As our days in the Pacific Northwest get cooler (say am temperatures in the high 40s-mid 50s), I'm noticing that the vents are pushing out at least lukewarm air within about 2 minutes of startup. I've never seen that happen in a previous car (all regular engine). I know that the Prius (2007) has a thermos for coolant, but surely overnight the coolant would be at ambient temperature by the morning! How does it do that?
Hi Camner, There are two electric heaters in the dash. These are postive temperature coeficient ceramic heaters, like you see in those small foot warmer electric heaters.
Also, warm coolant is pumped from the thermos into the cooling system which results is a faster warmup of the ICE.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(camner @ Sep 29 2007, 11:41 AM) [snapback]519123[/snapback]</div> Coolant Heat Storage: A thermos-type container stores three liters of coolant at close to boiling temperature for up to three days. [It's on the internet, it must be true]
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jeneric @ Sep 29 2007, 01:10 PM) [snapback]519151[/snapback]</div> Up to 3 days, eh? Hard to believe! The in-dash ceramic heater explanation makes more sense to me, but either way, I'll take the faster warmup! Thanks for the replies.
I see 50C coolant after one overnight "rest" when the car is started up. After two days of no use the coolant is around 30C. It's around 15C in my garage. The coolant runs between 80 and 90C once fully warmed up. I'm sure the two electric heaters play some part as well.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(David Beale @ Sep 29 2007, 03:04 PM) [snapback]519193[/snapback]</div> awesome.. for those that are not familiar with C to F calculations, that's 175F to 195F while running. 122 after a overnight "rest" (whatever that means...) and 86 degrees after two days of no use. that's pretty good. I'm surprised. Thanks for Sharing David
