But, oh, the way back...
105 mpg over about 6.7 miles of net downhill. I was at 120-130 mpg most of the time near the end, but had to get back up some hills to get home.
80 mpg or so roundtrip.
Showing posts with label trip record. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trip record. Show all posts
Friday, June 10, 2011
64.5 mpg + 105 mpg = 80 mpg roundtrip
I had to do a devilishly short trip of about 6.5 miles for Chinese food (don't ask) that typically involves driving uphill on the highway. Ordinarily you'd get in the mid 40 mpgs even with careful driving. Luckily my engine was warm, I got into S4 within maybe 20-30 seconds of the engine turning on. I was in no rush, so I took the little backroads to cut down on highway driving, and only had to take it a little ways. Primarily uphill, but managed 64.5 mpg on the way there over about 6.5 miles.
But, oh, the way back...
105 mpg over about 6.7 miles of net downhill. I was at 120-130 mpg most of the time near the end, but had to get back up some hills to get home.
80 mpg or so roundtrip.
But, oh, the way back...
105 mpg over about 6.7 miles of net downhill. I was at 120-130 mpg most of the time near the end, but had to get back up some hills to get home.
80 mpg or so roundtrip.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Killer mileage
41.1 miles, mostly pulse and glide, Scangauge very conservative. MFD would read around 86 for this result. I got redirected twice cause of Memorial Day celebrations, hard to believe it would have been higher without the slowing and accelerating for low-speed detours.
In case you're wondering, the Prius display is showing the average over the last three tanks, doesn't reflect the craziness that is the current tank.
One of the main things I did, just like the previous day to Boston, was to have relatively long, gentle accelerations that would go with the terrain. This would allow me to keep the state of charge as high as possible (I basically had 6 blue bars all the time, would try not to dip below 58% SOC). This might mean the engine is on longer, but if you can go up a gentle uphill at 30 mph getting 40-50 mpg and simultaneously charging the battery, I don't see how it can be beat from a daily driving, practical standpoint.
Interesting thing about that - now that I'm "trained" with a Scangauge, I frankly don't need it once I'm in stage 4. Everything I did today could be done without it. I will keep it, however, to know when the coolant reaches that magic 157°F :-)
Beantown
Boston and back. It was a long but rewarding trip. I was coming from work, even farther from the city than home, so I drove about 77 miles, almost all on back roads. I took the highway for a small portion where I knew the speeds were quite slow around Providence, so I could go 50 mph safely in the right lane.
The start, averaged about 75 before getting on the highway:
I knew I'd lose a little, but 9 miles at 50 mph versus 25 mph would be a nice little chunk of saved time. I only got down to 71.8 mpg or so after that stretch, and quickly bounced back up near 75. But then the streetlights came - lots of red ones. See the couple bars on the left? There were more like them:
Somehow bounced back to 74 for the trip - helps that the last bit of Washington Street/South Street is downhill, I could make sure the SOC was decent enough (actually was in 60s at end, even with all the pulsing and gliding!) for the final crawl up Huntington.
Wentworth had a good view of the city all day.
Hanging out.
Awesome day of hanging out and eating Ethiopian food with my sister and some friends. Wish I had more than a cell phone cam for stuff like this, but check out the sailboat in the Christian Science Center reflecting pool.
The start, averaged about 75 before getting on the highway:
I knew I'd lose a little, but 9 miles at 50 mph versus 25 mph would be a nice little chunk of saved time. I only got down to 71.8 mpg or so after that stretch, and quickly bounced back up near 75. But then the streetlights came - lots of red ones. See the couple bars on the left? There were more like them:
Somehow bounced back to 74 for the trip - helps that the last bit of Washington Street/South Street is downhill, I could make sure the SOC was decent enough (actually was in 60s at end, even with all the pulsing and gliding!) for the final crawl up Huntington.
Wentworth had a good view of the city all day.
Hanging out.
