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Amid continued power outages in parts of the Northeast, many residents found temporary refuge from cold and dark homes inside their cars. For one New Jersey man, he used the power from his hybrid car to light up his entire house.
Bob Sakala of Paramus says he bought his Toyota Prius Hybrid in June to save gas. In the week since the storm, he powered his home -- including lights, laptops and a television -- on three quarters of a tank of gas. Sakala says he first read about the Prius' use as a power source years ago on the internet.
After the storm, and the resulting power outage, he thought he'd give it a try. He ended up powering a few lights, his TV, laptop and modem with a 100 watt power inverter and a few heavy-duty extension cords he purchased at Home Depot. He later moved to a 300 watt inverter, which let him power more lights.
"The neighbors kept saying, 'Does Bob have a generator?' No, it's the Prius. It's a spaceship," he said.
Although he couldn't plug in a heater to the car, Sakala said he was happy to keep the lights on, something hundreds of thousands of customer are without in New York and New Jersey.
For more, visit NBCNewYork.com
At the storm's peak, more than 8.5 million homes and businesses across 21 states lost power. As of Thursday, that was down to about 750,000, almost entirely in New York and New Jersey.
Thursday's nor'easter overnight knocked out power to more than 200,000 customers in New York and New Jersey, erasing some of the progress made by utility crews. Power was restored to Sakala's block Thursday evening.
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This is news? The devices to do this are available such as this one
http://www.plugincars.com/nissans-leaf-home-system-could-power-house-two-days-111092.html
Of course Americans are depressingly unfamiliar with the true economics of solar, EV's, etc. And that's a sad fact due to the lack of publicity about how well they work together (solar power panels, your home, your EV--and your pocketbook).
Cost of a Powermate 3250-watt generator at Home Depot: $349.
Cost of a Prius Four: $28,235
I'm guessing banker? History teacher?
good point bill and may i add ;
prius = TV, modem, and a few lights
generator = TV, modem, a bunch of lights .....oh and ... HEAT...
your choice
A generator is only useful as long as you've got gas to put in it. A big problem during a power outage is that gas stations can't pump gas. Unless you have some on hand, you're out of luck. If you run out, too bad.
You don't need a Prius to do something similar though. I have three of those emergency jump start batteries. (About $40 at Wal*Mart) I keep one in each car and one in the house for an emergency jump start. But using 100 watt inverters (like this guy did), I can use them during a power outage (and without all the extension cords). Each one by itself can charge a laptop for about 4 hours, power an energy saving lamp for 30 hours, or power my TV for about 2 and a half hours. When they run down, it's a simple matter of charging them up in any car. It takes about 30 minutes for a full charge and I only need to run the car for about 10 minutes every 3 recharges to recharge the car's battery. I could run for months on a full tank like that.
That is why down here on the Gulf Coast where we get hurricanes every few years, even poor folks have generators.
An actual home owner without a generator is pretty scarce. I have two, one for the fridge and waterpump and one for TV and lights. If you have a tractor, they sell really large PTO driven ones that turn your tractor into a diesel generator that will power your whole house like nothing was the matter.
I have to say, it seems Pragmatics approach is one easiest. You don't need to store the gas cans you'd need to run the generator. With LED lights, you can run for very long times on very little power. A modest battery stash would handle that. Inexpensive, portable, refillable emergency power.
Oh and additionally, there are a lot of people who live in high density housing. I can't get a generator because it either goes inside my home, where it will kill me with carbon monoxide, or in my storage area, where it ain't any good to me.
You can't drive your generator to the gas station to get more gas for it. And it's useless all the other days of the year when you have power.
Yeah that all makes sense! I never owned one when I lived in the city for the same reasons.
Now I live in a rural area and it is very different. People are used to the power going out, most gas stations have generators and when the power goes out gas is usually still available, although I waited in line 2 hours after hurricane Ike for gas and they ran out shortly after I got mine. Now, since I have the room and other equipment that uses gas and diesel, i try to keep plenty on hand.
I don't like the uber conservativeness of folks out here but I really like the self sufficient attitude and have done my best to pick it up without picking up the self righteous attitude that seems to go along with it.
If you buy a generator instead of a Prius, you can use the $27,000 you saved to have gas for your generator helicoptered to you. ;)
Also, you can power a lot more with a generator than an inverter and car alternator. Even my little portable, 2 stroke, camping generator puts out a thousand watts AC then I have my real generators, for when the power goes out, that put out 3500 and 6500 each. You cannot realistically do that with batteries and inverters. My old man around the corner has one that goes on his tractor that puts out 15,000 and will run forever on a tank of diesel. I will have one of those too soon enough.
If you live in an area where generators are impractical by all means, use what is available to you and works but, don't act like a generator is not the best solution, because in the long run it is much better than inverters.
I don't know how long you have lived in your new digs, but I think you might be judging your neighbors a bit harshly. People in rural areas have to learn to be more self-sufficient than their city brethren. Living where there isn't a Denny's or an Ace Hardware within five blocks requires more planning. Along with self-sufficiency comes the ability to deal with others more often as equals instead of as supplicants to suppliers. Self-sufficient people often live more frugally, and as you supply more and more of your own wants and needs, you become less and less amenable to someone coming along and asking for a handout for those who don't. Hence the conservatism. Unfortunately, some folks do transform self sufficiency into self righteousness, but if you look deeper, I think you will find they are a small minority.
It amazes me how mainstream media runs this story as "Prius saves the day!" He could have done this with any old vehicle, the vehicle's battery and a simple inverter from Wal-Mart. Did Toyota or The Sierra Club pay for this story to be written?
Denver Bill
I see where you are coming from. I have lived here over 5 years now so I don't think I am being too quick to judge. I live in SE TX, when I say uber conservative, I mean what I say. I was born, raised and lived my entire life in TX so I know conservatives when I see 'em. There are more churches per square mile than legitimate businesses for cying out loud!
