PriUPS in action

I've been working on this project for a couple years & finally have all the parts in action.
Using an APC Smart-UPS (SURTD3000XL) connected to the 201V traction battery in the Prius i have an extended runtime power source.
My power went out around 10:15 this morning. By 11:30 I had my temp power restored, & it's been working continuously since then (10 hours).
I'm going to continue to run this setup continuously for the foreseeable future.
Somewhere around 75% of the customers in Palm Beach County are without power after Irma.

 

Thanks for asking - We got very lucky on the East coast of FL. People here prepared for the worst & ended up doing quite well (for the most part). I spent all day cleaning up the yard. Still without power - but just had a power company pickup drive by & they were checking out the downed power lines.
Now to the PriUPS but first a little background. I have slept in the Prius a few times when camping when a tent in the rain was the only other option. These times I run the AC set to recirculation with the temp set to 77-78 iirc. I've probably done this for 6-8 night's & sometimes have a log of ICE runtimes. Typically the ICE runs for 2.0-2.5 minutes every 12-15 minutes for the duration. When it is very warm outside the ICE cycles on more often.
It seems a typical night consumes around 0.7 gal of fuel.
Now on to current data:
Sunday at noon to today (Monday) at noon I calculated that I used around 2.6 gal operating the Prius continuously.
That works out to around 0.1 gal/ hour which is in the ballpark of my camping usage of 0.7 gal/ night, & a typical night would be 7-8 hours.
That's the basic info. I still have other "options" I need to try... Eventually I may share more info... I'm typing this up on the cell phone :-/
Be safe everyone!

 

The Prius was "ready" for the whole 24 hours with the ups flat in the hatch area.
Prius was outside, parked directly in font of the front door. When the power went out I was working in between rain bands connecting a 12-3 flat extension cord to the ups & ran it through one of the rear doors.
I had a kill-a-watt plugged into the ups to monitor power consumption easily. With the TV, d/a converter box, a very small led light, & a couple fans on low I was only pulling 190W from the ups.
But wait... there's more...
After half an hour I went out to the Prius to check on things & found the windows fogged up. I had set the ventilation to outside air (outside air temp was 77), turned the AC off & the fan to 2 iirc. This was obviously not working well.
I turned on the AC, changed to recirculation & set the cabin temp 77, the same as outside air.
Another half hour later things were working well & I left the Prius powered up all night.
I did turn off the TV, converter box, & one fan when I went to sleep. I think I was down to 60W overnight... but remember the Prius AC was operating all night keeping everything cool & dry.
I do believe the power crews are getting set up to repair the downed power line!
I know there are blown transformers around the neighborhood also so I'm not getting my hopes up for restoration of power tonight, but who knows?
It has turned out to be a beautiful afternoon
Always is right after a hurricane.

 

This pic was taken Fri I think, during initial testing.
Yakima 4-bike rack supported by 2" hidden hitch receiver is always on Prius.
The ups is in operation powering a very small lamp.

The orange web tie-down is securing the heavy ups in position against the back of the rear seats.
Everything worked perfectly with the added bonus of a loud beep every 10 sec during operation :-/
I pulled it out of the Prius & got it back in the house (in between the rain drops) to figure out how to disable the beeps.
Took me almost 10 hours to figure out how... - involved creating a custom serial port cable to emulate APCs custom cable - then disabling the alarm in software.
Then got the ups back in the Prius ready for action.

 

Tue 081217 0730 update:
Still without commercial power.
I ran the PriUPS for 11+ hours last night under a very light (ceiling fan) load.
I still have the ups on its side in the hatch area. I did not run the AC in the Prius last night. I set the vent to outside air & fan set to 3. I cracked one of the windows to let some (warm) air out. It still was warm inside the Prius as outside temp only got down to 82.
Fuel consumption was 0.051 gal/ hour.

A couple side notes. As I have Torque & obd2 adapter i was able to monitor the Prius during operation. When the engine does operate during these conditions the engine stays around 1016 rpm & there is no EGR opening.
This may be because the engine never gets to full operating temp, or some other reason. I only mention this as the Prius does have 221K on it & i have not checked anything on the EGR circuit yet (although I do have a fully cleaned EGR cooler + valve ready to install).
Another noteworthy observation concerns securing the Prius when it is "ready". If i leave the fob in the house taking only the mechanical key to the drivers door i can lock the doors with the Prius in "ready".
When unlocking I _must_ unlock the Prius with the mechanical key! Pressing unlock on the remote or trying to open the driver's door with the fob in hand will not work.
Another beautiful sunny morning in S fl.

 

It is repeatable as I verified the conditions on two consecutive days...
Also... just now I duplicated it:
1) Prius has been in "ready"
2) All the doors are closed.
3) Insert mechanical key in drivers door & turn CCW - I can hear all 4 doors lock.
4) pressing unlock on the fob will not unlock Prius
5) carrying the fob to drivers door & trying to open the door will not unlock Prius.
6) carrying the fob to the hatch & pressing unlock does nothing
7) inserting mechanical key into door & turning CW will unlock only the driver's door.

 

SURTA3000XL - is the correct model number for the version I am currently using. It is a 120V unit.
APC Smart-UPS is the genetic series I believe. OEM they come with 16ea. 12V (4ah?) sealed lead acid batteries installed in two trays of 8ea. for a total of (16×12V=) 192V.
This is a very close match to the Prius 201V traction battery.

The 120V unit is somewhat rare. The 208V units seem to be most common. The 208-240V units can output either 208 or 240VAC.

The 208 or 240V devices _only_ output that voltage. To get a usable 120V you must use a step - down transformer which is _heavy_ but very functional. It's a huge (5kw iirc) toroid transformer in a relay rack mountable case.
Pics are of my unit - had to resize everything to stay within PC limitations.

 

look for used on Ebay & Craigs list

 

Well, all those contractor power trucks running around the neighborhood must have been doing all the correct things as we got power back yesterday afternoon around 5pm - yay!!