As Jimbo said, just leave the car in 'ready.' If you can find a 12V fan to plug directly into the car's 12V socket it will be very efficient; or, you could just use the car's ventilation system. The only problem with either of these approaches is that the car's electronics have been turned on, which IIRC is about a 200 watt load. That is a lot of overhead for fan that is probably drawing all of 20 watts. If we figure up to 220 watts total for 6 hours each sleep session, that uses about one gallon of petrol every 7 nights. Perhaps a fan with it's own rechargeable battery is a better approach. You will recoup the cost of the fan in about 4 months of use.
I'm rather late with this reply, but I think SageBrush is right on track. I haven't had occasion to sleep in our Prius, but if I did, I'd use the fan we take on vacation with us: the $30 Ryobi One+, which uses the same rechargeable battery as all of their other cordless power tools. Ryobi One+ Portable Fan-P3310 at The Home Depot I originally bought this to cool down our telescope (and us) while out in the middle of nowhere, and have been very pleased with its ability to keep a nice breeze going for six hours or more on the older NiCad battery. I imagine it would run practically forever on the newer Li-Ion. The fan will take either. If you need to recharge your Ryobi batteries while on the road, there's this: Ryobi 18-Volt One+ In-Vehicle Charger-P131 at The Home Depot Hope this helps.
Update 199200 As far as battery life goes, for the past 5 days or so I have been using the car ready mode with my 12v 1.2 amp. 14 watt fan all is well. How long will the batteries life span be, or should I invest in a rechargable battery pack. Thanks again.
So awesome. Has Toyota reached out to you in anyway? Whether to get data from your car or just reward you in some way I would be surprised if they weren't following your story.
What you describe shouldn't have an impact on battery life at all. The 12V isn't feeling it because the HV battery is keeping it at full charge while you're in ready mode. The HV battery should be ok because the ICE is kicking in and bringing it back up as necessary. Some call this the Hotel Prius mode.
Can someone tell 2fas4u to stop writing in this thread, please? He has missed the signals "saying" 200k thread open LOL
It is. You only have 25k miles more to go until your traction battery DIES AND YOU HAVE TO PAY SEVEN GRAND !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know this, because I read it on the internet.
Posted the pic over at the 200k club. His lifetime average is 45.3 MPG. Much better than the EPA rated 40 MPG. Prius v: 200,000 miles club | PriusChat
Ahhh, memories. Thanks for the updates 2 fas 4 u. I used to be a medical courier and drove 350 miles a day or about 75k miles a year. I remember changing my oil every month at 7500 miles. I remember driving on a set of tires 90k miles before replacement. I remember wishing my Corolla would die so I could buy a Prius with yellow stickers. Actually, not really. I couldn't afford a new car. I was praying my Corolla would last. And it did, my aunt is still driving it. There was urine, blood, and even feces samples in my back seat. One time, one of the nurses handed me vomit in a plastic bottle. No idea what they could be testing for. Actually those were terrible days, why am I thinking back on it?
I got a laugh when I read this comment. The really funny thing about this is that when anyone searches battery and Prius, this comment is going to come up and become gospel; if it hasn't already.
With him doing nothing but highway mileage, I'm curious if there's not a more efficient vehicle (not counting motorcycles) than the Prius out there. The Cruze Diesel for example, gets 46mpg, and it's a big heavy car. What about other AVAILABLE cars? I've heard the original Honda Insight is very efficient highway driving. Just wonderin. Actually, what about flying on a jet? I guess the hazardous cargo would rule that out.