Thursday, May 18, 2017

Range Test Hypermile Style!

Holy Moly! The Weatherman is predicting 7 straight dry sunny days IN A ROW!! Could be we are finally getting into driving season?


Well of course that meant it was time for the Summer range test!... Well sort of.  Not really Summer since the test temperatures ran from 55º to 64º but close enough! At least it was dry. If you live in my neighborhood, you already know the #1 range killer is rain!

So naturally I had to start with a full charge and yes, I am still at 28.1 kwh available so with the GOM, that means I should be getting what? Well, lets see. So we started out this morning


Ok so 121 miles means LEAF thinks I will average  4.3 miles per kwh.  Well, actually that was yesterday's average more or less and the weather promises to be better and DRIER!  So I think it should be 4.5 miles per kwh or about 126 miles.

Now as mentioned in the title;  This is a hypermiling test. So it will be speeds no more than 63 mph (was going to say 60 but since I have already driven it, that would kinda sorta be a lie...) discounting occasional higher speeds on down hills, etc so its Eco B and neutral! (when applicable)   I am headed to Shelton/Grapeview which is basically freeway 25ish miles so total 50 miles counting return and the rest will be county roads at 50 mph with a little bit of residential 25-35 mph stuff as well.

I took off and as promised the Sun was out but not quite as warm as promised. It was almost 11 AM and temps were just in the mid 50's.  But things were looking good!


But then again, I was at the bottom getting ready to go back up the other side. IOW; Reality was about to kick in!  But it was a very pleasant day for a drive and I was able to bounce over to Harstine Island where the water was as smooth as glass.  Unfortunately this jaunt required a 2 mile gravel road (actually barely qualified as a trail...) to the end and back.  This was done at 15-20 mph.  Boosted my numbers a bit I guess but I think the extra weight from both road dust and mud weighed me down canceling the benefits.

Halfway! (well not really but still looked cool) 

Now normally I stop at Little Creek Casino to upload jobs (they have a BLAZINGLY fast wi fi) and grab a bit of free juice but the weather was too nice and the range didn't need a boost so I passed on the stop which is same as I passed it by without stopping.  Weird how that works, eh? 



Finally I hit the AV QC in Tumwater and this is the results.  I thought it would be much more "adventurous" than it was but if averaging 4.7 miles per kwh, I should have a range of  132 miles but the trip meter and GOM was only 127  so  since I had "extra" time, (someone beat me to the plug!) I screenshot LEAF Spy to see if the range prediction was better 


Nope, pretty much the same story here.... (I normally don't have my tires that far off, btw... ;) ) but then again, if I changed my range estimate to zero SOC and bumped the average up to 4.7 miles per kwh, it would give me... well, 2 more miles than the GOM... BUT

THEN... 

As mentioned earlier, I had to wait like 15 mins for someone to finish her charge.  So I was sitting there idling away listening to radio, charging my phone and blowing that juice on Facebook....IOW, I was still consuming power and then... 


I gained a mile! I felt much better now.  128 is much more acceptable!  But mostly because thru out most of the trip, my combined range using the two numbers was in the 132-135 range but alas, I kinda ruined it on my freeway jaunt back to town.... Oh well... 

Well, I finally got my turn on the 50 KW AV and as always when the power dropped below 40 KW, I unplugged. I now had 100 miles of range and only 34 more miles of stuff to do so needless to say, I ended the day at 4.5 miles per kwh. Must be that headwind!

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