What is your miles/kWh (total average electricity consumption) on the "Drive Monitor 2"

Discussion in 'Prime Fuel Economy & EV Range' started by Salamander_King, Jun 4, 2019.

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  1. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    Yap, that takes some effort to keep recording. I started a habit of taking a photo of the Kill-A-Watt when I unplug the cord from the car, but I was not doing that last year. BTW, I am on my second unit of Kill-A-Watt. The first one died very quickly within 30 days. It had to be substandard quality defective unit. I got exchanged with a new one, and it has been on the wall ever since, now over 2 years. I am sure it will not last forever, but it is cheap to replace. I wanted to record total kWh used for my car, so it need to be used for every charging sessions. If I ever get a 240V circuit installed, I will splurge on L2 EVSE that has a web connection function to monitor and report the kWh usage.
     
    #181 Salamander_King, Nov 22, 2019
  2. PiPLosAngeles

    PiPLosAngeles Senior Member

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    Also, just for reference I checked the 2012 PiP. I never did anything to preserve capacity. I left it at 100% all weekend, floored it in EV, parked it in 100+°F temperatures with a full charge, etc. The car has 140,000 miles on it and is a little over 7 years old. This morning it took 2.61 kWh. If the charging system is 90% efficient, the car took in about 2.4 kWh, which is about 87% of original capacity, I think. I have to verify because I don't know if the wife really ran it down to 0 before I charged.
     
    #182 PiPLosAngeles, Nov 22, 2019
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  3. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    After 7 month and ~8500 miles of trying to improve EV range, I am now at 5.1 miles/kWh. This is over 12% of improvement from 4.5 miles/kWh in May this year.

    DM2.png
     
    #183 Salamander_King, Dec 13, 2019
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  4. PiPLosAngeles

    PiPLosAngeles Senior Member

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    It's a much larger improvement than that because that average is for all 37,420 miles. The true improvement is the miles/kWh for only those miles driven since May. This is when all that algebra from middle school comes in handy (and I bet you were wondering then why you needed to do those word problems:D). If your average at 28,920 miles was 4.5, and your average now is 5.1, we can figure out the real improvement:

    Code:
    (28920 / 4.5) + (8500 / x) = 37420 / 5.1
6426.67 + (8500 / x) = 7337.25
(8500 / x) = 7337.25 - 6426.67
(8500 / x) = 910.58
8500 = 910.58x
8500 / 910.58 = x
9.33 = x
    Between May and now you actually averaged 9.33 miles/kWh. I'm gonna have to step up my game :D
     
    #184 PiPLosAngeles, Dec 13, 2019
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  5. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    Yeah this is with the trick you taught me on switching EV/HV manually. However, in my usual commuting distance much shorter than yours, the practice resulted in loss in mpg especially during summer. I think I will continue to use manual EV/HV switching as long as I need to heat my car (i.e. engine wasted heat is far more comfortable than the heat pump). But comes next spring, I am going back to all EV with very little HV which I am sure will result back to 5-6miles/kWh efficiency for my commuting route.
     
    #185 Salamander_King, Dec 13, 2019
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  6. PiPLosAngeles

    PiPLosAngeles Senior Member

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    It is true that the length and nature of the commute plays a huge role in which strategy maximizes overall efficiency. If you can drive >90% of your commute in EV mode, it makes sense not to fuss with manual switching. At the end of the day, whatever uses the least gas is the winning strategy.
     
    #186 PiPLosAngeles, Dec 13, 2019
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  7. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    For the first two summers, I was fixed on the idea of using the least amount of gas as many other PRIME owners are. Then I realized that in our case gas engine comes on anyway during winter and the gas price is cheaper than electricity. It is more economical to drive the car on gas for most part of the year, but for sure during winter. Moreover, until this spring, we were one car household. My wife WILL NEVER fuss with any of switching EV/HV tricks and totally careless about mpg or miles/kWh when she drives. Now, we have a second car, I have a bit more control over how our PRIME is driven. I am exploring the most economical AND efficient way to drive this car for our use, but so far I have not found the answer yet.
     
    #187 Salamander_King, Dec 13, 2019
    Last edited: Dec 13, 2019
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  8. PiPLosAngeles

    PiPLosAngeles Senior Member

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    That, too, depends on your goals. If you're trying to reduce your emissions, minimize gas use at all practical cost. If you're trying to minimize cost, do whichever is cheaper. I use the following formula to judge whether charging or gas driving is my better option:

    ( (Gas price) / mpg ) x (miles / kWh)

    If the price of charging is less than that number, charging is more economical. For example, gas in Southern California is around $3.75 right now at most places, and I usually get about 55 mpg in HV mode. Any time I can charge for less than $0.30 / kWh, it's more economical to charge.
     
