Hello to All

[Gandalph]

Hey there,

I've been lurking here for a while getting some good ideas for mods to do on my own car (a 2011 Fit Sport, an orange beauty of 75,000 miles).

I am notoriously "frugal" among my friends, once talking up a "Vampire Hunt" to my roommate for several days while I waited for a power meter to come in so that we could identify and remove small electrical draws from unused electronics in the house.

In any case, I look forward to doing some modifications to see what I can get out of my car in terms of efficiency. I'll make another post in a different place for progress tracking and more specifics on what is motivating choices of actions, but wanted to introduce myself here.

[Insight for life]

Welcome!

[Daox]

Welcome to the site Gandalph!

The Fit is a pretty nice little car. Is it auto or manual?

I'd also recommend starting a garage entry and fuel log for it here so we can see how you're doing.

[ThePrudentNinja]

Welcome to the forum. I too am a bit of a long term lurker however only recently joined. A lot of good information here and I'm sure many would be interested in your progress.

[cowmeat]

Welcome! It's always cool to see somebody who's not afraid to mod!

BTW, what were the results of the hunt? I know the cable boxes and TVs draw some juice, did you find anything else worthwhile to unplug?

[gone-ot]

Military slang for OFF: "...down, out, and counterclockwise..."

[MetroMPG]

Welcome to the forum! That's a fun car to drive and mod.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by Daox

The Fit is a pretty nice little car. Is it auto or manual?

New project thread shows it's a manual:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ead-32304.html

[Gandalph]

Thank you all for the warm welcome. Mods will have to wait until I return home on the 13th of July, as I'm out on the road right now.

Originally Posted by cowmeat

BTW, what were the results of the hunt? I know the cable boxes and TVs draw some juice, did you find anything else worthwhile to unplug?

Found a few devices that were drawing unnecessary power while not in use. Mostly things with AC/DC converters that have to have their coils energized constantly even under no load (speakers, electric toothbrush chargers, chargers for phones) and devices with small displays that remain powered on even when not in use (Microwave, toaster oven). Also found that the cable modem and wireless router draw something like 25 watts together all the time, even though they are only used about 8 hours a day.

Put some devices on a master-controlled switch (speakers, chargers) controlled by the connected PC, unplugged unused display devices, and put the telecomm equipment on a timed power strip to keep it turned off during the middle of the day while we're at work and in the middle of the night while we're asleep.

Total savings in terms of wattage is close to a 50 watt constant draw. Electricity is quite expensive in New England due to most of the power plants being fired by natural gas, and all the available gas pipelines being maxed out currently (I pay about 2.5x the national average price for a kWh). By my calculation that electricity savings works out to about $100 per year in savings on electric bills.

The next major project on that front is to get some solar panels hooked up to a small battery system and selectively power the fridge using it when the batteries are juiced up, and grid power when the batteries are depleted. I'd install a real grid-tied solar system, but I rent the house that I live in, so I can't modify the wiring in the wall. Unfortunately, it's not safe or legal to use the grid-tied solar systems that are sometimes advertised to use the existing wiring as they create a possibility to overload the rated current for the house's wiring and set the house on fire from inside the walls.