Radio when Parked: ACC or "regular run" mode?

[fshagan]

I regularly eat lunch in my Prius, parked in a nice shady spot. Its part of my "mental health break" philosophy to actually get out of the office where no one can bother me.

So here's my question: I've never had a problem with a regular car battery handling the use of the radio for 40 to 50 minutes on the ACC position. But the Prius doesn't run the ICE unless it needs to, and the 12v battery is pretty puny. The owner's manual recommends not runnign things "too long" on it.

I'm wondering if I'm better off just driving up to my favorite little shady spot, stopping the car (and the ICE), pushing the "Park" button and sitting there with the Prius operating off the regular run mode? What do you think?

[Tideland Prius]

it'll automatically shut off after 1 hour in ACC mode.

[KMO]

You Americans do realise you are allowed to get out of your cars, right?

[Vegas Prius!]

Now THAT'S funny!

[fshagan]

Originally posted by KMO@Mar 20 2006, 01:29 AM
You Americans do realise you are allowed to get out of your cars, right?

[snapback]227229[/snapback]

Its rumored that in the olden times people used to get out of their cars when obtaining food, medicines and other supplies. They had to do a thing called "walk" when they did this ("walk" is similar to what you do from your garage into your house, but was done partially OUTDOORS). In some cases, even when the merchant was indoors, people would "walk" to the merchants place of business! Can you imagine?

[darelldd]

Don't listen to these guys! You go right ahead and stay in your car... as long as you never turn it on.

If you're just running the radio, I wouldn't worry about an hour in ACC mode. The radio doesn't draw much! I'd hate for you to be sitting there in a car that's running the ICE just to play the stereo!

[aaf709]

This discussion came up before when someone wanted to use their Prius for going to a drive-in which used FM for the audio. I forget the conclusion, normally they left it in Ready so the ICE would kick in from time to time or that it would last if the MFD was turned off.

[V8Cobrakid]

it takes an easy 1.5 to 2 hours to drain the battery. That's with music blaring too... I was using it as a boom box for a party When the system gets really low, everything turn on and off because there's not enough power to keep it all on. There is still plenty of power to power the car into "ready" though.

[tmorrowus]

With a regular radio you would probably be fine running it with the hybrid system off. But why risk it? From owning a pure electric vehicle I've learned that the worst thing you can do to a battery is overdischarging it.


By running the radio with the hybrid system on, you avoid any risk of hurting the battery. And because it's a hybrid the gas engine will only run every once in a while, so it's not costing much gas or environmental effects.

[gschoen]

For 40-50 minutes, you will use more juice (and gas) in READY since it powers other components as well (besides the radio and other obvious stuff). You won't drain the battery only running the radio. I concur with V8CobraKid, it takes some effort to drain the 12V and even if you did have the situation where the sound cuts out, just putting the car in ready for a few minutes will top the 12V off. It's not a deep discharge and not long enough for battery damage. The 12V battery in the Prius leads a pampered life compared to a normal car battery, it takes some effort to damge it.

EDIT: Oops, didn't realize this thread was almost 4 months old. My bad.