Any hypermilers here?

[kenny]

Am I the only one?

A hypermiler is someone who drastically changes how they drive their car (any car, not just hybrids) to maximixe their mileage.

There is a man, Wayne Gerdes, who gets 60 MPG out of a regular Honda Accord (not a hybrid).
EPA rates his car around 25 MPG.

 

[hisdiamondgirl]

Wow! I would do it if I knew how!

 

[kenny]

It's easy.
There are a zillion things you can do, some obvious some not, some have a huge impact on your MPG and some minor.
But if you do many of them it really adds up.

You can google hypermiling tips.

One thing that surprised me is you not only do not need a hybrid car (I have one) but I've learned that to get best MPG I actual avoid using the hybridness of my car.

When you use the brakes hybrid cars convert kinetic energy (mass moving) into electrical energy and store it for later use.
That's good but the bad part is you can only recover around 30% of the energy.
That means you waste 70%.
(In a regular car you waste 100% of the kinetic energy when you use the brakes.)
I'd rather waste zero.
Here's how. . .

Avoid using your brakes.
Once you have used the gas to get up to speed go as far as possible on that momentum.

That means not tailgating, actually it means leaving as much room as possible in front of you.
Ease off the gas when you see a red light 3 blocks ahead so it is green when you get to it.

That kind of stuff made my MPG go from the 50s into the 60s, and you don't even need a hybrid to do these things.

Again, drive as if you brakes have failed.
Avoid getting up to a speed or getting so close that you could not coast safely to a stop.

And another thing.
Discover the natural coasting rate of your car.
In a safe place get up to speed and shift into neutral.
The car will gradually slow down.
You want to copy this rate when you do need to slow down.
If you just lift your foot off the gas you will be using the engine to slow you down, which ironically uses more gas.

 

[Callisto]

Date: 12/15/2009 2:32:30 PM
Author: kenny

Discover the natural coasting rate of your car.

In a safe place get up to speed and shift into neutral.

The car will gradually slow down.

You want to copy this rate when you do need to slow down.

If you just lift your foot off the gas you will be using the engine to slow you down, which ironically uses more gas.

Neat, I try to do a lot of those things anyways. But I''m not sure I understand the last part of your post. How do you copy the natural coasting rate?

 

[kenny]

Date: 12/15/2009 2:40:08 PM
Author: Callisto
Neat, I try to do a lot of those things anyways. But I'm not sure I understand the last part of your post. How do you copy the natural coasting rate?

Well the point is to use minimum gas even when you do need to slow down.
If you have an automatic transmission and are in D and lift your foot off the accelerator but do not apply the brake you car will use the compression of the engine to slow the car down.
This uses gas on many cars.

So you are actually using gas to speed up AND to slow down.
Not good.

You can use less gas when you have to gradually slow down by "feathering" the gas pedal.
That means lifting ever so slightly so you are neither telling the engine to help the car go faster OR slower.
If you do this well neither the engine or the brakes are slowing you down you will be slowed down by friction with air and the road surface.

This slowing down rate is hard to judge.
You can find this rate by, as I wrote before, getting up to speed in a safe place and putting the car in neutral, do not touch the gas or brake pedals.
You will coast and slow down.
Pay attention to this rate and try to copy it while you are driving and need to slow down with the car.
The idea is to leave the transmission in D but ease up on the gas pedal to copy the coasting slow down rate.

By now this is second nature for me.

Does that make sense?

 

[Haven]

This is really interesting.

I do small things to get better gas mileage, such as accelerating slowly rather than hitting the gas, and then coasting to a stop rather than speeding up and then hitting the brakes.

DH doesn''t do any of these things. We both bought our cars at the same time, they''re the same make and model, yet he averages 26 mpg and I average 32. It''s not a huge difference, but it makes a difference!

I''m going to read up on hypermiling now, Kenny. Thanks for the info!

 

[Callisto]

Date: 12/15/2009 2:48:16 PM
Author: kenny

Date: 12/15/2009 2:40:08 PM

Author: Callisto

Neat, I try to do a lot of those things anyways. But I''m not sure I understand the last part of your post. How do you copy the natural coasting rate?

Well the point is to use minimum gas even when you do need to slow down.

If you have an automatic transmission and are in D and lift your foot off the accelerator but do not apply the brake you car will use the compression of the engine to slow the car down.

This uses gas on many cars.


So you are actually using gas to speed up AND to slow down.

Not good.


You can use less gas when you have to gradually slow down by ''feathering'' the gas pedal.

That means lifting ever so slightly so you are neither telling the engine to help the car go faster OR slower.

If you do this well neither the engine or the brakes are slowing you down you will be slowed down by friction with air and the road surface.


