A Prius is actually useful for something..

Guy powered his house with his Prius during a snowstorm: http://green.yahoo.com/blog/ecogeek/864/a-prius-can-power-your-home-in-a-snowstorm.html

never thought of that. makes sense though

Huh... I thought this was going to be a pic of one plugging a sink-hole or acting as a landing pad for Bigfoot.

It would have dusted an original hertz mustang on this course, possibly also getting my dad blacklisted from a certain car rental company. That's two uses right there. He wasn't even last, either.

Beh. I know someone who ran electric household items (nothing serious, just minor stuff like the electrical side of his water heater, etc) from an inverter connected to his Legend.

GRM content: He picked up a black on black Legend with a blown auto for not-much-money, drove it about 1000mi in 3rd gear to get it home, then drove from his house to his brother's shop (my place of work) about 130 miles away, did a complete 6 speed swap over a two day weekend, and then went back home so he could go to work.

A transmission swap is more complicated than it really needs to be, given that the differential is a separate unit from the transmission, and they're both different so he had to swap it out. Silly Honda engineers. And there was something with having to make an adapter bracket to put a manual pedal box in an automatic shell... but when it was all said and done he had made himself a "Unicorn" black on black 6-speed model.

That also doubled as a light duty home generator :)

In reply to Jamesc2123:

Mustang =

Prius =

Sorry but there's been a lot of progress in suspension desgn over the last 40 years. A new Tahoe would probably out-handle a Hertz Mustang.

Prius vs Vintage Mustang is a pointless comparison.

That being said, if you tie your boat to a Prius, your boat won't move at all.

Shawn

92dxman wrote: Guy powered his house with his Prius during a snowstorm: http://green.yahoo.com/blog/ecogeek/864/a-prius-can-power-your-home-in-a-snowstorm.html

I'd say that was a pretty damn smart move.

Just curious how he got it to "idle". Was it a case of the battery draining and the car being able to idle in order to re-charge it???

<--sick of Prius hate

gamby wrote: <--sick of Prius hate

But its sooooo ugly

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

What is that fruit trans-maro? I don't get it.

I love mustangs as much as I love prisuses (prii?). I was just making a joke. GRM compared a Honda Odyssey minivan to a Jaguar E-Type and Porsche 356. Meaningless, to be sure, but still kinda fun.

Back on subject, I wonder how long a bank of 5 or 6 car batteries would last if you had them charged to use as a backup when you lost power? Depending on how many cells you needed, that could be quite an efficient emergency setup, more so than buying a generator (or a prius!) or runnign your regular car the whole time.

Wonder if Toyota will deny any battery life related warranty issues for that owner. I could see powering lights or a small appliance but TV, refrigerator, wood stove, fan and lights...wow.

Strange though, they're called MOTORcars so shouldn't it have a motor?

I love my enginecars though..

Shawn

Soo let me get this straight..

Greenie drives a Prius so he won't tear the planet a new one by causing more pollution.

Power goes out

Instead of lighting a candle and reading a book, we start our gasoline generator that looks like a car to make electricity in our time of need? Thus voiding the warranty AND running a gas generator.

I know it was three days of no power but you would think that the wellfare of the planet would outweigh ones need for the interwebs.

I wonder if his wood stove burns cleaner than a modern CNG furnace?

Now if he'd hooked a generator to his exercise bike, he wouldn't need the wood stove to stay warm AND he could power his TV or laptop.

Shawn

Did it void the warranty?

Also, I'm guessing that the emissions from an idling Prius are MUCH lower than a gas/diesel generator.

Honestly, I don't care how "green" if it's the difference between having pipes freeze and maybe losing a bunch of food (assuming you don't use snow as a freezer), 5 gallons of gas is a small price to pay for 3 days of power--even ecologically.

I read about this on another news site, the links here say he used an inverter, so did the story I read.

The news article I saw said that he tied the inverter into the power relays of the car. Considering the Prius ISNT a 12 volt system he would only be using part of the battery pack, not the whole thing.

I imagine the factory might have some issues with uneven cycling of the cells but who knows.

It just seems like emphasis is being placed on the fact that he used a hybrid car when the truth is any idiot can buy an invertor and hook it to any 12 volt electrical system capable of feeding it.

Next time the power goes out I'll plug my house into my camper and see if I get on the news.

Shawn