C Max Hybrid as Home Generator

[stratosurfer]

All,

I had an extended power outage last weekend: 21 hours with no power. When researching the C Max hybrid I studied the Energi option as well and the salesman in San Angelo told me a charger for the Energi is coming out late 2013 that has the availability to use the generator and battery on the Energi to backfeed a house and power it during power outages. The Energi did not work for my application so I'm in a hybrid and Googled using a hybrid vehicle to power a house in an outage and found that quite a few folks that know what they're doing have done this in the past with hybrid (non plug in) Prius's. I'm hoping to either get pointed to some information for us using our C Max's battery and generator's to do the same for us, or to get a movement started to look into this. Our cool little cars are generators, adapting them for use in power outages should not only be possible, but I would think relatively straightforward and economical.

Anyone got any data.

 

Thanks

 

Mark

[HannahWCU]

There is another thread on this here:

 

http://fordcmaxhybridforum.com/topic/412-c-max-as-a-ups/

 

I don't think it has gotten anywhere though.  Although I rarely loose power (knock on wood :banghead:  ) I would be interested in this too.

[stratosurfer]

There is another thread on this here:

 

http://fordcmaxhybridforum.com/topic/412-c-max-as-a-ups/

 

I don't think it has gotten anywhere though.  Although I rarely loose power (knock on wood :banghead:  ) I would be interested in this too.

I think something on this will be forthcoming later, as the company that makes the Plug In addition to the Prius is selling it as an aftermarket add on, but only up to around '08 models due to warranty and contractual agreements.

[METROMAN]

I'd be very interested in this. We lose power every other storm it seems like. I have a big generator that I've wired with a transfer switch into the house panel breakers. Costs about $30-35 a day to run. Better than losing hundreds of dollars out of the freezer tho.

[Noah Harbinger]

 We've only had one unplanned power outage in as far back as I can remember, but it was a doozy, 3pm-3am on a summer afternoon. My roommate used his marine battery to run the fridge and some lights, and occasionally topped it off by running his car. But it would have been awesome to to run something off the car's traction battery, where it would automatically turn on and off to re-charge the battery with fairly low losses.

[METROMAN]

3 pm to 3am power loss? Lol Try 5 days. We've had a few 2-5 day outages. Not fun.

[Noah Harbinger]

3 pm to 3am power loss? Lol Try 5 days. We've had a few 2-5 day outages. Not fun.

 

Well that was probably for a snowstorm or hurricane or something. We don't really get those in Southern California. 

[SnowStorm]

Well that was probably for a snowstorm or hurricane or something. We don't really get those in Southern California. 

Not very often - but I was there once!

[Noah Harbinger]

Not very often - but I was there once!

 

I heard about a tropical storm back in San Diego back in the 70s, not quite a hurricane though. And once every 30 years or so snowflakes will make it to the ground (though it has never been warm enough for them to survive contact, let alone accumulate). 

 

But I'll just leave it at, I've lived in San Diego all my life, and I have never had power disrupted by a natural disaster, not even an earthquake. Hopefully it stays that way - but I would like to be better prepared if something does go awry!