I'm not talking about your average "fiscal responsibility" conservatives, I am talking about hard core bible thumping, militia/neo nazi type rightwingers and yes they are the minority but they are still way too common out here for the 21st century.
lweford - It was written by someone who lacks any concept of basic electricity. Anyone can get a lot more than 300W out of a Prius - common sense tells you that - a quick google search tells you people pulling out significantly more than that - especially if they rig it up to pull current from the traction battery when they need to start heavier loads (e.g.: well pump, etc.).
Of course if you really want to be bad a.. & you have natural gas at home - forget the gasoline powered portable gens - go buy one of the whole-house natural gas gensets - yes in the low thousands vs. the low hundreds, but you can run everything in the house. If you are a capitalist, your neighbors can get hot showers, meals, and charge their portable electronics for a nominal fee - or you could just treat them like fellow human beings. Unless your name is Alan in which case "there is profit to be made in chaos" (sorry personal joke about a friend of mine).
I think we all know our own Alan.
Ummmmmm a few deep cycle batteries and power inverters do the same thing and you don't have to run power cords to your car. If you live in a building generators are illegal, this is the only viable option and I did it after Wilma, there's no original Idea here just a bigger battery that is being charged by the car engine. You could use your car with an inverter and battery charger to do the same thing, certainly not newsworthy other than to give more people the idea. If you look at my posts before the storm I had already told people how to do this.
What are right-wingers always compared to National Socialists? My dad's side of the family was some of the most conservative folks you'd ever meet, yet they fought the Nazi's during WW2. And as conservative as dad was, he still practiced organic gardening in the 70's, before it became a trend.
And as right wing as I might sometime appear (depending on the subject), my home uses LED lighting almost exclusively (plus I got a Civic as my commuter car due to its MPG).
Right now I do have a 5kw generator, but I'm looking to use a back-up battery using solar to run lights, my furnace and maybe the 'fridge & freezer.
My last comment: what the guy did was innovative. He made the best of a bad situation, so I have absolutely no criticism on what he did. If nothing else, other are now aware of what options they might have in a similar situation.
Don't Be A Moron - All well and good as you say except in the case of Sandy or any major storm/disaster like it. The gas that comes to your home is pressurized upstream via large compressors that run on…wait for it…electricity. When electricity goes out for millions of homes a gasoline generator is your best bet (as well as the aforementioned battery scenarios).
I have a 400 watt inverter in the storage box on my Chevy Avalanche....a big "so what" to you Prius. Any vehicle will run a 400 Watt inverter....and they all use gasoline while they do it, even the Prius....So What.
I have 6500 watt generator I paid 400 bux for ten years ago. That is over 15 times the power of your 400w inverter. This is the silliest story I have read in a while.
Steven:
I think where the confusion comes in is when people don't specify "neo conservative" versus conservative. There is a clear distinction. While much of my family's last generation (also the WWII gen) was conservative, those who are still around are horrified with the trends in the neo con camp today. True conservatives are self sufficient but not "in everybody's business," as my aunt refers to it. They don't feel the need to dictate the lifestyles of everyone else to believe in their own moral compass. The women in my family are as proud and strong as the men, and the men know and respect that. My folks would never dream of denying a helping hand to someone based on skin color, religion, party affiliation, etc. We know the difference between someone who won't "tend his own doorstep", and someone who can't, and those who can't should be able to count on those of us who can. That's what defines a society (and if you will, what defines a true Christian). I was raised to believe that the only person whose actions you have to answer for are yours. Respect society, respect others, and respect yourself, and the rest will take care of itself. THAT is TRUE conservatism, not this blathering nonsense the politicians are pandering to today! I didn't set out to become a "liberal" according to today's standards ... the lines got moved right past me as the far Right shifted into crazy land, until I can no longer find any common ground with today's "conservatives" ... they seem like an alien species to me when compared to the wise, self sufficient, and caring people I grew up with.
All you anti-Prius folks:
WTF did you want the guy to do? Not use his Prius to power his house? Go out in the aftermath of the hurricane and trade his Prius for a big 'merican gas guzzler and power his house with that?
The guy used innovation and what he had to get electricity. So what? All these anti-green tools need to just shut up. You don't like the Prius then don't buy one. Period.
My step-dad is an extremely rural guy, having grown up deep in the woods. He drives a big truck, owns about 50 guns, and hunts for his own meat every year. But guess what? He has a Prius too and loves it. He can do all his errands around town and get 50 mpg. A tank of gas lasts him almost two months.
If he needs to haul stuff (or if he just feels like driving it) he's got the truck. I bet all his redneck neighbors hated on him when he bought it. Welcome to the new rural America. Proud to be ignorant, and resistant to any progress.
He already owned the Prius, didn't go out and specifically buy it for this purpose. Good for him! I have a Honda Insight Hybrid and 2 generators, can't be too prepared. :)
I have a 3KW inverter that runs directly off my Prius traction battery (the big 240V one). Mostly for fun though - obviously a $350 generator might work. Actually, I take that back. The $350 generator might work this season, but not next season because it's a cheap peace of junk and you didn't drain the gas, etc., etc. A $2000 Honda generator is a better bet.
But as Denver Bill pointed out, the Prius would be an expensive generator. My wife's Prius III was $23,000 with navigation and how much was that Honda Accord or Toyota Camry you bought? Any hybrid is going to be much more efficient at recharging its own 12V battery simply because it does not need to run the engine constantly, and when it does, it's a 4 cylinder Atkinson cycle.
You should still buy a generator or some deep cycle 12 volts if you are in storm country though.
This article IS news to a lot of people. Good idea to use the Prius and other good ideas provided in comments. But why do those who seem more self-sufficient or knowledgible have to be so smug and condescending about it? There's no single solution that is appropriate for everyone in every location.
If you are a died in the wool PREPPER, outdoors type person, or live in the bodocks, a generator makes more sences.
If you are an urbanite with a small house and 1 car garage (you likely can not park in anyway), the Prius not not a bad fallback option.
Said the pot, as he judged his neighbors around him.
