Any way to use the battery to provide power to a house?

[madcow]

Recently 2 hurricanes passed close by and as usual, people went crazy buying everything in sight including every generator on the island. I've wanted to buy a good (Honda) generator for quite a while, but they are about $1000 and I really just don't want to buy/store gas (the lines for gas were really long).

Does anyone know of a way to use the large battery in our car to provide power to things around the house (via an extension cord or two)? I know I can buy a small inverter and plug into the cigarette lighter socket, but that's pretty lame, considering I'd at least have to have the car on in accessory mode and there's no way I'm going to run my refrigerator for a few hours on that.

 

[miimura]

There are inverter solutions existing for the Prius or Prius Plug-In and other Lexus hybrids. However, this is convenient because the hybrid battery is coincidentally within the battery voltage range of commercial datacenter UPS inverters. I think the RAV4 EV battery voltage is too high, but I don't see the inverter specs right now.

Quick Google search found this company: http://www.converdant.biz/plug-out/

 

[TonyWilliams]

Anything with a load larger than a typical small 12 volt inverter won't run very long.

Let's say that you're powering ten 100 watt light bulbs, or 1000 watts. That 41.8kWh battery, after losses, would probably only run this for one and a half days. You really don't want a bigger load.

Buy a Xantrex inverter in the 1000 watt to 1500 watt size and run you refrigerator off the 12 volt battery in the Rav4 EV.

Just leave the car "ON" to keep the 12 volt recharged.