Suggestion: Hypermiler rating system
 

Under the current system if a person achieves 20% above EPA combined fuel efficiency for the 90-day average, he/she is given a "Hypermiler" rating. That's cool. However, I think it would be even better if there were more categories. For example:

10% above EPA = "Efficient driver"
20% above EPA = "Hypermiler"
50% above EPA = "Hypermiler plus"
75% above EPA = "Super Hypermiler"
100% above EPA = "Ultra Hypermiler"

The numbers and names could change, but you get the idea of what I'm suggesting.

...similarly:

semi-miler
maxi-miler
super-miler
extreme-miler
ultra-miler
hyper-miler

...and:

mini-miler
midi-miler
mogo-miler

It's all well and good, but we know who we are.

Something like this would be fun. I personally like your suggestion of names Old Tele Man. Ultimately ending at the title of Hypermiler would be a privilege. Plus, for those that are below EPA, having a title for that too is a good idea. I might add, perhaps the color could change too. Red for Below EPA and ending with dark green for hypermiler. Course, yellow, a color that would probably come in between the two extremes, might be hard to see on a white background.

Oh, and Extreme-miler and Ultra-miler might need to be switched??? I don't know, when I think of extreme, it's pretty extreme! :)

Okay. How about being able to identify between those of us who only use hypermiling driving techniques, and those of us who modify our vehicles for economy?

I'm liking this idea,

Good idea! None of the modifications I've made on my Mustang have returned anywhere near the FE increase that driving technique modifications and commuting route modifications have returned.

Lazy Miler
Active miler
Hyper miler
Attention Deficite hyperactive miler
Obsessive Compulsive miler

Why not use names which are easier to understand and refine the resolution at the same time?
1%overEPA-miler
2%overEPA-miler
3%overEPA-miler
4%overEPA-miler
5%overEPA-miler
...
10%overEPA-miler
...
20%overEPA-miler
...
58%overEPA-miler
...
100%overEPA-miler
...
etc.

Now for the first decimal:
0.1%overEPA-miler
0.2%overEPA-miler
...
1.7%overEPA-miler
...
:snail: (<- I love this guy)

20% below EPA: Hyper Galloner!

I like the creativity of a good title rather than a percentage

Great idea!

How about lyin'miler. V look at my badge today V

As it happens, I was looking at the top ten, when there was an unbelievable addition made to the list.
I thought we had a new hero amongst our ranks, then investigated who owned this amazing Kitten :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

"fudgin-miler"?

10% above EPA = "I'm basically normal"
20% above EPA = "I kinda care"
50% above EPA = "When I tell people my mileage, they're impressed"
75% above EPA = "When I tell people my mileage, they don't believe me"
100% above EPA = "I'm completely and utterly obsessed"

...or, similarly:

micro-anal
mini-anal
midi-anal
quasi-anal
semi-anal
maxi-anal
ultra-anal
just-anal

I don't like the %-over EPA as it derates European members when they use their NEDC values.

With Hägar I'm a measly 11% over NEDC, and don't even qualify as a hypermiler.
Yet beating the NEDC in day-to-day driving is already something in itself.
At the level I'm starting at - 47mpg NEDC - things get a wee bit harder to improve upon.

Can't recall who it was - PaleMelanesian ? - but someone calculated a conversion between EPA and NEDC using vehicles that are offered on either side of the Pond, and came up with this :

EPA(us mpg)= 205.87/EU(L/100km)
EU(L/100km)= 202.04/EPA(mpg)

That'd mean 41 mpg for Hägar, meaning I'd be 27 % over ... instead of only 11% .

I'm favoring Wh/mile or Wh/km , as it's computed automatically based on type of fuel and the known averaged energy values of that type of fuel.

Then base any ranking off that value.

Bottom line is that no system is completely fair.

There are pros and cons to every conceivable way. The whole "% over EPA" metric is designed to represent a "% over baseline". If everybody's real-world duty cycle was exactly the same as the EPA certification test, then we'd be all set. Unfortunately, that's not the case.

We have some people who run:
mostly highway
mostly city
in very warm climates
in cold climates
mostly short trips
mostly long trips
in mostly heavy traffic
in mostly light traffic
over very hilly terrain
over flat terrain
etc.

Not to mention, not all vehicles have EPA ratings (European vehicles, etc.)--even in the USA. My truck, for example, doesn't have an EPA rating because it's in too high of a weight class.

Not to mention that different people want to compare different things. For example, hypermiling skill, vehicle modifications, money saved, fuel saved, CO2 emissions, etc. Depending on what you're trying to compare, different metrics may make sense.

So, nothing is perfect, but IMO, % over EPA is probably about as good as we can hope for.

I'm the best in the Piwoslaw fuel economy class:D
But how do I compare to someone else, who drives a totally different vehicle, in a totally different part of the world? Am I trying harder than someone who doesn't have Hypermiler status?

If I want to call myself an ultrafuelsippinghypermiler, then I'll make that my user title. If I want others to call me that, then I'll change my username. Each liter of fuel I save is the reward I'm after, not this or that title in my sig.
We are all here to save fuel, that's the bottom line.