I agree with most of the posts here, heck most truckers have been using inverters to power their little houses on wheels for along time. Nothing new here, except it might broaden some horizons for some in the future. A vehicle is just another type of engine that can be used as a generator with an inverter. He should of used a larger inverter. I do agree a generator is better overall though, better fuel consumption.
I would have thought the liberal media would have used a Chevy Volt instead of a Toyota Prius as a home power substitute. Not only does the Chevy Volt have its own on board generator powerful enough to provide heat for the house, it also has four wheels allowing you to drive to the gas station to fill up when you run out of gas for the generator. Of course a $400 generator and a couple extra gas cans are still cheaper than a Prius or a Volt, but that story would not sell newspapers.
Spend the $27,000 on going solar! (Which really only costs about $15,000-$18,000 [and I say only in reference to the $27,000]) Never pay a heat or electric bill again and get a monthly check from the power company, Never worry about what happens when the power goes out again! save the environment! Put the major utilities out of buisness!
Horse@!$%#! I have not unfairly judged anyone! They made themselves known from the start. When we first moved here my wife and I were inundated by bible thumpers trying to get us into their church and you should see and heard some of the responses we got when we made it clear that we have no interest in going to any church.
If you want to heat judgemental, you should hear what I think of you and your posts, too bad the COH will not allow such words!
How many are using generators without a proper transfer switch. Utility workers are going to get killed by the back feed.
If you don't like it, then move back into the city with your hate mongering liberal judgemental friends.
Let's look at this a different way. You've got a diesel generator and you're one of these folks. If you have a 3kW generator, it's going to use about 0.5 gallons per hour. A 5 gallon diesel can will get you about 10 hours of electricity. Some of these folks have been without power for 12 days, meaning you'd need about 30 cans of diesel to last that long. At $4/gallon, that's 600 bucks in fuel! And the worst part is: it ain't over yet! If you've got a gasoline generator, the fuel consumption is even higher, around 2/3rds of a gallon per hour. Now you're looking at 40 cans of gas and a cost of 800 bucks!
My point is, even if you're prepared with a generator and a couple of gas cans, it wouldn't be enough. I don't know anybody who has 200 gallons in gas cans laying around. Sure is cheaper than a car, but if you're spending $400 on a generator, it might as well be a single use generator. And you can't drive it around for 5 - 10 years when it's not being used as a generator.
Aholencolorado,
I am a natural born American citizen and so far, TX is still part of the United States! I own my home bought and paid for which is more than I can say for most of my neighbors, so... I am not going anywhere thank you very much!
Dr,
Most using small generators, just run extension cords to whatever they are powering. Most with big whole house generators, have them properly installed by an electrician with a transfer.
Situations like the one you are talking about are pretty rare.
Some people do jerry rig up a cord to plug between the generator and a household plug to power the whole home but, most people that know enough to do it, should know they cannot do it in a home with no main shut off breaker. I don't recommend that method at all myself.
Pragmatic-3918582
The solution is to convert the generator to natural gas. You do have natural gas piped right to the house.
then the other thing is to use the power sours that Google uses. It is a flue cell run on natural gas. these make no noise no pollution Get off the grid . I think in 20 years the grid will be as useful as a commodore 64 computer. With a fuel cell you are safer and a storm will not put you out. Just don't live where it floods
Which is great until the natural gas is shut off, as happened in this storm! But I agree that the approach you describe is certainly the best, for those who are able to have it.
Hey when you get lemons make lemonade. Hats off to the guy for being resourceful. However, I will agree that what he did specifically was not that special. Car already makes power, he just used it to power other things. A high tech mobile generator.
mj899 - I think you are on the right track regarding the power sources. With the new tech out there the days of the lone centralized power distribution as we know are numbered. Newer grid designs that I see as being a hybrid of traditional centralized and point of use power distribution will be the future. Grids that are less vulnerable, more adaptive, and able to efficiently take advantage of new power sources. That will be the way to go.
As for the natural gas and a generator, yes and no. They have to pump the gas and if power is down no pumps or limited service or if lines get damaged no gas. Often in emergency's like this gas can be shut off to help prevent fires from areas where lines may have been damage like a building that blew over or something. Obviously won't work for everyone but best option is a propane tank, diesel (can be kept good almost indefinitely with proper treatment and tank design), or for the real survivalists a bio gas generator. Again doesn't work for all but even natural gas generators have to rely on the natural gas infrastructure and that isn't a sure thing either, not as bad as overhead power lines, but still. Or solar and batteries if that works for you as well. All depends on your situation and the situation you want to plan for. IMO a balanced approach combining several of the things I listed is the best option. Key word redundancy.
It is time
Good inverters have come way down in price. You can buy these for about $100/KW (1000 watts). You can run these on any normal vehicle, it doesn't need to be a hybrid. Most typical alternators will keep a battery charged adequately for about a 1000 watt inverter and if you have a heavy duty alternator, all the better and you might be able to upsize to 1500 watts or more without problems. 1000 watts can guy you quite a bit if you use it wisely. Usually it's enough to run a small gas or oil furnace. Using LED lighting can get you a lot of light for relatively few watts of power.
The key is that you need to manage your loads. It takes a little bit of math but it isn't all that complicated. If you look at your appliances for current ratings, (amps), you can determine the watts by multiplying that by 0.8. For example some that that uses 5 amps will use 400 watts, (5 X 0.8 = 400). To make it simple you can just use 10 times because it's easy to remember and will give you a little cushion. You can also look at the drain on your battery by using so math with 10 as a multiplier. If you use 5 amps on your appliance, the battery will be geing drained at a rate of 50 amps. (5 X 10 = 50).
