Congrats on joining the Prius gang! I’ve been in mine for almost 3 years! 🤯🤯🤯 A bunch of people told me about y’all getting a prius in my video comments! So had to say hi! PS. Someone said it below but I came to comment cause I wish someone gave me some tips when I first got started (I didn’t see any other prius RU-vid’s hahaha) but you 100% want to make things as easy as possible for you! Aka taking our fridge and power every meal will most likely make you NUTS (I did a yeti cooler for 1+ years and just taking it out every few days made me insane haha) ! I recommend extension cords if you make the table on the back (not that you asked but hey! Haha) :-). The less the process the more sustainable it is to full time. Cause let’s be real EVERYTHING will be a process! Good luck! I did 3 months in my prius with my mom and it was challenging but fun!!!!
Plugging in a long corded power strip to the EcoFlow and locating the power strip at the right rear might be an easy way to have power outlets near your kitchen without moving the EcoFlow. BTW, I love my EcoFlow Delta Mini in my Prius camper. You can adjust the 12V charging amps in the app if you want a 12V splitter with USB ports up front for more easily charging your phones and stuff (along with charging the EcoFlow) while you drive.
Woaaaah! Thanks for the comment Nikki! You've been our Prius life guru along the way so thanks for the feedback. We're going to do some test nights soon to see what works best but yeah that extension cord is happening. 😂🙏🏻
@@LeahandLevi Awww 🥰🥰🥰 cannot wait to hear how it goes! Feel free to reach out if you have questions! I made ALLLLL the mistakes, but I guess that’s also the fun part! 😂😂😂
I'm excited for this build, one thing I thought of when you got the fridge out when you were going to cook is that knowing myself I'd get very lazy and not take the fridge out every time especially when it's full as that'll be heavy. Also maybe get an extension lead for the hob so you don't have to take the battery out every time too. I just feel like after a long day of travel when you're at a parking spot you will not want to get everything out to cook as it's a faff. I look forward to this though and I hope Leah's family are all alright and in good health!
Couldn't agree more! The moment I saw him lift the battery and fridge out, I thought, "Nope. No way they're doing that every time. That will drive them nuts in about two or three days." Definitely leave the battery and fridge fixed in place and run extension cords to the rear for cooking. Make life easier for yourself!
There some energy-saving advice comes with the user manual of my induction hob: 1.always use the correct lid for each pan. 2.use pans with flat bases. Bases that are not flat use a lot more energy. 3.the diameter of the pan base must match the size of the hot plate. 4.use a smaller pan for smaller amount of food. 5.use little water when cooking. This saves energy and preserves all vitamins and minerals in vegetables. 6.select the lowest power level to maintain cooking. If the power level is too high, energy is wasted. (My practice is using high power like 8 out of 10 to cook initially. Once it’s boiling, lowering down the power level to 6 or as low as 4.5 depends on the ingredients). 7.(this one is my personal experience) switch off the power 1 minute earlier and let the lid on for 3 to minutes more. You may have the same result.
Love this! We have learned that the way we cook at home is going to be very different than how we cook on the road that's for sure. These are awesome tips so thank you for that!
For food that I cook in boiling water (pasta,rice,quinoa….) I bring it to a boil, drop the food in and then turn off the heat. If it need a while to cook like brown rice I will I might keep the heat on simmer for a few minutes. Or put the pot in and insulated cozy. That way the food have continue to cook without energy consumption (and is still hot or warm by the time you eat it) and use that time to cook the rest of the meal. So for your dish I would bring pasta to boil then take off the stove. Then cook the veggies and heat up sauce while the pasta soaks. Love this method of cooking rice because the rice never gets stuck to the bottom of the pot even if I get distracted and it sits covered or unstirred for a few minutes past when you usually would do those steps👍🏻 Also induction is great👍🏻 heats up/boils water so fast. Great for impatient/lazy cooks like me 😆 Or you can cold soak pasta
The cold soak is something I think well try to incorporate. I've never used that method before (because cooking inside it's easier not to) but I think we'll learn a lot of good tips along the way!
Love the set up and hope you make meal prep and recipe videos for the journey. Cooking changes so much when your on the road and having most of the staples sorted out before hand can be a life saver. Also, while on the road getting to know local ingredients and food you cook and recipes you get to bring back home will be nice. Lots of love for Leah during this hard time ❤️
I noticed that about 9:55 you said "These headrests don't actually remove". However Prius headrests do remove, but you first must press/hold in sideways, a button built into one side of the plastic fitting, where the metal poles of the headrests insert. Probably not a big issue since you are planning on removing the rear seats anyways.
In case this is helpful; you can save yourself a lot of money (and potentially buy second hand) cooking pots for induction stoves if you don’t buy ones that are marketed as “induction” but instead just take a (fridge) magnet out with you when shopping and if the magnet sticks to the pan, the pan will work on the induction hob. I found this out via an online tip and it saved us a lot on our camping cook set up.
Back head rest can be remove, you just have to press both side at same time. I have same problem with my Prius prime 2019, and able to remove it today.
