Home 220v connection

The charger inside the Plug-in Prius can accept 110 to 240 VAC at 12 Amps. If you use 110 Volts, it charges in about three hours. If you use 220~240 Volts, it will charge in about 1.5 hours. But it will draw no more than 12 Amps in either case, so using a 20 or 30 or 40 Amp EVSE will not speed charging time. What happens if you plug in a 30 or 40 amp EVSE? The Prius controls how much electricity it draws, and it will draw 12 Amps, even though more is available. The only way to speed charging time is to upgrade to a 220~240 Volt EVSE. (Europe is typically 220V and the US is typically 120V or 240V)

The EVSE contains an AC relay inside which turns the AC current on and off between the wall outlet and the car. The 110V unit that comes with the car has a 110V relay. Yes, there are dual-voltage relays in the world, but they are not inside the unit that comes with the car. In Europe and other 220 Volt countries, they include a 220V EVSE and yes, it charges the car in 90 minutes.

The cheapest way to get 240V charging is to upgrade your EVSE and install a 15A, 240V circuit/receptacle, which isn't very difficult.

I hope this answers all of the relevant questions.

 

Rebound, the AC relay in both the 120V EVSE and the NA 240V EVSE only switches 120V. In the 240V EVSE there are two 120V lines, split phase. Measured between the two lines there is 240V.

120V@12A - three wires HOT(120V@12A) - NEUTRAL - GROUND - 1.4KW
240V@12A - three wires HOT (120V@12A) - HOT (120V@12A) - GROUND - 2.8KW

This is why there really isn't a component rating issue for a NA EVSE.

 

At 240V, the PiP only seems to pull about about 2.4 kW max from the wall.

 

at 240V or at 220V ?

 

Electrician did final 240 upgrade for me today on the plug. Looks like the car is pulling 1.9 kW

1.8 hours for full charge.

 

is it boiling hot in LA? should be charging faster than that unless it is having to keep the temp down.

 

No it's actually nice temps finally. I thought that was a bit low myself… but after reading another thread : blink home L2 + PIP ? | PriusChat

it seems others using L2 also only pull down 1.9 kW .. I guess that is the max charge the car will allow.. Can anyone else confirm this?

 

240V. Though it could be as high as 250V. I'd have to open up the ESVE or the panel to verify. If I can, I'll break out the clamp-on meter and see how much amperage each leg actually pulls.

I did a crude test of how much kW the PiP pulls using my utility meter (we have a smart meter that shows instaneous usage). The PiP pulled 2.32 kW from the wall (panel), and according to the car, was putting 1.9 kW into the battery pack. Or about 82% efficiency at 240V.

 

The PIP has an upper current limit too. So a higher ampacity cord would only charge as fast as that internal limit.

 

Anyone with the EVSE Upgrade from pEEf please let's compare results. My pEEf-upgraded PiP EVSE seems to charge the car in just over 2 hours on a 120v line.

Story: I had the Leviton L2 hardwired EVSE installed in April, when I also picked up my PiP. I use it every day, and the car charges in about 1.5 hours (per Entune e-mails about charging Start and Completion times).

I used the OEM PiP EVSE during a 13-state road trip in late May - early June. Charging was slooooow although I had no Start and Completion time data during that trip (my Entune was not turned on yet - no smart phone so it didn't matter to me). I assume the OEM EVSE charged the car in 3 hours, although I have no measured data to know that for sure and most of the time it was as I was sleeping.

I upgraded the PiP EVSE via pEEf's EVSE Upgrade in late August to Toyota Prius standard (12 amps). Never used it since the end of the June trip.

Got a smart phone in July, so I turned on my Entune and started getting Start and Completion emails. The Entune emails show a Start and Completion charge times of about three hours, sometimes a few minutes less.

Last weekend, a neighbor electrician and I upgraded the house with a secondary meter base for the hardwired Leviton L2 EVSE, to participate in the Virginia EVSE TOU program described in FEE ELECRICITY IN VIRGINIA thread elsewhere on Priuschat. Waiting for the electrical inspection, and now for the utility to install the secondary EVSE-dedicated meter, my hardwired l2 EVSE is inactive and I'm on the pEEf-upgraded PiP EVSE charging off a 120v line from my basement. I know the line is 120v since I installed it myself some years ago. It's been four days now on the PiP EVSE.

Punchline: the pEEf-upgraded EVSE charges in just over 2 hours instead of 3 hours, by Entune's Start and Completion messages (three nights' worth of messages for three nightly charge-ups). I have the traction battery discharged by the end of my daily commute.

Does anyone out there have a similarly faster time using the pEEf upgrade vs the OEM EVSE? or any ideas why Entune would measure the L1 charging time as 1/3 shorter than advertised by Toyota?

 

Oops - when describing the Entune messages for my Leviton L2 home charging Start and Completion times, I meant to write "1.5 hours" instead of "three hours" in paragraph #5 above. My bad.

 

My experience is that it takes about 2.5 hours to charge with the OEM L1 EVSE, making Toyota's 3 hour estimate conservative. They could be using the same number as Japan, which has 100V instead of 120V. Also, it could be less than 2.5 hours depending on how depleted the HV portion of the battery (after EV miles have been depleted).

 

Thanks. I have no hard data for my L1 OEM EVSE charging times because I had not turned my Entune on yet when I used the OEM EVSE at night back in May / June during a multistate trip. I appreciate your experience.

I am mpirically convinced now after nearly 2 weeks of usinngthe upgraded pEEf L1 EVSE that the upgrade cuts time off a full charge. The question, academic to me now but perhaps useful for others who are considering the $239 upgrade, is "how much time".

Can anyone else comment with their observed data on charging times of the OEM L1 Toyota EVSE?