A typical fully charged car battery in good condition can get you about 1 hour of 1000 watt usage. If you are charging the battery with the car engine, you can just about supply that 1000 watts continuously. The main thing if you go this route is to not get greedy, use the power very sparingly and it can last quite a bit longer. One of the nice things about the inverters is that they can buy you some time. In a long outage a generator is far better but the inverter and a long extension cord is a cheap investment that can help and it is very quick to set up. Small inverter can be plugged into a cigarette lighter, but when you get up above around 300 watts or so, you want one with big battery cables and spring clamps that you can quickly install. Even a small one will run your computer, charge your cell phone, run a TV or maybe a few lights. Used sparingly, this can make a big difference even in an extended outage. I advise one for just about anybody. For one about 300 watts or so that you can plug into a cigarette lighter outlet and a 100 foot extension cord, (a cheap 16 gage one is fine for this small size), you can have some quick to deploy, limited back up power for about $50 if you shop around. Skill level required for this low end set up is no-brainer.
The more power you want, the more complicated it gets and the more you'll need to invest. For a whole house back-up you'll pretty much need a generator of about 8000 watts or more and you really need to know what you're doing. The investment to do it right will be about $10,000 or more installed. The complete standby systems that run on natural gas are nice but aren't very flexible. Natural gas isn't 100% assured and flooding or a falling tree can easily put you out of business. I lean more toward portables, but they require a higher skill level.
What this guy did is hardly extraordinary and having a hybrid made little difference above having a regular car. The only difference is that the traction battery charges the 12 volt battery, but it's 12v system too has limited output. You might argue that the hybrid makes electric power more efficiently but in reality you can do this with regular car although you might burn a bit more gas. You don't need the hybrid to take advantage of the small back-up system I described. For about $50 or so I recommend everybody have one for a little bit of power in an emergency.
First I have heard of this, many people in other areas may not have generators, this at least is an alternative. The problem with these cars is also the price of replacement batteries around $10,000. The people that knew about generators and their prices and costs to run them did have some good points. It all comes down to circumstances and things that are available to an individual in an emergency.
livinginthewoods
I have seen a lot of people around here, NE TX, make up a gen cable with a 240VAC plug and plug it into a stove or dryer outlet and back feed it to power certain things around the house. They pull the breakers on most of the heavy duty stuff and are careful not to load it up with too many things. All of the ones I know of that do that, pull the entrance breaker to the power panel to keep it off the powerline. The problem I see with it is an unbalanced load feeding too much current on the neutral line, so I shy away from that. That being said, I have not heard of anyone around here having a problem with people getting hurt or fires.
Another way that I stated earlier is a few deep cycle batteries to power the inverters. When these batteries die then you use the power inverter on a battery charger(large shop charger is preferable) and then use your car to recharge the batteries with the charger. Then you only have to run the vehicle for a couple of hours to completely recharge the batteries as opposed to all day to run the inverter off the car. If you know how, you can hook multiple batteries in parallel with jumper cables to reduce the time needed to charge the batteries.
I ran for 4 days using 4 scissor lift 6 volt deep cycle batteries, and yes you do have to use the power sparingly, but I went 4 days before I started recharging the batteries and the power came on while I was recharging.
Until a storm blows them off your roof or a tree hits them and breaks them, your inverter burns out from overload, or you exhaust your battery bank during a long term cloudiness or heavy snow cover, or you don't have the thousands of dollars to buy another battery bank when your old one gives out.
Heavy snow cover can be REMOVED unless your fat and lazy, Todays solar panels have progressed to the point where even on extreemely cloudy days they still produce effective electricity, Inverters burn out less than generators do ( and if your seriuos about it you really only need inverters to run you major appiances as you would conserve more electricity by switching to 12 V. lighting) and the $$ it takes to buy a battery bank sufficeint for househod needs is easily accumulated through the monthly check you get from the electric co and the $$ you dont have to spend on heating your home or buying electricity. Your inverter shouldnt burn out from overload any mor often than your main circuit braker does from overload. And in an emergency like what is going on now I would expect one to use some common sense and try to use less electricity and make it last longer. ( but then again your comment wasn't really based on common sense , was it now? Just spouting off at the mouth!)
A battery bank would only be used for emergencies because $15,000 buys more than enough solar power to spin your meter backwards and pay for the minor nightime electricity use, does not really cost much in comparisson to a prius. And if the wind is sufficient to blow away your bolted down solar panels, not having electricity is probably the least of your worries as your house probaby went with them!
Do some research,stop living in the 1940's then come back and spout off about the cost and unreliabillity of solar energy. I have, I've been to friends houses who have switched and am in the process of doing so myself.
Go to WWWRealsolargoods.com or WWW ineedsolar.com and see how easy it is.
I have done the research. A system that meets my needs because of where I live would cost me $75,000. That is my reality. I am looking for an alternate source. Plus, my current residence does not have the square footage enough on the roof to support such a system as I would need, and does not permit me to do it, anyway.
Or, unless you are too ill to get on a ladder or shovel snow because doing so would kill you.
I have seen inverters burn out. I have seen rectifiers burn out if power draw exceeds the current rating of the components. You have to have a lot more than $15,000 worth of solar panels to spin your meter backwards, plus a special meter that must be added to the system. The battery bank is drawn from each and every time there is not adequate sunlight, and every night. The exception to the daytime situation is if you live in a region that has little rainfall and clouds. And, every five to seven or so years the battery bank has to be replaced.
It is you who needs to do the requisite research. It is obvious to anyone who knows anything about solar technology that you haven't.
For $75,000 You coud buy a system that produces 39,000 watts of electricity! If you use that much then you are paying about $1,900 a month in electricity. Even more reason to go solar. And YOU DO NOT NEED A BATTERY BANK TO GO SOLAR. YOU RUN OFF THE GRID AT NIGHT AND OFF THE PANELS DURING THE SUNLIGHT. Unless you live somewhere wher it snows EVERYDAY then getting rid of the snow is easy if you get the right tools. And I dont know where you are shopping but seriousy $75,000 will buy (at the most expensive retailer and a rush union instalation) will buy 39,000 watts of electricity. with a %15-20 power loss during the inversion process thats still 4x the amount the normal household uses. You only need a battery bank if you plan on completely disconnect from the grid.
