Revisiting small 12v heater discussion

don't be, i've learned to make due.

 

Congrats! Enjoy!!

 

Just because you have a hammer doesn't mean that everything around you is a nail.

Sure you can turn on the "very efficient" Prius ICE and get some heat. But its not efficient if you only need to drive a short distance. It is not efficient to heat the entire cabin if you only need enough warmth to warm your hands and thighs, for example.

Maybe in your climate and typical commuting distance the ICE is the best solution. The same thing isn't true for all other situations.

Mike

Just because the Prius might be the best commercial hybrid vehicle, does not mean that in every situation it results in the optimum operational characteristics. When I got one of the first 2001 Prius, many of us on message boards immediately identified a number of minor design quirks (or flaws) and started posting them. To Toyota's credit many of them were fixed and/or improved on in the 2004 model and more in the 2010 model, etc.
Every good engineer making a mass market product knows that feedback from real customers often finds scenarios that the designers didn't think of. Or the designers thought of them but dismissed them as "no one would care about that" or that situation wouldn't happen. That is what feedback is all about...
Just look at how software evolves.

Mike

 

The PiP does have a heating element. When I spoke to someone at Toyota in Torrance about it, he pulled the plans for the car and confirmed this.

 

yes, the breakout is above, but no one knows when or how it works. can't seem to find specs anywhere.

 

Find the circuit that it's on and mess around with the HVAC controls to see when it activates.

 

you can't mess around with the hvac without the engine coming on.

 

I think it had something to do with demisting the windshield.

 

when i put it on windscreen/floor, it clears the windshield, but it's freezing. and someone else said the a/c comes on according to scan gauge.

 

If the windshield is demisting, but the ICE isn't coming on, that should be the heating element.

 

why does it feel so cold?

 

It doesn't take much. Since 2005, VW has been sticking small heating elements in the TDIs to do basically the same thing, because the diesels take a while to start pumping some kind of heat out. It's not much, but it does help.

 

i wonder if the fan has to be on.

 

Ah...you are all spoiled.

When I was growing up, my Aunt had a late 60's VW bug. I don't even know how the cabin heating was suppose to work. But basically it was something that heated up next to your foot at the side of the baseboard. Getting the vehicle warm using the heating was very difficult. It would however burn your shoes and foot.

When I think back to those days? Any heating configuration in a modern automobile seems fantastic.

 

'74 tr6, no heat, no floorboards, no girlfriend.

 

Heat exchangers on the exhaust pipes of the bug warmed the air that was pumped into the car by the engine cooling fan.

 

Thanks but it doesn't matter. I was just kid. The end result was my Aunts car burned your foot.

I loved that VW Bug. But for as wonderful a design as it was, however the heating system was suppose to be working it was a flaw.

It was like the Frog sitting in the water that get's warmer and warmer until it is boiling. You'd sit and not notice that your shoe was getting hotter and hotter...until you moved your foot and suddenly were in pain.

It did keep you alert.

 

I guess you didn't notice that the foot outlets had little sliding doors on them that adjusted.

 

Again, I was just a kid. But LOL! My aunt never did.

But that's not too surprising. She drove that Bug for over a decade not even knowing it had a battery under the back-seat.
She called my dad one morning when it wouldn't start, and he asked her if she had checked the battery. Her answer was "What Battery?".

 

I know about that battery under the back seat alright. The first person that left the plastic cover off of it and then sat on the back seat discovered the original seat heater.