What's better - powering off Prius, or leaving on when waiting for someone?

Rather than the drain on the battery, a more important factor is the conditions outside. Here in Florida, if you truy and sit in a car for 10 minutes with no AC...

For me, it's all about my personal comfort. I would much rather sit there with the AC on and some good tunes to sing along to.

Honestly, the amount of gas you would use is so minimal. THe ICE would be off most of the time (unless the battery was already low) and would only come on if needed. Once the need was over, ICE is off again.

 

For a short wait like 5 minutes, the only thing you're really playing with at that point is the coolant. If you hit the power button at the start of those 5 minutes, the electric pump moves the coolant into a thermos to keep it as hot as possible for when you switch it back on. So, you could say that switching it off maintains the temperature of the system fluids better than leaving it on.

On the other hand, turning it off then on is going to cause the Prius to go through its usual startup steps, including running the engine in its most wasteful state - generating electricity at a stand-still - to get those fluids pumping through it again. So you might view that step as a waste of gas.

Overall I bet you net out the same, but it's an interesting topic of discussion anyway.

 

If I'm making a true short stop, for example pulling into a convenience store to pick up a soda, I'll shut the AC and MFD off, use the metal key to lock the door, and just leave it that way -- no wasteful start up sequence, and very little power used (primarily from AC off, I turn off the display so as not to draw unwanted attention). When I return, the car is in almost the same state as when I left it. I've actually had a half dozen "old fashioned" metal keys cut from the "secret key" hidden in the fob. I have one on my keychain for just this purpose. The others are scattered about, home, office, and a couple other "key" locations, to facilitate emergency entry on the day when I manage to lock my fob in the car.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ekpolk @ Sep 23 2006, 08:28 AM) [snapback]323849[/snapback]</div>

But if you haven't got SKS and you always have to insert the fob to start the car, would you be able to start the car if you lost the fob and had only a metal key?

 

<_< "Power Down while waiting..."

Well, that's an individual preference and decision. If the ICE is warmed up, I generally leave it in "READY" mode with the "PARK" pawls engaged for a wait of <5 minutes. For a wait 10+ minutes, I will power down.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(2006PriusOwner @ Sep 22 2006, 09:21 PM) [snapback]323755[/snapback]</div>

For just a couple of minutes, I'll leave it on if I'm in the car. More than that, I shut it down.

Don't pretend that the car doesn't use electricity or gas when just sitting there though! It uses both even when doing nothing (gas is used to recharge the battery that IS being used when sitting idle - in fact, there is no real "electricity component to even discuss - all the energy comes from gasoline ultimately). No, it isn't much, but if you leave the car ON for an extended period, you'll have the gas engine kicking on to recharge the ever-draining battery.