Sunday, March 23, 2014
The Best Time to Buy Everything
Everything is on a rotational schedule of when they go on sale. Follow this link: Monthly Sales Breakdown <-----save afford="" big="" can="" if="" it="" money="" nbsp="" off="" p="" pay="" then="" time="" to="" wait="" will="" you="">
Sunday, March 16, 2014
How to Drive a Prius V Three
A 2012-2013 Prius V Three is equipped with cruise control, navigation and backup camera. I would like to first start off saying that this car is really easy to drive. But to get the best gas mileage, there are certain techniques that you must adhere to. I'm not here to tell you how to drive for the best gas mileage because you can find that all over the internet! I'm going to tell you how to drive it for max performance + max fuel economy.
Now you see next to the steering wheel, there is the shifter knob that takes the car into four modes, "Brake", "Neutral", "Reverse", and "Drive". The shifter is spring loaded to default into it's parked position which is nothing. All of these have a very specific function and you can shift into neutral, brake and drive while the car is in motion. When you know that you need to slow down, drop the shifter into "brake" mode. It won't put the full force of your brakes, but it'll create resistance which will charge your batteries faster than if you were to completely take your foot off the gas pedal. Very lightly tapping the gas pedal, puts you into a "coasting" mode which your car is neither charging the batteries or using any energy. This is what you should be doing most of the time while your car is in motion.
The car is very aerodynamic and very heavy so that coasting is easily done. Even while going on a slight uphill with inertia...
On freeways, keep a two or three car distance so that you may plan to use the "brake" mode if you need to. Notice that brake mode will charge 2 or 3 bars depending on environmental conditions. Letting go of the gas pedal will always charge to 1 bar. But be careful of using the shift brake if there is someone following you. Your brake lights will not come on while shift braking!
Driving while using cruise control takes all the guess work out of brake mode or depressing the gas pedal on drive mode. It does all the calculations for you. It will even use the engine brake and will increase the engine resistance to maintain your speed on down hill slopes. Most of the time, using cruise control will provide better gas mileage than if you drive yourself because maintaining constant speed throughout your trip enhances fuel economy.
Keeping the car in PWR mode will deplete your battery while powering up steep hills. It is useful, but avoid keeping it there. If your battery is depleted, your car will automatically charge the battery back up. It will do it better and faster if you utilize cruise control and you won't even notice it.
Turn off your AC while going uphills. Your car will need all the horsepower it can get. And keep your windows rolled up. Speeds in excess of 45 mph with the windows rolled down negates the aerodynamics and kills fuel economy. AC doesn't use much power if you keep your car in ECO mode. In PWR mode, AC will deplete your battery faster but blow much cooler.
Learn how to drive in PWR + EV mode in the city. While in PWR mode, the Prius accelerates faster and you also have the convenience of locking in EV mode while in PWR mode so that your gasoline engine does not kick on. But if you accelerate too hard, the gasoline engine will almost always come one. If you learn how to manipulate your gas pedal just right, you can accelerate quickly while in EV mode without having the gasoline motor come on. Of course, your battery depletes much faster, but if you come up to a cruising speed much quicker and when you know a stop is coming up, you can recharge your batteries if you plan it far in advance so that you don't use gasoline at all for short trips.
From what I notice from my trips. Over 5,000 miles of experimenting here are my results. Cruising speed: 79 mph = 38-40 avg mpg, 70 mph = 40-42 avg mpg, 55- 60 mph = 42-47.7 avg mpg
If you can think of anything else, let me know! Thanks for reading and I hope this helps you drive better.
Now you see next to the steering wheel, there is the shifter knob that takes the car into four modes, "Brake", "Neutral", "Reverse", and "Drive". The shifter is spring loaded to default into it's parked position which is nothing. All of these have a very specific function and you can shift into neutral, brake and drive while the car is in motion. When you know that you need to slow down, drop the shifter into "brake" mode. It won't put the full force of your brakes, but it'll create resistance which will charge your batteries faster than if you were to completely take your foot off the gas pedal. Very lightly tapping the gas pedal, puts you into a "coasting" mode which your car is neither charging the batteries or using any energy. This is what you should be doing most of the time while your car is in motion.
The car is very aerodynamic and very heavy so that coasting is easily done. Even while going on a slight uphill with inertia...
On freeways, keep a two or three car distance so that you may plan to use the "brake" mode if you need to. Notice that brake mode will charge 2 or 3 bars depending on environmental conditions. Letting go of the gas pedal will always charge to 1 bar. But be careful of using the shift brake if there is someone following you. Your brake lights will not come on while shift braking!
