hi! im currently on a road trip with about 9200miles in. i started in chicago and im currently in fairbanks alaska ive done alot of car camping since i left in early sep and love my prius. it roomy enough for me and all the crap needed for a 6month journey. however as i sit here tonight using holiday's inn internet i looked to my left and saw three mid size pickup trucks with male ended power cords coming out the front end. one of these trucks looks kinda old so it got me thinking. has anyone heard of a mod to add an auxilary power INPUT. i love how the prius will pump out heat and start the engine when needed. but is there anyway to add a plug so that it can run the heat, and not have to run the gas engine to charge the battery (because the car would be plugged in). basically making it like a rv with full hookup. i will do my best to respond to any question but please give me time. alaska and northern bc/yukon are not known for there wifi hotspots. ill do my best though to check tomorrow. thanks in advance for any responses. i searched on the subject but didnt find much. all i did find was ways to mod the 2k5 prius by adding a battery and making it more like the volt where it runs off of that for some time before using gas but thats not what i want. and the solution is in the thousands because you need to buy the different type of battery and have it installed.
Are you just wanting heat while parked? Might be simpler to use a small electric space heater - just make sure it's a safe one. - D
That plug in is for an engine block heater, it's indespensible in colder climates! And yes, you I've seen mention you can put one in a Prius. It's not a general power input like your desctiption though...
thanks for the replies i think i might go with the small space heater because just using the electric seems to use alot less gas. without heat on the engine only starts up once every 10mins or so but with the heat on its like every 3-5mins. and it sucks because the a/c auto doesnt really work for heating after doing some research around fairbanks i found this is called "winterization" but no one could really answer my question about what im trying todo. which leads me to the quote below "It's not a general power input like your desctiption though" i think what ur saying here is that the power plug goes to the normal battery not the electric engine battery (if that makes sense) so basically there are 2 batteries in hybrids and the one that the plug goes to is not the same one used to run heat when its idling but i couldnt get a clear cut answer on this
Basically you've got it right, you can of course charge the 12V battery like any other 12V AGM car battery. But that won't get you cabin heat. Before the engine warms up the Prius will give you some heat from electric elements (taking juice from the traction battery) but really it needs a warm engine. That's why Engine Block Heaters (EBH) are key in cold climates - they help you avoid burning a lot of gas just to get the engine warmed up. I don't feel the need for an EBH here (I park in an unheated garage) but on a cold morning I will leave the heat turned off until the engine warms, just to avoid it firing up for heat alone. If you're parked outside in Alaska or Chicago I'd think the EBH would be critical! - D
