Prius can power your home in a snowstorm

Chevy57

Chevy57

Sherlock Hound
Premium Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2004
Messages
11,353
Reaction score
5
A Toyota Hybrid Prius can power your home in a snowstorm.

The recent snow and ice storms in the northeast left hundreds of thousands of residents without power. In Harvard, Massachusetts, however, one Prius owner found a way to keep the lights and electricity going by using his hybrid as a backup generator.

John Sweeney ran his fridge, freezer, wood stove fan and even his television and lights using his Prius for three days while the power was out in his town. By using an inverter to convert the car's DC power supply into household AC, Sweeney was able to generate 120 volts

The New York Times wrote about this a year ago. The battery in the Prius is able to provide an uninterrupted power supply as long as the engine turns on and off periodically to recharge it. Any car battery can be used this way, but only hybrids start automatically when they need to recharge their battery. As long as the Prius has enough fuel, it can produce three kilowatts of continuous power. That's enough to maintain the basic household electrical needs.

After three days, Mr. Sweeney's Prius used up a mere five gallons of gas to power the electricity in the Sweeney household - a bargain and a real smart grid solution.

A Prius can power your home in a snowstorm | Yahoo! Green
 
Yeah, I knew inverter in any Hybrid cars or SUV can produce 120v 3kw. I've used my 400w inverter during power outage during bad thunderstorm. I hooked up to my van's battery and rigged a intersection cord to living room and able to power CPU, monitor, and cable modem so I can check out local weather news. It worked wonderfully for 4 hours until my inverter shut itself off when it reached 10.5 volt to allow some juice left for van to start up and recharge battery.

I'm sure that there will be Hybrid include 220V or 120V socket for owner to plug it in for household power backup.

I planned to buy 2kw 120v inverter which have more than enough to power half of my house except stove or A/C (appliance that demand more than 2kw of electricity that Inverter can't handle). 2kw inverter is pretty long and big, it require direct connection to 12vdc battery instead of cig lighter socket.

On my 400w inverter, I have two different battery hookups, one is cig lighter jack and other is clamps for (+) & (-). Interesting thing is that inverter have current sensing system that prevent me from using cig lighter cuz it's not producing enough current when I use more than 150w of electricity, I had to swap to clamps and clamp to battery terminal directly and finally it allowed me to use up to 400w of electricity.

What I like about inverter is it's quiet and pollution free instead of using gasoline generator. It uses Squarewave instead of Sinewave. Transformer plugged into inverter will run a little hot and few appliance would not run well with inverter.

There are more expensive inverter that mimic sinewave by using finer squarewaves stacking on each other make it look like rough toothed sinewave and are used for dedicated equiptments that requires sinewave.

Most inverters have wattage range from 75w to 8000w. It have many uses even powering small to large homes. Some wonder why large home may not be enough, just have 2nd inverter to make it 16,000w total (remmy that 240v on circuit breaker is basically splitted to 120v each) So two inverter will take care of large home. Many people do not turn all lights and appliance on same time.

You can easily build your own electric car using inverter to run 120v motor or 220v motor and few automotive generator connected to motor by belt to keep battery charged. Remmy that Hybrids use 400v or 480v inverter to power "elevator" electric motor to produce torques to make car go fast and strong

Here's weblink as example.

MODIFIED SINE WAVE POWER INVERTERS

Catty
 
Yep you can do that. You know those public buses? a lot of them are hybrid and they can be doubled as back-up power generators in case there's a prolonged widespread power failure and/or disaster. Diesel truck will do as well.

For Gustav-Level Outages, Cities Tap Hybrid Buses for Power

gustav-chertoff-bus-0908.jpg


The reinforced levees held, battle-worn residents evacuated, and Hurricane Gustav faded over the Gulf Coast this Labor Day weekend with just one glaring lesson of Katrina left unfulfilled: Storm survivors need more emergency power.