Driving while using cruise control takes all the guess work out of brake mode or depressing the gas pedal on drive mode. It does all the calculations for you. It will even use the engine brake and will increase the engine resistance to maintain your speed on down hill slopes. Most of the time, using cruise control will provide better gas mileage than if you drive yourself because maintaining constant speed throughout your trip enhances fuel economy.
Keeping the car in PWR mode will deplete your battery while powering up steep hills. It is useful, but avoid keeping it there. If your battery is depleted, your car will automatically charge the battery back up. It will do it better and faster if you utilize cruise control and you won't even notice it.
Turn off your AC while going uphills. Your car will need all the horsepower it can get. And keep your windows rolled up. Speeds in excess of 45 mph with the windows rolled down negates the aerodynamics and kills fuel economy. AC doesn't use much power if you keep your car in ECO mode. In PWR mode, AC will deplete your battery faster but blow much cooler.
Learn how to drive in PWR + EV mode in the city. While in PWR mode, the Prius accelerates faster and you also have the convenience of locking in EV mode while in PWR mode so that your gasoline engine does not kick on. But if you accelerate too hard, the gasoline engine will almost always come one. If you learn how to manipulate your gas pedal just right, you can accelerate quickly while in EV mode without having the gasoline motor come on. Of course, your battery depletes much faster, but if you come up to a cruising speed much quicker and when you know a stop is coming up, you can recharge your batteries if you plan it far in advance so that you don't use gasoline at all for short trips.
From what I notice from my trips. Over 5,000 miles of experimenting here are my results. Cruising speed: 79 mph = 38-40 avg mpg, 70 mph = 40-42 avg mpg, 55- 60 mph = 42-47.7 avg mpg
If you can think of anything else, let me know! Thanks for reading and I hope this helps you drive better.
Friday, March 14, 2014
What it is like leading your own non-profit organization.
A few years ago, I had an awesome idea about cleaning and maintaining forest trails. The trails in Southern California, especially those near urban areas are littered with garbage which was too much for any official organization such as the Forest Service or city park authorities to keep up with, so I started my own non-profit organization called the Trails Preservation Volunteer Group to help offset the balance between polluting citizens/graffiti artists and cleanup crews.
So far, I've led over 25 meetups and along the way, I have met some awesome people who are passionate about forests, streams and mountains as I was. The experience is truly rewarding and I would recommend volunteering for anyone who have spare time. In the past two years alone, my teams have removed over 200 tons of refuse and covered 2 square miles of graffiti. And I'm very proud that I'm making a difference! Try it yourself.
So far, I've led over 25 meetups and along the way, I have met some awesome people who are passionate about forests, streams and mountains as I was. The experience is truly rewarding and I would recommend volunteering for anyone who have spare time. In the past two years alone, my teams have removed over 200 tons of refuse and covered 2 square miles of graffiti. And I'm very proud that I'm making a difference! Try it yourself.
Thursday, March 06, 2014
Charging a Plug In Hybrid with Bicycle Power Generator
I was crunching numbers and trying to figure out how much distance you would get from 20 minutes of cycling charging a Prius if a Prius was to run on battery power alone. From a fit person, they would generate approximately 275 watts of power if a stationary bike was connected to a generator charging up a battery for 20 minutes. That translates to 0.09075 kWh. A Prius requires 5kWH to go 30 miles which translates to 166.7 watt hour per mile. A person would have to pedal 121 minutes to go one mile. 5,280 feet in a mile, so every minute of pedaling can take you 43 feet. So 20 minutes of pedaling will get you 860 feet in a Prius. Or in terms of mileage, 0.16 miles. Cool huh? If my math is wrong, let me know.
Wednesday, March 05, 2014
Week 3 Post Surgery
The itchiness and the redness finally went away. I put my sling back on and got into the habit of wearing it again. A buddy of mine who got the same type of surgery told me that because he didn't utilize his sling post surgery, he is never able to reach his back. That statement got me thinking. I decided to put it back on again for my sake. So far, I've had two physical therapy appointments and basically, my treatment plan is to do nothing. No rehab, no stretching, no lifting, nothing! 6 weeks post surgery is when the pain will commence. All they did in the meantime is just have me relax on a table, relax my muscles and they moved my arm around. I also got put on this ice compression machine for 15 minutes. After a while, it felt like I was getting stabbed and my stitches were coming out. It sort of hurts. So never again, I hope.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)