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Power outage

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Accessories and Modifications' started by AzusaPrius, Sep 3, 2024.

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  1. AzusaPrius

    AzusaPrius Senior Member

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    Labor day a good day for a power outage!!

    First noticed the power cutting in and out a couple times around 2am and then it was out at 3am until 8pm.

    Got out a little power source and quickly connected it to the 12v and started to run extention cords through out the house.

    This was around 10am and just connected a stand up fan at first, then the refrigerator and then another stand up fan, then two lamps

    This was all connected once the ICE got to two bars and started charging, I had just the one stand up fan connected when the HV battery was almost full and it took a long time to get to two bars with just one fan connected.

    It was hot outside today and the temp inside the house got to 95F

    Once the battery drained to two bars and the ICE turned on to charge to three bars, I paid attention to how long the battery lasted until the next recharge.

    With just the one stand up fan using about 50watts it lasted 40 minutes until it charged again.

    Once the refrigerator was hooked up, I checked how much just the refrigerator was using and it was 142watts.

    Then pluged the fan back on and it went to 185watts and I ended up getting to just over 200watts with both fans, the refrigerator and two lamps later on.

    Once all those things were connected, the ICE would kick on every 20 minutes like clockwork, then 3 minutes to charge to three bars then silence for 20 minutes.

    I ran this all day from 10-8pm with a solid half a tank of gas, it did not even drop a bar.

    I love how quiet it is to run the Prius as a generator versus hearing my neighbors run their loud generators.

    Some pictures of the day below.

    The ICE starts to charge at 42.26 SOC
    For 3 minutes to 53.56 SOC

    What a day oh the first thing I actually tried was my espresso machine, gotta start the day right.
    20240902_113238.jpeg 20240902_113244.jpeg 20240902_113440.jpeg 20240902_113444.jpeg 20240902_113736.jpeg 20240902_113921.jpeg 20240902_113938.jpeg 20240902_120954.jpeg 20240902_120959.jpeg 20240902_121206.jpeg 20240902_121210.jpeg 20240902_131300.jpeg 20240902_140451.jpeg
     
    #1 AzusaPrius, Sep 3, 2024
  2. MAX2

    MAX2 Member

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    How do you rate the efficiency of your "Prius generator"?
    The amount of fuel consumed per unit of power of the received electricity?
     
    #2 MAX2, Sep 3, 2024
  3. AzusaPrius

    AzusaPrius Senior Member

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    10 out of 10 stars for running over 10 hours and not even dropping a bar on the fuel gauge.
     
    #3 AzusaPrius, Sep 3, 2024
  4. MAX2

    MAX2 Member

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    Anything that has physical parameters can be measured not only in stars, but also, for example, in quarts, pints, ounces or watts))
     
    #4 MAX2, Sep 3, 2024
  5. AzusaPrius

    AzusaPrius Senior Member

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    All together the ICE ran a total of about 90 minutes for the 10 hours and maybe used 20-30 miles tops on the DTE.
     
    #5 AzusaPrius, Sep 3, 2024
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2024
  6. MAX2

    MAX2 Member

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    It is possible to use the following method.
    Fill the fuel to the top of the filler cap.
    Using an energy meter calibrated in watt-hours, determine the amount of energy transferred from the "prius generator" to the house over a certain period of time.
    Then add fuel again with a precisely measured container to the level of the filler cap and find out what volume was used to reproduce the required amount of electricity.

    By weight, combustion of gasoline releases about 46.7megajoules per kilogramm (13.0 kWh/kg; 21.2 MJ/lb) or by volume 33.6 megajoules per liter (9.3 kWh/L; 127 MJ/U.S. gal; 121,000 BTU/U.S. gal)
     
    #6 MAX2, Sep 3, 2024
  7. AzusaPrius

    AzusaPrius Senior Member

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    For simplicity we will say I used 2,000 watts in 10 hours for less than 1 gallon of fuel.
     
    #7 AzusaPrius, Sep 3, 2024
  8. MAX2

    MAX2 Member

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    There is approximately 35,461 watts of heat energy hidden in 1 gallon of gasoline.
    2,000 watts produced.
    5.6% efficiency
     
    #8 MAX2, Sep 3, 2024
  9. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Um, both you guys just used watts (a power unit) where an energy unit (e.g. joules or watthours) would be needed.
     
    #9 ChapmanF, Sep 3, 2024
  10. AzusaPrius

    AzusaPrius Senior Member

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    Well he said there is about 36,000wh per gallon of gas, so with that I can run 100w for 360 hours.
     
    #10 AzusaPrius, Sep 3, 2024
  11. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    If he really had said Wh instead of watts in #8, my post #9 would not have said you'd both used a power unit where an energy unit was needed.
     
    #11 ChapmanF, Sep 3, 2024
  12. AzusaPrius

    AzusaPrius Senior Member

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    So I used about 200w an hour with 1,000wh in 10 hours out of the possible 36,000wh available per gallon.
     
    #12 AzusaPrius, Sep 3, 2024
  13. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Still having unit problems?
     
    #13 fuzzy1, Sep 3, 2024
  14. AzusaPrius

    AzusaPrius Senior Member

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    Please elaborate and correct me instead of just having a question with no answers.
     
    #14 AzusaPrius, Sep 3, 2024
  15. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    See post #9.
     
    #15 fuzzy1, Sep 3, 2024
  16. AzusaPrius

    AzusaPrius Senior Member

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    #16 AzusaPrius, Sep 3, 2024
  17. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    In which #8 was misquoted
     
    #17 ChapmanF, Sep 3, 2024
  18. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Part of what was gained at post #10, appears to have been lost again by post #12.

    And familiarity with the theoretical limits of conversion efficiency appear to be missing from both.
     
    #18 fuzzy1, Sep 3, 2024
  19. AzusaPrius

    AzusaPrius Senior Member

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    Yet you still have no answer yourself.

    The only thing you have is time to waste.

    Come on, lets see you tell me how much
    Wh I used in the 10 hours.

    I will be waiting...
     
    #19 AzusaPrius, Sep 3, 2024
  20. nicoj36

    nicoj36 Active Member

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    Heck ya, I also have a similar setup using a 2000 watt inverter connected to the 12v. I only use under 1500 watt though and it's enough for me. Very useful during outages. I live in Michigan and I've also used it to keep my heater in the house running, it doesn't use much power cause it only needs it for the fans, my centralized heater is connected to my gas lines.
     
    #20 nicoj36, Sep 3, 2024
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