Even though I have no intentions of doing this, I am so oddly investing in this Prius conversion and your upcoming trip in it. I’m also glad you’re showing how essential test runs are for something of this magnitude. You need to make sure you will be able to relatively comfortably live in the car for an extended period of time! As someone who recently was in a position where I put my life on pause to help out my family for several months, I’m sending my best to Leah ♥️ Family and time with loved ones is so precious and so easily taken for granted.
I'm really enjoying these videos and I'm excited to see all about your adventures. Leah, I hope your family is alright. The "cherish your loved ones" scene was very touching.
Hold on, just because you ‘won’t cook that pasta dish as quickly’ or ‘cook with only one cooktop’ doesn’t mean it will take less energy, unless you mean you are undercooking ingredients. You’d have to cook the vegetables IN the pasta or NOT cook the vegetables at all.
The amount of output has an impact on how much energy is used it seems? Because it’s quite heavy on the system to do those larger outputs? We’ve tried it again since and had lower consumption but we’re still learning!
See it like driving a car. If you go with 200kmh then you will arrive at your destination quickly, but you'll also burn through a lot of fuel. Whereas if you drive at 80kmh you'll arrive a lot later but you'll also save a lot of fuel. I don't know the specifics when it comes to these stove things, but it could be possible that it is less efficient when you cook something quickly :)
There some energy-saving advice comes with the user manual of my induction hob: 1.always use the correct lid for each pan. 2.use pans with flat bases. Bases that are not flat use a lot more energy. 3.the diameter of the pan base must match the size of the hot plate. 4.use a smaller pan for smaller amount of food. 5.use little water when cooking. This saves energy and preserves all vitamins and minerals in vegetables. 6.select the lowest power level to maintain cooking. If the power level is too high, energy is wasted. (My practice is using high power like 8 out of 10 to cook initially. Once it’s boiling, lowering down the power level to 6 or as low as 4.5 depends on the ingredients). 7.(this one is my personal experience) switch off the power 1 minute earlier and let the lid on for 3 to minutes more. You may have the same result.
Coleman single burner gasoline stove; one like Coleman 533(If you can find one) is the ultimate cooking solution. I know it burns a little gasoline, but trust me you need fire for outdoor cooking!
I'm excited to see this build progress. If I were you I'd still take both if you can in case one breaks or fails. My condolences and love to Leah and her family at this time. ❤❤
Man I'm so excited to follow along on this! I saw Leah earlier this week and was so nervous to say hi, as I never want to intrude. Definitely spent a while debating if it was Leah or not as I live in Winnipeg and wasn't sure if she could be here haha. But I did say hi, it was her and she was absolutely lovely. I hope you enjoyed the beer! I'm sorry to hear you were in Winnipeg for that reason. Sending much love and hugs 💙 Edit - wording and spelling.
For a bit of perspective on your battery bank and charging set up. You used about 700 watt hours to cook your meal (35% of 2000wh battery capacity). With a charge rate of 117 watts when pluggin into your car, it will take about 6 hours to recharge the power you used to cook your meal (700wh/117wh).
This is the math I was too lazy to do! Haha after trialing it a few more times with one burner it’s definitely less energy intensive to use one and keep the wattage lower. 👍🏼
Wow looks like a great set up! Just one thing to keep in mind I have a 12 V compressor refrigerator for my Prius, and I have a external USB fan blowing into the condenser area, helps keep the air flowing, especially when it gets hot in the car. Looking forward to seeing more about your build.❤️
Is there a particular reason you went with induction cook tops for this rig? The excessive power draw they use while only having one power source between cooking and refrigeration could lead to some issues down the road. Perhaps a second hand propane stove with refillable containers might have been considered? Either way, excited to see how you guys fare on this next journey.
Not sure if you'd considered this already, but what about dehydrating some of your favourite meals to take along? I know that is a popular solution with backpackers. Might be nice to have for days when you're both really tired...you can just add water and you have a meal.
@@LeahandLevi neither did we until we moved into the van! it definitely took some getting used to, but the power and water saving really made it worth it.
When sizing for power draw, the Amps (A) are really all that matter, if your cooktops don’t list how many amps they need, but it does have watts (W) listed, it’s an easy conversion, Watts/Volts (it’s probably 110-120V)= Amps. The battery bank should be rated for so many Amp hours (Ah), that just adds time (t) and a second easy bit of multiplication. If you find that the the cooktop uses 100 amps, and you’re cooking with it for 30 minutes, you need to multiply that by .5 (since it’s half of an hour), and that means the cooktop is pulling out 50Ah from the battery.
The EcoFlow's batteries are rated in Watt-hours. The Max comes in a 1600Wh and a 2000Wh version. Since Levi ran two induction cook tops at once (and got the unit for free), I'm guessing he has the 2000Wh version--which comes with a larger inverter (2400W). Mulitplying the watts they are using on the display by the expected time of use should give them a good estimate of whether they have enough power or not for what they want to do. The EcoFlow's display is quite informative and accurate, including a time-remaining estimate for the current power draw.
