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Another tank eclipsing 27mpg...I seem to be reaching a plateau of what the ol' Blue Bullet is capable of - without going too crazy. One thing I have been realizing...there are diminishing returns after a while. The initial increases are easy to come by, but each increasing mpg is harder to get than the last.
One note about the actual total savings of hypermiling. You will save a lot of gas by driving at 55 rather than 65. However, it will also obviously take a lot more time to get to your destination. It is up to you to decide if your time is worth more than the gas you are saving. One of the keys that makes my hypermiling more economical is that I am mostly in stop-and-go city traffic, so my actual time differential is not that much, perhaps 5-10 minutes per day. If I had a mostly highway commute, the time difference might be much higher and thus less economical. And if I actually got paid for the short amount of extra time that it is taking me per day, I would not be coming out ahead...10 minutes per day X 250 days/yr = 2500 min = over 40 hours = a week's pay = more than I'm saving in gas.
Unfortunately, I do not get paid for every hour that I am alive. And there are more savings than just the money that I do not have to expend. And gas prices are still increasing. So I will continue to hypermile...but I won't be driving 50-55 on the interstate much anymore, just to increase my stats. On the other hand, I won't drive 75-80 either. It is up to the individual to find the balance.
One note about the actual total savings of hypermiling. You will save a lot of gas by driving at 55 rather than 65. However, it will also obviously take a lot more time to get to your destination. It is up to you to decide if your time is worth more than the gas you are saving. One of the keys that makes my hypermiling more economical is that I am mostly in stop-and-go city traffic, so my actual time differential is not that much, perhaps 5-10 minutes per day. If I had a mostly highway commute, the time difference might be much higher and thus less economical. And if I actually got paid for the short amount of extra time that it is taking me per day, I would not be coming out ahead...10 minutes per day X 250 days/yr = 2500 min = over 40 hours = a week's pay = more than I'm saving in gas.
Unfortunately, I do not get paid for every hour that I am alive. And there are more savings than just the money that I do not have to expend. And gas prices are still increasing. So I will continue to hypermile...but I won't be driving 50-55 on the interstate much anymore, just to increase my stats. On the other hand, I won't drive 75-80 either. It is up to the individual to find the balance.
1 comment:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2008/06/03/obrien.hypermiling.cnn?iref=videosearch
hypermiling in action (if the link doesn't work, search for "hypermiling" on cnn)
The push-start reminds me of TK in the brown truck. This guy's driving looks dangerous.
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