Toyota Prius heats house during winter storm

A Canadian man caught up in the current spell of arctic winter weather that has seen temperatures plunging to 30 degrees below zero has used his Toyota Prius to generate power his radiators, lights, fridge and TV.

Bob Osemlak braced himself for an expected one-day power cut last month by running a cord to the hybrid electric car in his garage.

He told the Toronto Star that he used the car to power his house for nine hours, and the car's battery went down by less than one bar, which is equivalent to a gallon of petrol.

Osemlak is a retired air force mechanic and warned others against trying to run power from their cars themselves, but it has long been imagined that electric cars could be used to power external devices.

It is quite feasible that electric car owners of the near future will use cheap overnight electricity to charge their vehicles' batteries and then use the power later to drive, power household appliances or feed back into the national grid. Such a system could transform the way we store and transfer electrical power.