2nd Gen Prius PHEV Conversion (Enginer plug-in lithium ion battery kit)

[GeneralAnarchy]

Originally Posted by kaval

Where exactly did you get your high temperature cord from?

We have a store called Fleet Farm. You can look for "woods power caddy".
Amazon.com: Woods 2801 Power Caddy Plus Extension Cord Reel
The one I got in the store said 105C on the cord. It's only 16ga. That calculates to only 1.5V drop over the 22ft I needed (so ~12watts "lost" to heating my garage). Then I feed it with a 10ft 14ga cord in my garage. If you go this route, be careful along the door channel. The cord doesn't fit in the wire harness holder, its too tight. I ran outside the holders. It looks easy to accidently pierce the cable on the Prius' metal clips when punching down the trim.

[GeneralAnarchy]

Originally Posted by ericbecky

After a drive you can check the LEDs on the left side of the converter and confirm whether they coincide with the LEDs on the dash switch.

You can watch your stock Prius voltage via a scangauge. The Enginer system bases how many amps to put in based on the stock pack voltage (as opposed to SOC). as the stock pack voltage increases, the Enginer system ramps down the amps it is putting into the stock pack.

Yeah the green LED never turned off either. I would have thought green turns off when red turns on.

My scangauge says stock pack goes up to around 240 most of the time, and Enginer seems rather reluctant to move it past 241 or so. The Enginer converter, when switched on while unplugged from the stock pack, reads 255V but I don't know what that reading means. There is no load, so maybe it is transient and maybe it really is working right.

[GeneralAnarchy]

The red light started working now, although the green LED stays on. It happens usually at around 60 to 80 miles of mixed city/highway. The system suddenly appears to be working at higher amps now. It's possibly because outside temp has warmed up to almost freezing, or possibly the batteries are getting balanced and exercised. I've used this 4kWh kit for about 500 miles in the last few days, and it's using up between 4.0 and 4.5kW overnight.

I regret not putting EV on a separate switch because the "Cannot enter EV mode now" message and the beeping are a little disturbing when switching on the system.

Now that ICE shuts off more often I am becoming more aware than ever what conditions help, even such things as running the heater on recirculate seems to make a difference.

[ericbecky]

If you watch the current (amps) you can see how much the heater and fan use. Anything you can do to decrease this overhead makes it easier for the Enginer system refill the stock pack.

[GeneralAnarchy]

Still making progress. I started to deplete the pack in shorter distances by sometimes turning off the heat while driving through lower speed limit areas to coax ICE to shut off. Around 0F the Prius really seems to keep the battery topped off while the heater is on.

To aid charging I wrapped an electric blanket over the Enginer case last night but it did not help much. BMS registered a 5C boost and did not seem worth the hassle. It seems like lawyers have made Sunbeam into wimps. The new blankets are overpriced junk and do not heat up like the old blankets did years ago. They have a pretty glowing dial and LCD display to give the user a sensation of heat, but the Enginer box does not seem to experience this placebo effect.

[GeneralAnarchy]

I'm starting to really dig the 4kWh kit now that temperature is warmer. EV mode is much more reliable now that I have full grille block and run defrost only as absolutely needed. By the way, I notice defrost will start the ICE but mixed defrost (floor + defrost) will leave EV going. In this warmer 30F weather I have started hearing the Enginer converter fan running and I wonder how much heat is dissipated. Do you guys leave the floor open to get heat into the cabin? If I run a sump pump hose at the PHEV exhaust port up to the front seats to get the exhaust heat into the cabin, are there any bad electrical smells or maybe it's insignificant temperature boost?

[tecrench]

So how is the mileage on these now? and how happy are all with the cheaper kits?? I had a 07 Prius but a drunk rearranged the front end for me was getting 47 -52 mpg tanks with a few in the 43- 45 in the worst of winter. (Tires on 48psi, grill block) Thinking of getting another Prius or maybe a Matrix to try. I was considering a kit before the wreck. TYIA

[GeneralAnarchy]

Originally Posted by tecrench

So how is the mileage on these now? and how happy are all with the cheaper kits??

Sorry to hear about your car.

I only have experience with the kit for a few weeks, and so far I get about 42 without the kit and 62 mpg with. Yesterday I just got red triangle error driving 55 mph, and the Toyota hybrid system shutdown or went into some kind of safe mode. The Prius is not a great car when the NiMH pack shuts off and leaves the gas engine to fend for itself. It revs at 3500 RPM just to go 35mph. I got it reset with my scangauge and it's OK now. Other than that problem, which I admit I was not really prepared for, it's a good system.

[quigzsolar]

I went with the Honda Insight, but I know you Prius owners can benefit from these ideas. I am adding solar panels to my Insight, to save even more money in gas.

For anyone interested, you can check out my progress here:
quigzsolarideas.blogspot.com

[epa5epa]

My 2008 prius II (partial grill block) was installed with enginer 4kwh by myself for 3m. The mileage is varied from 1.0L/100km ( pure city drive <50km/hr, 11degC), 1.9L/100km(1/3 city drive, 2/3 rural drive<70km/hr, 18degC) to 2.9L/km (1/10 city+rual drive, 9/10 highway drive<110km/hr, 20degC)
the pic: PHEV winter experience in TW
My average mileage without eninger was 4.3L/100km before.

I order a 264W roof solar panels from PVCOOL today.
The delivery time is 20-30days

I will share the possible improvement of my PHEV mileage in the future.