A newspaper in Massachusetts reported that a resident was able to power his home for three days using his Prius battery. A power failure resulting from ice storms last week prompted an inventive Prius owner to wire up his hybrid's car battery and get juice to his lights, tv, fridge and freezer on "roughly five gallons of gas".

Using the car as an emergency power source is ingenious. It could also be the future. While this was an emergency situation, the idea of using the energy stored in one thing (like a car) and plugging it into another thing (a home) and sharing the power more efficiently is part of what smart grids are about. Smart grids, which has been bounced around as the future of efficient energy delivery, is a general term for getting power to where power is needed in a smarter, more efficient way.

Until we get to that future, it's good to see energy hacks like this coming up. This Prius owner has more tinkering skills than most so attempting this would be a challenge (hey, building Ikea furniture frustrates me), but I can't wait for this kind of energy delivery to become the norm.