Awesome day of hanging out and eating Ethiopian food with my sister and some friends. Wish I had more than a cell phone cam for stuff like this, but check out the sailboat in the Christian Science Center reflecting pool.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
There's no right way to drive the thing - trip record to work
68.3 real mpg at the least from the Scangauge (this would read about 72.7 mpg on my Prius' display) over about 27 miles.
I am insanely ecstatic at this result. This route, even with warm temperatures in the past few months, always presented me with mileage challenges I couldn't quite meet. It would be common to see 60 mpg on the display, if I even got that high. High 50s were commonplace and a struggle. Hills galore, and most of it over the threshold for a Prius glide - the engine runs most of the time on this route.
The "discovery", or rather what others have known for a long time but which can only be found out through personal experimentation, is that there's no "correct" way to do it all. There's no one highway technique, and there's no one RPM or kilowatt setting at which you accelerate. I used Super Highway Mode and Warp Stealth, hard accelerations and light accelerations, no EV and some EV, all depending where I felt it was needed.
In some cases I accelerated much more lightly during pulse and glide. I've always *guessed* (though can't prove - anyone??) that turning the engine on and jumping directly to a good burn at 1600-1800 RPM can waste some energy. You know, when you hit the gas and you see instant numbers in the teens, then twenties, maybe if you're lucky 30 mpg by the end? At the beginning you just hear the engine rev on and get no torque - just seems like gas blasted into nowhere. So today I would turn it on gently, and aim for, let's say, 30 mpg (light engine, in other words) for the length of two telephone poles, and then try to glide for at least 6 more, for segment mileage of 120 mpg. The result was that my first 20 minutes looked like this one from the other day, even though today I was driving in rush hour, and the picture you just saw was from empty roads on a Sunday morning.
This also counteracts the nasty habit of hard accelerations in pulse and glide to slowly drain the battery (longer glide time = more battery use), until your accelerations are wasted giving 15 or even 20 amps to the battery. Higher state of charge, better mileage - what's next, free apple pie for Prius owners? :-)
---------------
EDIT from the next day:
Another awesome run on a totally different trip using same ideas. I've never done anything like this. 75.8 mpg over 20 miles, which would have read over 80 on the display!
I am insanely ecstatic at this result. This route, even with warm temperatures in the past few months, always presented me with mileage challenges I couldn't quite meet. It would be common to see 60 mpg on the display, if I even got that high. High 50s were commonplace and a struggle. Hills galore, and most of it over the threshold for a Prius glide - the engine runs most of the time on this route.
The "discovery", or rather what others have known for a long time but which can only be found out through personal experimentation, is that there's no "correct" way to do it all. There's no one highway technique, and there's no one RPM or kilowatt setting at which you accelerate. I used Super Highway Mode and Warp Stealth, hard accelerations and light accelerations, no EV and some EV, all depending where I felt it was needed.
In some cases I accelerated much more lightly during pulse and glide. I've always *guessed* (though can't prove - anyone??) that turning the engine on and jumping directly to a good burn at 1600-1800 RPM can waste some energy. You know, when you hit the gas and you see instant numbers in the teens, then twenties, maybe if you're lucky 30 mpg by the end? At the beginning you just hear the engine rev on and get no torque - just seems like gas blasted into nowhere. So today I would turn it on gently, and aim for, let's say, 30 mpg (light engine, in other words) for the length of two telephone poles, and then try to glide for at least 6 more, for segment mileage of 120 mpg. The result was that my first 20 minutes looked like this one from the other day, even though today I was driving in rush hour, and the picture you just saw was from empty roads on a Sunday morning.
This also counteracts the nasty habit of hard accelerations in pulse and glide to slowly drain the battery (longer glide time = more battery use), until your accelerations are wasted giving 15 or even 20 amps to the battery. Higher state of charge, better mileage - what's next, free apple pie for Prius owners? :-)
---------------
EDIT from the next day:
Another awesome run on a totally different trip using same ideas. I've never done anything like this. 75.8 mpg over 20 miles, which would have read over 80 on the display!
