Figuring out potential gas savings with a 2011 Prius

Hundred$ of maintenance is still cheaper than thou$and$ of new car depreciation. I put on twice as many miles per year as you, and I still wouldn't trade your young CRV just for the fuel savings.

Even plates, even days, odd plates, odd days. But only in some states, not where I lived.

With respect to hybrids, the nickel mining issue is a farce. The vast majority of nickel goes into stainless steels and other alloys, and chrome plating, all plentiful on non-hybrids. The vast majority of the environmental damage from nickel mining happened before today's hybrids existed. And the nickel in our batteries, like the far more toxic lead in regular car batteries, is recycled.

 

Maybe I missed something in the original thread, but I only saw the OP ask about the fuel savings between his CRV and a Prius, (not which would be cheaper to own). That isn't to say the advice given is wrong/bad, I just didn't see where he specifically asked for it.

But, that being said, don't forget that if he sells his CRV, someone else will buy it, and maybe they would buy that car rather than a used SUV that got worse gas mileage.

No car is GOOD for the environment (in regards to human habitation), they are all bad. However, some are worse than others. And as Fuzzy pointed out, Nickel is a valuable metal and it is recycleable.

The Prius also has the ability to bring awareness to the driver. Awareness of the consequences of speeding, tailgating, jack rabbit starts, etc. That MPG readout is a wonderful thing, I wish all cars would have it so people could see the consequences of their actions. Many Prius drivers do slow down a bit, combine trips, etc because now they have feedback as to what mileage is like on a cold engine, short trips, speeding down the road at 75 mph instead of 65 mph, etc.

I see nothing wrong with having the same utility in the car as his SUV but halving the amount of fossil fuels used. He will undoubtably have friends/family that will inquire about his car and maybe after getting his review, may consider buying a hybrid for their next car rather than a truck/SUV.

 

The former. There haven't been enough hybrid batteries scrapped to fully develop the recycling paths yet, and I doubt there is enough recycled nickel available from other sources supply the battery industry. But the material value and bounty are far better than for lead batteries, which already have a very high recycling rate.

At that many annual miles, he should be a prime candidate for a hybrid. Since the battery failures seem more commonly related to heat and age than miles driven, he should have a lower than average risk of needing to address battery problems before he was is ready to get rid of the car.

 

Your brother and I have similar distance commutes and overall miles per year (mine is about a 35 mile commute and about 23K miles per year). I like the looks of the Nissan Altima. A friend with a similar commute to mine gave up his 6 cyl Altima for a used Altima hybrid. His mileage was 25 ish and now is 35 mpg. He is quite happy with this. Also, he was a LEAD foot before. Now with his hybrid, he's slowed down to 60 mph (or so) so he can keep his mileage indicator at 40 mpg or better. It is amazing what an extra gauge (fuel mpg) can do.

If you have any doubts about what kind of fuel mileage one can get on longer highway commutes, take a look at my signature.

 

My wife likes to recycle stuff -- I hate it.
I am an avid re-user though.

 

I should probably be a bit more clear. I think recycling is a brilliant idea, I am just appalled at the miserable, green-washed excuse it has become in the US to rationalize unbridled consumption.

Speaking of green-washing: I now exercise at a community college gym open to anybody, (yay for them) and noticed this week that the ellipticals are hooked up to an inverter from a company called ReRev, allowing the machines to funnel human work into electricity. I'll guess the setup cost $20-$30k, because each elliptical has to be retrofitted. Turns out it has been up and collecting energy for a year, and has so far collected ...

wait for it ...

128 kwh.

 

In money terms, it is about $1 a month at local rates.

More members would help for sure, but I watched the power output display on the inverter box while three people were casually exercising, and the output was close to zero. I presume the problem is not reaching a threshold voltage even though the bikes are in a serial arrangement.

 

I'm guessing the amount of energy needed to power the electronics and such is very close to what the trainers users are providing.

My wife has been wanting me to do something like this for my bicycle trainer at home (I'll watch TV/Play Video Games while riding). While she would "gleefully" want to watch me power up both a TV set AND a game console while riding (I don't think I could do it, I probably put out about 150 to 200 watts of power) I'll just hit her with the price tag.

 

The BBC had a show in which a family ran its household while in the next building athletes pedaled generators. There were a slew of pedalers and they were absolutely exhausted after a short period.

If you think of the amount of work produced by just a bit of electricity, that gym's experience makes sense.

But just to get a sense of how convoluted energy logic can be, research has shown that an electric bicycle uses less energy than a human-powered bicycle, because food production is so energy-intensive.

 

I've read of one that was reasonable for exercise bikes, which can do a better because of the higher energy available for generation. But they only generate about 150Wh per session. Even at heavy use (say 4 sessions per day) it'd only be 219.15kWh per year for each bike. You'd need expensive electricity and/or a cheap system to make it pay for itself.

 

Sure -- but if the car is brand new common wisdom says stays below 70 mph for the first 500 miles or so.