Driving with a scangauge in a Gen III

Knowing the route helps out a lot, because you know where the stops/hills are located. The basic things that will help with your MPG are the following:

1) Tire Pressure (Max it out, the higher the better)
2) Get up to speed very quickly
3) Coast as much as possible (with NO REGEN BRAKING)
4) Run the AC as little as possible (with windows UP)
5) When you know you have to stop, capture as much regen braking as possible.

There is plenty of info out there for hypermilers, but if you just do these, it should help a great deal with your MPG.

*EDIT*
I forgot to add this; The interstate (higher speeds), kills MPG. I try to pick my routes that are posted about 35mph if possible. I have the gen2 and I can average about 70-80 mpg most of the time without putting much effort into it.

 

In the everyday use, in my SGII I like to monitor these values:
1) Ice rpm (you know that ice is running most efficiently between 1250 and 3000 rpm, so I try to stay around 1600-1800. consider this during pulse phase)
2) ice coolant temp (you know that ice should be above 80C to work more efficiently).
3) Soc, state of charge (you know that if you're below 60% ice will run to charge battery too, that's not the best. More, if you are above 60% you can use some battery traction to help during glides - ideally you should stay at 60%).
4) Ampere from (positive values) and to (negative values) the battery (for the same reasons at point 3), but with this parameter you have an idea how things are going in a certain instant).

Then I use to monitor the hybrid synergy indicator and speed on HUD (I think this is the most important indicator, and you don't take off eyes from the road).

Sometimes I take a look to analog instant fuel economy on the dashboard, and finally I like to see the graphic "5 min. consumption" to see which results I achieve.

 

I knew 80 was a possibility!

I would agree with Ferls on the 1600-1800 RPM being a lovely acceleration spot before gliding.

Brett, I'm guessing you know about the stages (Gen III info here: http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...iscussion/76501-gen3-warming-up-stages.html)? Monitoring fWT will be good for knowing when you can glide at the start of a trip, if you're not already aware.

 

I just ordered a Scangauge, and I was wondering what I should be looking for. It looks like you answered that already!

FWIW I once got 75MPG on a 5-mile stretch that was low speed with some modest rolling hills. Those hills seem to force a nice P&G.

 

I use that four xgauges too!

Specially soc one.

With the soc xgauge and the knowing of the route you can adjust your battery charge better.

I think it is possible 3.0 l/100 (real, not from the inaccurate car display) in real traffic day.

And if all conditions were ideal, it could be possible to go under 3.0 l/100 km (78 mpg). But rain and cold play against us almost all the year.

 

Well, the car will typically be drawing about 1.0-1.5 A doing nothing. That's probably a good level to aim for. However, having the A/C on at all will drag that down quite significantly. If it's only 72, you're way better off having the fan on at the first or second notch, and the A/C light off.

It's all about how many little details you want to control. Want that extra half-mpg? Then you can't usually use Auto climate control. Don't care about the last little bit of fuel economy? Great! The car will do a pretty good job all by itself.

And your 80.5 mpg was probably helped by emptying the battery - I imagine your trip home was worse mpg because the car had to charge the battery more. If you keep the SoC gauge up on the scangauge, try to keep it above 58%; below that, you'll notice the engine working harder to try and charge the battery, which means that for the same pedal input (or the same spot on the HSI), it'll be revving the engine faster. Above about 62 or 63% is where it will do the opposite, dumping charge from the battery so the engine revs slower. Both of those levels are well within bar #6 of the battery, so this is basically impossible to see without a scangauge.

 

Amazon.com sells a OBDII cable splitter which will allows 2 scangaugeII to be connected to the Prius at once.

 

A splitter is not necessary, ScanGauges can be daisy-chained. I don't recall if it needs an Ethernet cable or phone cord, but it is easy.

 

Ethernet.

 

Quick question. Pulsing at 1200-1800 rpm, is that Granny Acceleration?
Say, from a red light.

Also, I've tried skipping the highway the whole way, and my MPG increases slightly instead of going down. So perhaps I am always over-accelerating.

I've tried going into red all the time from stops until 10% above posted limit and coasting to next stop the who way, versus staying in the green zone - what I call Granny Acceleration, with no noticeable difference.

The only time I get way above 50 MPG is bumper-to-bumper traffic, when my top speed is never above 60kph / 35mph. At 80-100kph for 15 minutes versus 60-70kph for 20 minutes is a net zero effect.

IOW, getting to work using same small roads, and staying on the access road, which is quite level, versus getting on the highway.

What I do do, is maintain speed with little variation, to not become a annoyance in traffic, when there are no stops for a good 15-20 minutes.

So having a scangauge or not, wondering how this could affect me.

 

My Scangauge arrived today, and I used it a little bit. I was surprised to find that the magic 1800rpm 'peak efficiency' is right at the top end of the ECO bargraph on the HSI, just at the transition to PWR.

I imagine this may change with coolant temp and state of charge? I will of course find out on my own.

And I managed to turn off the stupid reverse beep! That was a painful exercise in early computer science.

 

The thing is, a standard glide will use the battery even though the car indicates that it's not, so you can never get 1 amp while gliding, except you can get close in neutral with the car slowing more. A standard foot-induced glide with headlights off you'll see range from 2.0 amps (at 20 mph), but usually around 5 or 6. With headlights off still, I've even seen it up at 7 amps. The car seems to adjust slightly on uphills during a glide, I believe actually giving a hair more juice when it notices speed slowing on an uphill, and uses less going downhills.

Brett, using a neutral glide will use less energy, but you will slow considerably more than a normal glide, so they're good for downhills or when you don't want to conserve momentum for whatever reason.

I also like BTA for amps much more than SOC. SOC you can already approximate from battery display, and BTA is essential to make sure if you want a slight thrust at 25 mpg, let's say, that you're doing it with 6 amps and not 20. I do use SOC down a big hill when I want 80% charge, though, to make sure I'm on track for a temporary EV experience

 

I would say that a 1200 rpm acceleration is different than a 1800 rpm acceleration. In the first case I think it's usually annoying for cars following behind, even if in high traffic conditions it's absolutely acceptable.
In an 1200 rpm pulse you'll find the HSI filled up the middle.
A 1800rpm acceleration is a good acceleration, acceptable in the most cases in my urban and suburban trips. Here, HSI is filled for the 75-85%. Anyway it's still not enough when you have to get into an highway: in this condition pwr zone is highly recommended.

Absolutely right. I find myself gliding in a 2 or 6 amps range, some part of the energy is needed for electronic car devices.