Stereo Affect on MPG

I think this belongs in a thread I started a while back:

http://priuschat.com/forums/fuel-economy/50665-bizarre-obscure-details-effect-mpg.html

 

The short answer is that anything using power has an affect on your mileage, whether it's the headlamps, the stereo, or your ipod plugged into the power outlet. The more complete answer is that affects of all of them are nearly unmeasurable. A normal stereo operating at normal levels will have very little impact. You don't need to worry about it.

Tom

 

I'd think that at somewhere between 125 and 140 decibels you'd take a significant mileage hit as the pain became too severe to keep your foot on the gas. The ICE will keep running to charge the battery, run the AC, etc., but you won't actually be moving, which is going to be basically zero MPG.

 

If you are playing "I can't drive 55", it might.

 

If you adjust the fader correctly, you can use the speakers sound wave to push your car forward and get a few more mpg.

With the balance control, you can turn left and right too.

 

That was good for a good laugh. The problem is my wife was talking to me while I was reading it so the cat's out of the bag that I wasn't paying attention to her. Thanks a lot. :focus:

 

any good rock tunes turned 40+, games over, your mpg = nothing!

 

Well I did some research and did notice a slight increase in mileage when I listened to music such as "Deep Purple's Highway Star" and songs of that energy level, as compared to "Great Funeral Dirges", "Zanphir and the Pan Flute" and some "Rap Polka's"

Volume did not seem to affect the results!
I attribute the difference to the sonic capabilities of the JBL system!
Fact is stranger than fiction!!

Pat KK6PD

 

lets start a thread about extending the life of dental floss!

ive seen everything

 

Actually, think about it. The radio could have a big impact on mpg...

If you play a soft, calm music, you would drive slower and smoother.
Put some hard rock at loud volume, and I bet you will drive faster, and accelerate more abruplty.

 

I've been spending a lot of time looking at woofers and maybe getting a big on put into my car... This girl I've kinda been seeing said I needed to get one.... I told her I didn't want one because of this exact reason! Any drain on the batteries is going to kill mileage, think about it. That's what I told her and I told her I wasn't going to get one....

But you guys are saying it's not really that big of a deal? She keeps telling me to get one so maybe I will now.

 

Ah, but you forgot, its a Prius, "drive faster, and accelerate more abruplty" really are not options usually attributed to this car!!!

Just cause I'm mentaly running flat out, does'nt mean the car can!!!

Pat KK6PD

 

How much effect it has on mileage is a function of how much power (as usually measured in amps from the 200 V bus) that it draws and the average speed over which it is consumed. If the system is one where all that other drivers notice is a massively distorted base rumble as you pass, then you will indeed be losing some mileage. How much depends on the power drawn and how frequently it is run at that level. If it pulls as much juice as the low beam, non-HID lights then it could be as much as 2% loss in low speed city driving (they totalled about 135 watts IIRC.) At highway speed the loss would be less since at that speed proportionately more of the energy use is for propulsion over a longer distance or for a shorter operational period.

 

OK, I agree the car is not fast. But go ahead, spend one day flooring it all the time, driving recklessly, and you'll be surprised at how lousy the fuel economy can become. It's not a fast car, but it can still burn enormous amounts of fuel if driven wrong.

Also, look up the M3 vs Prius fuel economy contest on youtube. On a race track, a Prius was going the fastest (or "less slow") it could and the M3 was keeping up behind it. The M3 ended up burning less fuel.

So, in summary, some kinds of loud music *could* make the driver drive in a less fuel-economy-friendly fashion and therefore indirectly increase fuel consumption.

 

I've found that at a certain point in Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", I get an extra .75MPG!

You know, the part right after:
"Will not let you go-let me go
Will not let you go let me go
No,no,no,no,no,no,no-
Mama mia,mama mia,mama mia let me go-
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me,for me,for me-"

And you get into "head-banger" euphoric/air-guitar portion of the song.

I attribute this to the rocking motion people usually perform within a vehicle at this stage of this particular song - it helps to scoot the car a bit without using the battery as much or the ICE!