Living In My Prius And 12 Volt Woes

Hello again Prius people!

I've come to a situation where I need to live in my car. That's not great if my car breaks down, which it sort of did a few days ago. I awoke to a police officer banging on my window as if he were trying to break it and yanking on my door handle. I moved myself to the driver's seat (I sleep in the back) and turned the car to "on" or whatever two presses of the power button is exactly called. The car powered on completely normally, the window rolled down normally, and then I got arrested after I'd shut the car off. The cops tried to close my window but the car was completely dead with no signs of life!

The previous night I had sat in a parking lot downloading and installing software over public Wi-Fi on my laptop powered by a 120 Watt inverter. I couldn't imagine it to draw more than 15 amps, and I had the car fully turned on and in park with the lights off and the heater on. After that I drove a few miles to the place I would sleep. As far as I knew, everything in the car was completely off and no doors ajar.

We (me + bro) assumed the battery was bad at first and yanked it out of my dead car, then we were off to the auto parts store. I asked how old the battery was because I didn't know how to tell and it was 3 years old. I didn't think that was all that old, particularly since it's an 84 month battery! The guy, Nate, that worked there measured the voltage of the battery and it was only 5 Volts!!! HOW??

He charged it up and tested it. It tested perfectly fine and has worked fine since. I think the battery is OK, and I doubt I would have been able to drive as far as I have since then (1000+ miles) without the car dying if the charging system had failed.

My questions are basically this:
* Is the 12V system in the Prius just not suitable for providing auxiliary power to even a 15 amp load for fairly short periods of time ranging in just a single digit number of hours?

* Should I rig up some super mad solar charged add-on battery bank to the car if I want to use any amount of power while the car is off or even apparently while it is on? (this would be super difficult at the moment)

* Is there any way to monitor battery voltage/level from inside the car with no multimeter or OBD2 scanner?

* Have I been bamboozled by the cops with some sort of future-tech battery draining technology to covertly gain access to my vehicle? (not exactly serious with this one)

Also, I should note that the inverter is hard wired to the battery. I swear, though, it was off all night and there's no way it was bleeding power.

Thanks for any of your input!

 

ay bruh bruh i hear u yano ill get those extra $hezits so my cells dont splodinate whiles i be $$$mokin it up hotboxin the crack rocks

\mad love for the advices, bruh bruh bruh

 

Thanks for the info! I guess I didn't realize the battery was so weak. Also, the night before it died I had the car running the whole time I was using the laptop, and it did power on perfectly fine and roll down my window just fine before it decided it was dead the next day.

I don't have any money at the moment for anything extra special like solar panels or extra batteries. I am thinking I will try to get myself a jumper soon, though.

I got arrested for disorderly conduct. I was of the notion that disorderly conduct was for things like screaming one's head off while running down the street naked while on PCP and meth or punching someone or breaking a bunch of someone's things or something like that. Right? Isn't that what one would imagine? Nope. I didn't do any of that. I got goaded into returning back to my parents' house after leaving for a couple days and they immediately started belittling me, insulting my intelligence, and calling my ability to accurately perceive the reality around me into question (AKA gas lighting). That's a big reason why I left in the first place and it made me mad so I told them off and left. I was only home for about 15 minutes and I didn't attack anyone or break anything, just got mad at their crap and left.

A big reason why I'm half way across the country is because the police in that area target and harass me. I've been stopped 9 times this year for things that are unjustifiable like aftermarket exhaust that wasn't even loud and other people get away with louder. I got stopped for an inop license plate light as well one time and I noted a certain local car that was missing an entire headlight/blinker assembly in the same week. I saw that car driving around for 3+ months with no head light still. I got stopped 4 or 5 times while trying to leave the bar area of my home town. Every time I was doing nothing wrong, under the legal limit by more than half, and just recently one of the cops that did this to me got arrested for DUI driving the wrong way down the highway. That was kinda funny, you know? I got stopped twice while WALKING too. Now I've been arrested and charged with a misdemeanor because my toxic parents decided to call the same cops I've told them and they acknowledge target me. I've left out a lot of the times I've been stopped. It's about 10 times this year alone including the arrest and it's too many to even keep track of. It's taken a real toll on my mental health.

So, yeah. I live in my Prius.

 

I'm kind of thinking the cops did some weird thing to my car to make the battery die but that's illogical and I don't see any way that could be possible. It just really is messing with me. The car was not running the entire time I was using my laptop, but it was in Ready Mode and the engine was cycling on and off periodically, then I drove a few miles across town and shut the car off for the night. I had the headlights off the entire time and the heater on pretty low... stereo either off or low volume. I've driven this car plenty with the lights on, stereo blaring, and the heater blasting without ever having to worry about the battery. I even did all of those things with an additional 400 Watt amplifier bumping at full volume for a long time. Never had a dead battery no-start up until my window was conveniently open as well as my doors unlocked. I don't think they searched my car, though, as everything seemed to be in place and nothing taken. They were really aggressive. I thought the dude whacking my window was going to break it. I also never saw a warrant or anything and the charge doesn't show up on the circuit court public access. The whole thing is super confusing and irritating.

As far as using my laptop in my car for extended periods of time, that's what I did when I posted this thread and the car started just fine the next day. I had used the computer for a much longer time, too. I'm doing the same thing right now and not really feeling worried about it. It doesn't really make sense to me how the battery could be good enough to power the car on to accessory mode perfectly, roll the window down at a totally normal rate, and then suddenly be so dead? Is that normal for an AGM battery?

I checked the battery voltage from the media display today. Super cool feature of the car, BTW. It was reading 12.0V in accessory mode. I think I was using the inverter and had the heater blower motor going slowly as well. I don't think that's so bad?

I would check while the car is off with a multi-meter from the wiring for my inverter but I don't have the spare cash for literally anything right now. It is hard wired to a switch, so no bleed over night is possible for whoever asked.

I have no support structure out here. I'm 700+ miles from home now. It's nice, though, in some respects. I'm the same weirdo I was back at home but the cops here never give me a second look. Everyone I've run into and talked to has been kind to me. When I go into WalMart, nobody acts like I'm stealing and I haven't had asset protection eyeing me the whole time, ever. I don't know why they do back at home, I never stole. Something happened to get me so hated back there, but I don't know what. I've got some ideas on what could be going on, but I'm not sure and I don't want to discuss it here.

Y'all saying to Uber are nuts. I have Uber'd in the past and the pay was not good and I need my car to continue working so I can live in it and not be, like, extra homeless with no car. I can't afford maintenance here. If I have to replace an integral part to the car like the wheel bearings or the struts or anything that requires jack stands and many tools then I'm boned. The roads here are also mega rough. Driving for cash is just a super bad option right now. Also, ALL MY STUFF IS IN THE CAR! I can only really carry one passenger at the moment.

Thanks for all of your input so far.

 

I checked the battery voltage first thing when I woke up this morning after the car was off for 6 hours. 12.5V, perfect. Turning on the inverter put it down to about 12.2-12.3V. With the car on the reported battery voltage was always 13.8-14.0V with low beams, stereo, heater, and inverter all on. I'll just assume a door was slightly open or something and stop thinking about it. I'm past it now and the car is good.

I'll check Doordash. Delivering grocery would be best. When it's food people are too concerned about time and I'm not about to hurry on these streets. They're too rough.