Just bought a 2016 touring Prius 3 . All my life driving gas cars I would start the car, crank the heat to the highest level and blast it until I was warm. Then I would dial it down to a more normal range. With this new (to me) car I can’t seem to do that and a lot of my driving is sitting in the car with my son waiting for the bus. When I blast the heat the car complains about efficiency. Should I ignore the car’s feelings and blast it away? It’s getting colder in New York State
Well, what is the purpose of the Prius? Heating will definitely use more fuel because in any car with an engine, the majority of the heat comes from the waste heat that is produced by the engine. The more inefficient or fuel sucking an engine (e.g. a V8), the more readily heat is available in the winter. In the Prius, the engine is one of the most thermally efficient gas car (40% which means 40% of the gas from your tank is used to power the car, and 60% is wasted as heat and other byproducts. Yes, that is the most efficient. Other cars are in the 20-30% range). The Prius has a PTC heater to back up the engine for heat. If you need the heat, go for it, just be prepared to pay for it in fuel (nothing's free!). If you have heated seats, it's more efficient to use the heated seats to warm you than to heat the entire cabin.
This caused reduced efficiency in the older cars too, but they just didn't have a way to display a complaint to you. And having lower MPG in the first place, their relative MPG loss was less noticeable. If you even looked for it at all. Though as previously mentioned, they also had much more waste heat to throw your way. If you need the heat, then you need it, so use it. The same applies to AC in summer. But maybe you can be a bit more frugal with heat than you used to be, not asking for any more than is really necessary.
Winter in the northern climates and cars with batteries in them are a challenge to put it mildly. Batteries thernal comfort zone is very similar to most peoples thermal comfort zone. ie: Try to imaging wake up with your body exposed to freezing temps and than asked to get to work right away without having a chance shake off the icicles that formed while sleeping. And the battery warms from cabin heat much slower than people in the cabin having relatively warmer air blowing directly on them. Winter sucks for MPG no matter how you look at the issue. And understanding a hybrid is a whole new game when your previous car didn't have a battery pack in it. Welcome to priuschat.
Where you park overnight do you have secure access to 120 volt AC outlet? If so: Consider getting the block heater. Toyota makes one specifically for the car. The part’s about $80 USD and install will run $200 at least. Best to plug in for at least 2 hours. If your starts are real early a timer would help. You can DIY the install; it can be a bear though. There’s some third gen install tips in my signature, might have some relevance.
The Prius HVAC in Auto will not start the blower until the engine coolant is warm enough to provide some heat. It won't blast cold air into the cabin. I've never tried manually putting the blower fan on before the coolant is warm, but why would you want to? Yes, when you run the heat in cold weather, the average MPG will drop significantly. We lose about 10 MPG when running the heat here in Colorado.
