Wednesday morning I left without checking the lamps, knowing the switch was on.
Fair weather, slow drafting and a mild tailwind made that I got very good fuel economy, but it did regenerate after acceleration and could not sustain EV mode for long.
And sure enough, the lamps were stone cold upon arriving at work.
The connection failed again.
Going home I rechecked and retightened the connectors and the lamps lit up again.
I had my volt meter in the car, it read 118.1 Volt for my pack confirming it had indeed used just about nothing.
On my drive home I got some more support than usual, but still not much. Suffering from a strong side wind the economy was reasonable at best.
At home, the lights were off and felt like the lukiest of lukewarm. The volt meter gave 117.9, switch on or off; so apparently the chain was broken again.
This morning I found that the only connector that wasn't very tight was on the thick red wire from my top battery.
Instead of just squeezing it flat like before I bent it more narrow.
It gripped the lamp connector very firmly indeed, almost cutting into the metal.
The lamps lit up yellowy.
Going against the wind and rain, I had a meagre start yet came up at almost the same economy as yesterday's morning commute - even though I missed out on the best drafting opportunities and ended up following relatively fast trucks.
At work the lamps burned a low orange.
Going home, the same. Very good economy for the weather: 3.5 l/100 km, edging 3.4!
I had a partial tail wind, but also a traffic jam and wet road. 3.5 l/100 km is dry summer territory!
At home the lamps were barely glowing.
I monitored the voltage while the key was in and the lamps glowing. It showed 114,1 Volt.
Flipped the switch, the buddy pack voltage jumped to 115.5 Volt and slowly built up to a resting voltage of 115.9.
So today saw a noticeable drop in the voltage, right around the SOC where the voltage remains at its stablest. It must have taken some current.
Indeed the fact that my pack jumped over 1 volt on releasing it from the IMA pack and lamps suggests that it drew more than 2 Ampere even as the lamps were glowing that low, assuming a buddy pack internal resistance of 0.5 Ohm.
I bet it has spent over half its charge now.
I can only tell by checking how much time it would need to be charged to full again.
Now that my buddy pack voltage has dropped below 117 Volt I think it is safe to hook it up with the IMA system without the lamps in series.
This should really do something as the lamps were in fact restricting the current a lot.
We'll see. Tomorrow.
In other news, one of my colleagues has bought a
Prius of the third gen.
He was looking to replace his diesel estate at the end of his company lease contract so I let him have a spin in my Insight, and he liked it a lot.
He also had an electric Renault Zoe as a courtesy car when his diesel Laguna was in for service, and showed it off to us. That really made him want electric.
In the end he could not afford the Zoe and settled for either a Toyota Auris Hybrid or a Ford Focus, after test driving some Insights and not liking them half as much as mine.
But when push came to shove he did drive that Prius on a whim and was amazed about how good it was, so he bought it! It was delivered this afternoon.
So tomorrow I'm sure our traditional lunch break walk through the park will not take place
