Remote Air Conditioning

Discussion in 'Gen 1 Prius Plug-in 2012-2015' started by markabele, Jun 13, 2013.

  1. 3PriusMike

    3PriusMike Prius owner since 2000, Tesla M3 2018

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    There is no way I think that that the A/C draws as much current as the charger, even with 110v can supply.
    My inefficient refrigerator compressor only draws 200 watts.

    Here is a quick test for those with no OBD II scanner. With the car on and plenty of battery EV miles, turn everything off except the A/C on max. Watch how long it takes for the EV miles to click away. In my car I get about 14 miles per 2.7 kwh charge. Turning on the A/C lowers it to about 12.5 immediately. Therefore, each 0.1 miles represents 21.6 watt hours. Maybe it takes 3 or 5 minutes to use up 0.1 miles...ignore the first one (a partial) and time until the second one clicks off.
    Let's say it takes 3 minutes. In an hour it would be 20 of those...or 20/h * 21.6 watt-hours...or 432 watts.
    If the A/C took the entirety of the ~1350 watts the 110v charger supplies, then it would click off 0.1 miles 62 times an hour or in less than a minute. I think it takes longer than that.
    Anyway, there should somewhere be a spec on how many watts the A/C compressor consumes.
    IIRC I read that the Prius A/C had a cooling power of 3.4 kw. At a modest SEER of 10 that would mean 340 watts for the compressor. (Also need to add in the power for the fan).

    Mike
     
  2. markabele

    markabele owner of PiP, then Leaf, then Model 3

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    If I remember correctly...
    I used to use the torque app on my old Gen3 (yet to get it going on the pip) and it would tell me anywhere from 0 to 1200 watts for the ac. It would very rarely be as high as 1200 though.