Hymotion & Emergency UPS

Yesterday, I got the opportunity to test the Hymotion battery as a supply for electricity. I lost power at my small computer office which hosts web sites and emails. Power was out about hour and fifteen minutes.

I used an AIMS 10 AMP pure sign wave inverter hooked to the 12 volt battery. I placed the Prius in Ready mode and hooked up the inverter. It supplied about 75 amps at 12 v or 7.5 amps at 120v. I've used the inverter before and the stock battery would drain and the car would run for a few minutes. It was interesting with the Hymotion battery the system ran for 45 minutes without starting the car. In fact, I noticed the Hymotion battery pack was only down 1 bar when the electricity came back on. My calculation show I could have used the arrangement for a few hours before Hymotion was depleted.

It's too bad that Hymotion locked out the charging capability when the car is engaged. Even if the Hymotion is in the off position, no charging can be accomplished. It would have been nice after draining the Hymotion battery on long trips to be able to put back some charge while driving.

---Kent

 

Yes, I was very pleased with the results. You can pick up a 10 Amp inverter at a reasonable cost. I purchased the pure sign wave, since I was using it for computer equipment and phone systems. That added to the cost, but with 15 minutes of the power going out, we had customers calling to find out why their web sites and email were not working. Very worthwhile for my situation.

---Kent

 

Easier no, more efficient absolutely. I pulled two cables off the battery straight to the inverter.

I now made a male to male 110 v cable. I'm going to mark the breakers to turn off everything except to the office. No extension cords just turn off the main power until it comes back on. I'll plug the car into an outlet in the garage with it powered to the office only. Car will be safely in the garage with garage door opened to avoid fumes.

---Kent