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Here's what I'm proposing as a one-page handout for the people at
the Ipswich festival, and possibly way beyond. I'd like some help
whacking it into a final and hopefully more convincing form. I
don't think we could come up with *anything* that one could go out
and paper all the SUVs in the K-mart parking lot with to effect
sweeping change, but again, this is part of my "message to the
masses" effort regardless.
.
I need to get this presentable and print off a bunch of them by
Friday afternoon, so please get comments in. I am also considering
a very condensed "wallet card" version as someone suggested, but for
now I think a single sheet of paper will suffice as a handout.
I'm going to adopt "wayne style" to offset the lines...
.
__ Driving green in whatever you own today
__
__ You don't have to run out and drop $25,000 on a hybrid vehicle
__ just to go a lot farther on a gallon of fuel. Here is a list
__ of hints for better MPG -- and there's really nothing new about
__ any of this, it's simply well-known good sense that significantly
__ lowers gas consumption, safety risk, and maintenance costs:
__
__ The single most important thing is to drive SMOOTHLY. Try to keep
__ engine RPM down low and avoid jackrabbit starts. Don't race up to a
__ stop and cram on the brakes at the last second -- brakes only WASTE
__ energy, so the less you can use them the better. Coast gently into
__ stops instead, and don't worry about the impatient people behind
__ you -- they'll learn as they see more and more people driving green.
__ There is absolutely no reason to compete with other drivers on the
__ public roads -- it only causes greater mental stress on everyone.
__
__ Leave LARGE following distance between cars, which is not only
__ much safer but gives you a larger "cell" to do your smoother
__ driving inside of. You will be able to see much farther ahead
__ and predict situations. Don't fret about people jumping into the
__ gap -- you actually help overall traffic flow by letting them in
__ and simply restoring the long distance. If someone wants to go
__ faster, they'll be gone quickly.
__
__ Use Neutral for long coasts and when sitting at stops, especially
__ with automatic transmissions. Sitting in "D" wastes more gas.
__
__ Slow down on the highways -- 60-65 mph tops. Power needed to push
__ against air resistance goes up by the CUBE of your speed.
__
__ Inflate your tires to the SIDEWALL pressure, not the pressure
__ listed on the door-placard or owners' manual.
__
__ Keep your vehicle well maintained -- clean filters, oil and
__ transmission fluid at the right levels, and wheels aligned.
__
__ Plan ahead and combine your trips. Try to keep the engine warm
__ across most of your errands. Shut down the engine instead of idling
__ if you're going to be stopped somewhere more than a minute or two.
__
__ Remove as many excess "dead weight" items from your car as possible.
__
__ MPG is always lower in cold weather, since the engine has to not
__ only fight to keep itself warm, it has to keep YOU warm too.
__ Bundling up and keeping the cabin cooler can help.
.
_H*

Hi Hobbit:

___I bet that took all the energy you could muster just to dumb it down for the masses. Come on, tell us the truth ;)

___Not bad at all with very good std. practices. On the combining trips section you may want to add go to the furthest destination first and then start working your way back home to bring the car up to temp and it will stay there longer for higher FE … Paraphrasing that might be good to add?

___Good Luck

___Wayne

I would change the driving green. To driving for mpg myself. The green thing will turn alot of folks off the sec. they see it. If they already have even a semi green mindset, they are more than likely already doing some of the suggestions listed.

psy

Farthest trip first, added. I had that in my notes but thought
the thing was already getting too long, but there's still room.
.
The panel at Ipswich is entitled "why you don't have to drive
a hybrid to be green", so in this particular case "green driving"
is sort of appropriate to it ... see
http://ipswichrenewableenergy.org/event-program.shtml ...
For future events, though, maybe a rephrase would work. I changed
the bit in the text about "see more people driving green" to
"see more people driving for MPG rather than racecar performance".
.
Another pass or two and I'll fire in the next edit for review.
I'll note that I *had* all this in notes when I was out at
hybridfest, but we never got a chance to sit down and work on it.
That's okay, collaboration is what the internet is for.
.
_H*

Maybe put an example of engergy needed at 60 and 70mpg to show people numbers to go along with the abstract CUBE. When people read it they may not grasp at how much energy that will actualy mean. Not all of the general masses realy understand what cubing a number realy means for that number.

I wouldn't mind actually having some hard numbers to illustrate
the cubic power increase, actually. How does one calculate it?
Would I assume, say, 20 hp needed to maintain 60 mph on the flat
and then cube the *percent increases* in speed to multiply the
horsepower required? If I do that, I get:
.
__ 60 mph ... 20 hp [assumed for a given vehicle]
__ 70 mph ... 31.6 hp
__ 80 mph ... 47.4 hp
__ 90 mph ... 67.5 hp
.
Is this even close to right?
.
I probably wouldn't put all this in the one-pager, but certainly
raise it in the panel discussion for those present.
.
_H*

You could maybe use the this table from tarabell's article that shows mpg at cruises at various speeds. It doesn't show hp or anything but it shows fuel useage.

