How to run the A/C overnight?

When I got my v in 2012, I set it on auto and a temp I like, then adjusted the air flow to blow at my feet and chest. I have not adjusted it in over 4 years.

You should not need a special setting to sleep.

 

I've slept in the Prius a few times when camping. I seem to use the same AC settings as when driving...
Temp to whatever is comfortable
I usually set to recirculate as humidity is always high in FL.
I think Auto often has the fan at 2 bars - I may drop it down to one bar to really slow down the fan.
Snooze away

I find the Prius uses around 1 gal of fuel for a overnight stay in AC - not too bad

ps: never have cracked the windows at night - mosquitoes are supposed to stay outside!

 

Ditto above. I use AUTO and let it do its thing. I also use ECO to increase the duration between engine start. The key to sleeping for me is consistency. Everything like the engine starts, I get stirred.

 

I seemed to get used to the engine starting and stopping overnight just as easily as I get used to the furnace or A/C starting and stopping at home.

A CO monitor is smart if you worry about CO. It will give you peace of mind. There's no basis for thinking cracked windows would help. If you use the fresh setting, you're already pulling air in at the front and out at the back. If you use recirc, you're flipping a coin whether that's more likely to let CO in or out. (In fact, it's not even a fair coin; assuming your Prius's body integrity, you wouldn't expect to have much in to be let out.) Anyway, this is all overthinking a risk that your CO monitor will tell you doesn't need to be overthought, as long as you're not parked in a garage or something.

Happy camping!
-Chap

 

I have never slept in the Prius or any car with the engine running. However, one thing I would think about would be to park the vehicle with the front facing the wind, to encourage the exhaust to move away from the tailpipe.

 

I just found one of my logs from when I was camping & sleeping in the Prius.
Prius engine would run for ~2 minutes, then turn off for 12-13 minutes.
So the engine was running around 2 min out of every 15 minutes, or about 10 minutes per hour.
_very_ low duty cycle!

 

They make CO monitors that only honk (somewhere around 400 ppm, if I remember right), and also CO monitors with a little ppm display on the front, that can show you much lower levels (mine, inside my house, can detect when the house across the street is having the carpets cleaned with the big truck parked out front).

That lets you get a very good idea what magnitude of risk we're talking about (with a highly efficient 4 cylinder running two minutes out of every 15, outdoors), and decide whether it's even worth spending more brainpower on.

-Chap

 

Very interesting. I wonder, would the Prime be able to keep the A/C working all night if the battery is full when "going to bed"?

 

We can only plead with you not to ruin your battery, we can't stop you. Stay in READY!

 

Camped out a ton in my Prius (mostly in the Mountains when it's cool at night), but only slept with the A/C on for a night or two.... one bit of advice, bring some earplugs to keep the sudden roar of the engine turning on from waking you up.

 

A/C won't run except in READY anyway.

You could run the blower fan if you only wanted ventilation, and that could discharge the 12 volt battery if done outside of READY.

Although it was for Gen 2, hobbit designed a blower controller to run the fan overnight at very low power for just a hint of ventilation. It would probably have to be checked against a Gen 3 wiring diagram before assuming it would work the same way.

But no worries about discharging when using the A/C, because you have to be in READY to use it.

-Chap

 

As mentioned, the A/C will not run anyway, but the Prius Prime (I assume the plugin hybrid) has an 8.8 kWh battery. That would be enough to run the A/C on quite a high setting for 8 hours and 16 hours during nighttime would not be so far fetched.

 

The noise of the ICE starting doesn't bother me. I have earplugs and even have a 5v "white noise" machine. The problem is the vibration or shudder for a brief second when the car is starting. Do other people not have that?

 

I have taken several trips in my prius and sleep in it often. Just set the temp and use the auto feature. I choose to have the fresh air as opposed to re-circulating. One time I went to bed with the AC on and was surprised in the morning it was 38 degrees. the car switched to heat mode and kept the same temp inside the car as it was when I went to sleep.
Re the shudder the car makes when starting the ICE. I set the parking brake firmly and that seems to help some. After the first or second night I stopped noticing it.

 

Why would it surprise you that the car kept its set temperature? It always switches to heating when you have the A/C on.

 

Guess I'm stupid. At least I already know I'm ugly so that wont be a surprise later.

 

Probably not. I went to a drive-in with my PiP. I think I had 5 or so miles and it ran out before the first movie was over. I didn't even use AC. I left the car in Ready mode in park. So it lasted maybe 3 hours max, there were a lot of trailers. I was pretty disappointed but assumed keeping the engine in Ready mode used a lot of electricity.

 

From my last sleeping-in-the-car experience, which was while the sun was up, I think I may pack a small fan in the future. With the sun up, despite the air conditioning, the heat radiating down at me from the roof as I lay in the back was hard to counter without running the A/C fan really high. With a small fan set up in back to move the air around me better, I would have been able to use much less excessive A/C settings.

But that's mostly an issue for trying to rest during the day.

-Chap