Friday, April 29, 2011
Trip record from URI, 72.4 mpg
This post is less for public consumption, more for me to keep track of trip records on one of my favorite routes and give myself some helpful notes for the future. Great route, so many driving challenges, fun and interesting ride.
-Outside temps mid to high 60s.
-Engine coolant started around 80 something° F, lower than previous record.
-Grill blocked for first several miles, took out at stop sign for rest of trip.
-Stage 4 later than previous record.
-69.4 mpg at end of Saug. Previous was 72.0.
-Biggest change: tried to maintain 15 kW at all accelerations even at low speeds, no babying the engine. This seems to have given me better mileage over latter half.
-Was able to be going a couple mph at tough uphill light before start, but then was stopped at the next one still uphill. Also stopped behind a school bus (kept rolling probably 10 mph) and used engine much more to pass the bus to avoid future stops. One or two more traffic light stops.
-End result 72.4 mpg on dialed down Scangauge, 71.1 mpg previous record.
EDIT: Next day, I got 72.3 mpg on same route. Remember, this is the dialed down, relatively accurate Scangauge, not the overestimating display. Thing was, I got stopped at basically every single stop light. Outside temps were actually 10°F cooler than yesterday. The change from yesterday was that I always accelerated at 15 kW, even at the start of the trip (yesterday I started trying it halfway through). Easily would have been over 75 mpg if I didn't stop and start 6 times, including the big uphill light. Ended with much higher state of charge, too. Absolutely incredible, this maximum torque thing...
-Outside temps mid to high 60s.
-Engine coolant started around 80 something° F, lower than previous record.
-Grill blocked for first several miles, took out at stop sign for rest of trip.
-Stage 4 later than previous record.
-69.4 mpg at end of Saug. Previous was 72.0.
-Biggest change: tried to maintain 15 kW at all accelerations even at low speeds, no babying the engine. This seems to have given me better mileage over latter half.
-Was able to be going a couple mph at tough uphill light before start, but then was stopped at the next one still uphill. Also stopped behind a school bus (kept rolling probably 10 mph) and used engine much more to pass the bus to avoid future stops. One or two more traffic light stops.
-End result 72.4 mpg on dialed down Scangauge, 71.1 mpg previous record.
EDIT: Next day, I got 72.3 mpg on same route. Remember, this is the dialed down, relatively accurate Scangauge, not the overestimating display. Thing was, I got stopped at basically every single stop light. Outside temps were actually 10°F cooler than yesterday. The change from yesterday was that I always accelerated at 15 kW, even at the start of the trip (yesterday I started trying it halfway through). Easily would have been over 75 mpg if I didn't stop and start 6 times, including the big uphill light. Ended with much higher state of charge, too. Absolutely incredible, this maximum torque thing...
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Fill-up, Tuesday, April 12, 2011
478.1 miles
7.567 gallons
$3.639/gallon
63.18 mpg
3.72 L/100km
Wentworth's complete fueling history
Understanding the numbers
You may be wondering why I "only" get low 60 mpgs or high 50 mpgs on my tanks when all my mileage pictures seem to be easily up in the 60s or 70s (well, at least I was wondering!). While I have lots of nice shorter trips, my other, longer commutes involve a series of hills and hard accelerations, as well as lengthy periods over the Prius glide threshold of 42 mph. One route I take twice a week is apparently net uphill, and while I can usually maintain 60 true mpg (as opposed to optimistic Prius display mpg) on the first leg of the trip, it can be tricky. The way back I can often get mpg of 62-66 mpg fairly easily, despite those same hills in reverse, and 21 stop lights to contend with once I get off the higher speed portion of the trip.
I also have a series of short trips for work that are unavoidable. I've estimated before that over the course of two weeks, they knock off a small 2 mpg or so from the tank. Not a big deal, but just enough to drag you down to 60 or below.
