New Super-Efficient Plug-in Hybrid Unveiled

My house (2-story) goes in little circles, barely detectable. It only gets .0000073 mi/Kwh. But its drag coefficient is high, even for a 2-story.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(EricGo @ May 20 2006, 11:06 AM) [snapback]258493[/snapback]</div>

OK... that was funny.

Just for the bored or curious, here's an interesting little tid-bit to let simmer on the back of your brain:

My 2200 sq-ft home in the Sacramento Valley of CA (meaning it gets pretty damn hot here in the summer) uses approximately the same amount of electricity (averaged over a year) as our EV that travels 12,000 miles/year. The car is half of our household electricity usage. Many people are surprised to hear this, and then SHOCKED that I'm willing to put up with doubling my electricity bill (until I tell them that my electricity bill goes up 25c for each $1 that my gasoline bill drops.)

And then the kicker - even with my EV on the electricty tab at our house, I use less total electricity (not even counting the solar system here!) than the average use by my neighbors. But then, I don't have a pool, and I keep very tight riegns on my household usage.

But the bottom line - the house gets VERY bad electrical mileage. It is one of the few powered items we have that make SUVs look streamlined.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ May 19 2006, 04:30 PM) [snapback]258320[/snapback]</div>

Agreed.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Kiloran @ May 19 2006, 05:30 AM) [snapback]257970[/snapback]</div>

You are assuming these guys are giving themselves 40 miles "free" in their MPG calculation, but your assumptions are wrong:

1) They don't say they run the car 40 miles on only electricity. They say, “assuming an all-electric range of 40 miles†. . . of which the key word is RANGE. The car is capable of driving 40 miles with power provided only from the battery - That is it's “all-electric range.â€

2) “They are giving themselves 40 “free†MPGs?" If that were the case, so what! Doesn't that then mean the car has traveled the other 160 miles on power derived only from one gallon of gasoline? 160 MPG? Sign me up for one of those cars! . . . even if they cheat by making the car go an extra 40 miles on a cheaper energy source.

Undoubtedly the way their car works is to use only battery power when most efficient to do so, the ICE only when most efficient, and a combination of both the other times. Kind of sounds exactly like our hybrids.

The distance their car travels on electricity - when the ICE shuts-off, and the batteries take over - is much more than 40 miles. The ICE helps by doing the hard work of accelerating the car up to speed, then the batteries can take over and do the easy job of maintaining speed.

In “all-electric†driving, the ICE never starts, and the batteries have to do everything . . . the easy, and the hard.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ May 20 2006, 02:12 PM) [snapback]258570[/snapback]</div>

[joking mode on]
I think your interesting little tid-bits simmered on the back of my brain a little too long.

I just don't like it when engineers knowingly lie about the numbers . . .

darelldd is giving himself 40 degrees of “free†cooling in his summer calculations . . . Saying the Sacramento Valley is hot is neither correct nor honest.

darelldd conviently left out information about our “Delta Breeze.†On most Summer evenings, like clockwork, the Delta Breeze blows in cool ocean air to help cool things down by 30-40 degrees at night. And the other part of the Summer equation he didn't mention: We have dry heat. Much less energy intensive to maintain a comfortable house, than say, in the Deep South!

[joking mode off]

Thanks to the Delta Breeze, I rarely have to use the central air to keep cool. The whole house fan does an outstanding job . . . and I live in a not so energy efficient - weak insulation, drafty single pane windows - house built in 1927 . . . it's painted redwood siding and double hung windows are original and too cute to mess-up with vinyl windows and siding. Of course the large shade trees help tremendously too.

My average electric usage:
July-August ~ 13.45 Kwh/day.
Dec-January ~ 13.34 Kwh/day.

I'm sure those numbers would make darelldd gag :blink: . . . especially if I told him my house is less than half the size of his. :lol:

P.S. Darelldd's and my house only travel during earthquakes. I wouldn't want to even begin to calculate those energy numbers.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ May 19 2006, 09:17 PM) [snapback]258447[/snapback]</div>

I'd turn this on its head and say that it's amazing how much energy a 200W lightbulb (incandescent, of course) wastes/consumes to produce and hours worth of light! Move a 1.5 tonne object 1 mile or run a light for an hour. That blew me away. until I got interested in this stuff I had no idea that those 2 things consumed the same amount of energy.

 

Am I right in thinking that the revolving platter on a standard analog electric meter measures 10 wattHours a revolution ? Mine is a 30 yr old or so Schaumberger.

I've started to take an inventory of my house at minimal demand requirements -- meaning the only things on are those that are on *all* the time. I seem to be close to a kW in the middle of the day.