Probably a slightly dumb question, but with the apparent tricky nature of jumping a Prius, I figured I'd ask. I'm going camping and was thinking that with a regular car, you'd run the radio on accessory mode for a while and then just start the car for a bit to recharge. With a Prius, I "start" the car, but it doesn't necessarily run the ICE. So if I've run the radio to the point where the battery could use a boost, does the ICE kick on until it is back to a good spot? Or is there a trick to making this work? I know the car will shut the accessory mode down on its own to "protect the battery", but I'm guessing that is very cautious as it lasts for about 15 minutes. The ideal option will be not to use my car as a boom box (or take it camping at all actually), but just wondering for general knowledge. Thanks.
For this you need to leave the car powered up and ready to drive. Leave it in Park with the brake set. The ICE will turn on when needed. I'm disabled and often stay in the car with the A/C while my wife goes into a store. With the car in "ready" mode, the ICE will kick in every 15-20 minutes to keep the battery charged. This was actually a bigger reason for me buying the Prius rather than the fuel savings. The same thing applies if you want to use the Prius as an emergency generator in case of power failure or for camping. Leave the car powered up and in Park, connect a 1000W (or less) inverter directly to the 12V battery, and the ICE will run as needed. thegreenenergy: Using a Hybrid vehicle as a Generator
Thanks. I figured the car was smart enough where it would take care of itself. Just wasn't sure how to allow it to do so.
Just today I was listening to the radio without the car powered up and after about 15 minutes, it shut down with a warning of something like "Powering down to conserve battery". I would not have gotten that had I had the car in Ready mode.
The Prius is a life saver during black-outs. I am unable to sleep without a c-pap. (It is dangerous for me to try.) When the power is out, I open the garage door manually, plug the 120v converter into the power outlet in the Prius, start the car and sleep in the car. The engine running periodically never wakes me, and I get to sleep in air conditioning to boot!
A minor point, you might want to move the car out of the garage, just out of an abundance of caution.
When we go to the Drive-in I just leave the car on. The engine only cycles on & off as the power draw requires. This is one of the things I love about this car.
I take a ferry to work & will wait about a hour. Sometimes the engine will not come on at all. If it does its for a very short while. It's great to run everything without using gas.
