What about installing a 12v heater for the winter?

Also, My Prius is a 2005 and a seat heater is not offered. My job is about 10 minutes away or less at times. (When stop lights are aligned just right) I hate driving my car with a frosted windshield & front windows. It doesn’t warm up fast enough to clear the windows before leaving the house because it just sits there in EV mode, lol. Plus, I can’t lock the doors while it runs because it is a 2nd hand Prius with no valet key.

 

I believe there never was a valet key, just a mechanical door-only key latched into the fob:


I'm not recalling now if the car will allow this key to lock the door from outside while the ignition is turned on.

 

My solution wont work for most people. I have an outdoor plug and an extension cord with a hair dryer.

 

Not sure why you're replying to a 9-year old thread about the Prius Plug-in...

 

I just had an idea I thought might help someone else. Plus I guess I don’t pay attention to how old the questions are really, . I guess I just like helping.

 

Unfortunately I don’t have that key. The car was second hand and only had one key fob. I lost the valet key the same day I bought the car.

 

I am not comfortable with telling people to run a hair dryer off of an extension cord as being helpful.
Especially not if it is unattended.
I think you should reconsider your "idea".

 

sounds like you'll be ready for the chevy bolt with $12,000. tax credit

 

I use a 12v Electric Heater in my Toyota Prius Camper, especially if its snowing and I am using the Napier tent

 

Block heater usage helps some, accelerates engine warm-up, which in turn gets the cabin warmer sooner.

 

The electric space heater linked in #49 is listed at 500 watts. (So you'd need to wrestle with fairly heavy 12 volt wiring to it, to handle a bit under 50 amps).

There is already an electric heater in the car, around 700 watts, used automatically when you ask for the heat and the engine isn't up to temperature yet. (ECO mode locks it out though.)

I find that, in cold weather, even that 700 watts doesn't feel like much. The most convincing way I can tell it is there is that I definitely can tell how much faster the windshield defogs on a cold start if I take the car out of ECO mode so the electric heater can work.

Once the engine is up to temperature, the heater core fed by engine coolant is worth about 5,300 watts of heat, completely dwarfing any 500 or 700 watt electric element.

 

I was not aware of this electric heater in the 1st gen Plug-in, I will keep that in mind since I normally leave Eco mode on...