Charging laptop all night long

You will be leaving the car in "ready" all night long so it won't be an issue. Once the traction battery has run down the engine will spin up to charge the battery just above that minimal level and then shut down. Whether or not the "frequent" noise of the engine firing up and running will bother your sleep is another matter.

Check the specs on your Mac's charger. If it is going to try to pull more than the aux power port can handle you'll blow a fuse.

 

if you need more power, you can hook a 1000w inverter to the 12v. car always needs to be ready when using any accessories, or you'll run the 12v dead in just a few minutes.

 

Leave the car in the "Ready" mode and set the emergency break, Lock the doors, press the voice command button and say "Screen Off" after the beep. Then turn the dash lights down using the dimmer. Remember there is a vent at the back of the car so leaving the Auto A/C on keeps the air flowing from the front to the back as long as you select fresh air.


iPhone ?

 

Your Macbook Pro power supply only draws 1.5 amps (AC) max., so a 200 watt power inverter would handle it with capacity to spare. But with what you're describing (essentially living in your car), a higher wattage inverter -- like the 1000 watt recommended by Bisco -- would give you the ability to also charge your phone, camera, other equipment, electric razor, etc. simultaniously.

 

The Prius uses deep cycle 12v batteries that are designed for that kind of current load.

 

Since when ??

If you really look into the spec's for the batteries used in most Prius models, I think you will find that they are relatively low capacity AND are NOT designed for "deep cycle" use.

In normal use, there is no need for that kind of a battery.

 

We watched a fascinating digital slide show,by a guy who explore three of Canada's Arctic Ocean bound rivers, explored them from head waters to deltas, travelling by kayak. For charging his cameras, laptop and whatever he used some not-too-big flexible solar panels whenever he could, often draped over the bow of his kayak.

He was looking for the sites of historical paintings, and did find some. Incredible story, but having a tough time finding any links just now.

 

The ones I've seen when looking for compatable 12v batteries say "deep cycle"

 

That does NOT mean that the original was......nor does it mean that a replacement needs to be.

The term "deep cycle" is in some ways similar to "heavy duty"........and nothing in the normal intended use of a Prius requires either.
With that on the label, however, they do command a higher price. And a larger margin too probably.

 

The key engineering difference might just be that, on the design continuum between "deep cycle" batteries and "starting" batteries, Prius aux batteries are definitely not the "starting" kind. They are never called upon to deliver hundreds of amps into a balky starter motor, so they have no need for the thin, delicate, high-surface-area plates that make that possible, and in fact they do not have them. That makes them hold up rather better to deep cycling than typical starting batteries would. The main limitation is just that their capacities aren't very big; you're already "deep cycling" it if you use as much as 40 amp hours (half that, for the original aux battery in Gen 1).

-Chap

 

I have done this on my 2005 gen2 Prius on a Macbook Pro, by plugging this into the 12v cigarette lighter socket: BatPower CCA 110W Macbook Pro Car Charger.

It tends to fail if your laptop is deeply discharged, so I went and searched for a new one. The same device is not available but you can buy a similar one that goes to USBC and a USBC-to-Magsafe3 adapter. That method overcharged my laptop, puffed up the Li battery, and it's now unusable.

So I'd recommend using a sine-wav inverter and plugging your genuine Apple charger into it. Also, buy a jumpstarter battery. It's surprisingly easy to think your car is in a mode where the engine will idle and recharge the batteries but the engine never comes on. So now you've drained your 12v and cannot start the car even if you have gasoline and 200v available. The cheapest weakest jumpstarter battery would solve that problem

 

The original 12-volt battery in a Prius is not a starter battery, either in application or internal design. Some brands of batteries sold as Prius-specific are actually thinly disguised regular Group 51 starter batteries designed for non-hybrid car use, except equipped with the JIS terminals Prii require.

If you ever want to charge the laptop without having the engine run intermittently (in READY mode), the battery would be discharged less rapidly if you wire your "cigarette-to-mac adapter" to an appropriately fused add-on lighter socket that bypasses the car's electrical system so you don't have to leave the power button in accessory mode. (That mode consumes significant battery power even if nothing it turned on or plugged into a lighter socket.) You'd still need to be careful not to drain the battery too much. How much current does the 12-v charger adapter draw?.