New Prius owner - 2 questions

Dec 02, 2006 21 Replies

Thanks for posting that, Bill. I've wondered (vaguely, I admit) how to make that work. Toyota should add another button to the display, whose effect would be to (a) save current settings, (b) impose the required settings for vented non-A/C'd air, then (c) when pressed again restores the saved settings.

Don't thinkl so, unless the petrol engine is too cold. Most of it ought to be done by waste heat. I've not tried what happens if one just gets into a cold Prius and switches on cabin heat. But the car does seem to warm quite quickly, so maybe it has an electrical heater in there, somewhere. Possibly the electrical parts (motor and switchgear) produce useful heat?

I'll try the cold-start experiment, if my wife ever lets me drive the Prius. My truck takes several minutes to have any heat at all.

The priuschat.com website has a members-only article on fuel economy saying "there is significant [negative] impact on mileage with A/C use" but they make no such statement about heating.

The hybridcars.com website says the Prius is 20% less efficient with AC, but this is also true of all or most non-hybrid vehicles. The article also says "Using heat in the hybrids didn't have a significant impact at all. The compressor is not running, and the car uses heat from engine to warm the cabin."

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