This slowing down rate is hard to judge.

You can find this rate by, as I wrote before, getting up to speed in a safe place and putting the car in neutral, do not touch the gas or brake pedals.

You will coast and slow down.

Pay attention to this rate and try to copy it while you are driving and need to slow down with the car.

The idea is to leave the transmission in D but ease up on the gas pedal to copy the coasting slow down rate.


By now this is second nature for me.


Does that make sense?

Yeah thanks for clarifying. I''ll have to try that. SO loves coasting to save gas but I''ll have to educate him on how to do it properly.

 

[kenny]

I''m on my third hybrid car.
My partner now drives the 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid that I drove for 4 years.

I averaged 62 MPG.
He averages 42 MPG.

Same car.

 

[kenny]

Date: 12/15/2009 2:57:08 PM
Author: Callisto

Yeah thanks for clarifying. I'll have to try that. SO loves coasting to save gas but I'll have to educate him on how to do it properly.[/quote]

Well, just lifting the foot off the gas is not coasting.
Putting it into neutral is coasting, but I suspect doing this all the time is much more wear and tear on the car.

Also, I'll add the next level of info on this topic.
Some cars (even if they are not hybrids) are smart enough to stop sending gas to the engine when the foot is lifted from the gas pedal- but now the wheels are turning the engine which adds some drag to help you slow down.
So you may think - oh then if I have that kind of car doing this new technique won't save gas.
Not true.
Discovering that natural coasting rate will take you farther on the gas you already used to get up to speed.

Now with a hybrid, when you fully lift your foot from the gas pedal the car connects the wheels to a generator.
This generates electricity and the added load of having to turn that generator helps slow down the car.

You'd think I would want that to happen - but I don't.
Again the hybrid system can only recover 30% of the energy, which means 70% is wasted.
I want to waste 0% and will do so if I find that natural coasting rate (that does not allow my car to go into charging mode).
Since I am not loading the wheels down with the generator I'll go farther on the gas I used to get up to speed. (Hence higher MPG.)

It is a different way of thinking but I can't argue with MPG in the 60s.

 

[Karl_K]

In my town you would have a pickup bumper in your back seat doing that.

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Kenny,
Do you regularly drive through a city? I'm just curious because this seems tricky in a city like Philly.

I have yet to ever own a car

I'm a fan of public transport, bikes, and old fashioned urban hiking. But I live in a big city so I can get away with not driving.

 

[kenny]

Yes, I drive in a big city, the Los Angeles basin.

I do try to factor in being considerate too.
Whenever possible I pull into another lane to let normal drivers by.

Say, we are waiting at a red light and I'm the front car in the right lane.
If there is a bus stop across the street I'll creep into it to give cars behind me the opportunity to pass.

On the freeway I'm usually keep it at 50 MPH in the right lane, which in LA is often going slower than 50.

Also when I first got the car people would tailgate and flash their lights.
The day I got my personalized license plates 95% of that stopped because people realize I'm not on the phone or reading the newspaper, I'm just slow on purpose.
People immediately pull around me when they read the plate.
The plate says something like:

GOINSLO
RELAXN
SIPNGAS
PASSME

But an essential factor in hypermiling IS accepting that others won't like it - but there is always a lane to the left of me they can use.
If it is a one-lane road I will compromise and speed up to a degree.
IF you have to make other drivers happy all the time you will NOT get great gas mileage.

 

[Mrs Mitchell]

I drove to hospital in labour behind someone who I suspect was doing this. Single lane all the way, busy traffic, no means of passing. By the third contraction, I was all for abandonning the hospital destination and following him to wherever he stopped, without reference to my pacifist principles...

 

[kenny]

Date: 12/16/2009 5:03:37 AM
Author: Mrs Mitchell
I drove to hospital in labour behind someone who I suspect was doing this. Single lane all the way, busy traffic, no means of passing. By the third contraction, I was all for abandonning the hospital destination and following him to wherever he stopped, without reference to my pacifist principles...

Yes that's awful.
Single lanes certainly call for more courtesy to those behind us.

Funny you bring up pacifism.
I also have pacifist feelings, in fact that is a big reason I want to use less gas.
I sincerely believe the US is in the middle east for oil because we have gotten used to living as if there is an unlimited cheap supply.
Our sons and daughters are literally dying so we can drive huge vehicles like race car drivers.

Our priority has been getting there as fast as possible.
My priority is getting there on as little gas as possible.

 

[Mrs Mitchell]

An aim which I applaud. However, if you live on the main route to any maternity hospital, please use public transport.

Actually, I was thinking about you today when I was driving. I get 74mpg out of my (diesel) car, and I was actively trying to improve that. I made myself a little crazy and I will take the train tomorrow haha.