Three times a week when I leave the house, I head south - directly toward a huge hill that means I never get better than 25 mpg during the first five minutes, which kills the mileage for the trip from the get go. On these trips of 27 miles I use nearly 20% of my gas for the trip in the first 2 miles!
And of course, once or twice a tank you get crappy weather, and all the pulsing and gliding in the world won't save you from the wind and rain. At the beginning of this tank I had a miserable 55.8 mpg displayed (so probably 53-54 mpg in real life) over my longer distance commute in a delightful little bout of wind and rain Mother Nature had sent our way.
Trip o' the week
I loved this trip. Yes, I've gotten and can get better mileage on other trips, like the short trips where I just glide and EV most of the time, but this one is the most satisfying, since it's not at all pure pulse and glide land - half the trip is too fast for gliding anyway. There are hard accelerations from 0 to 50 mph, hills to climb from a standstill, some 2400+ RPM spots (pedal to the metal! well, not really, but maximum desirable warp, let's say) and after all that, the dreaded 21 stop lights.
The previous trip record for this particular route by the Prius display was 73.3 mpg. I knew I was likely going to break it right from the start. My coolant was still warm from the drive over, so I got into stage 3 very quickly and was able to glide/EV within a couple minutes of starting up. I waved a tailgating wench around me at a stop sign (no accusations of the Prius holding up traffic - I was already going 10 mph over the speed limit leading up to it), and warp neutraled it down a slight hill. At the next stop sign I did my new favorite routine, which is forcing the gas engine on to get to stage 4. After the engine turned off, on I went.
At the end of a road where I usually end up with mpg in the 60s, I was greeted with this:
Nice! The mileage wasn't going to stay there for long, since just after taking the picture, I had to accelerate from 0-50 mph quickly, and uphill. Soon followed another 0-50 acceleration (I had more time on this one and went EV until 20 mph). As soon as I'm up to speed, there's this great slight uphill that I can maintain 50 mph on getting 50 mpg. All the other cars on the incline around me were surely getting about 20 mpg or worse at that point - which is why every car should have an mpg display, but I digress :-)
Warp stealth, hill, warp stealth, hill, warp stealth, bridge, warp stealth, some burn and gliding as speed limit goes down to 40 mph. I slow to a stop to pay a toll - record mpg as of this point in the trip, nice!
Then 4 to 38 mph acceleration up a bridge, the killer - 2500 RPM to keep speed, then I was able to ease up to 2000 RPM somehow for the upper half, losing speed slightly.
After the downside of the bridge, I'm back to the 21 stoplight part of my drive. I remembered from the record in February that I got very lucky with all green lights, and realized that they would be the deciding factor. Things were going OK until one spot where I needed the ICE for safety where I would normally glide, and then got stuck at a complete stop at the worst light of the entire commute. It's halfway up a relatively steep slope, and I'm the first one in line, meaning a brisk acceleration will be needed uphill. I climb the hill at the green light, and try not to shudder seeing the numbers - 4 mpg, 5 mpg, 6 mpg (did you even know a Prius could get that low?? :-D). It shaved a ton of the average, and I was now slightly below where I had been the last time at this point.
I managed to scoot through the second to worst light (before an uphill) while it was yellow, salvaging the trip, and while I had to slow at other ones, only got completely stopped at one more.
Toward the end of the trip I went to town using EV where I would normally need the ICE, and it worked. Barely beat the record. 73.8 mpg display, Scanguage a more realistic 71.1.
The awesome part is seeing the improvement you've made hypermiling. I got stopped at two more stoplights than the last time, including the huge uphill one, and still managed to beat the record. Very happy!
