After much consideration, I have ordered a new car to replace the 2007 Toyota Sienna. For years I did not wish to further pollute the earth to manufacture a new auto -- burn coal to make steel, ship parts all over the world, dig ores with diesel machinery, pump petroleum to make plastics -- you name it. All that manufacturing effort contributes to the climate crisis we are trying to reduce.
But, while working on the idea of electrifying our house -- mostly replacing the gas furnace -- I realized that the furnace operates mostly early morning in winter before the sun is up and in the evening in winter after the sun sets. So solar panels will not directly help! I need to store energy for winter nights.
So I considered an Electric Vehicle (EV). But EVs take a long time to charge and there are no EVs with swappable batteries yet. And I don't need to carry around an extra 1,000 pounds or so of battery for the trips around town that are most of my driving. In addition, an EV will not pay motor fuel tax, so there will be no money to repair our ailing roads.
What of a plug-in hybrid? The amount of electric storage I need is about 15 kWh (kilo Watt hours). I estimate this based on overnight natural gas (methane) use for my furnace and also check the amount of time my 80,000 BTU furnace runs in the morning. A plug-in hybrid has about this size battery and will drive for 30 miles on battery alone.
Totota has made plug-in hybrids for several years. They call it the Prius Prime. For 2023 they have a new generation of electric system with more powerful, lighter batteries. So I enquired about buying one in February, after reading a review in Car and Driver magazine. Not available yet. But I asked. The nearest dealer finally ordered one for me in April, but no telling when it will be assembled, shipped from Japan, and delivered to Santa Fe.
I put a deposit in April. In December the dealer said that his sales manager told him they would not get any Prius Prime. So the salesman found the vehicle I'm looking for at another dealer 250 miles away, but the same model and color. It is on the ship, should be unloaded this weekend, and may get to Montrose Colorado in a few weeks. Of course the model year would be 2024, but there is no change.
That is not the whole story. In order to use the power from the car battery I will need an inverter. I already have a small (500 Watt) inverter, and it worked well for my CPAP machine when camping. But that is too small to run a heat pump, which needs 15 Amps at 240 Volts. I found a company Plug Out Power that makes inverters particularly for Toytota and Lexus hybrids. They will need to test it on the new model, but I'm sure it will work.
The Prime (plug-in Prius) costs about $4,000 more than the simple hybrid Prius, but it comes with a 13 kWh battery, of which about 11 kWh is useable (before it wants to be charged). My house consumes 10 kWh/day mid-winter. A separate battery for the house with this capacity would cost about $8,000 to $10,000, depending on make.
I could install a Level 2 charger near the power panel, where I originally installed a 30 Amp outlet for this purpose. However, 40 Amp chargers are more common. I can change out the 30 Amp circuit breaker and the 30 Amp outlet for 40 Amps. How? the distance between breaker and outlet is less than 10'. The voltage drop through #10 copper wire is about 1 Ohm per 1000', or 0.01 Ohm per 10'. E=iR, or the voltage drop E with i=40 Amp and R= 0.01 = 0.4 Volts (negligible). Would not be legal, but would be plenty safe.
Probably the Level 1 charger that comes with the car will suffice, as I have all day (most days) to charge the traction battery. I see somewhere that the electronics in that charger are universal (90-250 Volt, 50-60 Hz), so I could change the plug and it would charge the car at twice the speed (in half the time). We'll see.
See Prius Experience