I’m curious about two topics and I have no knowledge of either of them, so any guidance would be greatly appreciated. first: if I want to run electrical devices from my car what is the simplest way to set that up and make it happen? I have gleaned so far that to do this I need an inverter, but there seem to be a ton of inverters for sale for all different prices and I’ve never used one before so it’s unknown territory for me. second: Is it possible to actually use the Prius as a generator during a power outage? And if so what are the things I need to do this? Right now I’m staying in a rather remote area. A bad wind storm can knock the power out and worst case scenario is can be days before power is restored so if there is a way to do this, I think I should definitely give it a try!
Long time lurker, first time poster. For anyone else who finds this, I looked into this several months ago, and...yeah. The idea totally checks out as possible, and there was a window of time when special inverter kits could be found, but in (now) 2026, it's not really viable and if you can find them, they're expensive. Instead, I opted for a Honda EU2200i and (maybe one day) a LiFePO4 Battery. It's enough to handle my refrigerator or microwave, and I don't have to haul it around with me all the time like some of the Prius inverter systems. Finally, they're supposedly quite rugged and long-lived, so I'm hoping mine will outlive my gen3 Prius. One additional tip I have is to grab a fuel siphon hand pump to make it easier to move your generator gas into your car every month or so (longer if you avoid ethanol fuel and use stabilizers).
