Toyota

Great Things are Happening with Toyota This Summer!

·         How Your Hybrid Toyota Could Help You Weather the Storms this Hurricane Season.

Prius: It’s Not Just a Car, It’s an Emergency Generator

The Prius has a new use, and it does not involve driving. The Harvard Press — which serves the Massachusetts town of Harvard as opposed to the university — reported that the car’s battery helped keep the lights on for some locals during ice storms.

The newspaper reports that John Sweeney, a resident who lost power, “ran his refrigerator, freezer, TV, woodstove fan and several lights through his Prius, for three days, on roughly five gallons of gas.”

Said Mr. Sweeney, in an e-mail message to The Press: “When it looked like we were going to be without power for awhile, I dug out an inverter (which takes 12v DC and creates 120v AC from it) and wired it into our Prius.”

According to the newspaper, “the device allowed the engine to run every half hour, automatically charging the car battery and indirectly supplying the required power.”

In fact, this development may not be as strange as it sounds. Mr. Sweeney’s tinkering is along the lines of the “smart grid” technology that many utility executives and other experts say lies in our future. The idea is that the battery of an electric car — a plug-in, in most smart-grid scenarios — can feed power to the electricity grid when the grid needs it.

Even President-elect Barack Obama has endorsed this idea, when he said: “We’re going to have to have a smart grid if we want to use plug-in hybrids — then we want to be able to have ordinary consumers sell back the electricity that’s generated.”

Mr. Sweeney, out of necessity, got there first.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/prius-its-not-just-a-car-its-an-emergency-generator/

·         How to Use a Toyota Prius As a Backup Generator

When properly set up, a hybrid vehicle like a Toyota Prius can double as a backup generator. The next time the lights go out, you might want to consider constructing a mini power plant to supply energy to your home appliances for a few days. Note that this process requires great care and precision. One should work under the guidance of an electrician or engineer.

Steps

1.        Open the Prius hatch. Locate the batteries under the mat beneath the car's rear hatch.

2.        Attach a two-foot-long, heavy-gauge cable to the relay terminals on the hybrid's larger "traction" battery. Affix a heavy-duty, 75-amp, plug-style connector to the other end.

3.       Build a new circuit box. Wire the most vital electrical items in your home (for example, your refrigerator, stove or toaster oven, hot water heater, a computer and modem) to a separate breaker box. The Prius' battery is not strong enough to power an entire house. Consequently, pre-wiring select items is essential. Note that installation requires cutting drywall, mounting the box, rerouting some wires, and connecting them to a 230-volt plug, which will power the new breaker box. Here is where the assistance of an electrician is very important.

4.       Connect the car to the house. Purchase a commercial-strength uninterruptible power supply (UPS).

5.       Insert the new circuit box's 230-volt plug into the UPS, and power the UPS by plugging its own 230-volt plug into a clothes-dryer-style home outlet. Run positive and negative wires from the UPS battery to two heavy-duty diodes. Do the same with another wire running between the diodes and a 175-amp plug that connects to the Prius' plug. (The diodes prevent electricity from flowing towards your house from the Prius.) Through the UPS, the Prius' 210- to 240-volt DC power will be converted into a home's AC power.

6.       While you will hopefully not need to resort to Prius-generated home energy, if you are in such need, you can then connect the plugs, fire up the Prius, and feel the power.

Tips

A gas-powered car left running, even a Prius, generates lethal fumes. Ensure that the car is either outside and far from open windows, or that the garage door is open and the garage well-ventilated.

            Warnings

            Do not try this without the guidance of an experienced electrician or electrical engineer.

http://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Toyota-Prius-As-a-Backup-Generator

·         College Grad Program

School may be out for you, graduate, but there’s still more to learn — and earn. If you’ve obtained a degree within the last two years, you may qualify for the Toyota College Graduate Finance Program, featuring a $1,000 rebate toward the purchase or lease of select new Toyotas through your Toyota dealer and Toyota Financial Services (TFS).

Come in to Autoland Toyota today or Visit www.1800toyotaland.com for more details.