The Prius Experiment

[ps2fixer]

Is crystalline a brand or the material it's made of? One of my past jobs related to polycrystalline which is the raw material for processors, transistors, solar panels and much more.

[Phase]

Originally Posted by ps2fixer

Is crystalline a brand or the material it's made of? One of my past jobs related to polycrystalline which is the raw material for processors, transistors, solar panels and much more.

3m crystalline is a ceramic window tint that markets itself as rejecting a lot of infrared heat, but always performs less than advertised. They’ve been sued a few times because of the false claims. It’s better than no tint at all, but it’s overpriced and doesn’t perform as well as it’s competitors or what it claims it does. Plus it has bad low angle haze and some distortions and apparently for window tinters and installers, it’s horrible to apply. Bad adhesive and doesn’t shrink properly and has some other issues. Usually people get it because it’s the first Google search result they find. And 3m is known for its name brand and marketing, so people don’t second guess it. I’d rather run no tint at all than any crystalline. That’s how bad it is

[ps2fixer]

Interesting, other 3m products are real good, but that's kind of how things are, one company can't be the best at everything.

I'm from Michigan, so tinted windows isn't exactly common here lol. The only tinted windows I get around are so old the tint is purple and generally pealing lol.

I noticed on my dad's RX300 that the windows have an almost mirror like look to the surface. Not sure what that is exactly, but it seems to shed away the heat fairly well and inside the car it doesn't seem to be tinted too much, but don't know what % it would be.

Random google pic.


The camry's I'm used to doesn't have the same layer on the windows. They still are reflective, but it doesn't have the same look or effect.

[Phase]

Originally Posted by ps2fixer

Interesting, other 3m products are real good, but that's kind of how things are, one company can't be the best at everything.

I'm from Michigan, so tinted windows isn't exactly common here lol. The only tinted windows I get around are so old the tint is purple and generally pealing lol.

I noticed on my dad's RX300 that the windows have an almost mirror like look to the surface. Not sure what that is exactly, but it seems to shed away the heat fairly well and inside the car it doesn't seem to be tinted too much, but don't know what % it would be.

Random google pic.


The camry's I'm used to doesn't have the same layer on the windows. They still are reflective, but it doesn't have the same look or effect.

No idea what type of tint. And funny enough, everyone in Oregon has tinted windows even though it’s cloudy or raining a lot. And then Washington state and seattle allow some of the darkest tints available legally. You have tint windows darker in Washington than Arizona. Funny

[hayden55]

Thats good to know if I ever get tinted again. It has been on the car since 2016 though and it still doing okay. I paid cash out the door no tax at a 3m dealer so it wasn't too bad. Makes you wonder though.
You really can't even tell the front window is tinted and on the sides it just looks slightly tinted at 25% meter. No funny colors.

[ps2fixer]

I think the laws here for tints are pretty strict, front side windows can't be tinted a whole lot, and front window I think is like 10 or 15% max. I think rear side windows and rear window you can go to 90% if you wanted to. Have to love how each state has different laws on something that probably should be regulated at the federal level.

I've never been into the look of tinted cars, very light tint I don't mind, but blacked out I'm not a fan of. I understand down south it's more of a function of looks thing. I guess it's kind of like the cars with the huge rims, I prefer to have some sidewall to my tires even if they are pumped up to 50psi lol. I get mud tires, bigger tires gets through more mud, so atleast some of the trucks with big tires are for function. Doing it just for looks is kind of goofy, but it's not my money so they can do what they want with it.

It's kind of ironic, all of the stuff people do to make their vehicles look unique is almost always harmful to FE. About the only one that helps that I can think of is lowered vehicles and I'm pretty sure the owners aren't super worried about how far they can go on a tank of gas.

Anyway, summers are pretty mild up here, but it would be nice to have a little bit of something to reflect the heat. Not a huge deal for winter time, there's a ton of waste heat to use generally for that issue lol.

[Blacktree]

Originally Posted by ps2fixer

I noticed on my dad's RX300 that the windows have an almost mirror like look to the surface. Not sure what that is exactly, but it seems to shed away the heat fairly well and inside the car it doesn't seem to be tinted too much, but don't know what % it would be.

Probably metallic tint.

Anyway, there's been a plot twist. Remember when I said temperatures won't go below 90*F for the rest of the season? Well, we just had a cool spell... or at least, cool by Florida standards. So I haven't been using the A/C. That's great for mpg, but not so great for data.

I want to make sure the change in seasons doesn't skew the before & after data for the wheel covers. So I need to do a few fillups during the summer heat, before installing the pizza pans. If I install them now, summer will be in full swing before the mpg test is over, and that'll skew the results.

Meanwhile, the "real" project car (the BMW) is almost ready for the big suspension overhaul. So the pizza pan install might get pushed back til later this summer. That's unfortunate, but I have to budget my time.

[Phase]

Originally Posted by Blacktree

Probably metallic tint.

Anyway, there's been a plot twist. Remember when I said temperatures won't go below 90*F for the rest of the season? Well, we just had a cool spell... or at least, cool by Florida standards. So I haven't been using the A/C. That's great for mpg, but not so great for data.

I want to make sure the change in seasons doesn't skew the before & after data for the wheel covers. So I need to do a few fillups during the summer heat, before installing the pizza pans. If I install them now, summer will be in full swing before the mpg test is over, and that'll skew the results.

Meanwhile, the "real" project car (the BMW) is almost ready for the big suspension overhaul. So the pizza pan install might get pushed back til later this summer. That's unfortunate, but I have to budget my time.

I always use the ac down in Florida. Ac is also a dehumidifier technically. And that Florida humidity is brutal

[ps2fixer]

Yea, that's one of the main reasons I used it on the way home today after helping a guy do some farm type work. 75F and 45mph I got about 48mpg, same trip in the past was 56mpg with no ac. Roughly 20% increase in fuel usage for me, but I guess I have the AC turned up too much lol, it was full fan speed for most of the trip, I started with the windows down to let the hot air out. Car is white so it doesn't get crazy hot inside either.

I also recently read that the AC pump can draw up to about 10 amps from the hybrid battery, at 202v that's 2020w, just what I read online though, so no proof or anything. That's about 2.7hp which seems to make sense and that's drawing off the battery, not counting the inverter and charging losses, so will have to add 10-20% to that figure for the actual draw on the engine and probably a bit more for the charge/discharge cycle on the battery.

[Blacktree]

Originally Posted by Phase

I always use the ac down in Florida. Ac is also a dehumidifier technically. And that Florida humidity is brutal

That's true, especially in the summer. Even if the temperature is bearable, the humidity can still make you feel "icky".

Also, the 90*F temperatures are back. No surprise there. I was able to average ~60 mpg the last couple days, with the A/C running. I'm not sure how much of that was the driving environment, and how much was me. But I set the temperature a little higher (78*F). That's the warmest it can get, before I start to sweat. And I noticed the A/C pump cycling off every so often. With the temp set to 75, the pump seemed to run continuously. This will probably vary depending on ambient temperature.

My strategy was a 3-step procedure:
1) Drive for a minute with the windows open, to expel the hot air.
2) Roll up the windows and turn the A/C to max, with the fan on medium/high.
3) After a few minutes, bump up the temperature and turn down the fan speed.

The idea was to remove excess heat and humidity quickly, then run the A/C just enough to maintain it. Obviously, that won't work for short trips. But if you're going to be driving for extended periods (like I do), it might help.

Edit to add: I wonder if adding insulation would make a noticeable impact on HVAC efficiency. When I removed the door skins to replace the front speakers, there was basically no insulation in the doors. I wonder if the roof has any insulation?