7.567 gallons
$3.639/gallon
63.18 mpg
3.72 L/100km
Wentworth's complete fueling history
Understanding the numbers
You may be wondering why I "only" get low 60 mpgs or high 50 mpgs on my tanks when all my mileage pictures seem to be easily up in the 60s or 70s (well, at least I was wondering!). While I have lots of nice shorter trips, my other, longer commutes involve a series of hills and hard accelerations, as well as lengthy periods over the Prius glide threshold of 42 mph. One route I take twice a week is apparently net uphill, and while I can usually maintain 60 true mpg (as opposed to optimistic Prius display mpg) on the first leg of the trip, it can be tricky. The way back I can often get mpg of 62-66 mpg fairly easily, despite those same hills in reverse, and 21 stop lights to contend with once I get off the higher speed portion of the trip.
I also have a series of short trips for work that are unavoidable. I've estimated before that over the course of two weeks, they knock off a small 2 mpg or so from the tank. Not a big deal, but just enough to drag you down to 60 or below.
Three times a week when I leave the house, I head south - directly toward a huge hill that means I never get better than 25 mpg during the first five minutes, which kills the mileage for the trip from the get go. On these trips of 27 miles I use nearly 20% of my gas for the trip in the first 2 miles!
And of course, once or twice a tank you get crappy weather, and all the pulsing and gliding in the world won't save you from the wind and rain. At the beginning of this tank I had a miserable 55.8 mpg displayed (so probably 53-54 mpg in real life) over my longer distance commute in a delightful little bout of wind and rain Mother Nature had sent our way.
Trip o' the week
I loved this trip. Yes, I've gotten and can get better mileage on other trips, like the short trips where I just glide and EV most of the time, but this one is the most satisfying, since it's not at all pure pulse and glide land - half the trip is too fast for gliding anyway. There are hard accelerations from 0 to 50 mph, hills to climb from a standstill, some 2400+ RPM spots (pedal to the metal! well, not really, but maximum desirable warp, let's say) and after all that, the dreaded 21 stop lights.
The previous trip record for this particular route by the Prius display was 73.3 mpg. I knew I was likely going to break it right from the start. My coolant was still warm from the drive over, so I got into stage 3 very quickly and was able to glide/EV within a couple minutes of starting up. I waved a tailgating wench around me at a stop sign (no accusations of the Prius holding up traffic - I was already going 10 mph over the speed limit leading up to it), and warp neutraled it down a slight hill. At the next stop sign I did my new favorite routine, which is forcing the gas engine on to get to stage 4. After the engine turned off, on I went.
At the end of a road where I usually end up with mpg in the 60s, I was greeted with this:
Nice! The mileage wasn't going to stay there for long, since just after taking the picture, I had to accelerate from 0-50 mph quickly, and uphill. Soon followed another 0-50 acceleration (I had more time on this one and went EV until 20 mph). As soon as I'm up to speed, there's this great slight uphill that I can maintain 50 mph on getting 50 mpg. All the other cars on the incline around me were surely getting about 20 mpg or worse at that point - which is why every car should have an mpg display, but I digress :-)
Warp stealth, hill, warp stealth, hill, warp stealth, bridge, warp stealth, some burn and gliding as speed limit goes down to 40 mph. I slow to a stop to pay a toll - record mpg as of this point in the trip, nice!
Then 4 to 38 mph acceleration up a bridge, the killer - 2500 RPM to keep speed, then I was able to ease up to 2000 RPM somehow for the upper half, losing speed slightly.
After the downside of the bridge, I'm back to the 21 stoplight part of my drive. I remembered from the record in February that I got very lucky with all green lights, and realized that they would be the deciding factor. Things were going OK until one spot where I needed the ICE for safety where I would normally glide, and then got stuck at a complete stop at the worst light of the entire commute. It's halfway up a relatively steep slope, and I'm the first one in line, meaning a brisk acceleration will be needed uphill. I climb the hill at the green light, and try not to shudder seeing the numbers - 4 mpg, 5 mpg, 6 mpg (did you even know a Prius could get that low?? :-D). It shaved a ton of the average, and I was now slightly below where I had been the last time at this point.
