Matthew Engel

The recent snowstorms in the American Northeast have left thousands without power during the holidays. How did one man solve this problem? John Sweeney, of Harvard, MA. was able to use his hybrid electric vehicle as a highly efficient generator. The Toyota Prius can output about 3 Kilowatts of constant electrical power, enough to provide electricity for his basic home needs such as refrigerator, wood stove fan, radio and even television. Using an inverter, which are found on all home solar powered systems and can be had at Radioshack, John ran the car’s battery and fed the current into his home’s electrical grid. The battery is charged by running the gasoline engine, which the car automatically starts when the battery is low. After 3 days of running most of his essential household appliances, John used only 5 gallons of gasoline. Amazing!

Hybrid technologies have been getting a huge boost, even marketing ads on television. The Toyota Prius in particular has proven especially popular with over 1,028,000 units sold worldwide as of May 2008. Reports of hybrid cars, such as the Ford Escape in NYC, reaching 175k miles have been found in cities with hybrid taxi fleets. These cars did not even require replacement batteries. The U.S. supply of available Priuses for sale is at its lowest point in two years and retail and resale values are rising quickly. If you are interested in buying this car you better move fast.