Anybody own a Prius? Is this true?

[jasonh300]

@Tastes_of_Chocolate

A gas or diesel car uses waste heat, from burning the fuel, to heat the cabin. You blow air across a hot part of the engine, and look, it’s free heat. An engine running off of a battery doesn’t have waste combustion heat.

With the exception of air-cooled cars (old style VW Beetle for example), cars are heated by the hot water running through the car’s cooling system. The hot water is piped into a heater core–essentially another radiator inside the car, and air is blown through and comes out hot.

Hybrids work the same way. The gasoline engine has to warm up a bit to get the heater to work.

The only experience I had with a hybrid was that in cold weather, when you turned the heater on, the gasoline engine kicked in until there was hot water to produce heat.

As someone posted above, there may be an electric heater to supplement the regular heating system, which would be especially helpful for defrosting or de-icing the windshield. But that has been a feature in some cars for decades too.

[GaryM]

Here’s one explanation of what a positive temperature coefficient heater is.

[thelabdude]

Thanks Gary.

[Voyager]

@Johnny_L.A

Indeed, mileage decreases during Winter months. (Data from my vehicle.)

In California at least the gas used during the winter is a different formulation which gives worse mileage. I saw an increase in mpg the very week we switched. It just doesn’t get cold enough in the Bay Area for temperature to be a reason.

And ditto everyone else. My Prius’s defrost is very fast, as is the a/c especially when it is in on automatic and chooses the fan speed to use. Much better than my old Saturn.