I tried a search unsucessfully. Please enlighten me......................... Coming home tonight the Battery Icon in the "Energy Monitor" screen changed from BLUE to GREEN - for a short time, then it went back to BLUE. The ever helpful Owners Manual really did not shed light on this occurance. What does it mean? Peace Out.
Just reflects the state of charge...when you get into the top 2 bars all the bars turn green, when you get to the last two bars they turn pink....blue in between.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Prius The First @ Dec 12 2006, 04:16 PM) [snapback]361239[/snapback]</div> You dom't really have any control over whether it's green, blue, or pink. The computer takes care of all that. Anyway, don't worry about it. It's perfectly normal.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Prius The First @ Dec 12 2006, 07:16 PM) [snapback]361239[/snapback]</div> It's just a narrowly-regulated state of charge. There is little you can do about it, so don't even worry.
It's going to blow up!! :lol: :lol: jk; as Dr. Fusco stated, its just a higher state of charge in your battery. I don't know if there's any "benefit", except I like to try to keep my charge as high as possibe . In my mind, at least, I feel that I'm using less gas & more ev mode if the charge is higher. Probably not true, but just a feeling. Glad to know you're paying attention. Don't forget to look at the road from time to time! Enjoy you're Prius!! :lol:
It happens more when you've gone down a long hill, but it won't stay long. Evidently the Prius prefers being in the blue area.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Prius The First @ Dec 12 2006, 04:16 PM) [snapback]361239[/snapback]</div> No. There is no benefit in trying to keep it green. The computer tries to keep the state of charge around the middle. It wants (and you do too) to have enough charge in the battery to provide energy for acceleration when you step on the pedal, and still to have enough head room in the battery to absorb energy when you step on the brakes. So the ideal is probably from 4 to 6 bars. But the computer will see to all that, using electricity when the battery is high, and recharging when it is low. (Except that, as Jayman suggests, in very cold weather, when the engine must run to provide heat, the charge will generally stay pretty high.) The only time there's any benefit to trying to fool the battery into getting a high charge, is when you're about to hit a long uphill. Then it's nice to have more charge available. And similarly, when approaching a long downhill, it's nice to have a low state of charge, so it can absorb more regenerative energy. That's why a bigger battery would translate to better efficiency. But in 2004 the present battery was judged to be the best match of cost vs benefit. The rumor is that the 2009 model year will have more battery capacity. Basically, just drive it. It will do everything it needs to do.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Prius The First @ Dec 13 2006, 07:30 AM) [snapback]361419[/snapback]</div> PTF, For even more 'enlightenment', go to http://john1701a.com download and read his user's guide and peruse his site....a lot of excellent basic info on Prius there.
I had an interesting situation the other night. I had stopped at a traffic light with the battery fully charged (all bars green), radio & headlights on, heater on low fan. I would have thought that I would stay on battery power but the ICE keep kicking in as if it didn't want the charge to go below max. It was ICE on, ICE off, ICE on, ICE off (sorry Mr. Miyagi) in very rapid succession. Anyone else have this experience?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jim1eye @ Dec 13 2006, 08:20 AM) [snapback]361425[/snapback]</div> Actually, the car was trying to get the SOC down since it was near the max...It takes quite a lot of energy to spin up the ICE, the cycling was actually bringing the SOC down a bit in order to make room to accept more charge if needed later. My Prius rarely does this any more, but I think that's more b/c of the way I drive. When I first was driving in cold weather it happened quite frequently. It did occur to me the other day while my SOC was at 74% on CAN-View...the cycling dropped it to around 72% before the light changed. BTW, I couldn't enter EV mode b/c of that 'too high' SOC as well.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Dec 13 2006, 11:05 AM) [snapback]361445[/snapback]</div> Mine neither, and I used to achieve all greens and have this cycling every day at the end of the same hill. Could it be that the battery is starting to lose its capacity to hold a charge?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jamarimutt @ Dec 13 2006, 10:18 AM) [snapback]361509[/snapback]</div> Honesly, I don't think that at all. I'm confident that it has to do with the way I drive...I'm much more of a pulse/glide type driver taking advantage of the battery when appropriate and my average SOC tends to be lower b/c of it. Those time where I can't or don't P&G as much (ie. cold starts in cold weather) the SOC still shoots right up...like I said, the other day it was up to 74% in normal city driving...no long downhills or anything, routine commute where I'm usually around or below 60% SOC.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jim1eye @ Dec 13 2006, 06:20 AM) [snapback]361425[/snapback]</div> I don't think I've been able to keep it EV mode when starting the car with either air condition/heat or the front defroster on. It always turns on the ICE within a few seconds. Likewise, even though it's been running and warmed up, with sufficiently charged batteries it still doesn't want to go into EV with the defroster on. Dave M.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dmckinstry @ Dec 13 2006, 05:40 PM) [snapback]361963[/snapback]</div> With the heater on it really likes to run the engine. After it's good and warmed up, the heater can be on a low fan setting and it'll go electric. But otherwise it's hard.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Dec 13 2006, 08:41 PM) [snapback]362024[/snapback]</div> I guess it's not really completely warmed up then. Only driven 5 - 10 minutes. I know that even in the summer, I'd have to drive about 15 minutes before my mileage would start to get much above 50. Dave M.
