My Daily Commute

[raymond963]

It's nearly 48 miles of rolling hills, some higher, some lower. I used an Android App called GPS Essentials to obtain a speed vs altitude chart of the drive, which is shown in the picture. The section in the middle where I was doing nearly 65MPH is the interstate portion.

 

 

I follow the speed limit for the non-interstate portions and probably average about 50MPG for those. I have been experimenting with eco-cruise for the interstate portion of the commute, mostly in the morning when I leave at 4:30AM and am less likely to get run over by the speed demons... :shift:

 

If I travel with eco-cruise set at 55MPH on the interstate, with all the ups and downs, I'll average about 45MPG.

 

Eco-cruise set at 60MPH averages about 42MPG.

 

Eco-cruise set at 64 MPH, so it doesn't engage EV mode, averages about 40MPG.

 

I'm thinking about trying some sort of modified Pulse and Glide technique, possibly accelerating to 65MPH up hills and gliding down to 60MPH on my way home in the afternoon, 55MPH on my way to work in the morning, to see if I can make any improvements in fuel economy.

 

Does anyone have any other ideas for how to achieve better fuel economy on such a drive?

[fotomoto]

Yes, one fellow here liken hills, or overpasses in his urban example, to surfing the route.  Power (pulse) up over them and then Glide back down the other side on EV or regen.  Obviously you'll need to be at 62mph or lower to engage EV.  

[ScubaDadMiami]

If you can go at 67, perhaps this would be a good time to try ICE High Cruise Control.  I haven't really had a chance to try this yet, but I look forward to giving it a try on my next tank full.

[bigalpha]

That's a snazzy app.  Anyone know of something that does that for iOS?

[salsaguy]

Raymond,i have that app on my Droid Razr. please let me know how you set that up so i can replicate the same tests. thanks.

[raymond963]

Raymond,i have that app on my Droid Razr. please let me know how you set that up so i can replicate the same tests. thanks.

 

It's pretty easy to set up. Run GPS Essentials then select "Tracks". To start a new track, select "(+) NEW" and it will begin tracking via GPS. When finished, select "PAUSE" and you're done. If you paused to go into the gas station or store, etc., you can "RESUME" and it will pick up where you left off.

 

After traveling, possibly while traveling but I haven't tried it because I really don't need something more to look at, select "CHART" and it will show your speed and altitude. I captured the screen showing the chart and uploaded it here. Screen capture for my phone (Samsung Galaxy S3) can be done by simultaneously pressing and holding volume-down and power, or by swiping from one side of the screen to the other with the edge of my palm.

 

If you wanted to go back and review a previous track, select the "<" with the paw prints next to it, at the top-left of the screen, to see a list of previous tracks.

 

You can also export the track data to KML for Google Earth or GPX for other programs.

 

Of course, it's using the GPS for altitude, which is not always very accurate, but gives you a pretty good idea of the topography of a trip.

 

Ray

[salsaguy]

cool thanks. Will try it. i know my trip to work is mostly downhill and back is uphill. want to confirm my thoughts and see how FE changes.

[raymond963]

So far the best, non-EV Mode, FE I've been able to obtain on the commute is 44.4MPG by setting ECO-Cruise at 64MPG (GPS-based) and accelerating to 70MPH down hills with slow deceleration to the cruise setting up hills. Doing the opposite, accelerate-up/decelerate-down, has yielded only 39.1MPG at best so far.

 

After accelerating to 70MPH on entering the interstate, I try to keep the FE gauge above 40 while slowly decelerating up hills and also try to keep the highest possible FE while accelerating down the next hill, which is frequently around 50MPG. Thus, while on the interstate, I'm averaging somewhere around 40MPG and making up the extra 5MPG during the non-interstate portions at the beginning and end of the commute, which are usually 55-60MPG on average.

 

I've seen 47MPG running 55MPH ECO-Cruise on my way to work at 4:30AM, but that was with almost no other traffic, a slight tail-wind, and takes a bit longer. Traffic on my way home at 2:30PM is much heavier and I wouldn't want to be going only 55MPH. Also, it's sometimes difficult to maintain my acceleration/deceleration objectives without really annoying other drivers on my way home, which probably has more than a little effect on FE.

 

I plan to widen the speed range from 64-70MPH to 60-70MPH and see what an added EV Mode component will accomplish. It could help to accelerate in EV mode down some hills but the recharge up the next hill may be too costly. I may also start pulling over and turning off the key right before and after the interstate portion while keeping a log for interstate versus non-interstate portions. That should provide a better idea of what I'm actually accomplishing while experimenting.

 

Also, I think Illinois will be raising interstate speed limits to 70MPH soon, which will allow more room for experimentation at the higher end. Maybe 64-75MPH?

 

I'm still over 1/4 on the current tank and don't want to fill-up just yet, so it isn't on fuelly.com, but I just hit 35MPG lifetime and my current tank should be over 43MPG.

 

Current Lifetime Summary:

Odometer: 10054.1

Distance: 3112.2 EV Miles, 471.8 Regen Miles

Fuel Use: 35.0 MPG

Brake Score: 98%

 

Ray