Inside temperature display

Sure, buy a thermostat! :mrgreen:

Sorry, j/k! You kinda lobbed that one out there. I had to take it.

 

Doh!

 

Ya, it would've been nice to have a way to display that on the climate screen. Show what the internal temp is, and what the AC/Climate system is trying to maintain.

I suppose in the longrun, it doesn't really matter if the temp inside is displayed anywhere, but it's an odd oversight.

Dave

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DaveG @ Feb 6 2004, 09:00 PM) [snapback]3461[/snapback]</div>

Actually, it matters. Typically, you are guessing at the temperature you want to be at for comfort. If you get to a comfortable temperature, you would like to maintain it, or if you are not yet comfortable, you might want to change it. It would help to know either the actual temperature versus the real temperature, or to know when they match, so you can either readjust the temperature for comfort or set the current temperature because you are comfortable. Without this information, you would have to wait possibly overshooting, and otherwise hunting for the correct setting. This is especially true as you adjust for conditions like amount of sun or type of clothing worn. Simply, they should add the inside temperature to be display next to the outside
temperature where it appears.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(xraynano @ Oct 15 2006, 06:00 PM) [snapback]332995[/snapback]</div>

There is a good reason for this. Your Prius does not actually try to achieve the exact temperature you set, but rather a temperature that feels like the one you set, given several other factors, such as humidity and sunlight. If it would show you the actual cabin temperature, people would start complaining about the climate system not working properly. The Prius system will attempt to make a set temperature feel constant, even if the humidity and sunlight levels change.

Human beings are pretty bad thermometers actually. Maybe because we have pretty good thermostats, that also constantly adjust our bodies to the amount of heat we lose due to changing humidity, sunlight etc. to keep our core temperature constant. When we feel our body respond to those changes, we get the impression that it's getting colder or warmer. It's not only the actual temperature that matters, the Prius climate control system has been designed with that in mind.

 

Even my anti-Prius, with climate control, only displays the desired temp. not the actual. It does display the outside temp.

So I'd say the Prius sytem is "normal" for cars. I have some "old" "Car computers" that will display the inside and outside temp. among a lot of other things, but don't try to control them. They were aftermarket devices of the late 20th century (late 70s early 80s as I recall). They still work but are kind of obsolete now!

 

You can sortof get the inside temperature in a roundabout way - just adjust the setpoint until the prius switches from AC to heat and back. For example, in the summer when the climate control is running the AC, just bump the temperature up until it switches from the upper vents to the lower vents. Then bump it down until it switches back. Actual inside temperature is somewhere between those two numbers.

It's not great, but it's about the best you can do. You can also (as others have suggested) buy a little car thermometer and stash it somewhere - but you always run into problems like direct sunlight, the dash being warmer than the surrounding air, and all sorts of reasons for incorrect readings. In my last car I wasn't happy until I put in an indoor/outdoor thermometer in the dash, and ran the outdoor probe up to the inside roof, and dangled it down a few inches between the seats - it was the only place where I got a decent 'cabin air termperature' that reflected reality. I haven't decided what I'm going to do in my Prius (if anything) yet....

-Ken