Hypermiling is saving me money in other ways
 

I'll be honest. I'm a junkie. I love Starbucks. This is not a slam on Starbucks, but I have discovered that if I go their drive-thru, I spend about 5 minutes idling, moving a car length each minute, which means you can't really turn off the engine. Then I spend $2 bucks each trip. Sometimes, I'll go crazy and get a fancy $4 drink.

Since I discovered hypermiling, I have stopped going through drive-thrus altogether. That saves me $10 to $20 a week at Starbuck's alone. I've also stopped making 1 errand trips (4 miles to town, 4 miles back). Now I make a list. And I'm practicing delayed gratification, which is really not part of the modern vocabulary.

I even stopped driving up to my mailbox every night when I come home. I park the car, get out, and actually walk over. Paying attention and cutting out what I call "energy leaks" is really helping.

I'm sure people have posted a lot about modifying driving habits. I thought I'd add my take.

What "energy leaks" have you discovered and how have you solved them?

m

Yup, the morning Starbucks drive-thru routinely sapped about 2 mpg from the efficiency of our truck. But you know what? You can always park the car and go inside. I usually have my coffee in hand before the last person in line at the drive-thru when I arrived has even ordered. That alone makes it worth getting out of the car.

I don't do Starbucks....I'm a slave to my Melita, but I also have eliminated drive-thru's alltogether.

Hypermiling has helped me plug money leaks. I used to go on "errand runs" and have lunch away from the workplace more often.

Knowing that this gives me a real mpg hit, I now have lunch at my desk or in the cafeteria. One time I walked about 15 minutes to a Chinese restaurant. I really avoid lunch hour trips to stores etc., and even avoid stopping on my way home.

I manually turn my car A/C compressor off and on. I turn off lights more than I used to. I try to avoid short trips. But, if there needs to be a short trip, I try to do it in my car (better mileage), and in my wifes car if hers is warm but mine is cold. I avoid drive throughs. I avoid idling while waiting for the wife or kids. I am almost always (safely) drafting someone any time I go over 40 mph, even if it's just a small car.

I think once there is an overall change in the mindset, it's easier to make changes.

I caught myself buckling my seatbelt after starting the car, and making a note to reverse the order in the future.

Me TOO!

Haha! I just started doing that, too! Buckle seatbelt, get settled in, start car and drive forward out of parking space. I always drive through and park facing out now. I'll even park near the parking lot entrance instead of driving around for 5 minutes looking for something closer to the door. And if I can, I park on a place where my headlights are facing downhill. I'm a nut, but I'm having a good time! :p

lol yeah i did that! i never ever turn on the car untill everything is ready.

390 miles so far on my first full tank test in my 06 Corolla and still above the 1/2 tank mark. I found myself getting settled in b4 starting car too as well as not going to fast food places... This has my mindset changing to not waste ANYWHERE.
2 bad side effects to it though:
1. I'm driving my family nuts.
2. I'm "actually" having gas pump withdrawals.
I want to go to the pump and fill up to see how close to 60MPG I'm at right now and have to stop myself.

stay strong my friend stay strong you will get threw this!

wow got a few pointers from this thread. Some I already do though :)

I would have withdrawals too except I tank up every day or two. About 4 gal/day for my commute + my two rehearsals weekly. So I could go three days on a 15 gal capacity tank, but 1-2 days is nice for me.

In my case I have an excuse - my car is too old for a ScanGauge and I don't really want to mess with the injection and speedo wiring to support a SuperMid. Tanking up gives me frequent mpg feedback.

If filling up takes you out of your way then of course there's an FE hit. But in my case my preferred station is right outside my work entrance. There's no significant penalty - in fact I'll sometiems FAS in there with engine off.

My Station is on the way too, but my brother (Who's been laying it on pretty thick with his ultra FE VW Jetta TDI) says that filling up everyday will not show reliable results and that is why my 52.71MPG average doesn't really beat him. So that is why I'm trying out a whole tank. But I'm wondering how I have 390 miles with about 57% of my tank still left? I do not know if it is a myth that the bottom half of the tank goes faster than the top half. If it goes about the same then I am looking to get a little over 830 miles on a 13.2 tank. Which is like 63MPG???? Is this realilistic???

all i know is i fill up every 2-3 days because this is the only way i can afford it. if you fill up more it is easyer to get fe over a shorter time then a long time

mpg_maniac -

I don't think the dials on the console are linear. I do think that you should apply the "GasSavers" rule in the sense that you should have 90 days of gaslogs before you come to a conclusion. That will give you a good way to compare to other GasSavers.

