I want to charge the battery that comes with the Prius.

[qbee42]

Originally Posted by richard schumacher

The OP was talking about the 12V battery...

How did I miss that detail? I'm going to blame it on my daughter's wedding. The ceremony was on Saturday, so I'm still in a post wedding haze induced by too many house guests, significant amounts of alcohol, and large expenditures of cash.

Tom

[biggus]

you can put 3 table spoons gas equivalent energy into the battery each night without causing harm to the battery.

[
]

And you still think oil is dear at $4 a gallon when 1 galllon of gasoline contains about 31,000,000 calories
How many Big Macs is that?

[archae86]

Originally Posted by biggus

[
]And you still think oil is dear at $4 a gallon when 1 galllon of gasoline contains about 31,000,000 calories
How many Big Macs is that?

82.

One number for the Big Mac is 576 Calories, (aka kcal). Don't forget that food energy value is generally given in thousand-calorie units, inconveniently also called Calories, though if you are lucky they might get capitalized.

[aaf709]

Well, if it's the 12 volt, I suppose you could put solar panels on the roof of the Prius and set it up that way. I believe other owners have done that.

[TransferFunction]

patsparks,
That is Watt*Hours, not Watt/Hours.
And remember the usable energy in gasoline in an Otto cycle gasoline engine is about 20%, so multiply times 5. Otherwise, your conversion constants were good.

[TransferFunction]

archae86,

Like IC engines, your body muscles are only about 25% efficient in converting the calories into useful motion, the rest going to heat.

I'm beginning to think the Chevy Volt series hybrid method is the better way, since you don't need the weight of a transmission, and the complexity goes down for customization (more modular separation of engine and battery charging there). The Prius parallel hybrid arrangement is a complicated torque engine/electric blending circus along with battery charging strategies that don't make it easy to tinker with as much. I've heard the auxiliary battery installation jobs run around ten thousand or so. Ridiculously overpriced, but probably necessary.

[ZC1]

He is definitely operating under a few misconceptions.

First off, keeping the 12v aux battery will NOT keep the water warm. Period.

Secondly, he's confused about which battery he's viewing in the bar graphs, thinking he's seeing the 12v battery charge.

Thirdly, a trickle charger at 12v, either 2 amps or 6 amps or 15 amps will not charge the Main battery at all, the applied voltage is way too low, not to mention there is no facility at which to apply the charge.

AND FINALLY....

For argument's sake, if he could do such a thing, the battery would be back to it's fluctuating normality within a mile.

This is definitely a zero-sum game.

ZC1

[ZC1]

Originally Posted by TransferFunction

archae86,
I've heard the auxiliary battery installation jobs run around ten thousand or so. Ridiculously overpriced, but probably necessary.

Again, the auxilliary battery removal and installation is free. You can do it yourself in less than 30 minutes. Honestly.

You must mean the Main Hyrid battery.

But even that installation doesn't cost near 10 thousand dollars.

ZC1

[TheAnnoyingOne]

OK - there are two batteries, the 12 V and the HV. one is to the right of the trunk, the other is bellow the passenger seat. Locate both of them and remove all protective covers. Start touching the exposed contacts - if you die - you have identified the HV battery.

[Sheepdog]

ah the quest for ever better mpg. The quest to sop using the ICE and just plug in.

If they can build a tesla sports car they can build a plug in Prius. The question is how expensive is it? The costs have to come down as we cannot afford the initial costs whatever the long term savings right now.

Im in my mid 50's and have a new 08 Prius. I would be willing to wager that before I trade the Prius, maybe 6 years or so, that batteries will have undergone tremendous advances and drops in cost making a plug in not only possible but affordable for most.

What a rush that will be!