You Midwesterners might find this amusing: For the first time here in Austin, TX, it got cold enough to use the heat pump! 55ish: Imagine That! I tried out the steering-wheel warmer too. Check! Helping out tomorrow morning at a regatta (rowing race); forecast 44 degrees. Yeehah! It seems like the heat pump uses more power to warm than the AC does to cool... Anybody else get that impression as well? iPhone ? Pro
32°F here in Minnesota. We've been getting very wet snow here all day. Just a few minutes ago, I was at the grocery store giving the remote-climate feature a test for the first time using the "Max Heat" setting. Plugged in, I wanted to see how much electricity could be used to recharge the battery-pack with that much demand from the heat-pump. Knowing that max uses far more electricity than just at setting of 65°F with ECO, having to wait so long for this test was a big deal. Way back in 2010 when Toyota provided me with a prototype plug-in Prius to play with, it was August and the decision had been to not include a heat-pump. Anywho, in the 12 minutes I was away from the car, the charger provide 0.64 kWh of electricity (at a steady rate of 3.16 kW). That resulted in only an estimated 1.3 miles of electricity being added to EV range, but the interior of the Prime was toasty. Sweet! And yes, interior heating takes quite a bit more electricity than cooling. Fortunately, we get a high-efficiency heater... a vapor-injected heat-pump, which better than both the regular type of heat-pump and quite a bit better than the resistance type.
Mid thirties here one morning so I too used the heat pump and heated steering wheel. Wow, probably the biggest improvement over the PiP. Usually on those mornings in the PiP I'd have to open the windows so they wouldn't fog up if I didn't turn on the heat. Now I got to work comfortable and fog free. It seemed to me, the EV range dropped a little over mile, about what it used on the PiP when I used A/C. But I got that mile back when I left work later that day and turned off climate control.
Haven't yet used the heated seats or the heated steering wheel. But I have tried the heat pump while in EV mode. Works. In fact, it is scary how FAST it works and gets warm. No ICE start at all (yet). The temps have been hovering around 30-40 with some 20's predicted in the next 48 hours. I also haven't tried scheduled charges, with or without the heating feature while charging. I am unsure about just plugging it in unscheduled (as I have been doing all along) at such low temperatures outside. Might that hurt the batteries? I don't have a usable garage. L2 charger.
No reason for concern. The system monitors battery temperature and adjusts charging-rate accordingly. My Prius PHV endured 5 winters in Minnesota without the benefit of Prime's battery warmer.
About 1/2 of my charges are scheduled and 1/2 charge-now. Yeah, it occurred to me last night that I forgot to try the seat warmers. In the ~45-degree weather I’ll be going out in in a couple hours, I’ll see what it’s like with just the seat and steering-warmers, and the HVAC off entirely. See how that compares to running the heat pump only perhaps... iPhone ? Pro
82°F back in June, the 7.5 mile drive to the coffeeshop took 19% capacity. 34°F a few minutes ago, that same 7.5 mile drive to the coffeeshop took 29% capacity. Increased resistance from outside air, reduced efficiency from battery, combined with the electric-heater set to 65°F in ECO revealed the harsh effects of Winter. For me, that means my 19 miles of commute each way should remain in EV. The catch is that drive-time can be dramatically longer in on snowy days. Fortunately, those don't actually happen often. It's mostly just continuous sub-freezing temperatures for many weeks in a row. Obviously on those days when it dips down near 0°F and below, running the engine will be a welcome addition to heat provision. Regardless of Winter conditions, the resulting MPG will be outstanding. Also having the benefit of pre-conditioning the interior using electricity directly from the grid will be a very nice bonus.
Keep in mind that if the temperature of the battery drops below 32°F (so it may need to be below 32 for several hours before the battery itself drops below 32), then keeping it plugged in allows the car to draw power from the plug to run the battery heater to keep the battery temp near 32°F. (A colder battery has more resistance and will discharge less eagerly, which means you either have slower acceleration or you need to get the engine on to help with additional power). I wonder... for those running EV Auto and finding no difference in the summer (I suspect EV Auto runs the engine a bit sooner before the battery runs out than if you were to stay in EV where it will run to near 0.0 miles before it switches to HV mode), whether EV Auto in the winter will show different results.
I think I’ve concluded that it turns out to be more effective in that 40-60 degree range (or thereabouts), to just turn off the HVAC system entirely (i.e., including the cabin-air fan), and maybe or maybe not use seat or the steering-wheel heaters. That, rather than running the heat pump. iPhone ? Pro
Just did a COSTCO trip beginning with 100% from the full charge last night. Used 61% of the charge at 40 degrees F that the same trip would have used 45% at 65 degrees. That's quite a difference - but not unexpected. Heat was off, but I did try the heated steering wheel for a half minute. As it gets colder I can see myself just driving in HV mode, and keeping it there, throughout the winter as I de-ice and warm the car up car 3 out of every 4 days.
From stats for a company that sells aftermarket seat heaters that are also used by most of the OEMs, Heizgerat Setzt, they quote they use about 70 watts. Most of the aftermarket seat heaters use carbon heating elements as do the OEMs and the kits come with a 10 amp fuse so that’s probably right. The steering wheel heaters probably use much smaller carbon elements and I would be surprised if that uses 50 watts. Unsupervised!
I'm going to try to redirect the electricity going into the seat and steering wheel warmers back into the traction battery to see if that recharges it and gives me more range.
Well I guess it's cooler in Austin than College Station which is where I will be for a week starting tomorrow. Highs there in the 80's, and right now at 1:00am in College Station it's 55 according to Accuweather. So then what am I doing up at 2:00am in Atlanta? Just finished watching the five plus hour Astros vs. Dodgers World Series game of course
