Ever wonder how wind will effect your mileage? Lots of interesting Prius info

[krousdb]

Wayne Brown is a personal friend. I consider him to be the most knowledgeable person on earth with respect to Prii. His website has lots of great Prius info and also lots about how wind will effect mileage. He uses the Prius to calculate the numbers but they apply to any car.

http://privatenrg.com/

See the section called "Wind is a BIG DEAL"

[MetroMPG]

yes, rich site. (could use some usability attention though )

i posted a link to the "wet roads vs mileage" portion a little while back. his was the only page that i could readily find with google that addressed the issue. and according to his calcs, the effect is suprisingly significant.

did wayne create the Palm application that is shown in so many screen shots?

some parts would be invaluable ported to the web (or even a pc version).

[krousdb]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

did wayne create the Palm application that is shown in so many screen shots?

some parts would be invaluable ported to the web (or even a pc version).

Yes, he is the writer. I had a PC version awhile back but it didn't have as many features as it does now. At some point is is going to start selling it to raise funds for a project he is working on.

[rh77]

I've found that aerodynamic forces are huge with respect to fuel economy. My Integra really starts guzzling the fuel over 60 mph -- so, with a headwind of 10 mph, that would translate to 50 mph optimized, etc. What I really need is "indicated airspeed" like on aircraft, which gives you your speed with wind added-in.

RH77

[MetroMPG]

i thought i had already posted this elsewhere in the forum, but i can't find it. maybe i didn't post it. hope my memory of the figures stands up if i find it after the fact

anyway, here's my wind story: on the 1000 km trip I did in late jan., i started off driving w/s/westerly along the north shore of lake ontario into a strong s/w wind (gusting 25-40 km/h).

at around 95 km/h i was getting 50-ish mpg (US).

the path to my destination took me around the western tip of the lake, and as the direction of the highway slowly arced through the eye of the wind and continued turning east and away from it, the mileage dropped, and then started climbing again.

now on the southern side of the lake, i got off the freeway to head for the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake (where the niagara river flows into L. ontario), along about 10 km / 6 mi of dead level secondary highway (80 km/h) with a series of traffic lights scattered along the way.

with the wind now squarely at my back, i hit "reset" on the scangauge's average fuel economy function and watched as it bounced around briefly and then began to settle down somewhere in the high 60's mpg (US). astonishing.

in addition, i was able to pulse and glide a couple of the stop lights along the way, and by the time i reached my destination, if i remember correctly, the scangauge was resting steady around 73 mpg.