turning off heater increase ev range ?

it's the fan, not the heater. for some unexplicable reason, toy decided to use the fan to warn drivers that their use of a/c would reduce their ev range. why they used the fan (which uses a minuscule amount of electricity) instead of the a/c button is bewildering.

try driving ev with the heat off. note your range estimate, turn the fan on, note the ev reduction, and turn the fan off, note the return to original ev estimate.

 

Because of this, I've driven with the fan off in 90% of my driving now because the computer tells me it gives me a longer range. The BMW i3 is programmed like this too including turning on the heated seats which the PiP simply ignores. My question would be does using the fan ACTUALLY decrease the range by the amount claimed by the computer?

 

no. feel free to use your fan, it's just a programming bug. you'll notice it doesn't care what speed the fan is on, even though high uses a lot more juice than low. the lower your estimated range, the smaller the difference between fan on and fan off. it means absolutely nothing. if you have the a/c on, it's probably a fairly meaningful indicator.

 

i don't know where the juice is drawn from for the seats, but ultimately, it comes from the hybrid battery. the good news is that they're very efficient. the loss of range on my 14 mile commute, with seats, lights, radio, dvd, gps and fan on is negligible.

 

I find that the "loss" of EV range in winter is mostly in the computer software rather than in miles, similar to the fan on/off situation. The predicted EV miles runs around 12.1 miles in summer and 10.8 miles in winter for the same full charge for pretty much the same over all trip history. Of course "winter" here doesn't mean as much change in temperature as for other areas of the country. I go on several identical short almost EV-only trips and find that where I run out of EV miles is pretty much the same winter and summer.

 

agreed, the estimate changes a bit more than the actual, due to temp i guess.

 

I believe the seat heaters take from the 12 volt, but when the car is in "ready" the big battery is always charging the 12 volt.

 

I can guarantee Toyota isn't putting high voltage through the seat heaters. It's 12v.

The seats on my Acura consume 50 watts on high, and 15 watts on low; minuscule compared to other things. Just turning on the cabin fan in the Acura consumes 240 watts because the engine cooling fan automatically turns on when the HVAC is running anything at all. The radio is 9 watts; Nav is 7. Wipers on low consume 27 watts and high 39. Rear window defrost is 137 watts.

I know this is a different vehicle, but the figures are probably close to what a Prius consumes. The HVAC could be wildly different though since the Prius uses an electric heat pump.

 

If anyone tried driving without heat in our winters, they'd freeze solid. Maybe the mileage-purists need to set out from home with a quilt and a hot-water bottle, like they did in my grandparent's day.

 

i hope the cooling fan doesn't come on with the cabin fan, that would be ridiculous in winter.

 

I don't think the PIP has a heat pump.

 

i wish.

 

Me too. I'd be curious if someone could let us know if the engine cooling fan comes on with HVAC operation. It does on my Acura, but that doesn't imply it does on a Prius.

I run a full grill block in the winter on the Acura, and temps will go higher than I'd like when I don't run the climate control. With the climate control on, engine temps stay right where they should be due to that single cooling fan that runs.

I'm sure you're right. It does have an electric AC though, which is like a heat pump that runs in just 1 direction.

 

It comes on when the thermostat tell it to. If you are not getting enough airflow through the rad to keep the coolant under the operating limit, the fan takes over. The heater can actually do some of the work of cooling the engine.

 

Yes, but does it come on when the AC is turned on? My Acura has 2 engine cooling fans, and 1 of them comes on any time the AC or heater is turned on. Both run when temps hit 215 F. It would be easy to test. Just pop the hood, turn the AC or heat on, and watch to see if a fan spins up.

 

in post #10, you said the cooling fan comes on with the cabin fan?

 

That is what I do. Except it's just an extra coat over my legs and a hot cup of coffee. I don't use heat. The engine comes on when I get on the freeway and go above 64 mph. With the vents open and the HVAC off but previously set on I get all the waste heat I need for CA winter. I did this on all my previous cars.

 

i haven't used heat for 18,000 out of my 26,000 miles. still married too.