I live in the Seattle area. It's not Anchorage. But it's not Santa Barbara, either. Disgsted with a consistent 43.something max mpg, and having read all the posts, talked to two dealers and researched the web, I got this idea. What if the ICE was a little warmer in the morning? What would a slightly higher start temp influence? The ICE always starts moments after I "stealth" back out of the garage. I'm always expecting to stay stealth until I'm on the street. I don't get much electric usage in the morning. So, thinking about sensors, vacuum flasks, coolant temp, intake temps, cat converter stuff, etc, I hung a 150W floodlamp over the passenger side of the top of the ICE all night. About 2" from the surface of the engine (couldn't get it under the car - not enough clearance). I know, heat rises. Today I got an extra indicated 1.5 mpg on my 4.3 mile jaunt to work (suburban driving, nothing much over 40mph legal). Not very scientific, but is this a no-brainer concept? Should the guys at Toyota have put an included block heater in the ICEs' for cars destined for cooler climes? Any discussion here? Bob
Wait until the European version of the Prius is out. This car is going to be sold in Scandinavian where winter temps can go to -40C! I would be shocked not to see a block heater for the prius for sale there! Just get the part number and perhaps your local Toyota dealer can even get the part for you.
Block heater should be available since I had one on my 1.5L Echo and it is the same engine. It came from Toyota-Canada and cost about $80 if I remember right. Since the Prius stores 3 liters of hot coolant that it circulates through the head prior to start up of the ICE, I don't know if it would really help that much. A cheaper and maybe more effective solution would be an oil pan heater, since the oil is cold regardless of the coolant. Most of these just attach to the bottom of the oil res. and come in various wattages and sizes from any online auto parts outlet. It's interesting that you saw that kind of mileage jump with a heat lamp. Sure makes the pre-warming of the engine a good thing to look at, especially here in the frozen North. Thanks for the post!
Oh yeah...the block heater was a real pain to put in. My mechanic, who is a pretty easy going guy, got pretty worked up over the gynmastics he had to perform to get it into the Echo engine. Oil pan heater is definitely a DIY project.
