1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

How much does A/C drain battery while parked

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by trillium, Jul 11, 2006.

  1. trillium

    trillium New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2006
    19
    0
    0
    Today I did something in my Prius that I used to always feel guilty about doing in my old car: went through the drive-through at McDonald's, then ate in the parking lot with the A/C running. (Our local McDonald's is always crowded and utterly freezing cold.) I was surprised at how quickly the battery drained, and I started wondering if it would drain all the way down or if at some point the engine would kick in and start charging it back up. Has anybody drained their battery all the way down in this manner? It's already miserably hot here and I was really looking forward to guilt-free A/C while, for example, waiting for DH to come out of Home Depot.
     
  2. aaf709

    aaf709 Ravenpaw of ThunderClan

    Joined:
    Apr 23, 2005
    3,862
    18
    0
    Location:
    San Diego, CA
    Vehicle:
    2022 Prius Prime
    Model:
    Limited
    Assuming the car is in Ready and in Park (not Neutral), the ICE will kick in from time to time if the battery is too low. It won't let the battery run all the way down.
     
  3. EricGo

    EricGo New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 30, 2005
    1,805
    0
    0
    Location:
    Albuquerque, NM (SouthWest US)
    The Toyota mechanic ran my AC while performing recall work. If you track down my post you can compute the consumption. It probably ran about an hour at a pretty high demand based on a guess that the door was open.
     
  4. mssmith95

    mssmith95 Michael

    Joined:
    Feb 1, 2006
    535
    4
    0
    Location:
    Valencia, CA
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius Prime
    Model:
    Prime Premium
    Mine usually kicks in with around 2 bars left. The ICE will cycle for a few minutes and then kick off. It will keep repeating that as long as need be. Just be careful never to accidentally leave the car "ON"...as eventually the ICE will run out of gas and then the batteries will go dead too (hasn't happened to me, but I have read about it a few times on this forum)

    For obvious reasons, if you are a "super MPG" person, you would not want to let the batteries drain so far that the ICE kicked on, as you would keep burning fuel to run the ICE while going nowhere...like all of the other gas guzzlers! But being from Los Angeles, I can understand the heat thing...although it is still better to lock your baby up and go into the nice air conditioned store!
     
  5. trillium

    trillium New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2006
    19
    0
    0
    Hey, thanks for all the speedy replies. Good to know that the ICE won't let the battery die... you should have seen me gulping down the rest of my hamburger so I didn't have to find out for myself.
     
  6. mssmith95

    mssmith95 Michael

    Joined:
    Feb 1, 2006
    535
    4
    0
    Location:
    Valencia, CA
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius Prime
    Model:
    Prime Premium
    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(trillium @ Jul 10 2006, 09:49 PM) [snapback]284310[/snapback]</div>
    No problem and "Go Cowboys"... I have loved them since the 1st grade!
     
  7. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Oct 2, 2004
    44,768
    16,017
    41
    Location:
    Canada
    Vehicle:
    Other Non-Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    Also depends on how cold your temperature is. I had it at MAX COLD once and just my luck, the train decided to make a crossing. Boy did that battery drain fast. It went from 5 bars to 2 in no time (5 mins tops?). Without the A/C or the fan, it'll take ~8 mins per bar.
     
  8. aaf709

    aaf709 Ravenpaw of ThunderClan

    Joined:
    Apr 23, 2005
    3,862
    18
    0
    Location:
    San Diego, CA
    Vehicle:
    2022 Prius Prime
    Model:
    Limited
    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(trillium @ Jul 10 2006, 09:49 PM) [snapback]284310[/snapback]</div>
    Think of it this way, if you're stuck in a traffic jam, do you need to turn the car off? No, the ICE will keep the battery up. There's even been some discussion of having it like this during a drive-in movie (where the sound is delivered via FM) as the aux battery will just about last a movie (with the MFD off). :)