I just posted another tank - here are my notes:

"Wind was certainly a factor - we've had winds up to 50 mph in the last week - routinely over 40. My trip home is usually the best FE. My last three 37 mile trips home were: 42, 45, and 30.8 mpg. Obviously, that's two with the wind and one against. Geez, I'm tired of wind!"

I would have never thought wind could make a 15 mpg difference! If April showers come in like March winds, I'm going to have to boat to work.

 

Wind plus elevation make a huge difference.
Worked to get 32 mpg on 40 mile commute this morning with a 15 mph headwind and 55 degrees; return trip with 15 mph tail wind and the 300' drop in elevation payback and it was 42 mpg.
Lewis

 

Wow, Lewis, our commutes are nearly identical. I drive 37 miles each way with ~350 foot drop on the way home. Our temps should be close as well, although you should be slight cooler - a help in the summer and hinderance in the winter. I guess, depending where you are, I'll have more wind; and as shown in 1st post, can help a lot or equally hurt.

That's a very good tank you just posted. My last was also my best, but I was motivated by Tinkerbell who posted a 222 mile tank above me. I will continue to work on getting back in the lead, but I don't know if I can maintain the patience over the long term. That last tank required more effort than I've given in the past.

Congratulations on making the hypermiler status - maybe again. Have you been there before? It looks like you might have gotten close - you've been at this quite a lot longer than I have.

 

Nathan,
Thanks for the notice of the 33 mpg average; it's razor thin and awhile coming, a combination of Feb purchase, cold weather driving, a fairly early1200 miles of interstate driving at max+ allowable speeds, a regular commuting climb up out of a river bottom town with cold engine, and some fun playing with 255 hp.

For me, any tank above 32 mpg comes from a decision to drive for FE. Just driving, as my wife said at first,"the same way I drove all the other Accords," will get me 30-32 in combo city-road drives of 30 minutes or over. I do understand why those in Maine or NY with average drives of 10-20 minutes report tanks in low 20's or even teens. Those 240 ICE horses like a lot of hay, especially before warmup and hybrid feature kick in, and just as they do, the trip is over, engine cools, restart, repeat.

The info on this board (discussion and the database) has been very helpful and encouraging to learn to use the hybrid features we paid for. Some of the real (maybe un-real, not thinking of Wayne or anybody in particular here...:=)) hypermilers are responsible for causing me to want to see how close to that EPA number of 37 I can get, and a 60 mile, hilly route (even with a 10mph tailwind) that produced 40.1 mpg confirmed the car could do some things I did not think possible.

My 37 mpg tank is an anomaly, certainly wind and warm weather assisted, but I'm very happy to have it. The mpg spreadsheet I found here (adapted a bit) tells an interesting story: early tanks in low 30s with gas $1.87 produced $.05 and .06 per mile costs; yesterday, a gallon cost $2.18 but the cost per mile was still $.05 because of the 37.6 mpg on that tank.

And, I don't get drowsy on the commute since I've got to watch the mpg.... Advantage HAH.
Lewis

 

I'm from a liberal arts background and know nothing of math and or stats!! What do you calculate. Calculating price of gas over price to fill tank I get a small number I like. But then not sure that that was the correct calculation I calculated gas price over amount of gallons it took to fill the tank and got a number $.10 higher?

Which is right is neither calculation correct for calculating $ per mpg?

 

You know, I think that's the reason I can't drive "normal" anymore. It has become boring to do anything other than drive for FE. Although, sometimes the frustration of killing a tank going into the wind or caught in high-speed limited lane traffic makes me think about chunking it. But everytime I do... the boredom creeps in.

 

Karen,
The quick and easy reply is that I let the spreadsheet do the math for me.... Though numbers aren't my strong suit either, I think I can do this one:
divide the cost of filling the tank by the number of miles travelled.
$30.00 for a fillup with 500 miles on the trip meter (30/500) yields $.06 cost for each mile travelled.
Lewis

 

It isn't just headwinds that affect mileage significantly. A side wind will do it too. Driving in a side wind, you have to steer a little bit into the direction of the wind in order to keep the car going straight. Therefore, the car's front wheels are turned slightly into the wind, and you are to a small degree skidding the front tires on the pavement. (It also puts more wear on the tires). In a side wind of 20 mph or so, you shoud be able to easily see, when going straight, that the steering wheel isn't in its normal "straight ahead" position.