Prius: More Than Just a Car!

For the survival-inclined, from the Harvard Press:

“Around the corner at Madigan Lane, John Sweeney, a member of the town’s conservation-minded Heat Advisory Committee, took a characteristically green approach to powering his home during the [ice] storm. He reported his achievement in an e-mail, saying it was no big deal, but that his wife thought it an impressive tale worth sharing: Sweeney ran his refrigerator, freezer, TV, woodstove fan, and several lights through his Prius, for three days, on roughly five gallons of gas.

“’When it looked like we were going to be without power for awhile, I dug out an inverter (which takes 12v DC and creates 120v AC from it) and wired it into our Prius…These inverters are available for about $100 many places online,’” he wrote.

“The device allowed the engine to run every half hour, automatically charging the car battery and indirectly supplying the required power.”

Nice, huh? From what I can tell, there are several kinds of power inverters. Best check with someone knowledgeable--for instance, an RV outfitter accustomed to recommending power inverters to run appliances from a vehicle battery--to see what kind will work best for your needs. [Note: I'm not specifically endorsing the roadtrip america site. I list it here only as one of many possible sources for background information only. Use it or any other information source at your own risk.]