In a stroke of good timing by city planners and bus manufacturers as approximately 1 millions homes and business fought to recover power throughout Louisiana and Mississippi, hybrid-electric bus fleets were beginning plans to retrofit to provide electricity during emergencies. Cities are already buying these vehicles because they reduce fuel costs and air pollution, but as the buses generate more power and manage it better with onboard computers, San Francisco and other trailblazing cities could become models for the hidden power of mass transit to disaster-prone urban centers like New Orleans, which has only restocked on biodiesel buses since Katrina.

Researchers at BAE Systems, a major vendor of municipal hybrid buses, are leveraging research done for the military to pitch cities on tapping power from mass transit buses. “If you’re going to have these power plants rolling around, it would be good to have them do something when they are not rolling around,” says Sean Bond, president of BAE’s Platform Solutions group. “The primary demand [for hybrid buses] was emissions reduction, and that has morphed into preventing greenhouse gasses and fuel savings. Another unintended consequence is the ability to provide power off the vehicle.”

Diesel-powered engines in hybrid electric buses store energy in batteries and use software to determine where and when extra power is needed, such as when a bus climbs a hill. These technologies could serve as the basis of mobile generators. However, it will take more than extension cords to make the scheme work. City buses run off DC power, but the electric grid uses AC at a different amplitude and frequency, so a converter is needed to use vehicles to connect to a power distribution panel.

The U.S. Army will power its next generation vehicles with hybrid power technology, but they are also planning to export power from the vehicles when they are not operating in the field. (The Army is also considering instilling the ability to export power from its current fleet of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles.) The Army uses a suitcase-size device called an Exportable Power Inverter to tap an armored vehicle’s supply of DC power for use on applications that run on AC power. In civilian disaster response, these converters could be installed on the buses, kept at the sites of vital facilities or included in the deployment kits of first responders. New buses could be built with outlets in place, while current fleets would need a retrofit in order to export power.

Diesel-powered engines in hybrid-electric buses provide energy that is stored in batteries, with software that determines where and when the extra power is needed, such as when a bus climbs a hill. BAE’s newest buses, expected to reach full rate production next year, produce 200 kilowatts when the engine speed is at 2300 rpms. BAE, using data of power consumption from national surveys, estimate a single city bus could provide power to 36 households for a full day or a 12,400 sq.-ft. hospital for 22 hours, on a single tank of diesel gas.

Ironically, cities with fleets of hybrid buses tend to be the places that already have the best contingency-power plans and generators. Still, having additional sources of power can only improve a city’s disaster planning. In 2006 San Francisco city officials chose to buy diesel electric buses in part because they could power command centers and move stalled electric vehicles like streetcars from intersections, according to Marty Mellera, the chief of green programs for the city’s transit authority. The buses are not yet ready to provide emergency power, but Mellera says planning with first responders is well underway.
Click to expand...
 
Oh boy! I had an inverter in the basement sitting there for about five years. I had no idea what was it, and I thought that it was something with the audio. I don't remember who put it there. I got rid of it two years ago. Now I understand what was all about. Sh-t. :shock: I think that it was expensive one that was gone forever. I learned my lesson. :roll: Thanks, Catty!
 
webexplorer said:
Oh boy! I had an inverter in the basement sitting there for about five years. I had no idea what was it, and I thought that it was something with the audio. I don't remember who put it there. I got rid of it two years ago. Now I understand what was all about. Sh-t. :shock: I think that it was expensive one that was gone forever. I learned my lesson. :roll: Thanks, Catty!
Click to expand...

:slap: You dumb jerk!! :rofl:

If I find something odd laying in basment or barn ect. I would investigate to find out what it was and Google search what's it use for before I throw it out. Sometime you might come across something worth alot of money. Who know you might come across something worth a hundreds or a thousands.

Now that you know what is that for.. :lol:


Example what did I got!

