I've noticed since owning my '08 that my HVAC fan speed seems to be a bit less than my other 3 (domestic) vehicles. Do "American" cars typically have higher fan speeds or did Toyota put a smaller fan on these to save power? The reason why I bring this up now is I changed my A/C filter yesterday and noticed the fan would be simple to swap out assuming it was a standard size. I guess my question is this: Has anyone compared the Prius fan to other Toyota cars and if so are they close in size? I noticed my filter is the same part number as 4 or 5 other Toyota vehicles (including one Lexus). If the filter part number is the same would it be possible that the fan below it is the same size? If so could speculate a bit more that possibly there's another fan the same size that blows slightly harder in another Toyota vehicle that could be swapped in without modification? This thread is pretty much me thinking out loud... but it certainly raised the "what if" in my mind. Has anyone else considered this? I live in AZ and at high noon in the summer the Prius can barely keep up... and if you happened to park in an uncovered spot for a couple of hours during the day all bets are off getting the car cooled off, particularly for back seat passengers.
Don't know the CFM the fan is variable speed. You did not mention if you use Auto/AC or manually control the climate control. In Auto the fan speed is automatically controlled according to need.
The fan is a component of the AC. If the air conditioning compressor can't keep up, then increasing the blower capacity is unlikely to help the actual heat removal. So the question I have is where the bottleneck is for your conditions: blower throughput, AC condenser, AC compressor? On the other hand, increasing the velocity of the air can make the cabin feel more comfortable to the occupants even if the temperature is not reduced.
