Has anyone noticed the level of solar heat reduction in the Gen III over the Gen II ('07) ? Our Gen III's seems to filter the heat of direct sun through the windshield and driver/passenger side windows much better than our Gen II model V. If this is the UV glass, we'll never buy another car without this type of glass and built-in sun protection ! For the most part, what we noticed was independent of the affects of the A/C since much of it was the potential sun burn and skin temp on the tops of our thighs when the sun was beating straight down. We noticed a significant difference while driving through the 4-5 hour central valley I-5 stretch (in Calif. from SoCal to Bay Area) this year in the Gen III over last year in Gen II (and over 2 years of day to day in the Gen II in SoCal) during summer when outside temps were close to 95-100 degrees [F] on both trips. Most likely, it was probably a few degrees [F] hotter this year in the Gen III. For us at least, this was a very very pleasant surprise benefit amongst the bevy of minor refinements throughout the new Gen III.
I love this feature. I held off tinting my Prius wanting to see how well this worked. It works amazingly well, to the point that I am not going to bother tinting it. The heat reduction is the same as our other cars WITH tinting.
I think you will find that all glass blocks UV radiation. You can't get a sun tan through a glass window for example, but I believe IR passes through glass rather well or a "glass house" for plants wouldn't work. I think you may be noticing the reduction from IR (heat) from the factory tint.
Nice to see that the HSEA glass has been improved over the Gen II. Our Gen II also has better HSEA glass over our 02 Camry (which of course is much better than our 00 Corolla which had none of that technology). The heat reduction is noticeable.
I had the windows tinted and asked for 35% in the rear but after checking the existing tint, FormulaOne limited the tint to 45% to keep within NC law.
Based on RRxing's chart showing the windows have a solar heat reduction rate, would adding ceramic tint noticably improve the solar heat reduction further? I am thinking of getting ceramic but if there isn't going to be a benefit then I would just get regular tint and save money.
Thanks. Was thinking of using Llumar Stealth ATR 30. Has a 50 percent solar heat rejection. So using the hatch back window that already has a rejection of 51 percent, I'm thinking it would reject about 75%. Is my math flawed?
Same here. I would have preferred it a bit darker but its OK and I sure didn't want to have to take it off when inspection time rolls around.
kinda makes sense. I mean if you are going to present Prius, and even offer a Prius with a solar powered sunroof designed to keep it cooler, under the flag that Prius is designed to be energy efficient, then it just makes sense to use glass that aides in Prius cooling efficiency. Infact, perhaps Toyota needs to think about improving it even further AND using it as an advertising point. The thermal and heat blocking properties of the glass are for me more important than "water repellant" properties that Toyota has touted in the Prius.
But I've read recently that although it blocks UV A, it doesn't block UV B. I can't verify that though.
