Sitting in the Prime when charging car....not a good idea.

Sounds like you are close to an imminent lightning strike. The symptoms you describe are classic warning signs.
That said you definitely want to stay IN the car as it’s an effective Faraday Cage.

 

You may simply be sensitive to electricity.

Years ago, folks did tests for EMF in Prius, and found very little. I have not seen reports on a Prime, charging or not.

The EVSE cord is 120 volts @ 12 Amps. (less than a hair dryer, but much longer) You may be at a commercial EVSE station, 240 Volts @ 16 Amps, about the same as a small clothes dryer, or electric range. (The Prime uses the electricity longer than a load of clothes, but not more. Or more than a turkey in the oven. That said, it is rare to be inside either while they work)

If you were curious, check out the rear seat, it is closer to all the charging apparatus as I understand it. Side to side may also be interesting.


I believe the battery and AC charger are in the back of the car, and the rest is under the hood, in front.

Electromagnetic field - Wikipedia

Nothing we understand about EMF hints that low frequency electricity is dangerous.

 

Time for a blanket?

 

Before you Judge too harshly, this topic is what Einstein won his (only) Nobel Prize for. The results confused Physicists for years. Einstein showed that only the frequency mattered, not field strength, low frequency Electromagnetic energy cannot ionize atoms, and so has no health risks compared to cell phone towers. (cell phones themselves have tiny batteries, the towers are the risk)

Photoelectric effect - Wikipedia

 

at least you haven't noticed anything while driving.

 

The hairs all over my body feel tingly whenever my Prius gets a free-to-me charge... perhaps that has more to my being a thrifty Scotsman than any EMF phenomenon.

On a serious note, nope.

 

The frequencies used in cell phone service are still far lower than those considered ionizing, no?

I mean, you've still got the whole visible light spectrum in between....

 

Well, you seem to have the Physics right, but the conclusion wrong: No intensity, no matter how high, of cellphone-frequency waves will disrupt chemical bonds. It’s simply impossible, as Einstein proved.

The lowest frequencies that will do that are in the UV range, around a million times the frequency of cellphones! You could stand right next to an operating cell tower and it won’t give you cancer, nor any other effect upon you.

Not *directly*, that is. If you subject yourself to such waves as intense as inside a microwave oven, they could (maybe) cause heat to build inside your body, which is obviously not good. But microwave ovens operate in the Kilowatts and more importantly, set up standing waves inside the oven “focusing” them, in essence, upon the food.

However, the inverse-square law means that we are not going to see anything even vaguely close to the Kilowatts inside a microwave oven. At ground level, cell tower radiation is not much more powerful than from the cellphone itself, which is usually less than a Watt, and a Watt “ain’t diddly”! Our own bodies “radiate” around 100 times that intensity (body heat)!

 

I’m not totally convinced by your argument.
My cell carrier operates on B41 which I believe is around 2.6Ghz. At ZERO effective distance from my body there probably is some adverse effect. Early radar technicians suffered from cataracts before it was determined the RF was the cause. Those installations operat(ed) on 2.4 GHZ.
I think this debate will continue ad infinitum within the industries.

 

For me it’s the noise. The fans run at a rather high speed. It may be one of the fans has some vibration issue and @MommysPrius may be feeling the harmonic vibration of a fan going bad. Or a badly mounted fan.


Unsupervised!

 

I did not bring up cell phones, I just pointed out the 60 hz electricity (50 Hz in Europe) is a much lower frequency. I also poo-pooed the idea that a battery powered device you hold in your hand has enough power.

 

At any rate, the car takes a lot longer to charge than to discharge. Therefore, there's a lot more current flowing when driving in EV mode than when charging the battery. And the AC part of the charging circuitry is plain old 60 Hz house current. If it's the car doing that, standing next to your breaker panel must be a real hair raising experience.

 

Yeah that’s what I’d think. There’s WAY more energy flowing through the Inverter and DC/DC converter while driving than through the charger.


Unsupervised!

 

Maybe the OP has what Jimmy Mcgill’s brother Chuck has?
Better Call Saul Brother Chuck McGill Suffers From RF Radiation (EHS) Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity – RF (Radio Frequency) Safe

 

I have a metal laptop, and I've noticed a tingly feeling if I run my fingers across it while it's plugged in with the nongrounded cord while I'm sitting with my feet on a concrete floor. It turns out that capacitive coupling in the power supply energizes the metal case to about 60V AC, but the current is too low to cause any harm. But I use the grounded cord whenever I can to be safe.

It's possible the same thing could happen in the Prius, but highly unlikely for a couple reasons. First of all if you are just sitting inside you are insulated from the metal body by plastic and seats and carpet. And even if the metal was energized, you're basically inside a faraday cage. No current will flow through you, and it will all flow around the outside of the car. That's a reason why it's somewhat safe to be inside a car that gets hit by lightning (although lightning has other issues like a loud bang, and enough voltage that it can spontaneously ionize the air and go wherever it wants regardless of where metal is).

A second reason is that the charger should be grounded, which would ground the body of the car. It's possible that a home charger is not grounded, but unlikely for a commercial charger because commercial electric installations are typically done to a high standard.

Even if there is no ground, there is a GFCI in the EVSE that will protect you from dangerous current through your body. Although it is possible to feel a tingling at a lower threshold than where it will trip.

Finally, the actual charger in the car is designed not to energize the body of the car, and I'm sure that's rigorously tested for safety. That is really the first line of defense, and the ground and GFCI are backup in case anything goes wrong.

I've sat in the car while charging several times and never had a problem. It would be far worse to touch the car while standing next to it, but obviously they design the charging system so that it is safe to touch the car. Although maybe they shouldn't so people stop damaging my car while it's parked.

 

Each person would only damage it ONCE, but they would sstill damage it.