Since it is more economical to start off with a fully charged battery, are there kits available to plug in car overnight? Does this help? Does it void any warranties?
Yes, it would marginally help your FE to start w/ a full battery if you could charge it overnight. But there is no practical means of doing so. If you look into the Calcars project and some others that are adding additional battery capacity and charging those...but at a big cost.
Your battery pack is set at something like 230 volts. (Someone correct me if that is wrong.) The point is you can't use a 12 volt charger from the local auto parts store. You need to spend about $1,000.00 to get one. You will have to hook into your main pack that has deadly voltages. After that you will only get about a mile on a full battery. If it goes too full you can't get it to go in EV mode anyway. The best thing in the world you can do is to safely pulse and glide when you can. After that get some sort of after market readout like the Can-View and it will give you lots more data to mull over.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Cheap! @ Jun 1 2007, 05:07 PM) [snapback]453527[/snapback]</div> Has anyone thought of just getting another exact duplicate battery that is in the Prius? This could double the existing capacity. If it was hooked up parallel then the computer might not even know it is there. This may be a simple idea, but sometimes the simple ways work really well. Sometimes they don't. Could someone with some knowledge on this comment please.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bestmapman @ Jun 1 2007, 07:11 PM) [snapback]453640[/snapback]</div> Yes it's been thought of. Issues are 1)Cost--if you get one salvaged it wouldn't be too bad though. 2)Again the charger itself...how are you going to charge something of that voltage? You'd have to build or design your own charger. 3)Safety...how do you safely install and secure this thing?, 4) Life---if you're routinely charging to a high level and discharging you could shorten the life significantly. 5)Even with all that, doubling the range is still only getting you about 3 miles on electric only at speeds under 34mph (in EV mode).
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Jun 1 2007, 08:18 PM) [snapback]453645[/snapback]</div> Actually I wasn't thinking of plugging in (would be nice though), just a bigger capacity. In my case, I have a lot of hills and frequently get a green or "double" green battery charge and use the extra charge to travel on the flat areas. The extra capacity would be great. My thought is this. Bolt in the extra battery permanently. Thus no carging/highvoltage/safety issues after installation. Has anyone actually tried this?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bestmapman @ Jun 1 2007, 08:20 PM) [snapback]453687[/snapback]</div> Oh, I see. Yes, that's been done with some success: http://privatenrg.com/PriusBattery.htm#2004Ah%20work
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Jun 1 2007, 10:05 PM) [snapback]453712[/snapback]</div> Good link, Thanks
