Month of February 2023 (Nat’l Avg $3.501)

Reassuring results, Gord. 1+ kWh loss in that idle period isn't bad at all!

 

Did you check your 12Volt battery too? All those people who complain that their long-term parked EV car drains their battery…….do they not know about “sleep mode”?
I assume Integrity Helicopter & the other exploring machines on Mars, during the Mars’ Winter, have a sleep mode? Yes, no.

 

Tesla takes care of the 12V battery as part of its routine wakeup. Should not have any problems with the 12V, whether lead acid or the newer Li-ion.

 

Today , 35 deg F in Naperville , 34 in Elk Grove.

Wind ENE 14

33.3 miles , fcd = 53.5 x .943 = 50.5 MPG

 

Brrr, chilly headwind.

 

kind of a sucky headwind. But I never did meet
a headwind I was fond of.
Chilly ? Maybe. I was in a car with heat on most of the time ( highway).

 

I was speaking for your car...

 

Chilly ? It's above freezing. That's a Chi-town spring day.

 

From 2-21-23:
Got some rain. That didn’t surprise me, but later I got some snow/hail! I think at the time of the snow, it was in the high 30degF temperatures. At its worse, the snow was about an inch, as I passed a football field. But the snow tires were nice & I didn’t feel any snow effects.
PS…..Now the sun is out…..& it’s warm…….
/////////
2-22-23:
This morning a bit of snow had fallen during the night. It’s chilly so a trace of the snow remains, but the roads are clear. I may drive the Hyundai Accent with snow tires to see how other local places have faired. Probably won’t go up any hills tho.
////
PS…..Did go to the river with Accent & Lucky binocular, via the backroad off the highway. Before the river, I stopped & looked at the valley & distant hills as high as 600feet. Tho the bottomlands were clear of snow that fell last night, the higher hills, specially on north-facing slopes that had tattered traces of fog, still had snow clutching the tree branches that Lucky, at 14 power, showed. Highest levels of distant mountains looked like they may have gotten many inches of snow. But lower elevations looked fairly beige, indicating much less snow. Continuing to the river, immediately saw a male Goldeneye diving & alternately preening himself. Not many other birds. Walking north along the river, Lucky binocular showed some more Goldeneye & Megansers about half a mile downriver. Got to the 10 foot overview & a cold north wind was blowing about 5 to 10 MPH, that an intervening hill had earlier blocked. Lucky showed a light aircraft in a landing pattern to the airport. I followed the airplane & it crossed behind the tree line that had the mile distant Bald Eagle nest. Yeah, both the airplane & nest were in the zoomed-in Field of View. Looked at a few other things, specially distant hills that still held snow. Tho I had my warm hat & thick vest on, the wind was making my bare hands chilly. So I retreated back south from the overview. Walked past the Accent to the southern portion of the large river bend.
Looking back north, Lucky showed mature & immature Bald Eagles…..what…..courting? Then, a second mature Bald Eagle showed up & began courting. Yeah, the immature Bald Eagle was aced out of the picture & left! Saw some more ducks along the Big Bend, southern portion. But fairly soon, I did what the immature Bald Eagle did & left. Driving towards home, the sun came out. Unlike at the 10 foot overview, while within a few blocks of home, the sun was quite warm.

 

You would make a good airplane pilot. Don’t think they like headwinds, either. Specially, if they mis-calculated their fuel load at the airport before their flight. Oh, oh….

 

Even when trying to take off on a short runway with a heavy cargo?

 

There was a story of World War II bombers, that had a broad, straight-line wind storm approaching the island they were on. The decision was made to ride out the storm, by taxiing the planes on the ground into the winds. As the winds increased in strength, the pilots edged the throttles upward. The pitot tubes on the planes indicated that the planes had past AIR take-off speeds. But, the crews looked out the windows & saw that their planes weren’t moving, compared to the runway flight lines & airport buildings. If the planes had taken off, they would have lifted vertically upwards. Not even a short runway was needed. Of course, the pilots hadn’t deployed flaps, so continued to “fly” the planes on the ground, till the winds decreased & the storm past.

 

Today , 37 deg F in Naperville , 35 in Elk Grove.

Wind SE 2

33.3 miles , fcd = 57.2 x .943 = 53.9 MPG

 

For litesong - We could probably use a Bolt EV topic, but more specifically something that caters to users who prefer to stick with L2 chargers. Until then, I'll pop some thoughts here. I'll edit further as I have thoughts.

• Assuming 4 miles/kWh and "only" 7.2 kW L2 chargers (as in higher power L2 chargers are harder to come by though they're out there...), you just have to charge about 3.5 hours for every 100 miles you drive in your Washington state favorite short trips. Seems like a doable ratio for your available time and desire to walk and/or observe the surroundings.

 

Oh……I’ve been using a hanging paper calendar from 2017 that has the same dates & days as this year, 2023. I was thinking it might be off the right days, once it reached the end of February. But, 2017 continues as 2023, so the 2017 calendar is “good to go” for the rest of 2023!

 

There are 4+ FREE chargers 2 miles from our home(one, a mile), so I’m chomping at the bit to be able to afford a Chevy Bolt. Many FREE chargers within 20miles. Multiple sets of 70Amp FREE chargers, 70 & 110 miles distance. Should pile in 110+ miles during a 3 hour charge or nearly 150 miles of charging in two 2 hour charging periods. Could be fairly cold tho, which would reduce their CAPability considerably, except for the warmest days, which might reduce their AVAILability!
Anyhow, I have charging possibilities for sure.

 

Took the Hyundai Accent to the river, with the 20 power binoculars. Saw a few Goldeneye, but like yesterday, the cold kept the numbers way down. Walking, I was under a tree with a mature Bald Eagle. It took off to join another mature Bald Eagle. I think the pair were the ones I saw courting yesterday……as the immature was left behind. Walking to the 10 foot overview, oh…..I got to see a male Northern Harrier! Tho 200 yards away & flying, the 20x60 optics showed detail well. The Harrier flew low & slow, looking for mice, voles or anything it can handle. Very interesting. Again, the 20 power was the optic to have. Also from the overview, I could see Mt. Garibaldi, up north of VanCouver, British Columbia. A bit hazy, but Garibaldi & other “nearby” mountains are becoming increasingly interesting to me. Appears that there is a more distant mountain showing over the east shoulder of Garibaldi AND a long trail of snow covered mountains to the east(?) of Garibaldi.
Returning toward the Accent, I heard a woodpecker pounding a tree. I turned to my right, & there was a male Hairy Woodpecker, pecking like crazy. At 40 feet, the 20power optic showed individual filaments making up the feathers & the red mark on its head was colorful. Of course, 20 power really puts your eyeballs right in the action! Not sure the woody was getting many insects, but I know he was keeping warm banging away.