plugless PHV driving stories

Awesome stories. So far it does appear there are a number of improvements 'under the hood' that we not apparent in the EPA numbers. Makes it even better for those that go beyond the electric range!

 

In general, the use of extension cords with the EVSE is highly discouraged, no matter the length, mostly because the user is not protected from a potential electrical short should something in the extension cord fail. The other reason they don't want them being used is voltage loss, especially in the cheaper thin extension cords. While the voltage at the outlet might read 120V, by the time it reaches the end of a 300 foot cord using 16AWG wiring, the voltage will have dropped to 91 volts, which is useless for the EVSE. Even with an extension cord using 12AWG wiring, the voltage would drop to 108, which may or may not be outside the spec. To ensure that you could charge, you'd need an extension cord that used 10AWG wiring.

 

I was wondering if anyone else noticed that.

In order to run an extension 300 feet, it would have to be an extreme cable. I cannot imagine what a 300 foot cable would cost that would be able to deliver 120v over 300 feet. If one even exists.

With my limited electrical knowledge, I would not recommend anything over 50' and for that I use 12AWG.

 

Did your trip ever show any EV charging?

 

The longest length I've been willing to use is 25 feet using 14 AWG and only when absolutely necessary. It's what I was using at home until I got a 240V EVSE installed.

 

no we're flatlanders mostly, and there aren't many opportunities to recharge except the normal hv stuff. the biggest hill i have on my daily commute only maintains the current ev range over a little more than a mile.

 

... especially when we previously had pictures of non-plugin 2010 with virtually identical results. It will take more careful work to quantify any PiP improvement.

 

i think you're right on as far as break in is concerned. i'm still seeing minor improvements in ev range. last night i left for work with a full charge, 87 degrees and extemely high humidity. set the a/c on 79 and did my 15 mile commute and still had 1.5 miles estimated range left when i got home. a/c really seems efficient on this car.

 

Same here, I am finding that when I am getting to my closer destinations ( 2-4 miles ) my miles left are significantly higher. From, say 9 miles to 12-13 miles. As a result, should there be a chargepoint, charge times are lowered from one hour plus to only a half hour or less. I am wondering tho, which procedure is more beneficial for the battery, the above, or running the charge down to zero, even if it takes 2-3 days with NO wall charge??

 

You are right, 78, 79 degree setting has little effect on the charge, Incidently Bisco, you are doing exceedingly well.

 

thanks, i have a great commute. 30-40 mph, highway at 55 and back of shopping area at 10-15. 50' of elevation change.

 

i wouldn't think it be a big deal either way, but maybe someone has a better answer.

 

I was wondering how Power Factor enters into the charger efficiency. That is Impedance: Inductive reactance VS Capacitive reactance. This may be irrelevant on a short extension 15-20 Ft, but with long extensions, could affect the cars charger as well as sending your power consumption off the screen. Any double EE's out there WITH a PIP ?

 

I don't know if it's true with the PIP but when I continually run my battery in my smartphone to 65% or so, then charge it to full the phone remembers the partial charge and lasts a shorter time. but letting the battery drain to about zero, then fully charge it up restores the full battery capacity.

 

I don't have a PIP, and haven't done mains connected power supplies in decades, but any modern device that large should have built in power factor correction.

 

TY AND POST 77 Both make sense.

 

I just did a long drive with no EV charging so I got to really test the PiP's HV mode. I drove from Orange County to Vegas and back. It was 530 miles round trip with lots of elevation changes from 500 feet to 4,000 to 2,000 and lots of smaller changes in between. I was pleased with the calculated 59.9 MPG. (display was higher). This seem good considering the AC was on full blast most of the way since it was 110 degrees and I didn't do any P&G or any other tricks to save gas. I use the dynamic radar cruise control 98% of the time and . I "just drove it" at the speed limit (or often lower due to traffic congestion).

I am glad that with no effort I got a nice MPG for such challenging conditions. But I am a little sad how much this lowers my average. Just a couple weeks ago I had my best tank at 82.9 MPG.