Don't forget that he has more energy content in his diesel fuel, so he should have a handicap :D .

Engineering Conversion Factors
https://astro.berkeley.edu/~wright/fuel_energy.html
Assuming the above holds true :

38.6 / 34.2 = 1.128 => 113% => Diesel has 13% more energy content than gas. Other diesel owners can chime in on this and correct me of I am wrong. If you apply a handicap, there also has to be a correction for emissions.

Anyway, 52 MPG in a 2006 Corolla? WOW. Have you described your commute and strategies in other threads yet?

CarloSW2

Excellent, excellent! Don't go to charbucks, and get some excersize. Perfect.

My commute to work is mostly highway 124 miles round trip. I EOC for about 8-10 miles of that, drive 50-55, keep a steady throttle uphill even if I lose speed, no A/C (Keep a frozen water bottle in between my legs for most of the HOT day trips. But my biggest advantage is probably that there is VERY little if any traffic because I work Noon-7PM.

From what I have learned about my driving and route and after I get a SG2, I think I should average in the high 50's...
I Hope???

mpg_maniac -

Ok, then I will say that you are EOC for 9 miles. Let's play the ratio game to predict your non EOC MPG :

? MPG / 52 MPG = (124 - 9 ) miles / 124 miles = 115 miles / 124 miles

=> ? / 52 = 115 / 124

=> ? MPG = (115/124) * 52 = 48.22 MPG => 48 MPG without EOC.

So I would say that your non-EOC driving techniques and your control over your top speed is allowing you to reach 48 MPG in your Corolla. Great stuff!

But this is just a guess on my part,

CarloSW2

Snax -

I've been that way all my life. It's also healthier for stretching your legs.

I love In N Out burgers, but I won't use the drive-thru. I want to redesign their drive-thrus to have a downhill slope so people could turn their cars off and use the e-brake to move forward.

CarloSW2

That sounds about right. Although I think on my round trips to & from work I can do better then this. I have already improved on my coasting since "learning" my route and can time the lights almost perfectly as well. I think I'm mostly hitting my sweet spot for speed but have to get a SG2 to make sure. My tires are at max pressure and I'm getting ready to tackle a grill block in a few weeks.
Any other advice people might have for me?

Well, he does have a handicap. He's driving a VeeDub...

Heh heh heh...

*-$'s
 

Turns out I had the same leak in the cash flow. Several years of the same espresso drink ended up coming with a jolt to the system in the morning, and a the afternoon "sleepies". It was a routine, a morning ritual.

A few weeks ago, I decided to brew at home -- nothing fancy. The result? Although my FE went down (fewer miles on city streets and less EOC), overall fuel consumption is down as fewer miles are driven with fewer starts and stops. With the additional money saved, maybe I can get that manual transmission I've always wanted ;) Plus, the gradual caffiene intake isn't such a shock to the system :thumbup: Never thought I'd quit (even on the road, I just brew the cheap stuff in the Hotel).

The biggest savings seems to be in Time...

OMG, so do I! Anytime I'm out West, I have to have at least 1 "Double-Double". I agree, though -- the problem is the drive-thru. Even with Starbucks, I'd go in most of the time because of idling. I always saw it as hard hypermiling effort slipping away -- getting out of the car is healthier too a small degree too...despite the purchase :rolleyes:

RH77

I'm having this problem as well. I was used to a 60 mile commute and now I'm trying to fix my gas mileage and hardly go anywhere. I have to convince myself out of wanting to drive for no reason. I want to test my work, but I tell myself that if I don't drive, I can spend the saved money on improving the car.

It's so ironic that we all share some of the same idiosyncrasies. I too got into the habit of starting my car after I have my seat belt buckled, CD in the player, sunglasses on, and am completely situated to begin driving. It's probably overly obsessive of me, but each and every second that I am in the car with it cranked yet not moving, I am constantly thinking about my fuel consumption. Now when I stop at the mailbox, it's a quick quick stop. In fact, it's almost a hit and run. I already have the window rolled down by the time I get up the mailbox. I then quickly open it up, grab the mail, shut the box, and go.

Today I was stuck at a stop sign with a huge line of cars ahead of me. I was getting so impatient as they were going one at a time, with a marked gap between each car. The line was too long to keep the engine running, so I just sat there and let the majority of them go, creating a considerable gap between me and the car ahead of me. People were probably yelling "GO ALREADY" but whats the point of cranking up and going until you can assert yourself all the way to stop sign itself?

