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Aftermarket AC charger?

Discussion in 'Prius c Technical Discussion' started by Boatycall, Jan 8, 2013.

  1. Boatycall

    Boatycall Junior Member

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    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius
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    Two
    My MPG in the morning is horrible, mainly because of my drive home the night before. I'm looking for an aftermarket charger to top off the batteries overnight.
    When I drive home at night, I have to go down a couple miles of 25mph residential streets. So of course, it wants to run on EV as much as possible. I sometimes do the punch-it/coast routine to run the ICE and keep the battery up, but I'd rather not continue to do that.
    So after driving home the night before, in the morning, the battery is down to two lines. I've seen my starting/cold MPG as low as 9mpg (yes, 9) as it tries to warm up and charge up all at the same time.

    I'd like to come home, plug in, and charge back up. Not trying to run long distances on EV, just improve the morning warm up MPG.
     
    #1 Boatycall, Jan 8, 2013
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    Plug-in Base
    there's a really good one, but it's expensive. it's called a pip!:p
     
    #2 bisco, Jan 8, 2013
  3. clgutierrez

    clgutierrez Junior Member

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    I assume the 9 mpg lasts a couple of minutes (during the warm up) going better after 5 min and up to the infamous 50 after 10-15 min. I would recommend to arrive at home with 4-5 bars.

    Sent ?
     
    #3 clgutierrez, Jan 8, 2013
  4. Flaninacupboard

    Flaninacupboard Senior Member

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    Not too sure if Enginer | Solar Powered Prius Plug-in PHEV Conversion Kit with Lithium-Ion | Hybrid are still operating, but you could get a DC converter from them (think it's about $500) and a power supply (48V, 80A) and you have a mains charger for the HV pack. Going from two bars to seven (I'd avoid going to eight) would only take around five minutes, you just need to sit in the car with it in Ready and watch the bars. After it's charged, turn off and unplug. Alternatively, get a 48V, 40A power supply and down dial the output of the converter, it now takes about ten minutes to get to 7 bars.

    Although honestly you could use anything with a DC output above 230V, and 14 amps or less. The key is sitting with the car in Ready and watching the bars, you can't do this with the car shut down it's just too dangerous.
     
    #4 Flaninacupboard, Jan 8, 2013
  5. Flaninacupboard

    Flaninacupboard Senior Member

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    Actually, this would do the job nicely:
    EV-Power | Charger for LiFe(Y)PO4 - 240V/5A - 1.5 kW TCCH-H292-5
    The output voltage is right, and aperage is 5A, you'd have roughly a 15 minute wait to go to 7 bars, and you could set the output of the charger to be at the right level for charging to level off at 7 bars (so you could leave it unattended)

    Alternatively this gets you charged ~7.5 minutes, but is significantly more expensive!!:
    EV-Power | Charger for LiFe(Y)PO4 - 240V/10A - 3 kW TCCH-H292-10
     
    #5 Flaninacupboard, Jan 8, 2013
  6. strongbad

    strongbad Member

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    You could also get the engine block heater and greatly improve your cold weather engine performance. It's simultaneously the cheapest and most effective mod you can make to increase gas mileage and engine life.
     
    #6 strongbad, Jan 11, 2013
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