One other thing to consider ... in my FEH, the water temperature has to reach 71C before I can go into EV and the ICE kicks on again if it falls below 56C. The fastest drain on the water temperature for me seems to be the cabin heater fan, so I avoid it when I can or cycle it on and off.

I carpool with two other people who complain about the cold, so two weeks ago I started pre-heating the cabin using a blow-dryer in the morning for about 20 minutes before we leave. It seems to keep them from complaining for the first half of our 22Km commute. Having a garage is key to this strategy, but I am hoping that it works.

Even with all of that, I am still down about 2.7% from my fall FE and we don't get nearly as cold Calgary does, so good luck!

Rob

 

Although I have a garage, is isn't heated. I have been plugged in my FEH every night with the cold now upon is but it doesn't seem to help the EV situation since the internal temp is so low when I start the engine.

Oh well, guess i'll have to deal with the high fuel consumption and lack of EV for a while and potentially invest in a heater for the garage.

 

It's 9°F right now and typically this should be the warmest part of the day and we have 6 inches of new snow on the ground and more on the way.

My block heater extension cord is still inoperable due to dielectric grease and I need a new connector or a new cord. Since I'm a procrastinator, I haven't replaced it yet.

 

When I read stuff like this, it makes me want to go outside and enjoy my weather. Just got home from a trip to downtown WPB to drop off some work and now have about 220 miles on this tank. Switching tires and rims on my '09 FEH has put me at 64mpg so far. It is real nice here at 80F and clear skys but I had to fight those 15mph headwinds today. These lighter tires and rims can't be stopped by a little wind. My Nav sys tank MPG reads 68.7mpg right now which is a record after 220 miles and all those morning cold starts. I only need 65mpg and stuff 15.4 gallons in my tank and I can go 1,000 miles on a single tank. I now think that's doable!

GaryG

 

If it helps any, I'm not fond of 80° evenings, too **** hot.

 

I know what your saying but after I graduated I moved back to California and constantly remembered that I could sleep on the beach at night just about all year around here in Jupiter. I always said if you live in South Florida, you need two things, 1, A/C and 2, a boat. My home A/C is set at 73F year around and that's a cost I'm willing to pay. I even have a window A/C in my garage so I can work on my cars and boat.

About 6 years ago my wife was hell bent on having a swimming pool built, but I convinced her a 12 person spa with a big waterfall would be used more and easier to maintain. One thing led to another and we built an enclosed play room that we can open the 3 sides to screens for the spa and close it up to play billiards or sit at the bar in the A/C. It turns out I never have to turn On my house heater because when it gets cold here we turn the gas spa heater On to 104F, enjoy the spa, and shut the sliding doors when we're finished. The hot spa keeps the house warm all night into the next day unless the house A/C has to cool things down. The house is still separated from the room by the existing sliding glass doors from the living room and master bedroom. We've added darts, ping pong and use the pool table as a large dinner table for large family dinners like those coming up. I turn the gas spa heater On to about 80F for the kids to swim and enjoy and keep the playroom open for the adults in my home to play pool or whatever with rain or shine and cold or hot weather.

This thread is about mileage in the winter and as you can see if you want great mileage in the winter, live where you don't need AWD or chains and you can always use EV. I'm there baby!

GaryG

 

I left to -18f, -38f with the windchill, BBRRRR. She started right up but the drive was a little rough since the tires were flat on the bottom :/

 

To all those in extreeme cold. Consider you are just trading one energy form for another. It is very costly to run a hair dryer, and you may be using more "fuel" from the wall outlet than your FEH engine would.

Your FEH engine is very efficient at turning gasoline into heat.
A hair dryer is very inefficient at turning electricity into heat.
Not to mention all in inefficiencies of making and delivering the electricity to your home.

Best way to save fuel is to insulate. Both yourself ( more clothes ) and your vehicle ( once it gets warm, keep it warm by parking indoors, use an engine block/wind screen up front, and run it just 2-3 minutes every 8 hours to keep it from getting below 40'F (4'C) and it does worlds of good.

You need to keep the battery above 40'F for good results, 50'F for great results. But paying for a bunch of juice from the wall socket is a little foolhearty I think. ( Of course I plug in my block & battery heater when I'm at work or at a hotel... but it's nearly the same environmental impact as just letting the FEH warm itself up. )

That said, I just drove through states #44 and #45 which was Mississippi & Louisiana last week. OAT was in the 70's consistently. And the variations in gas quality from place to place is staggering. **** poor MPG from gas in Tennessee. Great MPG from a fuel up in Mississippi. Didn't buy in LA. Poor MPG from gas in Oklahoma. Great MPG from gas purchased in Kansas, a big ethanol producer, but funny, does NOT require E10. And it was after dark and in the 40's and I was driving uphill into Denver on I70 and MPG improved.

FUEL STATIONS LIE! A Shell Station in OK proclaimed on a big sign "No Ethanol". I tried it and got **** poor MPG and my fuel trim on the scangauge went up like crazy indicating the engine needed more fuel per stroke and very good indication it was E10 fuel or worse. The Shell gas was $2.799 and gas across the street, E10 was $2.599 and was probably the same stuff.

BUY THE CHEAPEST GAS YOU CAN FIND. ALL OF IT IS PARTIALLY ETHANOL THESE DAYS. OVER 50% of STATIONS THAT CLAIM "NO ETHANOL" LIE AND I HAVE PROOF BY DRIVING 60,000 MILES PER YEAR IN 45 STATES.

 

I disagree on electricity vs gasoline.

If you run the numbers you'll find that using a block heater is less costly than using gas to warm up you engine.

Consider cost per btu and in the case of gas ensure you discount it from the btu content per gallon to actual btus that make it into usable energy (probably only 20% at best make it into usable energy that will warm up the engine).

Keep it in mind that the FEH heater system also warms the battery pack so that it can go into the hybrid mode more quickly.

 

Btu of a gallon of gas:

20% goes into mechanical propulsion to move the vehicle down the road.
80% goes into heat energy. Most, to the environment after heating up the engine block and nearby components. How much heat you can force into the cabin is debatable. Let just go by minutes of use then.

The FEH, will warm its engine in about 10 minutes, and there will also be enough waste heat to heat the cabin in those 10 minutes. At idle, the FEH uses 0.5 GPH. 10 minutes is one-sixth of an hour.

That is about 0.08 gallons to warm up the engine and cabin.

0.08 x $2.79 per gallon national average = $0.223
( I can find gas for $2.59 now )

Using a 400 watt block heater in the 10'F to 30'F usually takes 4-6 hours.
That is 1.6 to 2.4 kWh of electricity.
Electricity costs me 13.5 cents per kWh in Colorado.
I hear 20 cents in other areas is not uncommon.

13.5 x 1.6 kWh = 21.6 cents minimum to warm the FEH with electricity.
20 x 2.4 kWh = 48 cents on the high end, per day, to warm the FEH with electricty.

At BEST Bill, it is a push. And could cost you double in some cases.
The see-saw tilts to make warming with gas more attractive the colder it gets, and the electric heater becomes less and less effective. At 20 below, 400 watts is not going to heat the engine up much no matter how long you leave it plugged in.

It should also be pointed out that the 400 watt plug-in heater will never exceed 120 degrees F no matter how long you leave it plugged in. At 10'F mine generally only makes it to 95 or 100 degrees. In those 10 minutes burning gas, your FEH will generally be 120'F to 160'F in all but the worst weather conditions.

Hope that helps.

P.S. a full sized hair dryer can use 1600 watts. Most use 1200 to 1500 watts.
P.P.S. Only FEH model years 2005-2007 have a built in option for a HV battery warmer.