Yet another Hymotion install

Chris, Rob,

Thanks for the ideas, but its not that big a deal. If I were a permanent employee I might try pushing it, but as a temp I'll just be happy to put in my 40+OT and stay under the radar. I'll probably be moving on to a better position with better pay soon, but until then I'll just put in my time and smile. I've got a number of other projects going on that I want to focus my time and energy on...you've got to pick your battles:usa2:

I do appreciate your input, though. Perhaps someone else is dealing with this same issue and might find the ideas they need here.

Chris, the timer I bought was from Home Depot, I don't have the model right now but it is a digital unit with the grounding prong and two outlets, about $20. I'll probably hook it up this weekend and try it out with the EBH. Regarding EV-mode, sometimes the L5 engages it and sometimes not when I start out. I usually leave the L5 dashboard switch in the "on" position so that I'll have the best chance of engaging EV right away, but I have to back out of the garage so I'm not always quick enough before the engine starts. I still need to order the Coastal Tech switch (busy with 10,000 other things), but that will happen soon. I remember how nice it was on the 2007 I had back when I was living in Greater Disneyland. Now that I'm in Colorado and have the L5 in the new ride, an EV mode switch is probably due.

Just a quick aside, I drove to work this morning with pack fully charged (EV-mode didn't kick in and the engine went through its start-up sequence immediately). I made it the 20 miles to work at 88MPG. I drove another 20 miles after work to downtown Denver - the pack made it to 33.5 miles (including the morning drive) before quitting, but I still managed 120MPG at my destination in downtown per SGII. My gas tank was about half full when I had the L5 pack installed last week and have been doing a lot of driving since then (both with and without the L5 assist). I just filled up tonight - went about 530 miles on a half tank!

How cool is that?:lock1:

 

Well, the more of us out there with PHEV's/EV's, the less out of place plugging in will be. I'm sure you're right - the Volt and others will definitely be a help in making this more commonplace and acceptable. Fortunately I recharge at home in my garage with the door closed so nothing is on public display (I'm assuming from your post that your situation is different?).

Yeah, it's kind of funny walking around buildings to see if there are any outlets to plug into. I've done this several times now...

 

Well, there are all kinds of people out there. I actually feel kinda sorry for the individual in question. I've only been at this company a few weeks, but I can already tell he hasn't endeared himself to many co-workers here. He's a perfect example of what goes around comes around...

Management here is more of the problem (it seems), and there is a lot of company politics going on - higher than most companies I've worked for. Since I'm only here for a short-term contract, its not a big deal to me to not be able to plug-in. Hopefully my next employer will be more green.

BTW, most other people here think my plug-in Prius is very cool. One co-worker here owns a Smart car (his wife's car) - one day when he can wrangle it away from her for a day he's going to drive it to work and we'll swap drives for lunch. I've seen several of these here in Denver but haven't driven one yet and am looking forward to checking it out.

 

Dave, I'm willing to bet the level of "green" is different from one business to the one next to it. Human nature is all about differing opinions...

And I'm not too impressed with the Smart car's specs, either...but it would be interesting to drive one just for the experience. I doubt it will be on a par with the Prius, but I won't know for sure until I check it out. Can't hurt, but could be interesting...

 

Well just to be accurate, I never was able to plug-in in Boulder (at least not yet), but I'll continue to look. I was plugging in at work for a couple of days before the "whining" incident, but that was in Southern Denver. Hopefully my next employer will be more open to it.

Right now there are so few people with PHEVs that it isn't surprising many companies don't/won't provide for it - but that should change as the numbers increase. Again I'm not angry with my current company, just a little disappointed perhaps. But it is cool to finally have a PHEV and many people out there are doing the same thing, and within a few years there will be some available directly from major manufacturers (hopefully). As the numbers go up, so will the availability of recharge locations for us consumers...

L5 Update:
I've been seeing range numbers in the high 30's for most/all freeway driving and mid-high 20's for mostly EV-mode driving (been experimenting with this over the past few evenings). The biggest regret I have is that the pack doesn't last longer, but its definitely a big improvement in efficiency over the stock setup.

 

Hi OldK1W1, you should be able to post pix without issue here, just use a page like photobucket to upload your pictures to and link to them when creating your posts. PM me if you want more info.

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I've been visiting family and friends in Greater Disneyland (California) for the past couple weeks and haven't been driving the Flybrid till I returned this past Sunday.

One thing I've noticed since I've returned is that the pack seems to be lasting longer - particularly yesterday evening on a drive up to Boulder I noticed the first bar lasted almost 6 miles! Never seen that before, its usually gone after 1-2 miles. The pack lasted 44 miles, including several miles in all EV mode (0 RPM per SGII). And I made 96MPG on the trip there, which was 40 miles with a lot of ups/downs/hilly driving. I've only cycled the pack maybe 15 times since installation - I'm wondering if it needs to be cycled many times (perhaps 50+?) to reach full capacity. Anyone else see this?

 

Hi Chris,

Sorry to get back to you so late about the EBH timer, mine is an Intermatic HB88RC. Its a pretty beefy digital unit made for outdoor operation and has two 3-prong 120V outlets. Works very well.

Starting in EV-mode - sometimes my Prius will engage EV-mode from the start and sometimes not, at this point I don't know what the determining factor(s) are. Weird. I haven't bought the EV-mode switch yet - I'm trying to be a bit more careful on spending since I've had several big purchases recently on my credit card. I've been experimenting a bit using the L5 pack - I leave the switch on while its recharging overnight, then after I leave my garage in the morning I'll turn the L5 switch off if it has engaged EV-mode and save the Hymotion battery until I get onto the freeway. I can get about a mile before the engine comes on at the freeway onramp where I have to go over the 34MPH EV limit. I only lose a few bars to get there on the stock battery and this seems to help my initial mileage and stretch the range of the Hymotion pack a bit. I'm sure the EV-mode switch would make this a lot easier, though.

 

Hi Chris,

At this point I don't have the EV-mode switch yet either. I've been experimenting and I think I have a handle now on getting the pack to engage EV-mode. One thing I've been doing over the past few days:

In the morning I back out the garage and go into drive without putting any real acceleration/load on the car (L5 fully charged from overnight). This seems to put the car into EV-mode for the beginning of my commute. Once I'm sure that EV-mode has been activated I shut off the L5 switch and drive under [stock] battery-only power to the freeway onramp, at which time the engine engages - its not far, maybe 1 mile or a bit more and I only lose a few bars of energy (no purple). I turn the L5 back on as soon as I am on the freeway and it takes a bit for the L5 to recharge the stock pack, but what I've found is that doing this adds a good amount to my range and my mileage doesn't seem to suffer. I've actually noticed an increase during my commute to Boulder: 100MPG versus 80 if I leave the switch on from the start, and my range is in the low-mid 40's as well. I know others have addressed the issue of messing with the L5 switch while driving but I've never had any problems or witnessed the LED flashing an error code... and I don't think I'm putting undue stress on the stock battery by doing this (its a slight downhill to the 470 onramp from my home). Just an observation...

BTW, I'm very happy with the performance of the Hymotion system, although I do wish the range was a bit better. On a related note, one of the Milongas I go to has an outlet very close to the door that I can reach pretty easily, so I'm now recharging for the round-trip on those evenings!

Very cool