Current draw during charging

welcome to priuschat! congrats on your new pip, you have a 240 supply that won't allow 13 amps?

 

Just so we are all talking about the same thing, note that the OP is in the U.K., where household electricity is 240V, and there are LOTS of older homes with limited electric capacity.

 

ah, thank you. british electric.

 

surrey? anywhere near privet drive?

 

Here is what the charging looks like from a public 240v ChargePoint

 

Mine follows the graph above. 230V, 10A for the best part of an hour then drop to around 2.5A for half an hour or so, it varies.

If you are unsure that your supply is OK for 10A, (it should be, it was designed for 13A continuously), because of age degradation get a sparky to give it a once over. Do you have a RCD in the supply? if not, once again, worth having one fitted.

Have you explored the possibility of a free government subsidised, dedicated charging point? they will fix all the problems on installation. I used PodPoint but there are a number of suppliers out there (avoid British Gas)

 

Interesting... 1.96 kWh is not a full charge. I suspect you know that

 

Your Prius charger will draw about 10 amps, period. If you use the Toyota supplied charging cord which plugs into standard 110 volt house current it draws 10 amps. If you buy an aftermarket charger which charges at 220 volts it also draws 10 amps. The 220 volt unit will charge your PIP battery in less than 1.5 hours, while the Toyota supplied cable takes about 2.5 hours.

As 3PriusMike shows earlier in this post, most of your charge is completed in about an hour at 220 volts. So if you are making a lot of short trips on the weekend, you can charge up to nearly full in an hour. If you go to the mall where there are chargers, same thing. In an hour of shopping you have a nearly full charge.

But what does this mean for you? My over night, full charge shows about 15+ miles of EV driving on the PIP display. In an hour, the charge shows about 13.5 miles of EV driving on the display. These numbers come from the situation where you have fully depleted the PIP battery before recharge and the car is behaving like a standard Prius hybrid. At 220 volts you get nearly a full charge in about an hour.

 

we can charge at 240v, there must be software in the charger?

 

It is a different EVSE 'brick' in the UK made for 230V for use around Europe. It is possible to take the US 110V brick and have it altered to 230V by a third party so I must assume that the onboard charger is happy with both 110 and 230V.

 

Here is a photo of my 220 volt home charge station. The reason for the complex connector is that the charge station must communicate with the PIP. During this communication the PIP and charger exchange information. This information allows the charger to supply the correct current and voltage to the PIP. My charge station is made from a kit designed by engineers from the EVSE Google group. They can be found by doing a Google search.

I modified their kit to show both voltage and current readings using digital meters. When charging the PIP, the meters read 240 volts and 9.7 amps. The kit has been working flawlessly since last Oct. There are several of these charging sources of these available commercially as well. They can be found by doing a web search for EVSE. EVSE = Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment.

Paul

 

The charger in the car can handle either 120 or 240V. This fact is irrelevant for the OP, who is in the UK, so 240v is all there is. (or 230V or whatever it is exactly). I am not sure if the EVSE provided in Europe can handle 120V. The actual wall plug for the European version of the EVSE is interchangeable to deal with the various plug types in Europe.

 

Does this help?

 

Looks like Toyota also went on the cheap for the European EVSE, as it did for the North American version, with a fixed input voltage device.

 

Wow! Those UK connectors look like they're good for 100 amps. Yes, I know there's a fuse in there somewhere.

 

Not sure British Gas is offering charge points for free any more, their website says they now charge, though it is still subsidised. I had a slight admin snafu originally over dates, but the actual fitting by them was fine, and it's worked perfectly since. Chargemaster look as if they are still offering a free charge point.

Rhodrons, you're right that distance from the consumer unit was important, but it might be worth at least getting them to come and see if they would do it, or what they would charge. It really is very convenient to just lift the connector off and plug it in, and saves wear and tear on the Toyota one.

And that sky blue PiP you might see at Tolworth roundabout is mine, on my way to or from work...