Overnight Air Conditioning

[Garth Aspinall]

I have a 2017 RAV 4 EXCEL AWD Hybrid. I have built a removable bed platform in my RAV 4 and have been wondering what extra steps I might take to keep warm when sleeping overnight. Can anyone advise me if it would be at all feasible and safe to keep the aircon operating overnight at my chosen temperature? And if so, how many hours could the traction Battery provide. 

[Catlover]

Not too long on hybrid Battery I would think, then the petrol engine would need to kick in to build up energy in the Battery, but importantly to put heat into the system for you to gain benefit from. To me, not viable at all.

[PeteB]

1 hour ago, Garth Aspinall said:

...Can anyone advise me if it would be at all feasible and safe to keep the aircon operating overnight at my chosen temperature? And if so, how many hours could the traction battery provide. 

I once had occasion to sleep in a Gen 3 Prius all night on a cold winter night (don't ask!).  I just reclined the seat, set the climate control to a comfortable temperature, left fully auto, car in READY mode, no problems.  The engine ran for a few minutes about 3 times an hour (partly to keep the car warm) and next time I filled up there wasn't even a discernible drop in the fuel economy!  It kept the HV Battery topped up to 6/7 bars all night too.

The Gen 3 Prius engine ran pretty quietly when it came on, didn't disturb me and I wasn't near enough to any buildings to disturb other people.  For some reason the 4th Gen Prius ran the engine slightly more aggressively, as does my current 5th Gen RAV4.  It makes a little bit more noise and the vibration is slightly more noticeable, but I don't find it a problem.

On a warm night using (electric) aircon to keep the temperature lower, the engine will come on roughly the same amount, each time the Battery gets down to about 3 bars.

One annoying thing with recent generations of Toyota with auto headlights and no means of disabling them mans the lights would be on all the time (but not quite so bad on side lights).  At least it's possible to turn off the infotainment screen, somewhere in the settings.

[Gerg]

I do understand that you are referring to a RAV4, not a Prius, but this article is quite interesting, even if not completely relevant to a RAV4 owner.

https://www.rosipov.com/blog/urban-prius-living/

Unless you have a lot of spare time coming up, try not to google ' Prius camping'.  There is a lot to get stuck into!

[Garth Aspinall]

Thanks Gerg

very helpful