Trip-A – Constant speed tests - MPG Results

With Cruise Control||||
Run #|30 mph|40 mph|50 mph|60 mph
1|84.3 mpg|89.3 mpg|69.1 mpg|56.4 mpg
2|86.5 mpg|89.0 mpg|64.8 mpg|48.5 mpg
3|85.1 mpg|90.7 mpg|67.3 mpg|50.5 mpg
||||
Average’s|85.3 mpg|89.7 mpg|67.1 mpg|51.8 mpg
||||
Without Cruise Control||||
Run #|30 mph|40 mph|50 mph|60 mph
1|109.6 mpg|95.4 mpg|70.9 mpg|57.9 mpg
2|99.2 mpg|96.0 mpg|71.4 mpg|56.0 mpg
3|97.6 mpg|87.4 mpg|70.2 mpg|52.9 mpg
4|140.0 mpg|92.2 mpg|68.8 mpg|53.8 mpg
||||
Average’s|111.6 mpg|92.2 mpg|68.8 mpg|53.8 mpg

It kind of illustrates that over 40mph speed increases have a drastic effect on mileage.

A little googling around makes me think I've got the calculation
methodology right, or at least close enough for illustration.
.
Here's another cut at the whole thing. 58 lines, fits easily
onto one generically-printed piece of paper.
.
__ Driving green in whatever you own today
__
__ You don't have to run out and drop $25,000 on a hybrid vehicle
__ just to go a lot farther on a gallon of fuel. Hybrids are a great
__ tool for the job, but you can go out right now in whatever you're
__ driving right now and see much better fuel economy. Here is a list
__ of hints for better MPG -- and there's really nothing new about
__ any of this, it's simply well-known good sense that significantly
__ lowers gas consumption, safety risk, and maintenance costs:
__
__ The single most important thing is to drive SMOOTHLY. Try to keep
__ engine RPM down low and avoid jackrabbit starts. Don't race up to a
__ stop and cram on the brakes at the last second -- brakes only WASTE
__ energy, so the less you can use them the better. Coast gently into
__ stops instead, and don't worry about the impatient people behind
__ you -- they'll learn as they see more and more people driving for
__ MPG rather than racecar performance. There is absolutely no reason
__ to compete with other drivers on the public roads -- it only causes
__ greater mental stress on everyone.
__
__ Leave LARGE following distance between cars, which is not only
__ much safer but gives you a larger "cell" to do your smoother
__ driving inside of. You will be able to see much farther ahead
__ and predict situations. Don't fret about people jumping into the
__ gap -- you actually help overall traffic flow by letting them in
__ and simply restoring your long distance. If someone wants to go
__ that much faster, they'll be gone quickly anyway.
__
__ Use Neutral for long coasts and when sitting at stops, especially
__ with automatic transmissions. Sitting in "D" wastes more gas.
__
__ Slow down on the highways -- 60-65 mph tops. Power needed to push
__ against air resistance goes up by the CUBE of your speed.
__
__ Inflate your tires to the SIDEWALL pressure, not the pressure
__ listed on the door-placard or owners' manual. Modern tires are
__ designed to run at higher pressures, such as 44 psi.
__
__ Keep your vehicle well maintained -- clean filters, oil and
__ transmission fluid at the right levels, wheels aligned, and
__ brakes in good condition so there's no chance of them dragging.
__
__ Plan ahead and combine your trips, and drive to the farthest-away
__ one first if possible. Try to keep the engine warm across most of
__ your errands. Shut down the engine instead of idling if you're
__ going to be stopped somewhere for more than a minute.
__
__ Remove as many excess "dead weight" items from your car as you can.
__
__ MPG is always lower in cold weather, since the engine has to not
__ only fight to keep itself warm, it has to keep YOU warm too.
__ Bundling up and keeping the cabin cooler can help. In hot weather,
__ try to use only as much air-conditioning as you really need.
__
__ http://fueleconomy.gof/feg/drive.shtml
__ http://www.gassavers.org/
__ http://fuelsaving.info/driving.htm
__ http://drdriving.org/
.
Oh, and I add the references, too. "DrDriving" is especially
interesting since it goes into the psychology of road rage.
.
_H*

I bet you'll get hassled about the "coasting in neutral". It's good advice for getting better FE, but you'll run into the folks that say it's illeagal.

