Power outage: 1.5 hours

[bwilson4web]

We had a power outage Friday, Nov. 6, of about 1.5 hours. I backed the NHW11 to the car port. Started it up and turned on the inverter and ran an extension cable into the house.

We ran the TV and a lamp. Then I took my wife's Prius to get dinner. I got home just in time for the power to come back on:

• Start: 52.4 MPG, 27 miles, 0.515 gallons
• End: 41.2 MPG, 27 miles, 0.655 gallons
• 0.14 gallons for 1.5 hours of power

When I came back home, the utility company truck was on the street and as I gave my wife her dinner, the lights came back on.

Bob Wilson

[jdcollins5]

How did you do that? What did you use to convert to 120 VAC?

[bwilson4web]

Prius - UPS Project

Bob Wilson

[orange4boy]

That's what it's all about! I bet you find yourself secretly wishing for power outages.

Good stuff.

Do you know if anyone has supplied just the 12 volt system with a deep cycle battery or some set up?. I don't mean a plug system in for the main battery but just to supply the 12v side. I have done this on my van and got a good mileage increase. MetroMPG (Darin at ecomodder) did an A-B-A test and got a 10% FE increase. It would not be as big a difference in the Prius because the dc-dc and engine are more efficient, than an alternator and typical ICE engine but it would be interesting to try if it can be done.

[kenmce]

Originally Posted by orange4boy

Do you know if anyone has supplied just the 12 volt system with a deep cycle battery or some set up?

12 Volt Battery {eLearnAid}

[jdcollins5]

Originally Posted by bwilson4web

Prius - UPS Project

Bob Wilson

That is very interesting. Most of our power outages in my area are the result of hurricanes. Some can be rather lengthy. This is nice to know that I have a backup UPS sitting in my driveway.

[bwilson4web]

Originally Posted by orange4boy

. . . I bet you find yourself secretly wishing for power outages.

Mostly I don't worry about outages. We've gone as long as 24 hours without power. The 1 kW inverter can operate the fan of the gas heater or a 5,000 BTU window air conditioner. It is 'camping out at home.' <grins>

Originally Posted by orange4boy

. . . Do you know if anyone has supplied just the 12 volt system with a deep cycle battery or some set up? . . .

When the OEM battery gave up the ghost, I replaced it with an Odyssey battery.

Bob Wilson

[orange4boy]

Sorry about going OT.

When the OEM battery gave up the ghost, I replaced it with an Odyssey battery.

Not what I meant. Perhaps I'm not being clear. The main battery supplies the DC-DC converter which supplies power to charge the 12V battery and to supply all the other electrical needs of the car. Lights, computers, fuel pump, ignition, fans, steering, AC, etc. All that power could be supplied by a separate pack that you charge at home like I do with my van. This would remove some of the power demand on the ICE and so would improve MPG. This would be simpler and much cheaper than a main pack plug in system because it only has to supply 12V or 13.5V. I was wondering if anyone has done this before.

Back on topic...sort of... That's a darn sight cheaper set up than the $50,000 natural gas gen set someone ordered to be installed here on Bowen Island to power their entire 4500 square foot house during power outages, only to find out later that there is no natural gas on the island, only propane by truck. Concrete base poured, wired in, fenced, bolted down, not returnable, not convertible. They found out when the gas fitter arrived to do the final task of connecting to the gas lines. It's hard being rich.

The best parts about using the Prius over a portable gen set...Quieter, much lower emissions, automatic start-stop, no jerry cans.

[Patrick Wong]

Originally Posted by orange4boy

... The main battery supplies the DC-DC converter which supplies power to charge the 12V battery and to supply all the other electrical needs of the car. Lights, computers, fuel pump, ignition, fans, steering, AC, etc. All that power could be supplied by a separate pack that you charge at home like I do with my van. This would remove some of the power demand on the ICE and so would improve MPG. This would be simpler and much cheaper than a main pack plug in system because it only has to supply 12V or 13.5V. I was wondering if anyone has done this before...

Consider the load on the 12V bus when the car is operating. Its probably around 60A, even more when you have electrical accessories running like the rear window defroster, the electric cabin heaters, etc. The DC to DC converter fuse is 100A so that provides the upper limit on the amount of current the system is expected to provide.

The 2G Prius 12V battery has an Ah rating in the mid-30s while the Classic battery is rated around 28 Ah. Typically you don't want to discharge a battery more than 50% to promote long life. Hence you would need four Prius-sized 12V batteries to provide one hour's worth of driving time.

You would have to install many 12V batteries to provide continuous 60A current over several hours if you did not have a provision to recharge the batteries while the car is running. Now the car is starting to look like one of those electric vehicle conversions where you've got many 12V batteries installed, along with the associated weight of that design.

[orange4boy]

I'll start a separate thread.

Sorry about the hijack, Bob.