I now changed my combined EPS back. Actually I changed it from 27 to 30 since I do more highway than city.

Your signature is f***ing amazing. I was seriously laughing out loud at 3,570% over EPA.

My car (Baa) has no US EPA rating, so I used an average of similar US models and the Australian economy figures.
My reasoning was, that I wanted to compare my results with similar models on this forum.

The trouble with that, is that driving conditions make too much difference to get any usable comparisons anyway.

I recently swapped to the highest Australian city / hwy figures and used the EPA formula that Aveomiler posted recently to work out the combined figure (that site only gives two figures).

That dropped my % from low 30's to high 20's, but that's OK, I'm only really competing against my own figures now, where driving conditions don't matter, only driving style.;)

How about percentage improvement over initial fuel log? That would really show how much we've learned and benefited from reading this forum, which is why we are here, as ultrafuelsippinghypermiler said:D.

My opinion would be to not separate technique from modifications as they both benefit the ultimate goal of improved economy, YMMV.

love this idea. I like seeing my graph and the upward slope that it makes. I have recently had a bit of a backslide but I should begin climbing soon.

Yeah, your FE took a big hit when your average went from 3500% over EPA to just 21%. Like, what happened? Did you have to turn the engine on again, after a 90 day EOC? :p :p :p

Hi, I Don't Understand About this. Will you say something about this topics.

It is a proposal that "names" be associated with an individuals' fuel-efficiency prowess. With some people proposing "serious" names and others proposing "humorous" names.

I don't use the tracking on this system, I use fuelly. Out of curiosity, if you track on ecomodder, do you record your highway vs. city mileage?

The EPA weights 55 highway/45 city.

I figure, if I drive both in the same tank, it still takes the same fuel to fill it, so I don't worry about splitting it up. My commute is neither "city" nor "highway" anyway. I do make a note in the fuel log about where I'm driving, especially if it's a long highway trip.

I, honestly, don't feel the need to have the current system changed. I do keep my original fuel mileage in mind on every fill, as that was the reason I came here:thumbup:.

I also use Fuelly as my primary fuel usage tracker.

How do you differentiate between highway miles and city miles?

Are you asking how do I input in Fuelly, or how do I decide which I am doing?

On Fuelly there is a slider, at least on the web-app for "add a fuel up".

http://content.screencast.com/users/...06-29_0747.png

I fill it out on my smartphone, so it looks different, but same idea.


The way I decide isn't very technical in nature. I just think about the last tank (usually the last few days - week) and where I went. I consider MOST driving around here about 50% city (average speed ~25mph, lots of stoplights, speed limits around 35mph), highway out to my parents or any time I am touching interstate.

I would love to see an average speed field and some sort of algorithm based on that - although that would be hard with hyper-milers.

Every time I fill up, I take my trip timer value, multiply it by 30 MPH, and then divide that into my corrected trip odometer value (corrected because my speedo pinion factor isn't quite dead-on accurate - about 99.3%).

For the resulting quotient, if it's below 1, then that tankful is completely city driving. If the resulting quotient is above 2, then that tankful is completely highway driving. Values between 1 and 2 are treated as follows: subtract 1, then multiply by 100. That gives me a percentage of highway driving. I cna then easily convert this value into something I can plug into Fuelly.

It may not be completely accurate, but it gives me a good idea.

I just fill and write the distance travelled, the cars FE reading and the average speed, on the reciept, then reset everything.

My average speed for the last 4k miles is 38 MPH. I usually choose to drive on the older US routes which are mostly 55 MPH with some of the country sections at 60 MPH.

My routes are probably better than most, but you can really get stuck in traffic here if you are not careful. I have seen 1 mile in 1 hour, and 14 miles in 14 hours on a rare occasion, but I know all of the alternate routes and my worst was the 1 mile in one hour.
Now I exit on the frontage road where I can get off when I see the backup. Been driving here since before Interstates existed (at least here).

If I was going to change the way things were done, I would want to know average speeds, but then that would make it very complicated for many drivers.

I don't even look at the top tens very much. I know I will not be there in my car. When I was in the VX a lot of members didn't believe my mileage, but it was what I posted. If I had to enhance the facts, I wouldn't bother posting anything about mileage.

reagrds
Mech

So basically

<30mph average = 100% city
30-60mph average = weighted (45 = 50/50)
>60mph = 100% highway

Interesting. I should get a scangauge and see what my numbers are using your system. I'd guess closer 80% city than the ~50% I have right now.

(The Appliance (Saturn SL2) | Fuelly)

I wonder if an MPGuino could be programmed with an algorithm to take into account multiple variables and generate a highway/city number for each tank. Say, average speed, # of stops spent idling > 30 seconds, amount of time spent coasting < 35mph, etc.

It would be an interesting experiment.

<--- data junky.

Using average speed is problematic. 50% 20 mph and 50% 60 mph is quite different from someone who goes 40 mph 100% of the time. Also, idle time (0 mph) signifiacntly affects average speed numbers.