Not where I live. If I am going to go solar I would go all the way or nothing. For complete grid independence I would need everything I priced. I also would only buy the best and I would do the installation myself. I myself priced the system I would need, inverter plus backup, and the battery bank. There is also a loss in efficiency that occurs at about 25 years of age for the photovoltaic cells. I have accounted for that and added redundancy to the system. So, what I would need exceeds my ability to purchase it at the present time but $75,000 is what I would need.
As I said, I am looking into alternate sources of power that don't cost that much. I currently am designing a system from scratch that is far more efficient than solar and completely removes me from the grid with no battery bank. It will be usable anywhere and placeable anywhere, and does not depend on sunlight or wind. Estimates of costs for materials will be about 10,000.00 USD to build the prototype. But I know that solar is not an option for me.
maybe toyota will feature him in there commericals....
Wonder if that voids the warranty.
This would be a big promotion on what their cars can really do.
@Panhead, no it does not void the warranty. It is just using the DC to DC converter from the traction battery to the lead acid battery to the inverter plugged into the lead acid battery.
The Prius uses a lot less gas to create the same amount of electricity (watt hours) as a smelly generator would. The engine only kicks on when the battery gets low and then shuts off again, and it uses the Atkinson cycle rather than OTTO cycle engine.
A generator usually doesn't have a catalytic converter, a Prius has 2.
In fact most people can do this with their cars, just leave the engine running and hook an inverter to the battery. Will use a lot more gas than a Prius though, might only last a day.
You can buy a $20 inverter from Radio Shack and power anything you want from any car you buy.... this is a fluff piece to push people to buy hybrids because they can "save you in a storm"? I have a Land Rover that will power my house and also get me away from it, if I need to in a hurry. I also drive a Prius for work and it wont get me over the average 6" curb.
How long will your car/truck idle to power your 100W radio shack inverter? 24-48 hours maybe if you just filled up. I don't recall ever needing to drive over a 6" curb, but of course if I did, my Prius wouldn't be the right choice. It's not a fluff piece though - if a Prius can do for a week what your car can do for 2 days, it's an advantage. It's not a game changing advantage, anyone can invest in a good quality generator, but it's still an advantage. Admit it, the Toyota Prius is in many ways, the best vehicle made. It has saved me thousands of dollars in gas over the last 100K miles, and I made money when I sold my Honda Accord and bought a used Prius. I've been called a fag for driving one (more than once!), which in my mind pretty much sums up the cogent, well reasoned arguments against hybrids.
Point is, you don't need a Prius. Any Car will power an inverter, and you don't have to run it all the time if you just want to keep you fridge and freezer going....just a few hours a day. If you want continuous uninterrupted power, just go buy a generator and call it a day!
Pragmatics approach as well as getting the info that ANY car could do the same thing with the right inverter.. (and a Nod to trucks... they can "stand" higher voltage inverters) The problem with the article (in agreement with most on the vine) is
1. They did not point out the fact that an inverter (at least for light, phone charging) is a good idea regardless of the car you own...
2. It looks like a veil attempt at selling a green energy agenda.. (all ready NBC.) We know your in the tank for the Pres but really?
Is there any story that can be run without conspiracy theorists assuming there is always some hidden agenda? If you are worried about hidden agendas.. look inward
That land rover will use about half a gallon of gas an hour just idling to power the inverter and what electricity it is converting. A Prius will use very very little gasoline as it uses the Atkinson cycle instead of OTTO cycle, a much smaller engine, and the engine will only cycle on and off as it needs to recharge the traction battery.
So, that land rover will last about a day and a half with 18 gallons of gas, the Prius will run for days and days on less gas.
Don't need a Prius to do this. A beat up Chevy truck would do the same thing with an inverter.
The amazing thing is it took 2 writers to write this story.
I wonder how long a beat up Chevy's battery would have lasted...
@AleChild - Life of the battery in the car has no bearing in this. What is being done is the car is idling and providing power through the alternator to the electrical system in the vehicle. The power inverter is plugged into a lighter port in the vehicle and the power is converted from direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC) that your house uses. The number of devices you can power depends on the wattage of the inverter. Mike is 100% right... ANY vehicle will do this. It becomes a question of how long your vehicle can idle on a tank of gas. My econobox Ford Focus would probably idle for days on a tank of gas.
As long as you remember to fill that tank before the storm! I like the fact that this article was written. Between it and the comments, It has provided alot of info for people who didn't have it before.
Yeah, I have been doing this with a power inverter since the early 1990s when working outside, camping with a Ford F-150, Jeep Cherokee, and now a Toyota 4Runner.
This is definitely not news as you can get much larger power inverters (1000W) that can run TVs, power tools, small refrigerators, and a lot of things. (If you use the higher wattage ones, you have to hook it up directly to the car battery and have the car running but they usually come with a kit that has all the connections for that).
The fact that it is a Prius has nothing to do with it because any car running at idle as the comment above said. It really is kind of funny that the writers and people in this story think that the Prius is magic or like a spaceship since any car engine can act as a just a giant generator...my guess is that they have not really gotten away from the New York area too much to realize that this is nothing new, common for people who like the outdoors, and nothing to write an entire news article about.
A word of caution, if you did this, like the reports of the people dying from generators in a closed garage, do not just idle your car in a garage or you will end up also with exhaust in your house and possible carbon monoxide poisoning.
For the writers of this article, all you have to do is walk to the auto section of any store, even Walmart, and you will find power inverters for sale that work with any car, even just a car battery for a short time...watch out for the cheap ones which tend to cut off often and also if you get any high wattage inverter (400 W and higher) you have to hardwire it in to your car at the battery, not just used the 12V power port, or it will not handle the load.
These are what the article is talking about: http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=583328
JRS-619990 Thank you for the info! I'm going to have my hubby read the article and also various comments, including yours.
The gas in the hybrid would last a lot longer than the gas in an old beat up Chevy...