Its hard to tell the difference between stopping your engine with others idling behind you. Averaging multiple 0s and 1 infinity. Then again, average some 0s some 2s (barely moving). Its all the same.

I too used to do the drive through thing and realized that even though the meal may be the cheapest, the added costs of idling probably outweighs the benefits of the cheap meal. So I too park in the parking lot and walk into the restaurant. One definite benefit is that instead of you paying for your car's air conditioner being on while waiting in a hot drive through line, let the restaurant pay for the "free air conditioning" and I get a water with my meal. I make sure I fill up the water cup with as much ice as it can hold to further help me reduce on the need to use the air conditioner in the car to cool me down. On the topic of cooling, if there's a mini-commute between your driveway and the freeway on ramp, open up all your windows to let as much hot air out as possible. Then, if you still need to use the air conditioner, then it should take less fuel to cool from warm to cool temperature than from hot to cool temperature. :)

am I the only one who gets in their car, puts on the steat belt and all that, starts moving then starts their engine? at first I thought our flat parking area on our gravle driveway was to flat to bump start, but I was wrong, bump starting in reverse is my favorit.
I've taken my bike with me while doing things like laundry, so I could leave my car in one spot while crusing around town, when it's nice and I don't need to haul stuff I often take my motorcycle (20mpg better then the car), and I've ended up with a cell phone thru my job, thus cutting down on all kinds of trips, like going home to check messages, or repeat trips to the store, or to a job site.

Auto, Vent
 

Can't bump-start the auto...but I do go through the "pre-flight checks" before startup. Used to get in, start it -- you know, the usual.

What seems to help with heat extraction is opening the hatch. The routine at work seems to be:

Open the hatch, driver's door, roll down the windows, put the work bag in the back and close the doors. Good cross-ventilation to help evac the heat. Then crack the sunroof to let heat out as I drive (but not full-open -- too much sun exposure heats it up again).

I've been driving with the A/C off most of the time now. Even in the "off" position, I was still feeling hot air. Turns out it still takes the incoming air and directs it through the selected vents. The solution has been to send the air to the floor outlets and close the side vents. The heat rises closer to the rear instead of in your face.

RH77

I can get a little over 1 mile before I start my car.
I typically open all windows every so often when in EOC mode down a decent hill. Opening for a few seconds to circulate in a cool breeze keeps the car's insides from cooking me without having to turn on the A/C

Leaving the windows cracked just a wee bit makes a big difference in how hot my car gets inside.

RH77, if you hit the recirc button, you can keep the outsude air from coming in. But I think I am misunderstanding something. For me, I turn on the fan, recirc the air, and then manually cycle the compressor to get the temperature I want.

Dittos on leaving the windows open a bit.

Having a garage is always nice, too.

m

To clarify...that's with the Fan in the "off" position (or essentially the whole system off including A/C, still blows hot air without any fan engagement). To reduce drag at highway speeds, I tend to get the air from either 1-2" of window-down. I may able to engage the recirc diverter, then switch the system off to prevent the airflow. Otherwise I could try fan speed 1 on vent-recirc (no A/C) to draw cooler air and not get blasted with the heat. Good idea :thumbup:

RH77

Windows down going downhill
 

This site makes you do the nerdiest things. First my job laughs at me everyday as I tell them what Im gonna try next.
I have been warming up the car for maybe 30 seconds instead of a few minutes. I now crawl (just let it idle in while in gear) up the block and my car is just about warmed up by the time I hit the corner, so Im no really driving off wit the car still cold. I also roll down the window about halway everytimne I half to brake on a hot day or when Im coasting downhill. have an aoutomatic 98 Camry and coast with the engine on by just poppinh the gear stick into neutral. Not bold enough yet to drive with engine off. Personally, I dont think its bery safe. I always wonder if the constant shift from neutral back to gear will mess up my tranny or if the constant rolling down then back up of the windows is bad for tranny as Im putting extra load on alternator with window motor.
Lastly, I always try to EOC into my parking spot if I dont need to turn and can just roll into an easy spot. (Difficult on my block as parking is a nuisance) but easy when I visit my girl as she has hydrant in front of her house
https://www.gassavers.org/gaslog/sig.php?id=547

Yeah, yeah, that is what you do! Thanks for clarifying what I said. Or meant to say... :-)