    #188 PiPLosAngeles, Dec 13, 2019
  9. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    Yeah, if I am a die hard GO GREEN at any cost kind of a person, I would have been driving a LEAF by now. For me (us), BEV just is not economical nor practical. When I do comparison of the cost, we have been in slightly cheaper on gas for most part of our PRIME ownership. When our gas price goes above $3/gal or our electric rate get cheaper than $0.17/kWh, I will be more inclined to drive EV only. This may change if and when I have PV panel installed on our roof.
     
    #189 Salamander_King, Dec 13, 2019
  10. PiPLosAngeles

    PiPLosAngeles Senior Member

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    Check your time of use (TOU) rate structure. Here in CA I was paying about $0.18 for a flat rate electric rate, but I was able to switch to a TOU that lets me charge the Prime and run the pool filter at night for $0.10. The downside is that peak rates are $0.48, but that's only weekdays from 2:00 pm - 8:00 pm. I just don't charge then.
     
    #190 PiPLosAngeles, Dec 13, 2019
  11. PiPLosAngeles

    PiPLosAngeles Senior Member

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    My winter power bills went from $220-ish to $95.
     
    #191 PiPLosAngeles, Dec 13, 2019
  12. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    Nop, we have none of those complicated plan. It is fixed distribution and supply cost 24/7 year around. We do have option of picking our favorite wholesale supplier and some supplier does offer variable rate or different plans, but for most residential use it does not save any money compared to standard offering from the utility. However, I recently locked in our electric rate for next two years with 100% Wind generated electric supplier. It cost $0.02/kWh more than current standard offer from the utility, but it is Green and the rate is locked in for two years. Though it is possible that the standard offer can go down next year or year after that.
     
    #192 Salamander_King, Dec 13, 2019
  13. PiPLosAngeles

    PiPLosAngeles Senior Member

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    Repeated procedure last night. This morning's charge was 6.39 kWh again. I'm surprised at the repeatability being that precise. We'll see if it's a fluke next time.
     
    #193 PiPLosAngeles, Dec 17, 2019
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  14. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    My last full charge was 6.49kWh. This is a bit smaller than what I remember from the past, but it was very close to freshly reaching 0% SOC on MID, so no charge to replenish the HV portion of the battery. However, I did not have the HA running to verify the actual SOC when I started my charging.
     
    #194 Salamander_King, Dec 17, 2019
  15. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    Since I may never see this happen again, I am posting this. :D

    upload_2020-3-11_7-27-7.png
     
    #195 Salamander_King, Mar 11, 2020
    Last edited: Mar 11, 2020
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  16. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    Down hill with a breeze:whistle:?

    I know the best I've done pails in comparison to that:oops:.

    But it's all show anyway with that screen since we have the gas engine in reserve;).

    But impressive none the less:).

    How's it having buttons and toggle switches for cabin comfort again. I bet refreshing(y).
     
    #196 Raytheeagle, Mar 11, 2020
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  17. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    LOL!! Bet I know how you did it. Mine is unlikely to go over the 5.0 it's been at since about the 2nd month after I bought it. Unless I retire and move to a cabin out in the woods. :D

    And being able to see your actual mpg instead of that stupid 199.9 when you know you're getting at least 300 mpg.
     
    #197 jerrymildred, Mar 11, 2020
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  18. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    Another side benefit:).

    Sometimes best to wait out the first year of the new model;).

    But we did buy a 2010 in August 2009 as I "had to have it":oops:.

    But there are worse cars to purchase by far. And by saving money at the pump, I think translates into savings for other facets of life. So win-win(y).
     
    #198 Raytheeagle, Mar 11, 2020
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  19. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    Yap. A long down hill stretch right after deleting the data for the total average electricity consumption by enabling the "Electricity Consumption Reset" option in the MID setting screen. My car had no EV MODE drive in the record when I first bought it, yet it already had 5.3 miles/kWh on the DM2. I did not know why that is the case. I thought maybe that was the baseline value I will see if I reset the MD2 total average electricity consumption. But as turned out, resetting it displayed, as it should, "0.0miles/kWh" on DM2. Right after this reset, I was able to coast down hill to get this impressive "99.9miles/kWh" EV efficiency... very brief moment.

    upload_2020-3-11_7-43-21.png

    Yeah, I am loving it. I especially like the "lever" on the temp, fan speed, and blowing direction selections. I can contorol those three selections even with a thick mitten on my hand. lol

    upload_2020-3-11_7-47-54.png
     
    #199 Salamander_King, Mar 11, 2020
    Last edited: Mar 11, 2020
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  20. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    Thick mittons:eek:.

    Definitely haven't tested the toggle switches in those conditions out here on the best coast:).

    But they are better than the rotating knobs that other cars employ ;).

    Definitely positive feedback on the proposed change(y).
     
    #200 Raytheeagle, Mar 11, 2020
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