My friend did found some odd something things in her basement and asked me what it was. I took a look and figured it's a pair of yellow Geiger meters that was left in basement since beginning of cold war in 1960's (wow! that was a cold war relics!). She let me have it. I still have it in my file cabinet. It appears new and in working condition. It will need calibration anyway. I can smell "ionized" air every time I opened the file cabinet cuz raduim bit on side of Geiger meter for calibration purpose emitting Alpha radiation (radiation emits in a very very short distance (less than few inches) and fall back to base which I am not worried about it. It can't penerate through metal anyway. If it have Beta or Gamma radation, I would be worried, Hazmat team will be called. (I learned my lesson not to put the case with radium on side between my legs while top part on workbench cuz it was messy. I had nearly 15 min of radium exposure on one side of my leg, I got a radiation burn on next day and felt like cigarette burn even skin doesn't show burns. it healed over in a week tho) It's a Victoreen CD-V700 and CD-V715 (The one that burned my leg was a CD-V700 and if you scroll down to see pix of yellow case with wire rigged to top, see that case with yellow sticker with blue circle on case in middle, that's bit of radium). I have website and if you scroll down and see pix. They are still around to calibrate old model for today's use. Civil Defense Radiation Detection Survey Meters, Geiger Counters & Dosimeters FAQ.

Catty
 
purplecatty said:
:slap: You dumb jerk!! :rofl:

If I find something odd laying in basment or barn ect. I would investigate to find out what it was and Google search what's it use for before I throw it out. Sometime you might come across something worth alot of money. Who know you might come across something worth a hundreds or a thousands.

Now that you know what is that for.. :lol:


Example what did I got!

My friend did found some odd something things in her basement and asked me what it was. I took a look and figured it's a pair of yellow Geiger meters that was left in basement since beginning of cold war in 1960's (wow! that was a cold war relics!). She let me have it. I still have it in my file cabinet. It appears new and in working condition. It will need calibration anyway. I can smell "ionized" air every time I opened the file cabinet cuz raduim bit on side of Geiger meter for calibration purpose emitting Alpha radiation (radiation emits in a very very short distance (less than few inches) and fall back to base which I am not worried about it. It can't penerate through metal anyway. If it have Beta or Gamma radation, I would be worried, Hazmat team will be called. (I learned my lesson not to put the case with radium on side between my legs while top part on workbench cuz it was messy. I had nearly 15 min of radium exposure on one side of my leg, I got a radiation burn on next day and felt like cigarette burn even skin doesn't show burns. it healed over in a week tho) It's a Victoreen CD-V700 and CD-V715 (The one that burned my leg was a CD-V700 and if you scroll down to see pix of yellow case with wire rigged to top, see that case with yellow sticker with blue circle on case in middle, that's bit of radium). I have website and if you scroll down and see pix. They are still around to calibrate old model for today's use. Civil Defense Radiation Detection Survey Meters, Geiger Counters & Dosimeters FAQ.

Catty
Click to expand...

Yep, I was stupid... , but glad that you brought up your post. ;)

Holy cow! Your leg was exposed from that evil machine! I am relief to hear that you are okay.

I read it on that website. I can't imagine that the company has so many stuff in the garage. It is probably filled with radioactive materials that might have exposed to the employees. I am sorry that you got this happened. Damn it. But, you are safe!
 
webexplorer said:
Yep, I was stupid... , but glad that you brought up your post. ;)

Holy cow! Your leg was exposed from that evil machine! I am relief to hear that you are okay.

I read it on that website. I can't imagine that the company has so many stuff in the garage. It is probably filled with radioactive materials that might have exposed to the employees. I am sorry that you got this happened. Damn it. But, you are safe!
Click to expand...

:topic:

Yup, it was just a minor radioactive material but don't sleep on it!!. I already knew most radioactive properties from chemistry book even I never had chemistry class back then... You can even peel off radium chip and place it in perti plate and put phospate powder from burn out florescent lamp in then mix it, bingo! you got a glow in the dark pile! Fire alarms uses Americium strip inside the cage to produce ionized air for smoke detection.

Tritium is being used on military watch that can be bought for $600 and it doesn't need sunlight to recharge, it'll glow up to 25 years. I scared my supervisor wit over nothing after I told him about Tritium in watch dial that are radioactive material cuz he's a health freak. He removed his watch the next day. I told him it won't kill u cuz it's really teensy tiny dose and cannot penerate watch metal!!! What a wuss!! :rofl:

Tritium Technology in Military Watches

Catty
 
Last edited:
Back
Top