Quote:
Originally Posted by ps2fixer
AC takes a lot of energy, not sure if much can be done to lower the load besides putting less cooling demand on it (higher temp setting).
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Phase brought this up recently in his thread (
https://ecomodder.com/forum/showthre...tml#post666421 ), but using a higher temp setting usually uses more energy because most cars use the heater to warm the air conditioned air.
From Toyota's "neural network" AC diagram, we can see that in addition to controlling the compressor, blower speed, recirculation setting, etc Toyota uses the "air mix damper servo" for "temperature control correction." I.e. it can send varying amounts of air conditioned air through the heater core to achieve the desired cabin temperature.
I only recently started using my scangauge on my gen3 Prius, but it does have a gauge for the number of watts used by the air conditioner. So far the temperature has been mild so I haven't experimented with it yet, but I suspect seeing AC on max low and adjusting the fan speed will be best. If that is too cold, manually alternating between AC on and AC off will probably beat the "neural network." But we'll see this summer...