It is illegal in many states, and I'll be very up front about
that. It is time that such outdated laws were changed, or at
least massively ignored like tailgating and speeding, because
brakes and other control systems work much better than when those
laws were cut. If the legal system can't be bothered to enforce
really obvious things like speeding and tailgating, how on earth
are they going to have any *inkling* that someone's in neutral?
.
Yes, it's a bit of a rant point and if it makes some people feel
better to go out and engage in civil disobedience, this is one
way they can be really sneaky about it in a beneficial way.
.
The only caveat is the effective mpg difference between idling
in neutral and coasting in-gear with fuel cut, which I was asking
about before, and probably varies car to car. I'll encourage
people to go forth and experiment for themselves -- just stay
off those bloody binders.
.
I've got a ton of notes and caveats wrapped around this bit of
text, and I'm not even supposed to be leading the panel but just
providing, uh, "color", whatever that's supposed to mean.
.
_H*

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/CMPG.gif

Hi Hobbit:

___You will do great … http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/Resize_of_logo.gif

___One thing to add however? You see to have forgotten a link to a particular site …

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/CMPG.gif

Hmmm … http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/Resize_of_logo.gif

that … http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/CMPG.gif

well, pushes non-hybrid pilots like no other …

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/Resize_of_logo.gif

I wonder who that could be? Or see sig :D

___Also, I like the mph vs. mpg. The reason I like to see them in the Articles is that the general public has a good handle on both of these parameters. They have absolutely no handle on HP or the aero drag increasing by a cubed rate as speed increases.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Terminology question: is DWL basically using the accelerator
to slow down, i.e. like up a hill where simply trying to coast
wouldn't reach the top? I'm trying to think of a better way
to express this concept, because it's turning out to *completely*
apply to the Prius.
.
Oh, right: added that certain site to the URL list! 59 lines.
.
_H*

Hi Hobbit:

___When describing DWL to newbies, the roller coaster analogy appears to make the most sense in my experience. Just describe a steady state speed roller coaster slowing as it climbs to a crest and speeds back up to the original speed as it falls back to the trough.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Yeah pretty much. You slowly let up on the accelerator to maintain a certain FE and try to guage it so that you are at your minimum speed as you crest the hill. The idea is to "flatten" the hill as far as the load on the car is concerned.

I wonder if I explained that right. If not I'm sure wayne will correct me.

Hi Tom:

___Very good description! The only issue is that most non-hybrid drivers are missing an iFCD :(

___Hobbit, the roller coaster analogy gives them the theory. For those just learning but needing a way to transfer what they learned to the real world, have them lock the accelerator in place (just not move it with their right foot) which comes close to achieving the same DWL - high FE - goal. They will slow while climbing and speed back up while descending which although is not a perfect DWL solution, does achieve possibly 80 - 90% of the FE of those DWL with an iFCD.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

So, high-ish torque, in a high gear -- keeping gentle but
persistent pressure on the drivetrain, with the engine in an
efficient working range but at low RPM so it isn't gulping
great wads of fuel every second, and let the terrain do what
it may underneath. Do I have that right?
.
Of course one has to know when to back out of this situation
to optimize the next decel... such as just before cresting a
hill with a good glide backside, as Wayne's mentioned...
.
_H*

Hi Tom:

___Very good description! The only issue is that most non-hybrid drivers are missing an iFCD :(
___Wayne


A vacuum gauge is a cheap and easy to install solution to help with DWL.

Hi Dan:

___You make a good point about FCD’s. I would like most to consider the a Scan Gauge as it is far more accurate, has a ton of features, and is a simple plug in and setup. Calibration takes place after the first tank fill so once that is completed, everything is ready to go for the life of the vehicle …

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Hobbit this is great and can't think of any way to improve it much beyond the suggestions already made.

Also I think the scangauge perfectly addresses the theme "why you don't have to drive a hybrid to be green". It's such a low cost investment (compared with going out and buying a hybrid) but gives you the same --or more -- information. It's that feedback, IMHO, more than the car that saves you gas.

Tarabell, data freak :Banane19:

Up for public consumption in theoretically "final" form, and
the Ipswich organizers are totally on board with the concept.
http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/mpghints.html
it's not in my index yet, but that'll happen next round of
updates. The machine that answers to techno-fandom.org is in
flux this weekend, so I'm gonna wait before updating too much
more stuff over there.
.
_H*

Okay, a bunch of the handouts as shown above *flew* off the back
of my car at Ipswich, and I think were well-received ... but by
the choir, of course. People visit alt-fuel/hybrid shows because
they're actually interested in this stuff.
.
Now, the real challenge is wording and presentation that the
carful of rowdy teenagers who just screeched into the Burger King
drive-thru and are now idling waiting for their food will sit up
and pay attention to.
.
I'm thinking of taking much the same text, possibly trimmed down
somewhat, printed underneath a large header saying FREE FUEL.
But the first line or two under that has to really grab the
attention of someone who's probably still in denial, and lead
them into at least giving the rest of the document *some* credence.
.
Many people I talked to agreed that a central "save money" theme
is possibly the best approach, but somehow I have to jump from
there to the "stop driving like a butthead" stuff in a graceful
way that sneaks up on them and brings some understanding and
maybe even some things to try as they pull out of the drive-thru
and tootle off down the road.
.
Ideas?
.
_H*