Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com - About to kill my efficiency... installed a radio

EcoModder.com (https://ecomodder.com/forum/)

- General Efficiency Discussion (https://ecomodder.com/forum/general-efficiency-discussion.html)

- - About to kill my efficiency... installed a radio (https://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/about-kill-my-efficiency-installed-radio-5959.html)

About to kill my efficiency... installed a radio

You'll get a laugh from this: yesterday I installed an AM/FM stereo cassette player in the Blackfly - its first ever radio. It replaces the blank panel that has been in the center stack since the car popped radio-less out of its factory 11 years ago this month.

http://www.shareamemory.com/radio/Honda_Civic.jpg

And it's probably going to hurt my mileage.

What?! Why and why?

1) Because I'm getting ready to go on a long-ish road trip. I've done plenty of short trips - say 4 hours tops - but I've always just brought along portable tunes/headphones (bud in one ear only - safety first!). But I'm looking at about 1600 km / 1000 miles. Plus, I thought news & weather would be good...

2) Why an AM/FM cassette player? Because I had one in my junk pile - inherited from my brother who swapped out the OEM radio in my mom's Integra 16 years ago. So my Firefly now has a little "HONDA" inside.

I guess the old lady who originally bought the car either didn't care for audio distraction, or planned to install a kick-a$$ sound system, but never got to because she fell ill not long after getting the car home from the dealer and hardly drove it.

The funny thing is, the car came from the factory with an antenna and 4 speakers pre-installed, wiring harness in place. But no radio.

3) My mileage is going to suffer!

- Added weight (OK, just kidding.)

- Distraction from the ScanGauge! Driving technique goes out the window!

- Added power consumption!

Unless of course I find some special, relaxing music to put me psychologically in the fuel economy zone...

I rarely listen, even on long drives. I've often thought of pulling all the stereo stuff out and if the urge to listen to radio, tapes, CDs, whatever ever happens, to put a boombox in the back seat. But the 6lb "penalty" hasn't been enough incentive to do it.

Short & medium drives in monkish silence are OK.

But after a while I find it takes too much effort to keep ignoring all the voices in my head. 1600 km is definitely too far.

I find that the radio usually distrcts me from the lil voice in my head that says 'punch it and pass that old lady alread!!!!'
then agian some voices tell me to P.I.T. her and drive on my mary way, and the radio an make them louder

I cant believe I did it now but I did Saskatoon to Barrie ON one way without a radio in 2005.

How many miles is that, anything longer than 2 hours is a stretch for me. I'd be lucky to not kill someone without it. Three things make the world go round music, love(for all the hippies), and gravity.

Two twelve hour days of near straight wheel time, plus a 6 hour on the third day.

MetroMPG -

Love the Metro-Honda combo. You can tell people that the only reason people get good MPG in Honda's is the radio, so that's why you did the super-secret "radio mod".

I do listen to my radio constantly. The LA traffic updates pay off in LA traffic maybe 20% of the time. I even got new speakers recently :

Front Door Speaker Install ... - SaturnFans Forums

Maybe I will remove the rear speakers from the hatch because I have muffly crap in the back to the point where they are useless.

It is strange that you had everything "ready and waiting" for installation. Here is my theory. The Metro on the lot had a radio. The lady didn't want the radio option. The dealership pulled the radio to finish the sale, but left the rest because of the hassle factor.

CarloSW2

That couple watts is going to kill you mileage big time. ;)

I would have a hard time going on a long trip without music. Since I removed my antenna I usually loose the signal ~50 miles from the source, but I always have my good ol CDs at hand.

Another option - since you had the speakers wired in anyway would be to connect up an "AUX" port only - plug an Ipod / MP3 player - or portable CD player -into the jack and use the cars speakers.
My need an AMP to get sound up to decent level - but would allow you to "SWAP IN / OUT" the music for when you want it.

Added benifit - you take it our of the car with you - less chance of theft.

Steve

:eek: all that CO2 generated only for your own comfort :mad: </joking>

Seriously, does someone knows the consumption of a radio or a GPS navigator ?

Denis.

Haha, I can see it now... thus started the downfall of Darin's mpg. :)

I think that most stock steroes are about 20-25watts at a constant hum at the highest possible volume. Typical listening in a small car is probably about 2-5W... earth-killer, have you no shame?

The radio from "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"

Quote:

The shop was a different scene from the ones I remembered. The mechanics, who had once all seemed like ancient veterans, now looked like children. A radio was going full blast and they were clowning around and talking and seemed not to notice me. When one of them finally came over he barely listened to the piston slap before saying “Oh, yeah. Tappets.”
Tappets? I should have known then what was coming.

...

He brought out a hammer and cold chisel and started to pound them loose. The chisel punched through the aluminum cover and I could see he was pounding the chisel right into the engine head. On the next blow he missed the chisel completely and struck the head with the hammer, breaking off a portion of two of the cooling fins.
“Just stop,” I said politely, feeling this was a bad dream. “Just give me some new covers and I’ll take it the way it is.”
I got out of there as fast as possible, noisy tappets, shot tappet covers, greasy machine, down the road, and then felt a bad vibration at speeds over twenty. At the curb I discovered two of the four engine mounting bolts were missing and a nut was missing from the third. The whole engine was hanging on by only one bolt. The overhead cam chain-tensioner bolt was also missing, meaning it would have been hopeless to try to adjust the tappets anyway. Nightmare.

...

Why did they butcher it so? These were not people running away from technology, like John and Sylvia. These were the technologists themselves. They sat down to do a job and they performed it like chimpanzees. Nothing personal in it. There was no obvious reason for it. And I tried to think back into that shop, that nightmare place, to try to remember anything that could have been the cause.
The radio was a clue. You can’t really think hard about what you’re doing and listen to the radio at the same time. Maybe, they didn’t see their job as having anything to do with hard thought, just wrench twiddling. If you can twiddle wrenches while listening to the radio that’s more enjoyable.
Their speed was another clue. They were really slopping things around in a hurry and not looking where they slopped them. More money that way – if you don’t stop to think that it usually takes longer or comes out worse.
But the biggest clue seemed to be their expressions. They were hard to explain. Good-natured, friendly, easygoing – and uninvolved. They were spectators. You had the feeling they had just wandered in there themselves and somebody had handed them a wrench. There was no identification with the job. No saying, “I am a mechanic.” At 5 P.M. or whenever their eight hours were in, you knew they would cut it off and not have another thought about their work. They were already trying not to have any thoughts about their work on the job. In their own way they were achieving the same thing John and Sylvia were, living with technology without really having anything to do with it. Or rather, they had something to do with it, but their own selves were outside of it, detached, removed. They were involved in it but not in such a way as to care.

(not directed at anyone. It's just one of my favorite little snippets.)

Having driven 1000's of miles a year for work, I don't know what I would do without some distraction of sound.

So, the radio failed a while back, and I needed something, anything to listen to in the car. The best that came to mind was a clock-radio plugged into a small inverter (cig-lighter). No presets, one speaker, and always blinked 12:00. The alternative is a Walkman, a bunch of rechargeable batteries, and (depending on local laws), earphones or a small speaker.

In rentals, I tend to carry my laptop with all of my CDs uploaded. The small speakers are good enough for entertainment and a 3-hour batt life. Sat-radio beats everything, IMO.

So, can you hook the radio to a separate, small battery that can be recharged from the grid? But, I don't know of many hotels with an outlet in the parking lot, though :o

-Rick