[user removed]

I consider hills as an opportunity to store energy with less fuel. I live at the edge of the Piedmont area of eastern Virginia. East of my home the grades are very slight, not enough to maintain speed coasting. West of my home they become more significant allowing coasting at speeds as high as 65 MPH.

Climbing grades of this type allows higher BSFC operation and the increase in altitude allows the vehicle to become a storage device. On the shallow grades to the east climbing the grade makes a small difference in instantaneous mileage, while coasting down the grades allows the energy stored in the mass of the vehicle to be utilized for astounding moments of mileage. The averages obtained in my CVT Insight, using this knowledge made it possible to average mileages of close to 80 MPG on my local favorite route. The thing that caused me to "grind my teeth" was poorly timed traffic lights. I always considered timing the lights as the most important factor in my average mileage.

When I was lucky I could miss 42 of 44 lights, and almost reach the magic 80 MPG number. I would get 83 on the inward leg of the trip of 20 miles, but invariably the return trip from sea level to an elevation of 75 feet would reduce my average to just below 80 for 40 miles. When you get to this level of mileage, ANY electrical load, of ANY type was directly attributable to lower mileage. It boils down to energy accounting to the most precise degree.

While many might consider electrical accessories as insignificant, when you get close to 80 MPG average over literally hundreds of trips down the exact same route, you will find that even the radio has a cost, as well as every other load, however insignificant, of which the cumulative effects can become very significant, to the tune of several MPG combined. Adding the AC made 65 MPG the reality.

On exactly the same route on my Honda CBR250R motorcycle, my average is 84 MPG, which makes the Insight mileage that much more significant. Of course on the bike the effort required is only a fraction of that required when driving the Insight, which demanded absolute concentration. Average speed on this route, depending on the lights caught was always between 37-39 MPH, not crawling at 22 MPG, the route would not allow lower speeds or you would catch almost every one of 44 lights.

Maybe OT, but the OP might find a way to mitigate his mileage loss through finding what is the real source of the loss. If the AC compressor is working, then it would be the primary cause. After that the blower motor. Fresh air, warmed through unaided flow (not blower) would be the least cost, energy wise, and thus the least consumer of fuel. My cars stay in my garage when no in use, so that gives me the advantage of never having to scrape ice or wait for the defroster to work. They also are about 50 degrees when started on even the coldest winter days. The pait on my 13 year old Maxima still looks like new, with no sum damage to the interior.


regards
Mech