I would have wondered if he had a Prius v3 if the solar could have been tapped into which is used for the AC to run when cars not on. I always like the thought of using small solar wind to battery option but a generator is almost always ready with fuel though ours would have only lasted a day on 4 gallons(about 6hrs a gallon) and a whole lot cheaper since the government only chips in when you have a whole home solar/wind solution and that still needs somewhere safe to store power when the sun is not effective.
Congrats to him with making use out of what he had on hand and he didn't set himself on fire.
@tmp - No, it would not. Hybrids only save gas when they are in motion. In fact, hybrids like the Prius completely shut off the engine when sitting still or "idling", and restart it when the vehicle reaches a certain speed.
Nothing against the Prius, it is a great car if you live the city and never need to leave a road or drive in heavy snow, but the fact that this guy used a Prius has absolutely NO bearing on him being able to power his house. Any vehicle with a reasonable sized alternator could be connected to an inverter and complete the same task.
@kj - Except that unless you're using max draw on the battery your idling is wasting excess electricity. The prius only starts the engine when the alternator needs to charge the battery so you're only using gas when needed.
And wait until his Prius needs a attery change due to this type of use. Hybrid cars are too expensive to be cost effective and they are using this story to try and sell more. My 2 Geo Metro 3 cylinders from the 90's are still getting 42 miles to the gallon and cost me a total of 16K for both cars. Bring back a cheap, fuel efficient car and make some money. They have crumple zones in the hoods and doors and dual airbags. Only idiots would have taken them off the market. Enjoy your high gas prices and high price options America, you all have voted for it.
I don't understand why a car manufacturer does not do what Volkswagon did for years. Make one style of car for 5 or more years. Volkswagon sold a zillion identical cars for years. Why retool every year?
"Only idiots would have taken them off the market." And those same idiots nearly took the entire company off the market.
Here in Phoenix - Discount Cab is the largest cab company and they have replaced the majority of the fleet w/ Prius over the past few years.
This would tell me it makes financial sense.
You know the Geo Metro is a death trap, right? Your Metro would not even come close to the safety standards of 2012, that's why it's not made anymore. That's why they make the Sonic. A modern, sub-compact.
Gunner, I think the entire Geo Metro is a crumple zone...
Two words: Dental records.
Replacement Prius batteries are less than $1000 on Ebay and there are tutorials on youtube on how to swap batteries yourself. You can easily recupe this cost with the fuel savings.
Be careful. Those replacement batteries on eBay actually are the batteries that have been replaced more than half the time. Be prepared to be ripped off.
Real replacement batteries cost over $2000 for the pack alone. That does not include the cost of new wires and other components necessary to install the new battery properly.
Another benefit of electric cars!
as long as they are charged up and gassed up BEFORE a power outage.
The extra large battery on a hybrid would likely last longer than a standard battery and use less gas to recharge it.
Wow! I read the article thinking "man, I wish I bought a Prius!" . Now I'm glad I took the time to read the comments . Didn't know I could do this with my Sonata and an inverter! Thank you commenters!
Yet another reason to buy a green car! Wish American car manufacturers would focus more on green cars... This way, their price would go down, and more Americans would be able to afford them!
dont worry im certain that barry will have the gas over 5 bucks by years end, course those electric car prices wont come down. you do realise however that should a demand for them be created the Price's sure as heck wont go down....wrong direction
The base models are not that expensive.
Yep, a green car that requires fossil fuels to charge the batteries. And, if everyone owned one, where would you dispose of the old batteries? Green, indeed.
My Honda Insight hybrid was $18,900. Less than $20k. I was really surprised and it was not the "basic" model either. :)
Yes Scooter, because the Constitution states that a President's job is to set gas prices. You didn't hear all the reporting the last time gas prices went up? You know the reports that discussed supply/demand, market speculation, OPEC, etc. They were not just on MSNBC either as I saw the same discussion on Fox.
There was a study done in which participants were shown a video of a man who had been arrested for DUI. The man later went to schools to discuss the dangers of alcohol with students. When the study participants thought the person was of their same political position, a majority said he had grown and matured. When the participants thought the person was from the other party, they said he was a hypocrite.
Go figure...
Democrats already tried to push that legislation through, hidden in the American Jobs Act of 2011. Thankfully that one did not get past the Republicans.
It is more than just supply and demand, or market speculation, or even OPEC that determines prices. Refinery numbers also play a large part in gasoline prices. Obama's EPA has already managed to shut down more than a dozen refineries with new regulations, with more yet to follow. Much of the last price hike was because of refinery shutdowns.
There is another way to raise prices of gasoline. That is legislation. Already we pay in excess of 40% for each gallon for legislated federal and other taxes. The American Jobs Act and accompanying veterans legislation attempted to put in place situations that also would have raised gasoline prices. Don't believe it? Read the legislation and see for yourself what they tried to do.
As an aside, Steven Chu (Obama's energy guy) wants Americans to pay $10/gallon to help save the world from global warming. If Democrats get their way, we all will pay much more for gasoline and utilities before alternative systems are in place.
Any car can be hooked up to an invertor. I did it last year when my lost electric during Irene. The wattage stated is wrong. 100 watts wont power a coffee maker. It will keep your laptop charged and your cable modem going but usually when the electric is down so is cable.
Now if they really did their homework for this article they would know that there is a 600 volt DC battery in the car that with the right transformers could power the whole house. with 220 voltage. Do not try this at home unless you are at the very least educated on Hybrid Batteries.
The Prius has two batteries in it. The high voltage battery is 273.6V. It has about 1.1 kWh stored in it on a full charge (note that a typical hybrid battery is only charged about 50%). It also has a low voltage battery, about 12V and that has about 0.5 kWh on a full charge (usually fully charged). This guy was using the low voltage battery, which is identical to a standard car battery.
Need a good old fashioned wood-burning fire place.
Big deal, if you are running an inverter from the 12 volt battery, you can do it with any car.
Its called SOLAR power with batteries! But there just isn't the market for that right now? Just sayin. that way, who CARES when the power is on! you already will have power!
When I clicked on the article I thought I was going to read something about how he backfed his whole house off the Prius. What he did is exactly what I did for the past week - using my Subaru. Where's my news article?
