Re: Prius used as an emergency generator

[Jed Rothwell]

I wrote:

1250 watts is more than you might think, especially with today's 
low-wattage refrigerators, compact fluorescent lights and personal 
computers. My 3 kW generator is more than enough during most outages, even 
at night.

The 1250 W inverter cost only $129. It would pay for itself after one or 
two Atlanta power outages, by preserving the food in the refrigerator. With 
our 3 kW gasoline unit, we run the fridge for maybe 15 minutes every hour, 
and we do not open the freezer.

Atlanta is prone to power outages because we have many trees and old power 
lines. Actually, we have had so many storms in recent years that most of 
the old trees have fallen in my neighborhood, so we have not had a major 
outage in a year or so.

To maintain the gasoline generator, once or twice a year you should pour a 
cup of gas into the machine and crank it up, then put a load on the 
generator and let it run for 20 minutes. Ours paid for itself when we 
bought it, when we were out of power for a week in the middle of winter, 
with kids in the house. We would have been forced to go to a motel without it.

- Jed