2001 Insight - Page 7 - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

Natalya · 12-26-2016, 12:42 AM

@Ecky:
This isn't also a charger, it's a discharger only. My charger is in another PC power supply box like this, but the stuff inside nearly fills it up, so I had to make the discharger standalone.

Ecky · 12-26-2016, 07:57 AM

Yeah I gathered, but it looks really nice. My unit is a bit bigger and could probably take the light bulbs inside.

Natalya · 12-31-2016, 01:24 PM

Drove back to the USA yesterday. Threw back on the Insight rims + RE92s and promptly drove into a snowstorm. Made it through okay though.

Unbeknownst to me there was a damaged aero panel on the bottom of the car, it was actively dragging in the wind and made it very hard to maintain target speeds (120 km/h in Ontario, and then 135 km/h in USA where speed limit is 70mph). I thought it was the weather and wind and the 200lbs of stuff in the car, but later in Ohio I pulled over and saw that my front plastic panel was broken (again) and acting as a sort of air brake. I removed it and continued my journey and saw much better numbers thereafter, but the FCD was down in the mid 30's for a while, I could not believe it. So yeah, turns out something was very wrong. Aero matters a lot.

So I was feeling kinda down about my most recent tank, worst one yet (partially because of that aero drag), but what I did was I temporarily set the car to have the EPA estimate of my Mustang (I bought the Insight to save money) which is only 19mpg, and well according to the log, by driving the Insight instead of the Mustang, I've saved $2500 since May 2016 because I've driven so much. So that was good to see.

I bought the car to save money, and well those savings since keeping the log (started driving it 7 months before I started the log which means I've saved even more!!) are more than the purchase price of the vehicle. There's also another $600 saved in cheaper insurance costs.

I've spent about $3000 total on the car, that's buying it ($1500 CAD) and getting RE92s and getting it road worthy (new lower cat, etc) so I'm really happy to see it's paying itself off so quickly with how much I drive.

Stubby79 · 12-31-2016, 02:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Natalya

Drove back to the USA yesterday. Threw back on the Insight rims + RE92s and promptly drove into a snowstorm. Made it through okay though.

Unbeknownst to me there was a damaged aero panel on the bottom of the car, it was actively dragging in the wind and made it very hard to maintain target speeds (120 km/h in Ontario, and then 135 km/h in USA where speed limit is 70mph).

Your target speed was 83mph in a 70 zone? Was that just to keep up with traffic?

Xist · 01-01-2017, 03:45 AM

135 in a 70 sounds more exciting!

Natalya · 01-01-2017, 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stubby79

Your target speed was 83mph in a 70 zone? Was that just to keep up with traffic?

I was doing a 900 mile trip. Including stops and time stuck at the Canada//USA border it took 14½ hours. That works out to an absolute average of 62 mph. Stops took about an hour and a half total, so that means my on-road average was about 69mph. Getting those averages up greatly reduces the total time spent on the road.

I obviously drive according to conditions -- weather, traffic, construction. But for this trip about two-thirds are either in rural farm areas or in the Appalachian Mountains. I also timed my departure time to avoid rush hour in the major cities on my route.

My target speed in Ontario is the speed limit +19km/h and my target speed in the USA is the speed limit +14mph. This only works out because of the states I pass through. If I was going to Indiana or Virginia or something I'd only go the limit +4mph because those states (and others) have much more aggressive speed limit laws.

At every stage of the journey except the very end (2am and after because there was almost no traffic) there were some cars passing me. I was probably faster than 90% of the cars on the road, except early on when the aero drag was really slowing me down and I had no idea what was going on.

This isn't hypermiling driving, but it's still saving money because if I do the whole thing fast enough (under 17 hours) I don't get so fatigued that I need to stop at a hotel. Beyond 17 hours I would probably have to give up, I just don't think the human body is meant for that kind of endurance, and I'm an athletic person. This exact trip took me 17 hours 1 time, I hope that it never takes that long again. I've done this drive solo about 14 (not sure) times, 5 times this year alone.

Natalya · 01-03-2017, 12:29 AM

Alright, whatever you do Ecky, don't build the discharger into the charger. Here's my discharger in action:

Don't worry about those wires on the side, they're just sitting there.

This is first the stage. I have the 12v fan going and the 500W lightbulb. Even with the fan this thing got HOT. The box, realistically, is apparently too small. Just because it fits everything doesn't mean its big enough.

The box heated up so much it began to melt that lower carpet piece, which is why there's a plate there in this photo. Now I need to get a new one of those.

The plastic components inside the box also started to melt pretty fast. I'm talking about the voltmeter and the 12v power supply. I had to coat those with that aluminum foil tape to reflect the heat. The original switch for the 500W bulb also got fried. You can see I temporarily put in that giant toggle switch, it's got a higher current rating on it. The 12V supply, even after I coated it with the foil tape, well it began to short out because it was operating too hot. Now this is a junky 1A 12V wall wort supply, so I can replace that with a fancy one like my grid charger has, but point is the whole thing just gets way too hot.

Bull Dog's dischargers had all the lights mounted on the exterior, if I rebuild this or make a V2 I'm going to use a design like that for better heat dissipation.

What I don't know, because I'm not an electrician, is what happens if I use a lower wattage bulb. Let's say I replaced the 500W with a 300W, would the bulb just die from the voltage, or would everything be fine and it just not throw off as much heat?

Baltothewolf · 01-03-2017, 02:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Natalya

Alright, whatever you do Ecky, don't build the discharger into the charger. Here's my discharger in action:

Don't worry about those wires on the side, they're just sitting there.

This is first the stage. I have the 12v fan going and the 500W lightbulb. Even with the fan this thing got HOT. The box, realistically, is apparently too small. Just because it fits everything doesn't mean its big enough.

The box heated up so much it began to melt that lower carpet piece, which is why there's a plate there in this photo. Now I need to get a new one of those.

The plastic components inside the box also started to melt pretty fast. I'm talking about the voltmeter and the 12v power supply. I had to coat those with that aluminum foil tape to reflect the heat. The original switch for the 500W bulb also got fried. You can see I temporarily put in that giant toggle switch, it's got a higher current rating on it. The 12V supply, even after I coated it with the foil tape, well it began to short out because it was operating too hot. Now this is a junky 1A 12V wall wort supply, so I can replace that with a fancy one like my grid charger has, but point is the whole thing just gets way too hot.

Bull Dog's dischargers had all the lights mounted on the exterior, if I rebuild this or make a V2 I'm going to use a design like that for better heat dissipation.

What I don't know, because I'm not an electrician, is what happens if I use a lower wattage bulb. Let's say I replaced the 500W with a 300W, would the bulb just die from the voltage, or would everything be fine and it just not throw off as much heat?

Go with 250w one from Wal mart. I have been using one forever.