Energy Consumption

Does GM say what mpg number is used for the 'average US compact' car ? It could be used to backtrack and easily figure out lifetime petrol miles and lifetime electric miles. If the owner knows electric consumption then electric energy/mile is also available.

It is amusing that GM does not report this data on the car screen, but we would not want to upset the drivers

 

4,378 EV miles divided by 2.99 miles per kWh of electricity equal 1,464 kWh. That's roughly how much electricity you've used so far.

You used 1,464 kWh of electricity to save 75.9 gallons of gas. Is it progress? Considering the size and purchase price differences between midsize Prius and compact Volt.

 

Why not compare it to what the Volt engine actually delivers? Basically say ok you get 35 whatever mpg, if this were a Cruze you would've used xx more gallons to go that distance.

Don't forget, I am not a blind volt-hater, prius-lover...just curious as to what they based it on.

 

I have a not completely unrelated question.

Back when I had the Prius, I also had a Ranger. The truck sat most of the time, but I'd use it pick up things like mulch. Since it was displacing Prius use, should I have included the Ranger's fuel economy in with the Prius' when reporting its?

 

That is a good question, and you are not one of the usual suspects that react as if their manhood is threatened whenever someone says something positive about the volt. I was curious about some real world volt driver experiences, but somehow this thread has become a jumping off point try to get another "problems with the volt" thread going.

The reason not to simply forget about the electric miles is that it is the raison d'etre of the volt. The electric driving experience is something a percentage of the population will pay for, and many would like to substitute electric miles for gasoline miles.

The cruze is a good yardstick for mileage of the volt. It appears that a cruze, and this should be done in controlled conditions but the cruze will use about 33 gallons in 1000 miles, the OP averaged about 3 gallons and 300kwh. Please correct me if these are wrong. The OP also was driving a much less fuel efficient car than the cruse. The average volt owner seems to be using 9 gallons from onstar data and less kwh.

You only need to include it if you are saying how much better the prius is than your ranger. It doesn't make any sense that you would be juicing your prius miles with the ranger, or the op was juicing his with the ferrari. No problem with someone asking the question but lets look at the answer. A prius isn't a truck and a volt isn't a sports car but if you can sub most of the miles with a efficient vehicle that's a good thing.

 

I believe it is.

Its less money (roughly $100 for my area), but more than that its 4 less barrels of crude. extrapolated out its a couple hundred bucks and a dozen barrels saved a year.

I know I'm causing more coal to be burned or uranium to be depleted or whatever. I am getting solar soon (permit stage now) and then it'll be a few weeks of sunshine off setting those barrels. That's the best progress I can think of.

 

Do you know how effective they will be in winter? I know you aren't "up north" so to say but you certainly aren't in FL either.

Basically wondering if there is an efficiency loss expected kind of like battery output drop?

 

Thats actually not a terrible idea, "by plugging in you offset x gallons because if you ran the Volt without doing so you would have burned y". Valid to discuss the benefit you are getting from the grid.

However, it doesn't address gallons your saving in CS mode because the car is more efficient than any other Chevy, including the Cruze.

 

When I first got it at the end of March temps were in the 30s and 40s and I didn't see much of a loss. I know thats not the Great White North or Minnesota or anything, but temps lower than the teens are pretty rare here so I'm not too concerned.

The car stays plugged into the 240v at home so battery thermal management over night shouldn't effect the range, and preconditioning while its still plugged in should take much of the heating load off the battery too.

FWIW my Gen I prius used to take 10-15 minutes to get warm while driving into work in the morning and its only a 20 minute drive. Getting into a warm car is going to be awesome.

 

I think he was asking about the solar panels.

Just going form bits and pieces of info picked up, while sunlight strength drops during winter, the panel's efficiency benefits from the cold. So production might just average out over the course of the year.

 

Using a truck for the purpose it was actually designed is totally acceptable. But then you cannot report a "saved" value without including all miles driven... especially if that other vehicle is ever used while the plug-in is depleted.

In other words, clarity of what's being reported is vital.

Of course, if all you are reporting is potential, what's the point? The value of real-world data is the sharing of detail... every little detail. Avoiding disenchantment from assumptions based upon vague info is very important. Remember all the previous hype?
.

 

My bad.

We do expect less production in the winter, but our demand is much less in the winter too with no A/C usage.

 

^^ Which probably just means you use fossil fuel to heat the home.

Trollbait: Check out PVWatts for monthly collection by location.

 

Trollbait, I guess I was wrong. I need to start tracking my bicycle mileage exactly. It may push my prius into really bad milage territory. I'm going to duct tape my mpg display because it could be much worse if I include my other vehicles.

GWMORT, how dare you buy into the volt hype. Don't you know without that volt you would not need fossil fuel to heat your home?

 

I don't quite get that either

I do have a natural gas furnace, I don't see how its germane.

The finance charge on the PV system is about 80% of our present avg electric bill, so our electric cost will go down and we'll not be generating emissions for that electric anymore. I don't anticipate impact on our gas bill one way or another. We do have pretty effective passive solar now that helps in winter (lots of south facing double paned windows).

Does that help?

 

Yes I was talking solar and yeah, lower winter usage makes sense...we experience the same thing here.

 

[ame=http://www.google.com/search?aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=opportunity+cost]opportunity cost - Google Search[/ame]

 

Looks like they finally updated the Myvolt website with the display of some efficiency data, here's mine:

Vehicle Life:
Electric Miles:
4,889
Gas Miles:
2,232
Total Miles:
7,121
Percentage on Electric:
69%
Fuel Economy:
116 MPG
Electric Economy:
34 kW-hr/100 miles
Combined Economy:
105 MPGe
Est. Gallons Fuel Saved:
214 gal
Est. CO2 Avoided:
4,147 lbs

 

That's so wrong. They are including electric miles and dividing by gallons of gasoline. The label should read "Gasoline Economy".

Math shows the real Gasoline Economy is 36 MPG (if you exclude the electric miles). No wonder they left it out and tries to mislead by showing the big number.

Do you know if it is measured at the charger or from the car? It does not appear to include gas miles mixed together (like the one above).

 

I've got the actual gallons purchased on my ipod touch out in the car, I'll try to update with that number later for a more accurate gas mileage number.

I have no idea how they measure the kwh's. I don't track it at all and these numbers from Onstar are the only measurement I have to work with. Now that the website is updated maybe mfennel will post his report and we can compare to his measured at the wall numbers.