My sincerest condolences to Leah and her family. Good luck with the next step of the journey! Also, hope you guys figure out a good air circulating setup for the fridge & battery in your car. 👍🏻
Sending love to Leah and her family! Also, have you guys considered using an Instant Pot? I imagine one would work well with the power bank. Also, have you thought about what you will do in terms of washing dishes?
Having lived full time on the road I would suggest 4 times the amount of energy you think you will need and twice the time calculated to charge. We learned the hard way a few times what it is like to run out of power and just how much you actually need to live and work daily. Good luck cannot wait to see where you go!!
Similar setup - same fridge, different bank, different single cooktop. I also use one of those hand coil heaters to quick boil water for instant rice / oatmeal / coffee for those bad weather days when you don’t wanna drag everything out of the car. 😅 lifesaver
Sorry to hear about Leah's emergency. I hope she has the best possible visit to Winnipeg given the circumstances. You guys could consider bringing water to boil in an electric kettle.
Put a bamboo "table" on the top of the plastic box and leave it there. And, yes, I agree with Nikki Delventhal, put some extension cords so you don't have to move everything eveysinglefreackingtime! haha!
As I watched your video I realized that there are some advantages in vegan cooking in terms of storage and cooking time. And you could tune your recipes to reduce the cooking time/ energy: for example couscous instead of pasta 🤔 all the best for Leah’s family 🍀
Thanks Ola! Also a benefit of vegan eating... refrigeration and cooking! No need to keep all your meat and cheese from going bad and no need to cook them all the way through to prevent getting sick!
In a later episode you mention in passing that you were not happy with the swing out hitch, but you never went into any detail on it. At least that I found. Could you share your experience with it and why it wasn't the right solution for you? Thanks!
I'm so excited for you guys! I was just wondering how you managed to get an Iceco fridge in Canada? I'm in Manitoba and I can't seem to get them to ship to where I am!
Can you remove the seat portion of the back seats to give you more room? Also do you have free space to the fridge and battery vents? If not, they will get hotter and be hard on the equipment. Do you have an idea of how to handle cooking in the rain (keep the battery pack off the ground and rain and the plug out of the rain). When you’re cooking you can just unplug the fridge until you put the battery back inside. I figure the hour that the fridge is unplugged will be no big deal. It will only be marginally warmer and nothing should spoil.
Yeah we're honestly planning to eat food that doesn't require cooking on rainy days haha. Also the seats are getting removed to create a deck + storage 👍🏻
why don't you try building a box to hold your cooking utensils under the fridge! since you'll be taking it out anyway to cook, they'll be accessible exactly when you need them to be!! the pan might even fit!
Is the Prius a hybrid and does it charge it's internal battery off of regenerative braking? How does charging the eco battery off the car effect it's mileage?
Yeah it’s a hybrid which means that it has a small battery bank that powers the car at low speeds and while stationary. This helps with gas mileage a bunch in the city but the car is also just a great car for fuel efficiency in general 👍🏼
Yeah. Hybrid with regen braking. Recharging that EcoFlow battery will hardly affect the Prius at all. A full charge on that battery is 2000Wh (2kWh), which will probably last them 2-5 days. The Prius's traction battery is 1.3kWh and is recharged many times over a normal course of a gallon of gas. A much bigger factor that impacts gas mileage when living (sleeping) in the car is whether you need to run the a/c or heater all night long. That will typically take about 0.8gallons (3 liters) of gas per night, depending on outside temperatures, as the car periodically starts to run recharge the battery that the a/c is running from, or to reheat the engine coolant that the heater is drawing its heat from.
Please explain if I’ve misunderstood. You’re trying to use less fossil fuels by charging your devices from a vehicle that is powered fossil fuels? Maybe a butane stove would be more effective instead of electric?
@@LeahandLevi It should provide more than enough power for the two of you. I use the 880Wh Delta Mini and hardly put a dent in it. Granted, I use a microwave instead of an induction cooktop, and it's just me when I camp in the Prius. But even if you cook like this (35% of the battery) every day (which you indicated was probably the max), you won't use much more for the fridge (probably less than 10% per day for that fridge), and maybe another 10% for charging phones, laptops, cameras, etc. You're probably not going to use more than 1200Wh per day. 10 hours of the car being on (in READY mode whether stopped or driving), and you'll replace that every day. If you sleep with the car in READY mode (a good idea if you want a/c, heater, or just the fan for ventilation on), that would probably keep up even if you weren't driving during the day. Seems like the Delta Max should give you a buffer, too, so if you start getting behind, you could just leave the car in READY mode while you do a 4 hour hike one day.
Hey Guys, Great video, I just discovered your channel & it is VERY timely! I've owned 2 Prius in 12 years and getting her ready for an extended road trip. My Amazon cart has things I think I "need" including a 12v fridge, power station, portable solar panel, tent, headlamp, etc... Random question @0:7:36 is that a vagina on your shelf?
You guys are going to use that incessantly for about two months, then, you’ll tired of the bugs and hot weather and get Chipotle and Taco Bell almost every day.
