Exporting Prius power to off grid locations

There are a lot of threads on this board about this. Here's a link to the search results when I searched the word "generator" on this board:

http://priuschat.com/index.php?act=Search&...hlite=generator

I seem to recall that there was also information about this on one of the other Prius boards -- PriusOnLine.com.

I also think that there's a publicly available how-to manual of sorts put out by the Prius owner who's the leading or most public practioner of using the Prius as a generator. But I don't remember where I found it -- but I think it's linked somewhere on this board and/or PriusOnLine.com.

EDIT: Also, here's the search results page when I googled "Prius as generator for house" (it shows at least one website that's dedicated specifically to using the Prius as a generator for a house):

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navc...rator+for+house

BTW, I think Toyota might give you problems if you go to it for warranty work related to the hybrid system, and they find out that you used the Prius as a generator for the house -- they'll say something like the Prius battery system wasn't built for that purpose, and that you should have just gone out and purchased a gas powered generator intended, designed and built for that purpose.

Good luck.

 

This site has also been referenced. I found it quite interesting:

http://www.priups.com

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(White Lightning @ Oct 29 2007, 12:08 AM) [snapback]531840[/snapback]</div>

You can draw up to 1 kW from the 12VDC system using an off the self inverter:

http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/priups.html

This is roughly 9A at 110 VAC using a modified sine wave inverter. This is enough to drive our gas furnace fan in the winter or a 5,000 BTU window AC in the summer. I tend not to worry about the fridge since our power outages tend to be less than a day.

Bob Wilson

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(White Lightning @ Oct 29 2007, 01:08 AM) [snapback]531840[/snapback]</div>

One thing I've found which I think is cool. It's the fact that Toyota themselves are kinda promoting such a thing. See image below which I've found in a Toyota brochure about Hybrid Synergy Drive.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bwilson4web @ Oct 29 2007, 08:57 PM) [snapback]531892[/snapback]</div>

Wouldn't a fridge use less power than a small air conditioner? I'd rather know the chicken and fish in the fridge isn't growing salmanella (sorry bout spellin)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(White Lightning @ Oct 29 2007, 01:08 AM) [snapback]531840[/snapback]</div>

Yes. If you want to see how Toyota does it, and you have IEEE technical paper access, you can read a paper entitled "Development of Ultra Low-Cost, High-Capacity Power Generation System Using Drive Motor and Inverter for Hybrid Vehicle." It's pretty specific.