How does the A/C still blow cold air with the engine not running? I bought the rubber cargo liner mat, does it go above the carpeted cargo mat or do I remove the carpeted cargo mat..Thanks
The A/C compressor's electrically driven, and can be powered by the hybrid battery alone. I think. Not sure what you mean by "carpeted cargo mat". Is that a carpeted cargo mat overlay, or the basic, solid core carpet floor? If the latter, it stays in place.
Yes. Sitting there long enough with the A/C running, the engine will start and stop as needed to keep the battery charged. -Chap
Cargo mat: I can't help you there. A/C: Like Mendel said, it's electric and in no way attached to the internal combustion engine. When I first mentioned this to some coworkers, they simply refused to believe me. They insisted that all car A/C units are coupled to the engine; after all, that's how A/C units work. So I asked them how much gasoline they put into their home window box units. I mean, if an A/C requires a motor then certainly your home window unit is coupled to one, right? Oh, that's different, they insisted. That's electric. Bingo! With that in mind, as Chap said, the A/C is drawing power off the hybrid battery. If you're sitting still with no way for the engine or regenerative braking to recharge the battery, the A/C will draw it down. And like he said, that will cause the engine to kick on just to recharge the battery.
Ok thanks, because I slept in my car last night at work cause the crew room was too noisy and I had the car running for about 3 hours and the a/c was blowing cold. I hope that doesn't damage anything with it being idle for that long period
Tony: So I asked them how much gasoline they put into their home window box units. I mean, if an A/C requires a motor then certainly your home window unit is coupled to one, right? Oh, that's different, they insisted. That's electric. Bingo! Ya gotta love it...................
That's up to you. I take it out of our 2014 because it helps when I need to get something out of the bottom. Plus it's one less thing I have to deal with if I should need to empty the cargo bay to get the spare tire out.
Some of us have run our cars for extended periods during power outages, using an inverter to run essential house systems. I had my Prius c on for 52 hours straight after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Extended running causes no problems at all - as other in this thread have said, the engine will kick in for a couple of minutes every once in a while to keep the traction battery charge in its optimum region.
I pulled the carpeted floor mats when I put in the all weather mats. I don't have an all weather cargo mat but do have the 2006's carpet mat protecting the 2010's. I also have two plastic desk blotters and a large piece of cardboard to protect the 2006's mat. If I had a real all weather mat I'd probably pull a layer or two but not everything. I'd rather have something else get dirty than the deck.
Rather literally, it *is* attached to the internal combustion engine, right where it would be mounted on a Corolla engine, only it has an electric motor driving it instead of an engine belt, and a big orange cable running to the inverter. I was actually rather amused to see that the electric A/C and water pump are in their normal locations but with motors instead of belts. Also amusing and curious is that there is a vestigial pulley on the end of the crankshaft, but again, no belt. I'm wondering if they left it there so that it's possible for a mechanic to spin the ICE with a wrench if needed during servicing, or if they simply had no better way of plugging the hole in the front cover.
Re: cargo liner (all-weather cargo mat), it's up to you really. You can have both the cargo mat and cargo liner together or remove the cargo mat and just use the cargo liner. The cargo mat isn't available in Canada as an accessory (just the cargo liner) so I bought it from the States. I don't carry a lot of soiled or dirty items so I wanted carpet to at least protect the original carpet (which is quite thin). I can't verify this but I hope the carpet mat also helps reduce noise.
The carpet mat does muffle some noise. It is surprising how many noises come from the rear when everything is pulled out.