"Now if they really did their homework for this article they would know that there is a 600 volt DC battery in the car that with the right transformers could power the whole house. with 220 voltage. Do not try this at home unless you are at the very least educated on Hybrid Batteries."
Sorry Dawn, you cannot simply use a transformer to step down a DC voltage. Transformers can only modify an AC voltage. A specialized inverter could really make use of the Prius battery; perhaps someone has already done this.
I've tapped in to my Prius' traction battery to get 4000 watts, and I can run most of my house for 2 1/2 days on one tank of gas (8 gallons). This includes 120 and 240 volt appliances - with load management. The most you will get from a standard vehicle idling is about 100 watts, their alternators only put out a fraction of their full output at idle, and they will go through a 15 gallon tank in one day.
This isn't for the average Joe, doing this requires modification to the Prius which exposes you to dangerous DC voltages. However, the average Joe CAN get 1000 watts from the Prius' 12 volt system using a standard 12 volt inverter and get the same effect (just running less stuff). In fact one tank of gas would last for 4-5 days doing it this way. Details on what I did, below.
priups <dot> com/others/Doug/index <dot> html
wind-sun <dot> com/ForumVB/showthread.php?12962-Using-a-Prius-as-a-generator
It sounds like you know what you're talking about, and have taken the original idea from the article to the next level. Unfortunately the details didn't show up. (was it a link?)
I guess these writers don't get out much. Twelve volt inverters (to 110v, 60hertz) are nothing new. I power my laptops and other business tools from my car all the time. I purchased a 1000w inverter at a garage sell a few years ago for $10 and attached directly to my truck battery. I can power most of my electric tools and sometimes lights and such when the power goes out. Really nothing new here. The best thing to do is purchase a 4000-7000w portable generator and keep it filled with gas for home use. A 7000w generator will run the entire house minus a few things. You can't run power intensive devices such as an electric dryer or AC at the same time. If you want a big daddy generator then there are 10,000w continuous portable machines that are cheap during period of the year. Home Depot had a RIDGID Kohler powered 10,000w generator for $1000 (someone brought it back but still new) at my N Dallas favorite store. Stay away from Briggs-Stratton engines. Best to go with Honda, Yamaha, Kohler, ect...I lost confidence in B-G engines when the company offshored manufacturing. They're junk. Honda is best (or Diesel) for a generator gas engine. Best to get a generator that idles down when not under load.
I've done this with both my old Corolla and my 2008 Prius. The advantage of using the Prius is that the high voltage battery keeps the 12volt battery charged without the gas engine running all the time. Once the high voltage battery drains down low enough, the gas engine automatically comes on and runs for 2-3 minutes to recharge the HV battery. I ran a 400watt inverter on my Prius for about 20 hours like this. The engine only ran a few minutes about every 25 minutes. A trip to the gas station showed I used less than 2.5 gallons running this way.
Wow I didnt know the high voltage battery could charge the engine battery. It must have a "step down" circuit between the 2 batteries. still a regular engine can be manually cycled depending on the inverter load.
This is what the article is all about. Efficient use of a car to power your house. :)
This article is hype. I thought the guy took the powertrain of the car apart & tapped into some real power. Any car with a 100 or more amp alternator can run a fairly large power inverter. I have a quality 750 inverter that can run my fridge, tv, laptop & a few lights & charge both cell phones. For just running the fridge the car engine doesent need to run but a few mins each hour due to the short cycle of the fridge. My fridge draws about 250 watts for about 10 mins each hour. Thank god we didnt loose power but we were ready. Maybe my setup would have made national news as well.
Nothing special here. Hey, NBC, he won the fricking election. Move on to something other than bogus stories that fluff an administration that has accomplished exactly zero in four years. How about articles that matter to the American people. Why gas prices keep going up when we export more than we use?? Why did we not start this energy dependence issue in 1973?? Import taxes, raise them so that manufacturers have no choice but to bring jobs back to our soil? Stop importing oil for 5 years and watch the prices bottom out from OPEC. It takes someone with a set that is willing to tell the world that we are not going to be ruled by you anymore. The world runs our nation. Time to change that. That is REAL change, not the junk we have gotten for the last 4 years. And guess what, it doesn't take a degree on a sheet of paper to figure it out. It takes listening to the people who are giving their lives for this country and do have a clue, unlike your journalist pool.
gunner. Gas prices keep going up because we have something called a global economy now. We export oil because that is where the profit is. Anyone who thinks the new pipeline that they are building is going to help bring prices down is in for a rude awakening. Our current world demand for hydrocarbons is NOT sustainable no matter what anyone says. This is a finite resource. The limiting factor for wind and solar is the fuel contained within the sun. True, that too is finite, but it will buy a lot more time before that supply runs out.
gunner, why do you think that the pipeline is going to a port? So, it can be sold! Obama isn't against the pipeline, he is against the route they want to build it on. It goes over a huge source of fresh water in current plans. Existing tar sands pipes have broken, because it is like sand paper going down the pipe. They don't know how to clean it up during a spill. It sinks to the bottom of rivers and lakes, destroying farming down river, as well as drinking water. We already get this oil from Canada anyways. Other than during the gulf of Mexico incident, U.S. oil production has been up. Other energy sources have been up. When this is done over a wider basis costs will go down on all energy. The only reason to do oil and dirty coal only is to keep prices up, making the rich richer and oil stock investors very happy.
If I recall correctly, the Republican Governor of Missouri also did not like the pipeline route.
I have to plead ignorance to the story and the comments. How do you do this? What do you hook it up to? Is it something that runs from your car/truck's battery to your fuse box? Can anyone enlighten me? I'll check back later
What is being done is the car is idling and providing power through the alternator to the electrical system in the vehicle. If you aren't using a big load you can probably get by with running the gas engine in the car occasionally to charge up the 12 VDC battery in the car. That 12 VDC battery will power the inverter even when the car isn't running. You just want to make sure you don't run down the vehicle's battery to the point you can't start the car!
