Working on my first Winter 50+mpg tank

It sounds like you're on the right track... other 2 things are verify your tire pressure, and get an engine block heater. I've managed to keep mine over 50mpg, but just barely on some tanks, with temps down to the teens and no grill block.

 

Congratulations. With temps in the 50's I've got 58.6mpg on the current tank with the grill blocked.

 

The heater is about 400W.

I agree that plugging in all night @ 20 cents per kWh probably isn't worth it. But it doesn't need to run all night. The consensus is that 3 hours will do it, and many of us use timers to keep it to that.

As for whether it's worth the hassle, that of course is a personal choice.

Congrats, nonetheless, on very respectable results.

 

I just recently blocked the grill, my car is still very new and I can't get better than 45 for right now. The weather has been all sorts of wacky here in Northern NJ. Once I get around 5k in it I am sure it will run better. Congrats on the 50+ winter mileage.

 

Monday I completed a 850 mile trip north on I-95 from GA border to north jersey. Left with odo at 1130 miles and mpg at 47.7. For the first 2 hours was flat and set cruise at 65mph. The average never changed, the bars all read about 49 to 51 mpg, but then i turned the cruise off. All of a sudden I was getting 53 to 55 mpg. Then it got hilly and the cruise went on again at 65 mph. The bars went down to about av. 52 again. So turned the cruise off and started getting creative. Most inclines were about 1/2 to 1 mile long with no more than 300 foot rise. So I would crest the top and go all electric down hill and gain about 3 mph then going up I would let it slowly lose about 6 mph by the next peak being at 62 mph. So never going 3 mph above our below 65 mph. This was working great. Most bars were between 58 and 60, bepending how the 5 minute span fit into the accent and rise of the incline. So averaging about 59 mpg for a few hours I started thinking how to increase, DRAFTING!! I picked a semi doing about 65mph and got about 30 feet from the rear bar and my god I was averaging 62-63 mpg. I would loose the effect after backing off to about 40 feet. Did this for a few hours changing semis ever so often, till traffic got a little tight and the semi's had to hit their brake now and again. So for the 850 mile trip I averaged 54.3 mpg. It was a bit higher but the sun went down and also heading north temp dopped 20 degress and for the last 2 hour had touble keeping the bars above 51mpg. This was great .The car was comfy and only had one gas/pee stop. l

 

Im 200 miles into my second tank of fuel and im getting 49.6mpg. First tank was 43mpg. I think the higher tire pressure and grill blocking is really helping. When it is broke in I hope to get even more mpg but I cant complain with what i have now.

 

Yea, I haven't over inflatted the tires yet maybee thats why I ave around 45 still. I also stoped flipping it into N sometimes because one of the salesman at the dealership told me I would ruin the car that way. Is that true? I know all of you talk about pulse and glide techniques and flipping it to Neutral as well. But this guy seemed adamant in telling me not to do that. So who should I believe? you guys or the salesman who occasionally gets to drive a prius and really doesn't know much about them except for the fact that selling them pays his rent.....

 

you are on the right track...in heavy traffic, you are right, the higher speed does not really make up enough time.

on I-5 driving from Tukwila to Olympia, we did a test when we both left at the same time... one trying to maintain a speed of 70, me CC at 60 mph... trip was 48 miles.

now because of traffic, my speed in the Prius was mostly 65 to 67 mph... i weaved as much as possible to maintain 70 mph... at the end of the trip, i was exactly 6 minutes ahead of her. now we were talking to each other the whole time, and up until i hit Dupont, about 15 miles away, i was only a few minutes ahead of her... (we did go thru a stretch that was about 20 mph for about 3-4 miles)

so all in all, on a 67 minute trip, i saved 6 minutes... my mileage was 51.9 mpg.... the same trip with two people (this trip was solo) done many times at 60 mph averages about 56-58 mpg and as high as 61 mpg (obviously the slowdown varies but is almost always there and in the same spot on I-5 between the Puyallup freeway and hiway 16)

now on better days, i think the "drive as fast as possible" trip i could do up to 52-53 mpg... but probably not any better than that and i only did this one time... so no real baseline to check.

 

If you get a scangauge you will find that if its in the teens or 20s and your coolant temp is around 160 or 170, if you turn the heat on the coolant temp will drop to 145 pretty fast, which is the temp where the ice will run even when you are stopped. As for the summer AC when its hot, it always drains my traction battery pretty fast. 5 or 10 minutes in a fast-food drive through will take my battery purple and when I leave I'm on mostly ice, so mpg sucks until I drive enough to get the soc up.

uhh.. didn't see how many postings you have.... soc=traction battery State Of Charge; ice=Internal Combustion Engine

 

We had Wayne install the EBH at the Hybridfest last year, It does not seem to do as good as expected.
We still can't get above 39.7 in Winter, but we do have winter tires on a little bigger than stock 195 vs the 185's Maybe the heater is not working I will feel the Motor in the Morning if it is cold to the touch.
Plus we have it on a timer for 4 hours..

Oh well 39.9 is still better than 13mpg in a jeep, oh but at least the jeep will go through snow we wont talk about prius in snow or traction control.

 

RE: going through snow. Winter tires, and watch the clearances.

My trips have dropped to an average of ~<5 miles most times, and that only a couple of times a week. the MFD tells me that I'm doing about 44 mpg, and you know, that's still a helluva lot better than the Malibu ever did!

EBH is not an option where I live, and I have not blocked the grill. But, my tires are at 42/40 psi.