Hurricane Sandy created a gas related panic buying binge in NJ.
My tank was filled up on Saturday before the storm.


Smiling as I drive past the gas lines

 

I guess it did, as gas prices here on the west coast dropped again, way below $3.40.

 

Does anyone remember back earlier this year when the power was out around D.C for a week? Limbaugh was ranting on about how the electric car and Prius owners were screwed. I guess the guy was just displaying his ignorance. With a quick trip to Home Depot, I could power my entire house off of my Camry.

 

You can easily live in a house without power (I did for 13 days).
While using a hybrid to power your house is a nice alternative, that wasn't his point.
You can't drive an electric car without electricity (he erroneously mentioned Prius)
Not debating his intelligence or ignorance, but his point was valid.
An electric car without power from the grid is useless.

 

Has anyone done this? http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local...177998891.html
Is it as simple as plugging an inverter into the charger? What else does someone need to know?
Thanks!

 

Larry,

The smaller inverters can be plugged into the power ports but once you get much over 150 watts, (works on a 15 amp car circuit), you will need to get one wired to the 12 volt battery. Bob Wilson had a very good write up on adding on to his Prius and I think it is on this site in the Prius section. He is running a 1KW inverter (good for 8 amps of AC, 120 volt power). That will keep a small dorm type fridge running as well as a few lights and a low power consumption TV.

Any more than that and you should be using a generator. I have an 8,000 watt ((65 amps of 120 volt AC) that will power most of the lights in my house, the blower for the gas heater and the full size fridge. We even ran the satellite and big TV at the same time as well as using the microwave. Add in a gas water heater and gas stove top and we can survive very well for several weeks without power.

 

Yes, with a couple of major cautions. First remember that the 12 volt battery is a sealed unit and has to absorb the gas produced by charge and discharge. If you over charge or draw current you could permanently damage the battery. Toyota recommends no more than 5 amps for charging. Some have reported that the Toyota dealer cost to replace the battery is about $400. Remember that the 12 volt never really sees any significant load as the traction battery is supplying all the current to keep the 12 volt system powered as long as the car is in the Ready mode. So caution one is never load the inverter unless the car is in the Ready mode and will run to maintain both the 245 volt battery and the 12 volt system. Make sure the car does not run out of gas. It will likely kill your 12 volt battery permanently if it does.

Second you do not want to overload the 245 volt to 12 volt DC to DC converter. Measure the 12 volt battery voltage when you are in Ready mode. It should be about 14.8 volts or so. Measure the battery when it is in the Off mode. It should be about 12.8 volts or so. As long as you keep the battery voltage above the Off mode voltage (12.8 volts or so), you will not be drawing any current from the battery, so it will be safe. When you load the inverter keep checking the battery voltage to be sure it is staying above the Off mode voltage. This will prevent you from overloading. Also keep track of the 245 volt battery state of charge. It should be recovering as the ICE starts.

Last, be aware that you may be voiding the Toyota warranty by doing this.

 

Get a TED meter, or something similar. It can be very informative. A TED meter has two parts. One goes inside the circuit-breaker panel, to measure how much electricity the house is using. The other is the display, which can be put in a convenient place inside. See, http://www.theenergydetective.com/

My house hardly ever uses more than one KW. Even so, I have a 7500 watt generator, with wiring to allow it to power the entire house. Having it wired-in is much easier than running extension cords. Even with a generator, the TED meter allows us to be certain that we never overload the generator during an outage.

Of course, since we got the generator and the wiring, power outages have been rare and short. Of course, that fact is well worth the price of the generator ;-)

 

Be aware that resistive loads draw a uniform amount of current. However, electric motors draw a lot of inrush current. Sometimes 2-3 times the running current. I would expect most inverters have an overload circuit that will trip them out if you try to draw more current than they are rated for.

 

Of course, as has also been demonstrated, gasoline powered cars without functioning gasoline sellers are pretty useless too...

Personally, I'm quite surprised so few gas stations had any 'off-the-grid' pumping backups in place. That storm (along with just about every other major weather event) exposed the weakness of the current power generation and distribution strategy. And while various folks rant on about it, ultimately nobody will do a blessed thing about making the grid more resilient and weather-resistant. Not to mention starting to discuss the ultimate wisdom of building major population centers on sandbars that are going to be inundated by any storm surge of consequence.