Hybrid Car UPS

Hybrid cars have become a common sight on the roads of America.

The technology has become reliable to the point that they are now considered a good investment, rather than a risky experiment.

One, in particular, the Toyota Prius, has a nice benefit that an enterprising individual has discovered:

It's a UPS.

That's right, the Prius has a generator located in the trunk that is capable of generating 5-6 KW of power at 220 volts!

That's enough power to run an electric dryer. Or, you could run a houseful of lights and small appliances.

There is a modification that you'll have to make. It costs about $200. You'll have to have reasonable handyman abilities to pull it off.

Now, here's where I add my own caveat: I STRONGLY recommend that you do NOT connect this generator directly to your house wiring. If you choose to do so, you MUST, MUST, MUST turn your main circuit breaker OFF before you energize your home wiring! Two reasons why:

First, and most importantly, if you power your house through an external source, it can feed back via your main breaker through the transformer that supplies your home with power, amplifying it to 14,000 volts. IF A LINEMAN IS WORKING ON THE HIGH LINES, HE CAN BE KILLED! This simply because you failed to open your main circuit breaker!

Secondly: The nature of alternating current is such that if you are energizing your house with this system and your main power comes back on, you could create a cross-phase short circuit that could blow your generator up! It could also smoke the high-voltage transformer, and you would have some serious explaining to do to the power company.

A MUCH better and safer idea: Connect two extension cords up to the UPS and have two 20 amp sources of power running into your house. Connect the lights, computer, or whatever to these cords. You have power, but without the risks of energizing your home electrical system.

http://www.priups.com/misc/intro.htm

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