PRE 2009 HYBRID owners - how does your A/C work when the combustion engine stops?
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PRE 2009 HYBRID owners - how does your A/C work when the combustion engine stops?
Hi, all.
I don't have a FEH, but I have a 2002 Prius that has an ICE-driven air conditioner compressor and also has auto-climate control. It is able to run A/C (cold!) with the engine off. When the cabin is mostly down to temp, the ICE will be permitted to idle-stop and I'll get about 40-45 seconds of cold air (likely using up the capacity of some sort of "cold-sink" in the evaporator because I'm lucky if a non-hybrid car gives me 10-15 seconds of cooling with IGN on and engine off. I've tried, waiting for someone and not wanting to just idle.)
Once the cold reserve in the evaporator is exhausted, I get a few seconds more slowly warming air (it never exceeds ~70 degrees over about 10 seconds) and then the ICE fires up and I hear the familiar "click" of a magnetic A/C clutch kicking in. It runs JUST long enough to get the evaporator ice-cold again, I hear the compressor clutch snap off, and then the ICE shuts off.
Strangely, if I push on the accelerator hard enough to kick the ICE on, it won't shut back off until I come to a stop again, unless the fan is on the lowest speed.
If I set the A/C to MAX in the Prius, the ICE will run pretty much all the time for peak cooling performance. Same if any significant cooling is required - it runs pretty much all the time until it's stabilized where you set it to. The defroster will force the ICE to run absolutely all the time (likely since the cold-storage evap' core can't dehumidify while it doesn't have Freon actively running through it)
How does ECON mode in the FEH w/o the e-compressor work? Is it a conventional "wimpy" evaporator core that only blows cold for a few seconds and then gets HOT, or is it "cold-storage" like my Prius and able to sit through a light without melting you?
Does the ICE eventually autostart when the cabin temp rises significantly? If so, does it just run and run, or does it re-stop once the thermostat is satisfied?
I'd appreciate your input. Hybrids without electric air-conditioning are rare, and I'd like to know how they manage cooling (if at all) without the engine on.
I don't have a FEH, but I have a 2002 Prius that has an ICE-driven air conditioner compressor and also has auto-climate control. It is able to run A/C (cold!) with the engine off. When the cabin is mostly down to temp, the ICE will be permitted to idle-stop and I'll get about 40-45 seconds of cold air (likely using up the capacity of some sort of "cold-sink" in the evaporator because I'm lucky if a non-hybrid car gives me 10-15 seconds of cooling with IGN on and engine off. I've tried, waiting for someone and not wanting to just idle.)
Once the cold reserve in the evaporator is exhausted, I get a few seconds more slowly warming air (it never exceeds ~70 degrees over about 10 seconds) and then the ICE fires up and I hear the familiar "click" of a magnetic A/C clutch kicking in. It runs JUST long enough to get the evaporator ice-cold again, I hear the compressor clutch snap off, and then the ICE shuts off.
Strangely, if I push on the accelerator hard enough to kick the ICE on, it won't shut back off until I come to a stop again, unless the fan is on the lowest speed.
If I set the A/C to MAX in the Prius, the ICE will run pretty much all the time for peak cooling performance. Same if any significant cooling is required - it runs pretty much all the time until it's stabilized where you set it to. The defroster will force the ICE to run absolutely all the time (likely since the cold-storage evap' core can't dehumidify while it doesn't have Freon actively running through it)
How does ECON mode in the FEH w/o the e-compressor work? Is it a conventional "wimpy" evaporator core that only blows cold for a few seconds and then gets HOT, or is it "cold-storage" like my Prius and able to sit through a light without melting you?
Does the ICE eventually autostart when the cabin temp rises significantly? If so, does it just run and run, or does it re-stop once the thermostat is satisfied?
I'd appreciate your input. Hybrids without electric air-conditioning are rare, and I'd like to know how they manage cooling (if at all) without the engine on.
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LvProosdij
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Sep 4, 2023 05:34 AM
