Prius as a source of emergency power?

[Whiplasherman]

My Prius and I live in Mobile, Alabama. Now that the weather's turning warmer, I pine for a remote starter ... the AC on the Prius is a bit anemic for 95 degrees, sun, and 100% humidity. But I digress.

My real question is: My hybrid has a huge battery pack that has 120 volts, and a gas engine that charges it. We get a lot of hurricanes down here that can knock out the power ... could my Prius be used as a power source for AC power in an emergency? I saw elsewhere on the boards that a car in Japan would provide 3000kw for 36 hours ... that's great! Anyone have any ideas how such a mod could be done?

[Brian K]

I remember reading that the battery is actually a 280 some odd voltage battery. I think that the 120v that powers the AC comes from an inverter. I don't know what capacity that inverter has, but I'd be willing to bet it's minimal if you plan to use it to power your home. I know something of this since we have solar power on our home, a system that I designed , built and installed.

I'm no engineer, but I suspect it'd be less expensive to just buy a generator from Northern or Home Depot.

One screw up and well, do you really want expensive repair bills on a $25,000 vehicle? It just strikes me as being in the "not worth it" category. My opinion.

[seasalsa]

My Prius and I live in Mobile, Alabama. Now that the weather's turning warmer, I pine for a remote starter ... the AC on the Prius is a bit anemic for 95 degrees, sun, and 100% humidity. But I digress.

My real question is: My hybrid has a huge battery pack that has 120 volts, and a gas engine that charges it. We get a lot of hurricanes down here that can knock out the power ... could my Prius be used as a power source for AC power in an emergency? I saw elsewhere on the boards that a car in Japan would provide 3000kw for 36 hours ... that's great! Anyone have any ideas how such a mod could be done?

Take a look at this article on a type of monification from Gizmag:
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:-92WHx9...ncy+power&hl=en

[priusenvy]

My real question is: My hybrid has a huge battery pack that has 120 volts, and a gas engine that charges it. We get a lot of hurricanes down here that can knock out the power ... could my Prius be used as a power source for AC power in an emergency? I saw elsewhere on the boards that a car in Japan would provide 3000kw for 36 hours ... that's great! Anyone have any ideas how such a mod could be done?

It's been done before (not directly off the high voltage battery though). There was a posting on the Yahoo group that after one of the big hurricanes, someone in Florida powered a compact refrigerator for days off of their Prius. It would restart every once in a while to charge the battery and then shut off again. Consider that the fuse going to the 12V system is 100 amps, the amount of current that the DC converter can continuously supply, and the efficiency of an inverter. You might be able to get what, 700-800 watts safely?

A post on "that other Prius web site" by someone who appeared knowledgeable said that the engine would need to run about ten minutes out of every hour to charge the battery if you were drawing the maximum safe amount of current off the 12V side.

[Brian K]

By all means, do it.