I am interested in creating a portable battery solution that can be used to supply a full charge to the Prius Plug In when an outlet or charging station is unavailable. I live in an apartment condo, and there aren't any available outlets in the garage. My intention is to charge a battery in my apartment, and then bring it to the garage to allow it to discharge into my Plug-In Prius. I was recommended to check out Marine Deep Cycle batteries. Can anyone confirm that this would be appropriate, and what size? Other appropriate batteries? Can someone also confirm my math please? 4400W capacity in the PiP. 12V inverter equates to 4400W / 12V = 366 Ah's required to fully charge the PiP battery. Since deep cycle batteries recommend to never discharge more than 80% of the battery, this would require at least a 460 Ah battery. I am very interested in identifying the voltage and Amp-hour capacity requirements for a battery that is capable of delivering a full charge to a Prius Plug-In. I would appreciate if anyone can confirm my calculations/thoughts and correct me and/or advise. Thanks!! Sam
I like this idea, but I don't think it's practical (or economical). I'm not sure you can just hook up your spare batteries to the main battery, without having some electronics in place. If you plan on feeding it back via the EVSE plug, the you would need to add a brain (Open EVSE style) to make this work. I do look forward to the discussion, you never know
according to my Kill A Watt meter, the brick that comes with the PIP draws about 11.79 amps @ 120 volts ac so... about 1414.8 watts, for 2 hours and 34 minutes. So you would need battery capacity capable of discharging at that rate. and using a 1500 watt dc to ac inverter
oh....yeah....one more thing.....charging drops by half at the last ten minutes of the charge cycle of the PIP from 11.79 amps to about 6 amps
check out my stat's from this link: here's the latest from my Logger Device. Clamp on A/C current Transformer not registering above .1amp. possibly an update. tried update from Supco website and my Norton Anti Virus blocked the update. calling Norton tomorrow. voltage is correct tho. Read more: http://priuschat.com/threads/attention-kill-a-watt-nerds.113900/#ixzz2BZns0rL4
I figure that the PIP rates of ~12amps and 120volts, etc was optimized for a speedy charge time, and to prevent possible surging/risks to the equipment. I'm inclined to assume that providing a lower amperage charge to the PIP should also suffice, only resulting in a longer charge time. In my case, I'm perfectly fine with setting it up before bed, and waking up to a charged vehicle. Definitely need to make use of an inverter to allow use of the PIP charger plug. As for charging the battery, I was thinking along the lines of a marine deep cycle battery; the same kinds most RVs and boats use. At this point, I would just like to confirm with the community regarding capacities, max/min specs on amps/volts/watts, and check if anyone else has explored in this direction. Thanks!
It is very easy to compute the answer to your question. You need to know the amp-hour rating of your battery bank. For my example I'll assume 100 amp-hours. First compute the amps you are drawing: amps = watts / volts amps = 500 / 12 amps = 41.7 Then compute how long your battteries will support this load. Most recommend you use no more than 50% of your battery capavity. So if your battery bank is rated at 100 amp-hours, you have 50 amp-hours available. hours = amp-hours available / amps hours = 50 / 41.7 hours = 1.2 So for a 100 amp-hour battery bank, you can expect 1.2 hours drawing 500 watts. You can draw for a longer time but your battery life will be shortened by doing this.
I like your idea but, are U pumping iron lately? you will such strong muscles to transport quite a few batteries that will leave you out of breath.
lol, he could charge the PIP with the batteries for about 15 minutes, go back to his apt. charge the deep cycle batteries, go back to PIP for another 15 minutes......you get the idea
While it's possible to do this, it might not be too practical, physically or financially. The biggest battery I could find was a 225AH battery that weighs 158 pounds. You'll need two of them. A 100 to 125AH battery is around 70 lbs. You'll need 4 of them. You'll want a pretty sturdy cart to put them on, plus an elevator to use if you don't have a ground-floor unit. Then there's the matter of charging the batteries. A 100AH battery wants to be charged at 10-Amps for about 10 hours. That 225AH monster battery? You'll either need to double the amperage or the charging time. Actually, it's a rather slow charge time. We're limited to 12 Amps & 120 Volts because of NEC (National Electric Code) regulations, mostly. If you want to charge faster than that, you need to use a Level 2 EVSE that runs at 240 Volts. Keep in mind that the actual charger is built into the car and is designed to pull a max of about 2.3 to 2.4 kW from the wall. You might have an EVSE that can provide 7.2 kW, but the most that the car will pull is 2.4 kW. The only way you could do this would be to build your own 120 Volt EVSE that would supply a lower amperage to the car. The stock L1 EVSE that comes with the car is designed to pull 12 Amps, and tells the car that's what is available to use for charging.
I would be looking into an electrician to put a plug nearby. Hell, maybe even pull a line from a street lamp. Forget this battery business.
I think this is what you are looking for. Enginer Portable Power Station | Enginer | Prius Plugin PHEV Conversion Kit with Lithium-Ion | Hybrid
Or just buy a Wind Turbine with 4' blades and mount it on the front of the PIP. Generate electricity as you drive. WAIT, that won't work either !!! Another idea. They are decommissioning the USS Enterprise. Move it to your site and use the Nuclear Generators to supply the Electric. And you'll have a nice Museum. But you may have to get a permit.
C'mon guys, not everyone is an EE, it's a great question, at least he is thinking out of the box Maybe he is ok with driving a small dolly into the parking lot (I would be, if only the batteries where really cheap).
There's nothing wrong with thinking outside the box. We're just trying to point out things to consider before a lot of time and money is invested. A somewhat similar posting was on MNL, but with a solar charging system thrown into the mix. The Engniner portable power station also came up in that discussion.
