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Priups alternative location for attaching power tap

Discussion in 'Prius PHEV Plug-In Modifications' started by toups, Sep 27, 2012.

  1. toups

    toups Member

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    Has any one attempted to connect to the high voltage where it enters the Prius inverter under the hood in the engine compartment? This might have the advantage of not needing to force the power cord out of the hatch or a door or a window. My thought was that the ideal solution would be to introduce taps made with a socket and plug that mates in between the existing sockets and plugs on the inverter. It appears that the socket and plug are made by Yazaki based on my reading of YAZAKI Europe: Hybrid Technology Unfortunately, I have a feeling they only supply complete harnesses directly to the Toyota. I would not want to damage the existing harness by attempting to splice into it, especially since it is a shielded cable. The other possibility might be to connect inside the inverter if there was a good way to route the wires back out of the inverter.

    The downside is that the connection will be obvious when the car is serviced, so I wouldn't recommend doing this to a Prius that is still under warrant (normal or extended.) Also, that close to the inverter there is a greater chance for EM noise to "leak" out of the system.

    So maybe the tap at the relay is the best solution. Thoughts? This is slightly less than academic since I am in the process of starting my Priups project and have acquired a refurbished APC SURTD5000XLT UPS unit and SURT003 transformer. Many thanks to Richard Factor and his priups.com website. Also thanks to Doug Gaede for his implementation APC information that confirmed my choice of direction for the project.

    As the project progresses and time allows, I will be documenting the project at Notes Regarding Building a PriUPS using a APC SURTD5000XLT

    Note I have found the source for the battery connectors used by APC. It is Anderson. The connectors appear to be available from mouser.com. See my website for some comments regarding the connectors.
     
    #1 toups, Sep 27, 2012
  2. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Huh? What advantage is that? Why not just use a 11o inverter off the the 12v? What advantages outweigh the risks of confusing all the sensors and ECUs by tapping into the HV battery?

    I mean I just did a search on "APC SURTD5000XLT UPS unit and SURT003 transformer" The former costs $2k+ and the latter cost almost $400... They also look really big and bulky...

    Why not just buy a generator for your house for $800 and not waste doing serious (as yet unknown) damage to your car? Or maybe I'm missing something here?
     
    #2 PriusCamper, Sep 27, 2012
  3. toups

    toups Member

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    A 110 inverter off of the 12 V supply will not start a few essentials such as a water well pump.

    See PriUPS-getting electricity FROM your hybrid vehicle for a list of reasons. Yes the transformer weighs about 100 pounds and the UPS a little more (with batteries.) The concept is to provide power for items that take a lot of power to start such as a well pump, freezer, etc. This is not a portable set up, but one for permanent mounting at home.

    The UPS can be purchased refurbished for under $1K at a certain auction site. I was able to get a good deal on the transformer.

    That said, some people like the idea, others hate it. I don't expect to change anyone's mind here. I'm just exploring some additional options for the implementation.
     
    #3 toups, Sep 28, 2012
  4. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Ok.... Makes sense... Sounds like an interesting project... Looking forward to seeing how quickly it damages the HV battery or the car in general... Or if the car will even allow it! You got your work cut out for you!

    Have you calculated how fast the HV battery will drain under load and if the car's inverter can keep a charge with the engine running the whole time?
     
    #4 PriusCamper, Sep 29, 2012
  5. toups

    toups Member

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    #5 toups, Sep 29, 2012
  6. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    I've been to that website before and chatted with some of them and they made clear that a 1000 watts is the safe limit for powering your home... And what you're doing is different because of where you're tapping into the HV battery rather than a simple 1000 watt inverter via the 12volt battery....
     
    #6 PriusCamper, Oct 1, 2012
  7. techntrek

    techntrek Member

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    This is Doug Gaede, just wanted to point out that my name is wrong above (I know a Richard Gaede, but that is my uncle). ;) This is a link to my write-up on the priups.com site: Doug's PriUPS

    To the naysayers - my tests show the battery cycles about a dozen times an hour while being used as a generator. All of us know that while driving the battery cycles much more often. Personally I'm not worried about using it as a generator for a dozen or so days over its lifetime (so far it has done that for about 2 days, including 24 hours straight after Sandy). My setup gives me about 4000 watts available, although the Prius can only handle 3000 watts continuous (1000 if you tap into the 12 volt side). Still way more than I usually use for my 120 volt loads. I use a 12 kw genset for my big loads, but with load management I could alternate the big stuff from the Prius if I had to. Redundancy at its best. I've had a 22 kw battery bank for the last 4 years but now that the Priups setup has proven itself I won't be replacing it. Most likely I will only buy a set of the internal gel-cells for the UPS so I can ride out smaller power blips.

    Here's another link to my full write-up of installing my HV taps, on another forum: http://www.wind-sun.com/ForumVB/showthread.php?12962-Using-a-Prius-as-a-generator

    Any questions, feel free to contact me at [email protected]
     
    #7 techntrek, Nov 6, 2012
  8. toups

    toups Member

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    Sorry for the mix-up, I typed Richard as in Richard Factor when I meant Doug. Original post has been corrected.
     
    #8 toups, Nov 6, 2012
  9. Handygeek

    Handygeek Member

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    I have two of the APC SURT6000XLT inverters (acquired from Doug, tested under load).

    I've decided that I only need one of them.

    Asking $825. picked up in the Savannah-Statesboro, GA area or plus the cost to ship.

    Check ebay listings for the current used prices - which have risen considerably.

    They are large 17.0" H, 5.1" W, 26.0" D Approx. 120.00 lb
     
    #9 Handygeek, Dec 3, 2013
  10. Handygeek

    Handygeek Member

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    UPDATE: Asking $735. picked up or plus the actual cost to ship.
     
    #10 Handygeek, Dec 13, 2013
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