The power inverter is plugged into a lighter port in the vehicle and the power is converted from direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC) that your house uses. Plug your AC devices into the outlet on the inverter (use a heavy duty extension cord - something rated for at least 15 amps and check the extension cord occasionally to make sure it isn't overheating). The number of devices you can power depends on the wattage of the inverter. I agree with the earlier poster who said that the wattage they specify on the inverters is usually higher than what they deliver. You should probably buy a larger inverter than you think you need.
Do you people get on these boards to vent your frustrations over your crappy lives? Maybe a better attitude would help. The point of the article is that a person who never thought that he needed a generator used ingenuity, intelligence, and modern technology to solve for a bad problem. Also, guess what -- you couldn't touch a generator within 200 miles of Jersey since Sandy was announced and after Sandy hit, you couldn't touch a gallon of gas. Suddenly, your $329 generator is a paper weight. So a week of lights, internet, and TV for a week, or heat for a day (maybe 2), then nothing. Oops. The guy used smarts and ingenuity to overcome obstacles. That's a good thing. The attitude of many of you - a bad thing. As an aside, regarding the Prius, do any of you have a sense for inflation? Car prices go up. Also, look at a Prius versus a GEO Metro - Prius - tons more comfortable, tons more performance, roughly 15% better gas mileage, four real seats. So, no surprise, it's more expensive.
What you fail to understand is that the ONLY way this green crap works is to artificially inflate the cost of fuel and/or give government incentives (my tax dollars) to get you to buy this crap.
But Obama wants YOU to pay more for everything including fuel and taxes because green energy has everything to do with Green Cash. it is nothing more than a control issue using carbon credits to take from people with money and give to the government.
Oh... I guess they could have used a Chevy Volt too. That way the neighbors could have made smores with the new bonfire.
mcrich,
We're screwed unless we find ways to save fuel. Hydraulic fracturing from shale sands didn't used to be an economically viable way to extract oil from the ground. Drilling a mile deep in the ocean didn't use to be an economically viable way to extract oil. As gas prices go up, these new methods become economical and current uneconomical methods will become economical. But gas prices are going up to get there, and they have no place to go but up. Demand is increasing and it is a limited resource. Fuel efficiency is the only way our economy is going to survive. New energy sources will alleviate the demand and reduce cost. The problem with new energy sources is they aren't as cheap as gas (which has been around for a century to build up its infrastructure) hindering mass production and the efficient economy of large scale. Make no mistake, we will need some kind of new technology in the future. Gas is getting too expensive and it will only get worse. We can either have the pieces in place for a new technology (and figure out what that technology will be) or we can suffer an economic collapse and then have scant resources to figure out a new technology.
Solar and wind are attractive techs because they aren't subject to market manipulation by the middle east. Gas, even if it is 100% drilled, extracted, and refined in North America, is still subject to the whims of middle east dictators. It's a global market of a good, you can't insulate a nation or continent from it. Energy that can't possibly be exported can be insulated from the global market. But they are by no means the only option we should be looking at.
Never been uncomfortable in my Metro and as far as performance, mine is better than a Prius, may be the driver though. Sorry, if you spend days at a time in your car and need it to feel like your house, sucks to have your life. If you need a vehicle to get from point a to point be and done, who cares except for people with big egos and a sense of entitlement what it looks or feels like. Point is this article is attempting to pat the administration on the back and they have done nothing to promote green energy or cars except hand out money that led to bankruptcies, oh that was our tax money that we wll never see again. Write articles to discuss meaningful issues. You can go down to radio shack and do this with any car. This is not news.
8% of Obama's investment into green energy went to companies that went bankrupt. China undercutting the world solar panel market prices had a great deal to do with this. 22% of the money Mitt Romney invested in companies went to companies that went bankrupt. The amount of companies that they invested in is about equal. Why are you against green energy? and using all forms of energy? instead of just a couple.
If it wasn't for the government, we wouldn't have the modern highway system, electricity to most of the country, phones to most of the country, traffic lights, fire fighters, police, hospitals, senior living areas, national defense/retirement for those soldiers, and many more modern day necessities. You would have to pay a toll to a private company every where you went.
The generator just drove off, Bob!
my friend did the same thing using an inverter and his 1995 s450 sedan battery.
For all of you naysayers out there, this is big news!
This is one less Prius blocking the carpool lane!
Too bad FEMA hasn't confiscated the remaining Prius vehicles to provide power to the Northeast. It's our only hope to get these 50 mph vehicles off the street.
THE PROBLEM I HAVE SEEN with most of the people who "Sandy hit" are people who are very selfish, ans think the WORLD should BOW to them OVER-NIGHT.
THESE PEOPLE who are complaining and Murmuring are people who have always had, and NEVER had to SUFFER for anything. They always had their BREAKFAST on time, had their SIX Figured INCOME, living on the BEACH, and having a portion of the "SO-CALLED good life, NOW ALL of a sudden, GOD HAS inconvenience many and they are out-raged at the World because they have no lights, Gas, Water, a nice comfortable bed to sleep in, and everything at their finger-tip to get them on their MERRY-Way.
FOLKS, we live in a REAL WORLD where things are happening, and it doesn't take a science Book to know, America, is not the only country that can have trouble as others who are on this planet Earth.
America, still should be grateful they have the MEANS to correct "What Sandy have done"
Haiti, and other countries who have went through "Many Sandie's, and the Like" CANNOT FIX what happen to them, because of their country's confusion, and mishaps with their Government problems.
America, be grateful, get up and put your pants on, shut your mouth, and learn how to Boil water, clean what you can, and stop Murmuring about this and that, and think on what LIFE really is.
A few lights, his TV, laptop and modem with a 100 watt power inverter? That's stretching it. A 300 watt inverter would barely run all this stuff, even with Fl light bulbs.
Why the heavy-duty extension cords? At 300 watts, 120 volts the cheapest extension cord in the world would handle it. I have a 1500 watt inverter myself, but no Prius.