s "balsam wool." The 2nd floor was almost unlivable in the winter.

We ripped down the drywall and all that awful insulation and had closed-cell spray foam (R-7 per inch) applied instead. It was December, and you could feel the difference on day 1. Now the 2nd floor is comfortable in the winter, heated solely by the warmth rising from the lower floor that has the wood stove, AND of course that beautiful and warm Class A chimney flue that passes through this floor.

I love that closed-cell foam.

 

Most of the people here bought it to save $ and gas, I agree. Not everyone will want to dig in to their 12 volt battery to tap 1 kw, or to their traction battery for 3+ kw.

The point some of us are trying to make is that many people don't consider that having more than one tool in the toolbox for power backup can save you a ton of money and give you a backup for your backup. I didn't when I got my first generator. I just wanted the most power I could get to power at least one of my 2 ton A/Cs (which I haven't needed to do in 8 1/2 years). Then I got turned on to solar backup (don't have that yet) which opened up my options for all types of backups. Running a 10-12 kw generator 24/7 will work fine, but no consumer-level non-inverter genset will output stable power no matter how good it is. The lights will flicker which quickly gets annoying. It also uses a ton of money, already covered. It also is extreme overkill for 2/3 of the day when you only need a few hundred watts to keep the fridge cool and keep the furnace/stove blower going. A smaller inverter-genset from Honda or Yamaha is one good option (I have a Yamaha EF2400is) for those times. Turn off the big guy and start up the small guy. Another is the Prius with an inverter of some type - which is an even more efficient version of an inverter-genset because the engine doesn't have to run all the time.

Its an option, and options are always good.

 

We did something similar about 5 years ago. Needed new siding anyway so when that came off we ripped off the entire exterior and extended it out a few more inches. Now we have R-44 instead of R-22 all around. Even better, the original owner built the house himself and was an idiot. Some of the spaces didn't have any insulation at all, so those areas went from 0 to 44. Like you, we noticed the difference immediately. It ended up sealing the house up so well I had to then install a whole-house heat-recovery ventilation system.