How tough is this for my Prius ? AC ?

Why would it be tough for the engine to idle occasionally? Seems like pretty easy work for the car to me.

 

no worries. other than potentially shorter battery lives in warm climes, it will be fine.

 

You're using more fuel than usual to keep up with extra cooling.

And that's it.

Heck, the battery loves breathing air conditioned air while you cart it around. That's easier to take than being parked in the heat.

 

A Prius will interrupt A/C if the gas engine is approaching overheat.

Nearly all auto air conditioners have their condensers way out front, first in line to dump heat into the incoming air. The radiator gets sloppy seconds- air that has already been heated by the air conditioner. If the air conditioning is shut down, the radiator gets a shot of colder air so the engine can be kept cooler.

Pretty much any car or light truck new enough to come with factory air and fuel injection includes a thing that kills the air to save the engine.

You might check on the fan/radiator performance of your truck...

 

I wouldn't worry about it as it's almost always over that temperature here during the day time in summer .

To attempt to make the battery happy I keep the AC blowing in rear vents under the seats and make sure the driver only button is disabled as with it ON it won't send any air to those vents.

I also make sure the cabin air filter is clean and change it regularly due the frequent dust we get here .

 

That's only 37°C - I've had a little hotter than that here, and with humidity more like 70-80%. PRIUS handles it fine - as do most new cars. Out west, I had LandCruisers in 43°C, but lower humidity, they just took it in their stride - I wasn't there when it got hotter, but the locals said it was fine - just took longer and longer to cool them down.

Always tried to find shade to park in if possible - not always though.

 

No, cars don't care about humidity. Nor does your greenhouse garden.

But people do - when I was out west where it was dry and hot, 30-32 degrees was relatively comfortable, even 37 wasn't too bad particularly in the shade. But go back home with 80-90%, even 25 degrees was hot. So - we work our A/Cs harder chasing a lower temperature in the humid sub-tropics.

I well remember the last day of my 6 months out west, I had to mow and trim the lawns of my rental house - and it was 38 degrees at 4:00pm. I wasn't looking forward to it, but went and did it - not raising a drop of sweat. 2 days later, I was at my home on the East Coast, 80% humidity, 28 degrees - and I was a lather of perspiration just getting the mower out and started (pull start and it was being obstinate).

 

This discussion hasn't included the icing effects of humidity on the evaporative coils.
Sacramento...no problem.

Fort Worth: Wife and daughter were idling (25-30 minutes) in the Prius, 96f, 45-50%h. They phoned me, alarmed, because the vents were blowing warm air. Once they got out on the road again, cooling resumed.