So I've had my Prime for about two years and have only charged it at public charging stations. This can be pain and the longer I own the car the less I make a point to charge it. So my parking situation at home is that I live on a little dead end road so there's not a lot of through traffic in a mid-size US city. There's no parking on my side of the street and the house is on a little hill. So there's some weird quirks about how people park in this city (Pittsburgh, PA). Many people seem to think the use of parking chairs and cones to reserve your street spot is perfectly ok and many people accept this rule. So there's definitely rules to bend here. For context, I heard of someone who applied for a charging station to be setup on a different low traffic neighborhood and the city just kind of ignored it. He took it upon himself to just install his own and he's been using it ever since. Now that it's summer I ride my ebike around town mostly, not really even needing the car aside from doing some outdoors things on the weekend. So I was thinking, maybe I could run a cable down the stairs and get some kind of speed bump/cable protector and a long extension cable. I just did a rough measurement and it would be around 70 feet (21.3m) from the outlet to the parking spot and the road is about 20 feet (6m) wide. I was thinking of just setting this up a few times per week and charge it overnight. I'd remove the runners each morning. It seems like a lot of work and I could *potentially* upset a neighbor or two. But realistically I feel like this to be a very small nuisance to the neighbors. I'm just seeing if you feel like I could do this safely from a electrical and neighborhood perspective. If so, what gauge of extension cable would I need for the Prime to do this safely?
I am no electrical engineer and don't claim to be an expert on the subject. But, I think no extension cord no matter how thick they are is safe for the use you are describing. You never know how many cars and trucks pass by. Besides, laying an extension cord across a public road for a personal purpose sounds violation of law or city ordinance. You may get into trouble without obtaining a proper permit to do something like that.
You should also address the trip hazard on walkways. IIRC, the 80ft cord for my 13amp wood chipper is 12 gauge. For a longer charging session, I'd go with 10 gauge, or set the car to only use 8 amps. The OP is talking about using drive over cable protectors; they look like plastic speed bumps. 10ft is around $60 on Amazon. I personally would think it'd be too much hassle.
Just for crossing a sidewalk, Vancouver policy says with a small yearly permit fee and having the cord encased in a ramp would be ok. Across a road seems way too much though, lol.
That's a massive lawsuit magnet. Huge personal liability, and not likely to be covered by your auto policy. If you aren't carrying homeowner's or a fat general liability umbrella don't even think about it. And stop thinking about it anyway, it's just a bad idea.
I often see these plastic ramps with yellow stripes installed across the street where they are doing construction. Whether they are safe or not, I do not know. However, I'm more concerned with theft. I'd imagine no one actually wants these things but kids will be kids. Also, what are the cost of these things? I couldn't justify it even with free charging at work purchasing just a 12 gauge extension cord. The Prime doesn't have a big battery. You could be spending and risking >$1000 (your EVSE is also out in the open) over night on $1 of electricity. Good luck, OP.
Yeah it's a terrible idea. I know. The house is a rental. Hopefully in the next 5 years charging infrastructure will improve significantly. Or maybe I'll just get rid of my car altogether. We'll see.
If bad comes to worse, only charge when possible at public stations (more and more stores have installed free L2 stations, and we charge while we shop). Even without the ability to home-charge, a Prius Prime is still very worthwhile, as there were/are great federal, state, and dealer incentives and (though YMMV) I routinely get 60+ MPG in ICE only mode... not too shabby, not at all!
i would do that in a heartbeat, wouldn't even bother with the speedbump protectors. or, i might string it from tree to tree
I wish! Unfortunately, to my knowledge Pittsburgh has not installed a single public charge station. The best I can do is a few charge point stations owned by private businesses that are kind enough to let the public use them.
Why don't you ask a neighbor across the street? You can install a plug-in watt–hour meter and pay them based on an agreed rate.
That's actually not a bad idea. I tried a local buy nothing group and said I'd pay for the electric but I didn't even know one could buy a cheap watt-hour meter. Unfortunately, most people on the group thought it was ridiculous. Ideally you're right though it would be a neighbor. We have one neighbor who's really nice and friendly with us and they're directly across the street. The one person who has a driveway we unfortunately don't really know. But yeah, you're onto something there. Sometimes the most simple solutions may be the best. I'm a renter and have been here almost two years. Another thing to consider, my landlord has been talking about selling and according to our lease she only has to give us a month notice. So who knows, we might not be at this place long enough for it to be an issue.
Be careful with those plug in devices. Even though I have a brand name, Kill-A-Watt, it started melting after a full week of use. I used it charging my Pacifica Hybrid which takes about 13 kWh to fully charge it but I didn't fully charge it everyday.
As someone who has to deal with charge cable management, this will get old fast. Heavy duty strip protectors rated for vehicles are, you may have guessed, heavy. Add in the heavy duty long extension cord and one is now talking close to a hundred pounds and over a hundred dollars. I'd suggest using public/paid charging when possible and the HV charge button the rest of the time.
In my situation the sidewalk and road had giant cracks and I just ran my extension cord in the crack, seated it good then duct taped over it
I've never had an issue with Poniie PN2000 I linked above. I always use it, and it can get hot in my garage. A loose-fitting outlet can cause overheating.
