Lexus & Human Comfort.

[wwest]

Averaged 23.3MPG 500 mile round trip Seattle to/from Portland. 01 AWD RX300, 235/65-r17, A/C disabled, 87 octane.

On the return trip from Portland the OAT varied from 43F to 45F, it was overcast and raining lightly the whole way.

Upon leaving Portland the climate control was set to 72F and fully automatic. within 20 to 30 miles the cabin had apparently reached 72F as the system automatically switched to cooling mode.

My wife and I were both discomforted by the cool airflow to our faces so I switched the system to footwell only. I can only imagine how much more discomforting it would have been were it "cool" and DRY airflow due to the dehumdification cycle of the A/C were it operational.

By now the blower speed was at the lowest icon mark and we were both feeling fairly "chill" althought I am quite comfortably certain the cabin atmosphere was at 72F.

Turning the heat up to 75F definitely increased our comfort level until the cabin air reached the new setpoint at which time the blower went back to low flow mode.

After experimenting a bit I came to the conclusion that the best settings, wherein we were both most comfortable, was with the blower only one notch below maximum on the icon display, the setpoint still at 75F, and the airflow distribution set for footwell and partial defrost/defog/demist.

At these settings the footwell airflow temperature was about 115F, the windshield airflow was 72F.

AND.

I WAS MISTAKEN.

Apparently warming airflow can to some extent greatly overcome the chill the human body feels from radiant cooling (the lack of otherwise normal radiant heating, really.) on a cold sunless winter day.