What's your time worth? Fuel economy vs speed.

[bandit86]

My o6 corolla gets 55-65 mpg cruising at 55 mph At 65 mph it's down to 32-40 At 75 I get high 20s. Love my scangauge.

Why I want to test is constant speed in different gears, to see why the drastic change. Is it engine efficiency that suffers, aerodynamics or rolling resistance. I will cruise and check differen speeds in different gears, what I wish I had was a 10-15% larger tire I could put on to lower engine speed a highway speed

[meisterjohnny]

Originally Posted by bandit86

My o6 corolla gets 55-65 mpg cruising at 55 mph At 65 mph it's down to 32-40 At 75 I get high 20s. Love my scangauge.

Why I want to test is constant speed in different gears, to see why the drastic change. Is it engine efficiency that suffers, aerodynamics or rolling resistance. I will cruise and check differen speeds in different gears, what I wish I had was a 10-15% larger tire I could put on to lower engine speed a highway speed

Probably Air Resistance...drag increases with velocity squared.
Power to overcome air resistance increases with velocity cubed.


Note that the power needed to push an object through a fluid increases as the cube of the velocity. A car cruising on a highway at 50 mph (80 km/h) may require only 10 horsepower (7.5 kW) to overcome air drag, but that same car at 100 mph (160 km/h) requires 80 hp (60 kW).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_(physics)

[fidalgoman]

You know... wink. If people would just walk slower and forget about running, doing hard work or climbing stairs they would use less calories and as a result they could eat less and wasting less food energy possibly saving the planet.

Sorry I can't help myself at times. You see for the most part we are preaching to the choir. Those of us who care about good mileage and living a more frugal lifestyle will only have a limited effect until the technology is widely adopted by the market.

Having 50+ MPG cars can become very addicting and having large instantaneous MPG readouts sure can make a difference how hard we mash the pedal.

[redpoint5]

After having visited many central and south American countries, one thing that surprises me is the lack of attention to driving habits. In these less wealthy countries where fuel costs more than the US, they tend to drive small and fuel efficient vehicles, but neglect to drive efficiently themselves. The throttle and brakes are used as on/off switches, with no coasting between.

I would think the heart of ecomodding and hypermiling would lay with those most in need of the benefits.

[gone-ot]

I've never yet gotten a ticket for driving "too slow" instead of driving "too fast"...which awards points for "cost effectiveness" to slower driving rather than faster driving.

[niky]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

I would think the heart of ecomodding and hypermiling would lay with those most in need of the benefits.

Private owners maybe not... but some public utility drivers here have been practicing hypermiling since the 70's.

I've watched drivers here coast up to passenger stops with the engine off, and wait for passengers that way. Old-school diesel drivers also pulse-and-glide on the highway. I never understood how those guys drove until I started studying fuel efficiency.

Newer for-hire drivers don't do the same thing. And young drivers don't give a crap. They like going fast. But the old guys, the ones who paid for their own trucks and have to scrounge up money just to buy fuel, they get it.

[Grant-53]

Time is money. How you value your time may be based on labor rates or some other alternative costs. The real analysis comes into play when comparing modes of transportation. Do I drive my car, ride a motorcycle, take public transportation, ride a bicycle, or walk? One retired executive doing many speaking engagements around the country found that a twin engine aircraft was the most economical form of travel given the value of his time. A streamlined bicycle is the most efficient energy wise but may not be fast enough for a trip more than 25 miles. A car pool of four people is more efficient than a motorcycle if trip time is the same. Buses are very efficient but not at all convenient most places. When possible I use a bus and take my bike on with me to solo commute.

[Fat Charlie]

Time definitely is money. Simple driving style changes saved me over a gallon a day- every week that was more than a gas can that I didn't have to buy. Every three weeks I saved an entire tankful. How much time did I spend? My UG showed an average speed of 57.5 the one time I checked it. Not too shabby when you consider the highest PSL in my area is 55 and I spend a lot of time on lower speed roads.

Hypermiling helped me direct a whole lot of money to places other than commuting. I love it!

[101Volts]

Originally Posted by 3-Wheeler

It may just be my observation and I could be wrong, but it seems that the faster people travel on a regular basis, tends to aid them in being less patient.

When I think of people buzzing around because their time is "too short", I wonder how people who had only a horse/buggy for transportation, felt about "time" 100 years ago?

Jim.

Go read the Foxfire books and have some insight; In the second one an old man commented something quite similar to this: "People back then would talk with you all day if you stopped them while they had a horse and buggy, But now people with cars won't so much as talk for a minute! They're rushing, But where are they rushing to?"

[XYZ]

Originally Posted by Grant-53

Time is money. How you value your time may be based on labor rates or some other alternative costs. The real analysis comes into play when comparing modes of transportation. Do I drive my car, ride a motorcycle, take public transportation, ride a bicycle, or walk? One retired executive doing many speaking engagements around the country found that a twin engine aircraft was the most economical form of travel given the value of his time. A streamlined bicycle is the most efficient energy wise but may not be fast enough for a trip more than 25 miles. A car pool of four people is more efficient than a motorcycle if trip time is the same. Buses are very efficient but not at all convenient most places. When possible I use a bus and take my bike on with me to solo commute.

Yep, TIME IS MONEY.

Ben Franklin knew it and said it. But what could a centuries-old fuddy-duddy like him possibly know? He was never a president, but unlike all the others who were presidents, (with the exception of Alexander Hamilton) his face is on the largest currency note we have.

Some folks have more time on their hands than they know what to do with. That's one perspective. Not everyone is retired or out of work. Others are busy being productive and never seem to have enough time.

Sometimes I drive fast, and sometimes I drive slow. It depends on the situation, whether it is economically advantageous or not.

But every time old Ben shows up in my wallet, I smile.