What is the hourly fuel consumption for a Toyota Prius at idle?

Depends on outside temp and temp set inside Prius. If it's 25F outside and you set inside Prius at 65F I bet it's less than .25 gal/hr.

 

Source: Prius - UPS Project

A 2003 Prius:

• 0.25 gal/hr - with a 1 kW load
• 0.03 gal/hr - without a load

The source has the dates and times of the Huntsville AL tests if you want to research the temperature. At the time, I had the cabin heater on low and daylight running lights off.

Bob Wilson

 

You can also see on hunkering, where I came to about the same 0.25 gal/hr figure (test conditions in the post). Unlike Bob's result, I never measured a significantly lower consumption rate without a load; in my experience, whenever the load was met, the engine simply shut off.

-Chap

 

1. Whereabouts are you, ie: what clime?
2. Can you explain in more detail why you want to keep cabin warm for 8 hours? It just seems an odd need. Do you just want the cabin to be warm, 8 hours later? Or it actually needs to be warm throughout that 8 hour period?

 

Isn't he talking about the interior (cabin) of the Prius for camping? I think he just wants to know how much fuel he'll use overnight.

 

I'm curious about this as well, just bought my Prius and want to start camping in it soon. I've read from some sites and this forum that the Prius burns about a gallon per night...but no doubt it varies based on outside conditions and what temps you set it in. Hopefully it's more in the 1 gallon range if you're willing to bundle up more and set the cabin temps in the 40s during cold winter nights, because 2 gallons per night of fuel would make multi-day camping trips even harder if you're out in the middle of nowhere.

 

it won't damage the engine.

 

I would not recommend this unless you like to burn a lot of fuel. I don't warm up the car any longer than it takes me to get out and ( manually) close the garage door ( 30 sec)

 

Well, I guess the usual reason we buy cars is to be able to use them for stuff we want to do, and if that includes car camping in cold weather, then all you'd need to decide is whether the fuel use is reasonable for your intended purpose, which I guess the OP was trying to do. It will certainly be less than in any conventional car used for the same purpose.

Summarizing the earlier-posted on hunkering thread, you might find you get close to three days of hunkering on a full tank if you use the car's heater for heat, or more like nine days if you turn off the car's heater and use a 12 volt heated blanket to stay comfortable. That's for weather conditions as described in that thread; colder conditions --> less time on a tank.

-Chap

 

0.4L/hour is a very good number. Sorry to wake old tread up but it is important for me to know. With Lockdown, many of us rarely use the car and Toyota recommends turning the car on Ready mode for 30 minutes every 2 months. I probably will do that every month if I do not drive it to charge both HV and 12V batteries. A good charger such as Genius5 is not that cheap, about $70 and a cheap charger destroys the battery in no time.

Turning the car on for 30 minutes every 1 month is probably the best solution and guarantee good 12V and HV battery charging because all are managed by computer and sensors.

 

If your objective is just to have it on for charging purposes and you won't be in it caring about the cabin comfort, you can have it on for those 30 minutes with the climate control turned off, and that will minimize the fuel use by not spending any of the energy heating or cooling the cabin.

 

Some countries like Germany does not allow turning the car on for warming the cabin. If we do that in winter, some crazy neighbors will complain and worse report us to police. Fortunately there is TSB about maintenance of the HV battery every 2 months. However, it is only distributed free from Toyota USA.

 

Ah, so then you need something like a special green light in the window that shows the climate control is turned off. "Well, I'm not sure why he's running the car, but at least we know it's not to warm the cabin!"

 

If you're solely running your car only every 2 months, to keep the HV battery charged, time to sell it? Or is this short term, some COVID-related lock-down?

 

These figures are still useful to know for circumstances where there are no neighbors, other than fellow stranded travelers, and one is intentionally waiting for assistance from police or searchers or road clearing crews. Though this emergency use probably less common in Germany than in North America.

 

you could just go for a drive like you always did.

that's a pretty good way of keeping the battery alive, tires round brakes free of rust, oil circulating, etc

 

No, i never need to do any of that TSB, not even charging 12v. I just want to clarify for people who never drive or Prius prime who never turn the engine on, corrosion may form if the engine never runs regularly. 30 days limit for 12v and 2 months for HV is a good number.

My 2006 Prius 12V battery last 8 years and I sold it in 2017. My current 3rd gen power train 12V battery is 6 years old. It has no problem starting and never gives any CEL or warning. The interior lights and headlight automatically turn off after a few minutes even if the door is not fully closed. This automatic power off really helps the 12V battery lifespan.

 

the 12v battery in a Prius should last forever, given the super cush life it has compared to regular batteries in engine bays...

Prius battery lives in the passenger compartment, which is normally 65-75f when people are using the car.

Prius battery didn't get hit with a 100-200 amp load , in the freezing cold

prius battery doesn't sit in the heat, soaking up engine heat in traffic, etc

add in the "auto start stop" garbage that modern cars have and it's amazing they last for more than a year at a time