Mile(p.g.)stone
On my drive out to Shenandoah National Park this weekend, I hit a new milestone with my Prius' fuel efficiency. It turned over 50.0 mpg: this is the running average since I bought the car, about 4000 miles worth of accumulated data. Then it ticked up to 50.1, and then I got to Sperryville and began driving up the Blue Ridge. Up, up, up the hill means fuel efficiency goes down, down, down. That's a steep hill. When I got up to Skyline Drive, it was down to 48.8 again. But then using the principles of hypermiling, I got it back up to 50.1 over the course of the drive back to DC.
Driving the Prius is like a game, where you're constantly challenging yourself to get more miles out of every gallon of gas. The dashboard display shows you your moment-to-moment fuel efficiency, and you can tailor your driving second by second to maximize your distance to gasoline ratio. It's a whole different experience as compared to driving a car without a dashboard readout, and I find myself much more mentally engaged in the driving process.
Anyhow, yesterday, after a jaunt into NOVA to do some work, I was driving up the Rock Creek Parkway, and it ticked over to 50.2. Ooh boy! Goody, goody, I thought to myself. I should take a photo of that and put it on my blog, where I brag about what a minimal petroleum consumer I am.
But, because this is springtime in DC, the display had a fine layer of pollen all over it. So I pulled out a paper towel to wipe away the pollen. The problem is, the pressure of the paper towel on the touch-sensitive screen activated the "RESET" button. Instantly, my hard-won 50.2 mpg disappeared, to be replaced with 0.0. Aargh!
While I appreciated knowing the overall fuel efficiency of the car, I'm now realizing the benefit of hitting RESET: Now my numbers aren't "bogged down" with my early days of inefficient Prius-driving technique. The new average will reflect what I'm actually driving, not my overall mpg legacy. I knew that I was driving more efficiently than 50.2, since the numbers kept going up over time, but I wasn't sure how much more efficiently. Now that I've reset the system, I can get a more accurate bead on my day-to-day fuel efficiency.
Since the reset, I've driven 18 miles, a slight majority of it uphill. The numbers look promising:
Driving the Prius is like a game, where you're constantly challenging yourself to get more miles out of every gallon of gas. The dashboard display shows you your moment-to-moment fuel efficiency, and you can tailor your driving second by second to maximize your distance to gasoline ratio. It's a whole different experience as compared to driving a car without a dashboard readout, and I find myself much more mentally engaged in the driving process.
Anyhow, yesterday, after a jaunt into NOVA to do some work, I was driving up the Rock Creek Parkway, and it ticked over to 50.2. Ooh boy! Goody, goody, I thought to myself. I should take a photo of that and put it on my blog, where I brag about what a minimal petroleum consumer I am.
But, because this is springtime in DC, the display had a fine layer of pollen all over it. So I pulled out a paper towel to wipe away the pollen. The problem is, the pressure of the paper towel on the touch-sensitive screen activated the "RESET" button. Instantly, my hard-won 50.2 mpg disappeared, to be replaced with 0.0. Aargh!
While I appreciated knowing the overall fuel efficiency of the car, I'm now realizing the benefit of hitting RESET: Now my numbers aren't "bogged down" with my early days of inefficient Prius-driving technique. The new average will reflect what I'm actually driving, not my overall mpg legacy. I knew that I was driving more efficiently than 50.2, since the numbers kept going up over time, but I wasn't sure how much more efficiently. Now that I've reset the system, I can get a more accurate bead on my day-to-day fuel efficiency.
Since the reset, I've driven 18 miles, a slight majority of it uphill. The numbers look promising:
1 Comments:
Wow! Well, for 18 miles.
MOH got his average up to 50 pretty fast, uses the engine brake a lot.
Be careful with those hypermiling tricks, some of them sound a little hairy!
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