Deadly CO Generators vs Prius Inverter

Here are other pros and cons of a Pruis with a $200 1,000 watt inverter vs a $95 stand alone gas generator.

Pros
1. It will give a small amount of power for a couple devices.
2. It sure beats not having power
3. That is all I can think of.

Cons
1. It can only provide about 1,000 watts. This will not provide an enough power for a hair dry or microwave
2. It cost 2X buying a off the self gas generator that can be converted to natural gas or propane for a unlimited run time.
3. You have to run wires from a huge car that can only sit in the driveway or garage. A portable generator can be placed near the front door, back door, side of house. It is small.
4. The efficiency of running a full car for a little 1,000 inverter has to be less than 50%. That is a huge waste of gas and money.
5. If hooked up wrong it can hurt a $25,000 car.

 

even my 12 kw lp generator was required to be installed 20' or so away from the house to prevent co into an open window.

 

A 1k power supply is likely not enough for most but doesn't a connection to the 12v allow for a 2k inverter? Surely for minimal camping or low demand home emergency needs that would be a lot better than nothing and safer and quieter than the stand alone generator.

Is the higher watt inverter connection to the HV battery system too complex prohibitive for the DIYer? That would be like 5k right?

 

But the Prius engine runs only when it has to charge the battery. A generator has to run 24/7.

I used my Prius c with an 80 watt inverter after Sandy to run my steam heat, a couple of LED 60 watt equivalent lamps, my cablemodem, wireless router, VoIP phones and laptop. Used under a gallon of gas in 54 hours of continuous operation. See my more detailed post here.

 

Bob, I appreciate the work and reports you and others have provided here on this benefit of our car. Being electrical knowledge challenged myself, it is most helpful in gaining a better understanding of the capabilities, process, and issues related to this function. I am also especially interested in the discussion of the portable aspects. With your list of uses for 1kw it sounds like it is much more capable than I originally thought. You saying your 1kw inverter will power all those devices separately, right? Not all at once.?

I see different threads on how to put together a system to run off the 12v in READY mode. Is there a ready made system out there that just connects to the 12v? Is that even feasible?

 

In the 1980s, I remember regional news reporting of about one death per year from parents discovering that their child 'sleeping' in the back seat was permanently asleep with CO poisoning. Those reports seem to have vanished.

While I suffer from an inherited susceptibility to motion sickness, I now suspect that backseat CO was also a contributor to my own frequent childhood car sickness.

 

i am not advocating one way or another, just referring to co issue you mentioned. generator was here when we moved in and we didn't know anything about prius capability. i do not like the fact that the gen has to run 24/7 anf uses about a gal./hr, so i shut it off when we go to bed. apologies for sidetracking the thread.

 

Some time ago, mostly in response to people who expressed concern about carbon monoxide generated by the Prius, I did a bit of testing. The results are here:

Carbon Monoxide

Make of them what you will. I don't see it as a big problem.

Richard

 

Home CO poisonings were such a problem in a widespread winter power outage here a few years ago that CO detectors become mandatory next week.

Unlike other regions where near universal use of combustion appliances led to this regulation long ago, many homes here have no built-in potential source of CO. But so many people, primarily recent immigrants with poor English skills, brought barbeque grills inside for heating and cooking that we had a rash of poisonings. Apparently in Somalia, this sort of indoor cooking is standard practice. But these immigrants were accustomed to hot climate homes with slatted walls, probably with several air changes per minute. Do this in a home with one air change every few hours, and the results are deadly.

But generators and other CO emitters also caused problems, and we have native speakers of gazillions of languages, so the local paper printed filled the top half of the front page with warnings in six languages. The county's Carbon Monoxide Facts warning page has 24 languages.

 

It is my understanding that a generator running on natural gas or propane is not a CO threat unless you starve the intake. That's why they use propane or natural gas to power indoor forklifts.
Keeping it away from a house is mainly in case it catches fire.

My choice, if I lived in an area susceptible to hurricanes or earthquakes, would be a stand alone generator in a steel cabinet, set up to run natural gas (first choice) or propane (first choice in earthquake areas) and sited away from the house, of perhaps 10 kW capacity and 220V two phase, so it could run the refrigerator, freezer, and furnace. -Most- of the time natural gas won't be interrupted as it is underground. Sandy was the exception, due mostly to the fires and it being shut off. But if you were in that area your generator wouldn't have survived anyway. And neither would your Prius.

You DO have to run the generator at least once a month to ensure reliability. A good excuse to have a monthly "emergency exercise" for the family.

I have an emergency generator stored in the basement (without fuel of course). It has been unused for 15 years now. I pull the starter cord once in a while to ensure the oil keeps everything coated. I usually store fuel in the garage (detached) in the winter only. A power failure in our winter of more than about 12 hour duration would result in a plumbing disaster! In our case keeping "RV antifreeze" in the house to pour into drains (and toilets) to keep them from freezing is a good idea. But we have never had a power failure lasting more than a hour so we are rather complacent.

 

1800 Watt Solar Generator-1800SG at The Home Depot

 

A cracked head will also release CO. That is how a malfunctioning propane-powered ice resurfacing machine, at an ice rink in my community, sent 67 people to local emergency rooms. CDC-MMWR: Carbon Monoxide Poisoning at an Indoor Ice Arena and Bingo Hall -- Seattle, 1996

 

Batteries not included!