Complaint letter...

Dear World-Overseeing Entity,

I would appreciate you turning down the heat over here. In addition to making a lot of us stay inside and not letting us enjoy the outdoors, the high temperatures have wreaked havoc on my all-important Prius MPG. And there is nothing quite as bad as a car that only gets 48 MPG.

You see, I am a MPG junkie. I left home today with damn near 50 MPG. And I came home with only 48.3. That is quite emotionally distressing to me and my pocketbook. I may have to see a psycholgist to overcome the deep mental anguish that comes with this much of a drop in MPG. Also, this tank has to last me at least 470 miles or I will be in financial ruin forever.

How cruel and unusual this punishment is! Please, for the sake of all humanity that manages to live in the Southern United States! Please turn the heat down!

Thank you,
galaxee and Electrophile.

[disclaimer: this is supposed to be a rant turned comical. no flames please. i am trying to get some people to laugh about their crappy gas mileage because they have to use A/C, we're all going through this...]

Dear Imaginary All-Powerful Father Figure in the Sky,

Please grant Galaxee's request. You see, she used to be from Wisconsin and is just not used to the southern-style heat. It's cruel and unusual punishment for her.

Thank You,

Beacher

P.S. It's pretty darn hot here in Wisconsin too. Some more rain would help as well.

Yeah,
It's been pretty hot in PA. But my Pri is in heaven. If only you could send your heat here, say in the January, February time frame?

Now, could you give me a tip about AC use? I guess I could just read the manual, but I thought it would be easier to ask an expert...

I have a 2004 with the AM package. Does that package come with AC standard? If so, how do you activate the AC? ;-)

Dan

On our 4500 mile road trip, we had temps around 100 every day and maxed out at 118. Needless to say, we ran the AC a lot which, in addition to our great elevation changes everyday, caused our average mpg for the the trip to be around 48. Who know there were so many mountain ranges? Well, lower MPGs are preferrable to swimming in sweat.

Galaxee: It is inspiring to me to see you go straight to the Father on such important issues. When I lived through nightmarish weather in St. Louis for years, natives would always say, "Oh, this is so unusual for us." Now I get a payback, "Oh this is so unusual for us."

It's not just running the air conditioner that reduces mpgs, the temperature setting is very important. I get 2-3 extra mpgs by using 74 instead of 72 degrees.

I feel your pain. It was 106 today on my way home from work.

I set my cabin temp at 75-78, and keep the AC set on "low". Between the two, I see no appreciable drop in mpg using the AC. I also take advantage of stops (eg at lights or in traffic when the ICE is off) by cranking the AC fan up on high for a bit of extra cooling if needed. I then set it back to "low" when the ICE kicks in. I also turn it off if I am going up a steep hill. I have also noticed that the window tint results in much less need for AC.

I had the AC set at 75. I was debating setting it to 78 to minimize as much as possible the MPG hit... but just cracked a window instead when i got up to 45 mph.

Thanks Beacher for your sympathy from the home state- the family farm is also hoping for rain- and Fred for your solace that this is "unusual" (although I have a hard time believing that) This time last year I was melting in my old car (didn't have AC!)

krousdb, to start up your AC hit the "climate" button. then make sure the AC button has a yellow line over it and I usually press the AUTO button. Set the temp you like using the up-down arrows and you should be in business. I am quite sure all Prii have AC standard.

catsbox, the engine was not kicking off at stoplights. in fact, that's where I lost at least my first whole MPG.

We're planning on doing tinting at the end of the month when the money comes in. I can't wait!

I was joking about how to turn on the AC....

I find that mid 90's in still comfortable for me. If we ever hit 100 here I will give it a try.

ahh, i thought that was a weird question. haha!

yeah up north the humidity isn't so bad. my hometown in wisconsin was easily tolerable well into the 90 degree range. here, it hits 92 and i'm so hot i could fall over.

I'll be in Oshkosh on Monday. It's supposed to be in the 90s. Yuck!

And I used to think Wisconsonites were such hardy souls.
BTW, the reason you found what I was saying to be hard to believe is because I was lying.

Vegas...110-120 in the day time.... 100 at night. Yikes!

Thankfully I do not live there.

106 in Northeast Colorado yesterday....glad I did not have to drive at all for the past 8 days. Because I would be averaging well below 48.3! 8)

Maybe I wasn't lying. I was trying to, but according to the news, we set all kinds of records last week here in NC.

there's a heatwave here in hawaii --- 90!!! :mrgreen: apparently 91 is the record here 8)

Heatwave here in San Francisco Bay Area...

The last five or six days we've had a heatwave - driving around this weekend the temps were 100 - 106 degrees C (A/C set at 76). I noticed a significant reduction in mpg. The constant A/C drain on the HV battery meant that the ICE was running more often to recharge it, and also when moving off the ICE would have to kick in much earlier (5 mph) since some of the current from the HV battery was already committed to the A/C, and unavailable to the provide power to the wheels...

I think I need to get my windows tinted - that should reduce the load on the A/C. I finally checked my tire pressures (first time since buying the car) and they were set at 30F/28R. I pumped them up to 39F/37R. Hasn't seemed to make much of a difference to the mpg so far...

we're tinting the windows soon. maybe even today if the guys can get to it. i'll report back on how this affects the temp inside the car.

btw, Fred, the reason we decided to go ahead with the tint is because it looked so nice on your car!