Air Conditioning in 100 degree temps

[jspearman]

So it's not even May, but temps are already soaring above 100 here in Phoenix. I was wondering how the AC would fare, and the answer is that it's keeping up nicely, and I've only used ECO Lo so far. The car sat in the sun for about 2 hours this afternoon and it was 103, I got in and left in on Lo and in about five minutes I had to turn the fan down to a pretty low setting to keep from freezing my fingers off. I averaged 3.4m/kW on the way home, and half that was at 70mph. Not bad, RAV!

 

[TonyWilliams]

Great news. No pre-cool from the timer or cell phone?

 

[cwerdna]

I wonder if the AC compressor is the same as any of Toyota's hybrids or FCVs. Prius has been using an electric AC compressor since the 04 model year.

 

[jspearman]

No pre-cooling. I had such a terrible time using that functionality on the Leaf that I guess I trained myself not to bother. In fact, for the last 6 months we owned the Leaf, Carwings didn't even work for us.

 

[TonyWilliams]

No pre-cooling. I had such a terrible time using that functionality on the Leaf that I guess I trained myself not to bother. In fact, for the last 6 months we owned the Leaf, Carwings didn't even work for us.

With a TMS car, you want to precool in that dreadful heat, since its also cooling the batteries before your drive.

The same would be true for charging. You actually want to charge after a drive while the batteries are cool as opposed to waiting until the 100F+ heat soaks into the batteries to start a charge.

 

[jspearman]

Good to know. Thank you, Tony.