I know this has been discussed before, but I'd like some input on calculating energy efficiency and if the Prius could serve as a generator or if e.g. a regular petrol generator is FAR more efficiënt. I lack the insight on how to calculate this. How much does each kWh in electricity produced by the PriusGen2 cost including all (in)efficiencies? What comes next is somewhat offtopic, but explains why I am asking: My solarpanels are close to equilibrium (?) or exceed my annual electricity usage (~4000kWh, we use gas for cooking, heating and warm water, but since this is causing small earthquakes in our country where it is won, we (as a country) want to reduce this usage fast and the price is rising accordingly). I still have some 1.4kWp in panels not hooked up, so could produce 1000kW/y extra. My energymeter runs backwards, so each kWh costs me 25ct and each kWh put back earns me 25ct as long as I don't put back more than I use (per year). This (legal) possibility of using the grid as a buffer will (unfortunately!!!) stop in 2020. From then on each kWh will cost 25ct, every kWh given back into the grid will earn me 7ct. So it is essential to use ALL produced electricity myself ('earns' or 'saves' me 18ct compared to putting it back into the grid and taking it out again later). I can add a boiler (80-200liter watertank with heater), a Telsa powerwall (or equivalent), an electric car, etc in the summer and obviously some electronics to switch those ON those when I am a net producer of energy. But in the winter I will still need the grid. Or a generator/Prius. The gridconnection costst a lot of money in fixed costs, regardless of how much kWh's you use: this was increased greatly a decade ago when people started using solarpanels a lot more: even if you supply all your energy through your solarpanels (so seen over a year your demand and supply even out), you are still paying through your nose for being connected to the grid (those companies aren't dumb and saw this coming a mile away, although their reasoning behind this was obviously 'for the clients good'...) Easiest would be to disconnect the gridconnection, buy a Tesla powerwall and have a 1kW extension cord to the neighbours, but that isn't a viable solution... (Even though he does have a single large serverrack (=his company), so even if I have a surplus, he would use much of it himself).
It will be here too after 2020. They are failing the old Ferraris meters in a high pace so people have to accept a digital meter* with separate use/produce counters. (Meters are owned by the electricity company here in the Netherlands). The fact that huge numbers are now failing spottests since the government and electricity companies decided we had to go to digital meters is suspect according to some. The fact little to no info on the testing method and sample sizes is anywhere to be found online, feeds this distrust. But that is another matter. Great project in your sig * the digital meter is 'sold' here as a "smart meter" because it automatically sends your usage data to the electricity company (and if you give third parties access to this data you can e.g. see almost real time usage and solar-production data on apps). Most solar panel users obviously refer to it as a dumb meter as it cannot subtract produced energy automatically. With the new digital meters, it has happened that electricity companies ADDED the produced solar power to the used energy so people ended up paying for the energy they produced themselves...
These are crazy policies! I can see there might be an issue if a lot of producers are generating excess power at the same time during the day, but this simply perpetuates the power monopoly.
Probably the best way to estimate the fuel consumption per kW produced is just monitor the fuel consumption per hour, and hybrid battery current data pids. And either wait for engine to start to charge low hybrid battery or force charge (but with low current and RPM). Then to get it a bit more accurate you can calculate in the idle consumption from hv-battery, internal resistance of hv-battery, and inefficiency of your inverter (and the Prius dc-dc converter is power is taken from 12V system). Another possibility would be to use a BSFC diagram of engine BSFC challenge | PriusChat and then calculate in efficiency of mechanical bath to mg1, mg1, Prius inverter, your inverter, internal resistance of hybrid battery, and the idle consumption from hv-battery (and the Prius dc-dc converter is power is taken from 12V system). But as you pretty much just have to estimate all of the numbers it’s probably better to use first method. Those ratios of price between power produced and power consumed after 2020 there are still better than what we have here now.
Same here in Australia. The meters are all owned by the utility company. Another company does the maintenance and 3G data uploads of smart meter data. This happens here whilst the customer is waiting to have a smart meter installed after the solar install was done. The customer being totally oblivious. The solar system is supposed to be switched off until the new smart meter has been installed but this gets overlooked. Victoria has completely changed over to smart meters. NSW is in the transition of doing the same.
power produced by a prius won't be cheap. I have a gasoline-powered emergency generator for storms and such. Operating it costs about 5x as much per kWh as power bought from the utility company. A prius will have better fuel economy than my generator, but it's still going to be expensive.
At 1.7 eur/l gas price, around 8 kWh energy in liter fuel and 35% generator eficiency you are looking at something of around 60 eur cent per kWh...
That gives me a very nice estimate. And it is low enough to warrant some more in depth calculations. Thanks!
