Heater and climate control

Interesting....Id love to know why there is not one mention of this supplemental heater in the thick manual.


I forgot to mention I did try pushing the ECO button last night(putting it into normal mode) , and it did allow the fan to run faster, but did NOT start the ICE still. I only tried NORMAL mode for a few seconds though.


Dan

 

I just got back from a EV drive down to the riverwalk where i Bike. Its a perfect 15.1 miles(round trip) and I do this drive quite abit. I take a slow route so most times I make it round trip all EV.

anyway, before i took off i did a couple quick tests....

I started car at 14.1 EV range, and hit AUTO, which turned on AC and range dropped to 12.4

Then i turned off.....

Next I tried same thing but AUTO with AC OFF, same exact thing, dropped from 14.1 to 12.4

Next I hit AUTO with AC OFF, and turned TEMP UP to 80f. Same exact thing, dropped to 12.4

So the way it looks to me, the FAN itself is what drops the EV range, I know we have talked about this before and It does not look to be a bigger drop with HEAT TEMP HI. So its really only about the FAN.


Next I did a quick test on Memory. Yes the Climate control remembers its last position, which is nice....So in winter if we leave TEMP set to say 72f and AC OFF, it will save that for the next morning. Nice.


One thing i also noticed, If you turn AUTO on, AC OFF and call for HEAT(warmer then outside temp) it seems to default the VENTS to the FLOOR ONLY. So if you want face/floor, or defrost floor ect....it wont stay there, it goes to floor only in AUTO/HEAT mode.

Id love to find some more documentation from toyota about the so called HEATER.

I left my car just now with temp set to 80f and AUTO ON with AC OFF. I will go out there later tonight when its cooler and will see exactly what happens.

Dan

 

Im waiting another hour or two, its supposed to drop to low 50s......Ill let you know.


Interesting about the coolant wrapped around exhaust....ill have to take alook and see if i can see this.

Dan

 

Ok Just got back from a test....slightly cooler tonight then last night.

tonight it seems to work as I assumed it would. It does not come on right off the bat though, it took about 2 miles of driving with AUTO on 85f until finally it kicked on the ICE. Until then it just did not blow at all, or very very low.

Now, i tried a few more things.....

I shut off, then started back on EV again.....and put back down to 70f. I then slowly increased, and it seems that 76f was when it would kick on the ICE.


I also did same thing with manual mode(not AUTO) I started at 70f and when i got to 76 it kicked on, same thing.

Im not sure why last night none of this happend on a 14 mile drive, while tonight it happened within a few miles. I wonder if me trying it last night for its first time, somehow made it work tonight as it should. odd.

I did not get any sort of feel of an elec heat coming out, but who knows.

I guess winter drives are gonna be HV to get any sort of warmth, the heated seats should help some but for those cold days will surely use ICE more.

Im guessing once its much colder inside car the 76f threshold to kick on ICE tonight would be much lower.

Dan

 

Forgot to say I opened the windows this time...I think that helped get inside temps down lower. last night maybe the inside temps were just not cool enough??

Dan

 

yeah it was odd that first time i tried it on a fairly long drive, nada. But then last night all seemed to work normally as it should. I wonder if once i powered off, and then used it again the next night it may have reset something? I know I had never tried heat ever, so maybe that first time it takes a power down or somthing. who knows.

I sure hope we can just leave it OFF and use heated seats if we dont want ICE to run ever, I would like that option of dressing warm and using seats only.


on Another note, the seats dont seem to rob any EV range like the fan does. Might run off the 12v.

Dan

 

Hey guys....something I completely forgot to post from my test last night.....I thought I did but i forgot something very important.

the reason the first night my ICE did not kick on, was Im always in ECO. Last night it did not kick on until i pushed ECO again, then it was in "NORMAL mode" this is when i got the ICE to kick on.


I think in ECO the ICE will not kick on when calling for heat, except for when its MUCH COLDER outside then 59f.


Dan

 

It seemed to kick ICE on when i hit 76f only.....Now there might be a specific "difference" between actual temp and what temp is called for. But last night 76 was the magic point where ICE kicked on. Temp outside was 57f.

So if you go out to test....just be sure to turn ECO off, this seemed to be the reason i could not get ICE to fire the first night.
More testing as weather cools for sure...But it seems ECO tries to save ICE from firing for sure, which is good for not wanting ICE.

Dan