interior temperature

Is your AC on? The Prius has a lot of glass, see the many threads about tinting. The AC should keep you cool and comfortable.

 

What about the color? Black gets hotter than any other color.

 

There has to be some sort of problem. I was in my Salsa red yesterday, parked outside, temp in the mid 80s, and it cooled down in minutes and held very well.

Either there's a problem with the AC in your car or we will be seeing your addition to the "blunders" thread a little later today.

 

Light itself is made up of the entire spectrum of colours as seen in a rainbow. We see different colours because different substances either absorb, transmit or reflect some of these component colours in differing amounts. For instance a substance like chlorophyll found in green plants absorbs (takes out) the violet and red light from each end of the spectrum leaving green light to be reflected back to our eyes.

Each substance itself is made up of tiny, tiny particles called atoms. Each atom contains even tinier particles called electrons surrounding its centre or nucleus. The electrons clouding round the nucleus of an atom have different amounts of energy, some orbit at higher energy levels than others.

When a substance absorbs a particular colour from the light falling on it, the amount of energy in that colour of the light is exactly the same as the difference between two of those energy levels for its orbiting electrons. The electrons in the lower level use the coloured light's energy to jump into the higher level and that colour of light gets taken out (absorbed).

A car painted black absorbs from all the colours in the sunlight and so its electrons take in much more of the light's energy to move themselves to higher energy levels than a car painted white which reflects the light. We can feel these higher energy levels, black cars feel hotter to us.

 

Southern California is essentially a desert. That's why since I live there, black is the one color I'd never even consider for a car. I ended up with white.

 

Regardless of the colour of the car, the AC should handle this with ease.

 

With all that glass, the Prius is like a big greenhouse. I would guess that the temp could get up to 120+ degrees very quickly with the windows closed.

I have not had that much experience with the AC yet since I only got the car in March, but I think the more knowledgeable posters will tell you an AC setting of 76 degrees would result in minimal mileage loss.

 

AC off, windows up, direct Sunlight, expect interior temp up to 120'F, similar to any car. A custom Sunshade for the front window helps noticeably. When using one park facing the Sun.

 

Amen to using a front window sunshield. That black expanse of upper dash area beneath the windshield when exposed to sunlight will act like a heat sponge and rapidly add to the interior temperature of your car.

 

There are a few mpg lost to the AC, but, in my opinion, less than in a conventional car. Since the AC is electric, it can use all that regenerative braking you get to do on the LA freeways. And it beats dieing of heat prostration.

 

Use your AC. The car will manage it for you. There is minimal mileage loss with the AC on. Auto climate, coupled with the electrically driven compressor is significantly more efficient than on any other vehicle out there. The compressor is also variable speed, so once the cabin temperature is at the setpoint you give it, it will slow down and maintain the temperature you have asked for. It is a brilliant system.

 

I will agree with jeromep....we've had our '04 for almost a year and thru four seasons and if you try to second guess the car's automatic heating/AC system you will be frustrated.

In the summer put the system in auto mode and the temp to about 75 to 80 and it will do a wonderful job of maintaining a comfortable cabin temp with out any fussing. However, if the morning temp out side is cool, say 65, the system will try then to warm the interior to 75. Best then to just shut of the system and wait till the day warms enough to need a little cooling. Haven't noticed any mileage penalty when running the AC. If you shut the system off, you can run stealth thru the bank drive up...that's cool and quiet.

Another thing, in the winter, I have found that some how the system determines that the defroster is needed when the car is first started and after a while shifts the air flow from the windshield to the other vents, all on its own. Strange and wonderful!

 

The greenhouse effect of a car is a big reason why you're warned not to leave dogs in cars, even on sunny days when it's only 60deg. outside. The solar energy can make the car an oven, even on a cool day.

Keeping your interior comfortable will keep your batteries comfy as well, giving you better performance (computer will use battery less if it's too hot to protect it) I like driving with my windows down, but do it less on the Prius unless my drive stays under 35MPH... you can certainly hear how aerodynamic the car is when you drive faster than this with windows down!

 

Or, you could try using the temperature up/down buttons that Toyota so conveniently located on the steering wheel for you.

 

Having it demand heat DOES cut into MPGs.

Mornings lately I turn the temp down 68 or so to stop the heat, then when it's 85-90 outside going home I turn it up to 74 to cut back the blower. So the next morning I have to repeat the cycle (what, remember to turn it down the night before? Please...)

What the car needs is a Season setting or four, where the heat is used less in Summer than it would be in Winter. Educated climate control would work out better...

 

I have not found much difference in air conditioning needs for white vs black cars, because the heat absorbed through the paint depends more on the infra-red portion of the sun's light, than the visible portion by which humans see "black" or "white". At IR frequencies, "white" doesn't reflect much more than "black".

Also, a substantial portion of the heat comes through the glass.

 

My 05 Black is pretty hot when it's sitting in the sun. Interior is around 95 until I either open a window or crank the AC for a few min.

However it's not much worse than my gray ext/gray int Buick Century I had last year. I don't think color is that big a deal.

Another thing. I agree fully with the people discussing sunshades. I will not leave the car without putting it up. Very helpful because even a few degrees is a relief.

 

Totally disagree and there's proof, and also here.

This toy works entirely off the principal that black radiantly absorbs more light energy than white and proceeds to conductively heat the air around it more than white. There is a measurable difference.

Then we can go on and quote black-body physics, but bleh.

Anecdotally, my black Civic with grey interior seems to get a lot warmer in the sun than my blue Prius with ivory interior. Of course, the greenhouse buildup moots the color argument at the end.

Conversely, a black vehicle should get cooler faster due to black-body radiation....