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I want to charge the battery that comes with the Prius.

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by Dan45, Jun 22, 2008.

  1. Dan45

    Dan45 Beyond Oil

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    I want to charge the regular battery that comes with the Prius so I can start off in the morning with a full battery. This shouldn't be too hard to do. I was thinking maybe a switch to disconnect the battery from the car and than into the charger. A trickle charger could be very small and automatic so it wouldn't over charge the battery.

    Or the charger could be connected to the battery without disconnecting it from the car. This would allow it to keep the water warm and to keep the 12 volt battery charged.

    I can see that the main problem would be driving off with the car still plugged in.

    Does any company make such a thing?
     
  2. patsparks

    patsparks An Aussie perspective

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    I don't think it is worth the effort or the risk. Just drive it.
    The battery of your Prius holds about the equivalent energy of 2 tablespoons of petrol.
    If you drive properly your battery will be almost fully charged when you put it away at night anyway.
     
  3. JimboK

    JimboK One owner, low mileage

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    Just curious: What are you trying to accomplish?
     
  4. TransferFunction

    TransferFunction New Member

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    Those batteries hold more than 2 tablespoons of gas worth of energy. It should increase fuel mileage if you could top up the charge every night. This is a great idea.
     
  5. aaf709

    aaf709 Ravenpaw of ThunderClan

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    But the software in the car would run the engine anyway to warm up the catalytic converter. Plus the car doesn't like a fully charged battery and will spin the engine trying to get it down. Most plans to plug in a Prius is to add batteries to make it worth while.
     
  6. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    You should look into the hymotion battery pack if you're serious about a project like this. Many before you have considered the 'complete replacement' option, but it's not as easily accomplished as you might thing. The Battery ECU is sensitive to voltage changes and doesn't like things out of whack. Basically you have to fool the ECU into thinking that there's a lower SOC than there really is with the second pack.

    Even with that your range and top speed are limited.
     
  7. patsparks

    patsparks An Aussie perspective

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    Pris battery capacity 1310.4 Watt/Hours
    1 watt hour = 860.42065 calories
    1310.4 x 860.4 =1,137,468.16 calories
    a gallon of gasoline contains about 31,000,000 calories
    1 US gallon = 256 US tablespoons

    31,000,000/256 = 121,093 calories in 1 table spoons of petrol

    121093 x 9 =1,089,837
    [SIZE=+1]Sorry, your right, it is about 9 tablespoons of gas or 133ml.[/SIZE]


    now the battery in your Prius only uses 60% of its total capacity so reduce that to about 60% and you have 6 tablespoons or 80ml.

    Now I doubt you will pull up your driveway every night with a flat battery or more correctly a battery at 40% charge so lets assume that on average your battery is at 50% of the usable range of charge, you can fit in an additional 3 table spoons worth of energy.

    Yep, sorry I was wrong, on average you can put 3 table spoons gas equivalent energy into the battery each night without causing harm to the battery.

    Now when a Toyota dealer needs to charge a Prius traction battery they need to get a special charger from head office sent to them, they don't have one in their store because it is so expensive I believe there are only 2 or 3 in the mainland USA. What will your battery charger cost?
     
  8. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    No, it's not a good idea. The mileage gain would be unmeasurable, and the cost and complexity very high. You aren't talking about a 12V lead acid battery. This is a couple of hundred volts of sophisticated battery. You will end up killing yourself, the battery, or setting your car on fire, all to save a quarter cup of fuel. It's just not worth it.

    Tom
     
  9. richard schumacher

    richard schumacher shortbus driver

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    The OP was talking about the 12V battery. He won't kill himself, but it's still not worth the trouble. Given the conversion losses of a 12V charger and amortizing the cost of the charger it's not obvious that it would save any money or reduce his carbon footprint.
     
  10. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    The 12v....you can put it on a float charger if you like, but the impact will be zero in day to day driving.
     
  11. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    How did I miss that detail? I'm going to blame it on my daughter's wedding. The ceremony was on Saturday, so I'm still in a post wedding haze induced by too many house guests, significant amounts of alcohol, and large expenditures of cash. :eek:

    Tom
     
  12. biggus

    biggus Junior Member

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    [
    ]

    And you still think oil is dear at $4 a gallon when 1 galllon of gasoline contains about 31,000,000 calories
    How many Big Macs is that?
     
  13. archae86

    archae86 Member

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    82.

    One number for the Big Mac is 576 Calories, (aka kcal). Don't forget that food energy value is generally given in thousand-calorie units, inconveniently also called Calories, though if you are lucky they might get capitalized.
     
  14. aaf709

    aaf709 Ravenpaw of ThunderClan

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    Well, if it's the 12 volt, I suppose you could put solar panels on the roof of the Prius and set it up that way. I believe other owners have done that.
     
  15. TransferFunction

    TransferFunction New Member

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    patsparks,
    That is Watt*Hours, not Watt/Hours.
    And remember the usable energy in gasoline in an Otto cycle gasoline engine is about 20%, so multiply times 5. Otherwise, your conversion constants were good.
     
  16. TransferFunction

    TransferFunction New Member

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    archae86,

    Like IC engines, your body muscles are only about 25% efficient in converting the calories into useful motion, the rest going to heat.

    I'm beginning to think the Chevy Volt series hybrid method is the better way, since you don't need the weight of a transmission, and the complexity goes down for customization (more modular separation of engine and battery charging there). The Prius parallel hybrid arrangement is a complicated torque engine/electric blending circus along with battery charging strategies that don't make it easy to tinker with as much. I've heard the auxiliary battery installation jobs run around ten thousand or so. Ridiculously overpriced, but probably necessary.
     
  17. ZC1

    ZC1 Junior Prius Owner

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    He is definitely operating under a few misconceptions.

    First off, keeping the 12v aux battery will NOT keep the water warm. Period.

    Secondly, he's confused about which battery he's viewing in the bar graphs, thinking he's seeing the 12v battery charge.

    Thirdly, a trickle charger at 12v, either 2 amps or 6 amps or 15 amps will not charge the Main battery at all, the applied voltage is way too low, not to mention there is no facility at which to apply the charge.

    AND FINALLY....

    For argument's sake, if he could do such a thing, the battery would be back to it's fluctuating normality within a mile.

    This is definitely a zero-sum game.

    ZC1
     
  18. ZC1

    ZC1 Junior Prius Owner

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    Again, the auxilliary battery removal and installation is free. You can do it yourself in less than 30 minutes. Honestly.

    You must mean the Main Hyrid battery.

    But even that installation doesn't cost near 10 thousand dollars.

    ZC1
     
  19. TheAnnoyingOne

    TheAnnoyingOne New Member

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    OK - there are two batteries, the 12 V and the HV. one is to the right of the trunk, the other is bellow the passenger seat. Locate both of them and remove all protective covers. Start touching the exposed contacts - if you die - you have identified the HV battery.
     
  20. Sheepdog

    Sheepdog C'Mere Sheepie!

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    ah the quest for ever better mpg. The quest to sop using the ICE and just plug in.

    If they can build a tesla sports car they can build a plug in Prius. The question is how expensive is it? The costs have to come down as we cannot afford the initial costs whatever the long term savings right now.

    Im in my mid 50's and have a new 08 Prius. I would be willing to wager that before I trade the Prius, maybe 6 years or so, that batteries will have undergone tremendous advances and drops in cost making a plug in not only possible but affordable for most.

    What a rush that will be!