I am currently waiting on my new Prius to arrive via a dealer transfer and am considering having seat heaters installed by the dealer before delivery. Before committing to anything I want to be sure that there are minimal impacts to overall performance. I can deal with a loss of 1-2 mpg during the time they are being used but do not want to cause bigger problems. The salesman actually discouraged it saying "there must be a reason Toyota does not offer them". I have searched the forums and not found any specific numbers related to mileage or battery usage. Can someone with seat heaters share their experiences? Thanks all in advance, I have learned much already from these forums.
The small 12V battery might be the reason. However, there are several PCers here that have heated seats and had no issues. I would just avoid running the seat heaters when the car is not on (i.e not in READY mode) just to make sure the 12V battery stays charged.
Anything that comsumes power will drop the mileage, the question is will you notice? Seat heaters consume around 4 A each seat and are usually switched separatly. They usually also have two settings, low and high. 4A at 12V is 48 W. If you had both on high that's almost 100 W. One HP is about 750 W. So you're "wasting" about 1/7 HP. I don't think you would be able to measure the FE hit. Toyota didn't include them because -most- owners hardly ever use them, and they do cost money. I'm going to install them in my car, and I may also install leather. But I live in the "great white north". Any installer worthy of working, will wire them through a relay, and the relay will only be activated when the car is "on" - I will probably use the console power plug to activate the relay.
David: I'm about to get an '08 Prius. I installed seat heaters in my (about to be traded) '07 Civic Hybrid years ago and have already purchased two heated seat kits for my new Prius. Did you go ahead with your install (really saves the ICE heat for the ICE and my life really likes them)? If so, any tips? I've ordered a shop manual (Bentley's) and am hoping it has sufficient detail to R&R the seats, seat tear down, SRS protocols, etc. Thanks Cheers Mike
You could argue that 2 seats consume 100watts but save 2000watts being put out by the heater, a good reason to have a heated steering wheel.