I managed to scoot through the second to worst light (before an uphill) while it was yellow, salvaging the trip, and while I had to slow at other ones, only got completely stopped at one more.
Toward the end of the trip I went to town using EV where I would normally need the ICE, and it worked. Barely beat the record. 73.8 mpg display, Scanguage a more realistic 71.1.
The awesome part is seeing the improvement you've made hypermiling. I got stopped at two more stoplights than the last time, including the huge uphill one, and still managed to beat the record. Very happy!
Monday, February 14, 2011
"Oh, yeah!!" -Kool-Aid guy
NICE! Warm weather apparently does wonders. Displayed mileage of 73.3 mpg over 27-mile hilly route.
I even stopped on the way home at the Toyota dealer where I bought it to show them (it was at a red light anyway...) since I knew the numbers would be staggering at the end of the trip.
I even stopped on the way home at the Toyota dealer where I bought it to show them (it was at a red light anyway...) since I knew the numbers would be staggering at the end of the trip.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Wentworth's working hard in the cold
After my post on Monday about short trips and killing kittens, I decided to calculate the potential hit for my own routes. I took mpg samples on my Tuesday and Wednesday obligatory short trips, and was pleasantly surprised. While it's certainly no fun to see each of these trips individually (one of 1.1 miles netted me 30.1 display, ouch!), the fact that I'm apparently able keep the average mileage during all of the week's short trips to about 46.2 displayed mpg (so likely about 44 mpg in real life) means that it won't drag me too far down from 60.
In fact, on a tank spanning two weeks, and thus two Tuesday/Wednesday combos of short trips, I would only have to get slightly above 62 mpg on all my other 433.8 miles to still get about 60 mpg, even with the 46.2 miles of 44 mpg (you can see I'm aiming to fill up about 8 gallons. 433.8 miles + 46.2 miles = 480 miles). On tanks like this week, where I have to drive more than usual, I may only hit Tuesday/Wednesday once on the tank, and I only need a little over 61 mpg on the other 456.9 miles (480 miles - 23.1 miles of Tuesday/Wednesday combo).
This seems like a tall order, and although I've had a couple of 58 or 60 mpgs displayed on the low end, you can see below I've had a good week overall, setting a couple route records, the latest of which was tonight back from work, at 67.7 mpg displayed in 28°F weather. Looking forward to the fillup results anticipated about Monday the 14th!
67.7 mpg over 12 miles
This one was tough, but got 61.9 mpg on the display over 18 miles. Wentworth wouldn't glide for about 12 minutes, it was so cold out - notice the 19°F in the upper right corner of the screen.
68.3 mpg over 27 hilly miles (I'm getting better with warp stealth!)
66.2 mpg over 20 miles
In fact, on a tank spanning two weeks, and thus two Tuesday/Wednesday combos of short trips, I would only have to get slightly above 62 mpg on all my other 433.8 miles to still get about 60 mpg, even with the 46.2 miles of 44 mpg (you can see I'm aiming to fill up about 8 gallons. 433.8 miles + 46.2 miles = 480 miles). On tanks like this week, where I have to drive more than usual, I may only hit Tuesday/Wednesday once on the tank, and I only need a little over 61 mpg on the other 456.9 miles (480 miles - 23.1 miles of Tuesday/Wednesday combo).
This seems like a tall order, and although I've had a couple of 58 or 60 mpgs displayed on the low end, you can see below I've had a good week overall, setting a couple route records, the latest of which was tonight back from work, at 67.7 mpg displayed in 28°F weather. Looking forward to the fillup results anticipated about Monday the 14th!
This one was tough, but got 61.9 mpg on the display over 18 miles. Wentworth wouldn't glide for about 12 minutes, it was so cold out - notice the 19°F in the upper right corner of the screen.
68.3 mpg over 27 hilly miles (I'm getting better with warp stealth!)
66.2 mpg over 20 miles
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