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Yesterday I ordered a Belkin Conserve surge protector.
With the issues that I continue to have with the Smart Strip power strip, I was looking for a power strip that I could control remotely that also had unswitched outlets (like the Smart Strip). The Belkin Conserve power strip looks like the ideal solution. The remote can also be placed on the wall by the light switch so you can conveniently turn everything off when you leave the room (and vice versa). The other advantage that it has over the Smart Strip is that there is no controlling device that continues on standby to turn all the other switched devices on. Thus, an additional device is kept off with the Belkin.
MSNBC has an article on hypermiling. It is a method of increasing you gas mileage by skillful changes in the way you drive. There’s a good link with driving tips to save reduce fuel costs and save energy:
1. Inflate your tires to their maximum recommended pressure. High pressure in tires enables you to accelerate with less gas and coast farther. It also enhances turn-in capability and facilitates better tire longevity.
2. Use the lowest weight oil recommended for your vehicle. Low-weight oil is easier to pump through an engine, and the engine components will interact more efficiently.
3. Change your air filter at least once a year. Engines work harder when they have to pull air through a dirty filter.
4. Drive as if you hypothetically do not have brakes. Gerdes says that drivers usually burn fuel to get up to an excessive speed, then throw that energy away by slamming on the brakes at a stop sign or red light. Thus, he asks drivers to imagine driving a brakeless vehicle and adjust their driving style accordingly. He recommends accelerating only as needed, and coasting up to red lights and stop signs when possible.
5. Don’t use cruise control or worry about keeping a constant speed — instead, be concerned with not changing the load on your engine. In other words, it’s acceptable to slow down as you go up a hill, as long as your engine continues to work only as hard as it did when you were on level ground. You’ll make up the loss in speed on the other side of the hill due to the assistance of gravity.
6. Don’t drive above the speed limit. The faster you go, the more you increase drag on the car from the wind, consuming more fuel.
7. Turn your engine off if you are idling for more than 10 seconds. Idling is one of the worst fuel wasters.
8. Practice “potential parking.” First, seek out the highest point of a parking lot and, if parking lot topography permits, coast uphill into a spot where you can face out, allowing you to coast right out when you depart.
9. Instead of relying on your fuel gauge, odometer and your long division skills, install a ScanGauge (scanguage.com) automotive computer that calculates and displays your fuel consumption. Many luxury vehicles already have this functionality.
10. Sweat it out sans A/C. Running a mechanical and electrical accessory like air conditioning steals fuel from the engine and decreases fuel economy. Operating the air conditioner on its maximum setting can reduce miles per gallon by up to 25 percent.
Here’s another link with techniques for hypermiling and this link is to a hypermiling online community.
These are some driving tips to increase fuel mileage on your Prius. It’s from the Green Inc blog of the New York Times. This is a posting by Micheline Maynard as part of her Prius Diary. The blog is a series of reflections from Ms. Maynard, a business correspondent in Detroit, on her recent switch from a Lexus S.U.V. to a hybrid electric Toyota Prius.
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Tip No. 1: Light Foot on the Pedal
Learning to get the most out of my Prius.
Overwhelmingly, you told me that with the Prius, a lead foot defeats the purpose of achieving high fuel economy. “If you drive like a madman, you’ll get bad mileage,” Tom Harrison, a reader from Newton, Mass., wrote in. Mr. Harrison and his wife own two Prius cars (is the plural of Prius “Prii,” as my friend Peter Sagal insists?), and they regularly achieve 52 m.p.g. in the summer, although their mileage drops into the 40s during the winter.Jack rabbit starts are something else to avoid. “I have become a different type of aggressive driver. No more jack-rabbit starts or trying to be one of the fastest cars on the freeway (though the Prius certainly would support such behavior),” reader Howard wrote us. “I am now an angry nut about other drivers that cause my gas mileage to decrease.”
Tip No. 2: Cruise Control
Readers also say that with the Prius, the best gasoline mileage comes at slower speeds. Indeed, the Prius’ best performance is supposed to come in city driving, not on the highway, although I averaged more than 50 mpg when I drove to Chicago last month. Reader Dave, whose blog, Rattling the Kettle, is full of Prius tips, recommends slowing down and using cruise control to maintain an even speed.
Dave sets his cruise control at 55 mph, and says he regularly gets 60-65 mpg for entire tanks in his Prius — sometimes even higher — although the mileage drops if he uses the air conditioning.
Another reader, Jim, tested the concept of cruise control versus ordinary driving. On a trip from Fairbanks to Anchorage, AK, he averaged 46.8 mpg without cruise control, and 52.1 mpg on the way back using it. “Cruise control is a more efficient driver than you are; use it when you can,” Jim said.
I have never been a fan of cruise control. My main concern is that it can allow a driver to become distracted, and increases the risk of becoming drowsy, since the car is doing the work for you. But I’ll do my own test, and report back my results with and without cruise control.
Tip No. 3: Use the Hills
Everyone, from my saleswoman to Times readers, has shared the same advice on hilly driving: take your foot off the gas going downhill and let the car be carried rather than powered. This seems to work wonders. The times when I’ve seen the consumption gauge hit 100 mpg have been while traveling downhill.
Reader James says this is when you don’t want to be using cruise control. “Learn to use momentum and gravity: let the car slow a bit as you crest the top of a rise, then let gravity speed you up on the downhill, instead of the engine,” he wrote.
Tip No. 4: Make Use of “B” Mode
“B” Mode is still a mystery to me. On the Prius transmission, there is a settlng labeled “B” that the owners manual says is meant to provide engine braking when going down a steep hill, without actually having to use the brake. It is the subject of plenty of discussion on Prius enthusiast message boards.
Readers disagree on whether “B” mode is an effective tool for getting better gas mileage.
“One trick is to use the transmissions ‘B’ (for braking) setting whenever you need to slow down, e.g., when going down hill. That change increases regenerative braking and charges the battery,” reader Rex wrote to us.
But reader Matt replied, “Rex: Do not use B in the Prius when slowing down. It does not use the regenerative braking system; it spins up the engine for drag. It is a total waste of energy and you cannot possibly do better by using it. It is there for if you completely top off your battery, you’re still going down a mountain, and you don’t want to use your friction brakes.”
Tip No. 5: To A/C or Not A/C
The universal debate about air conditioning and fuel economy has extra meaning for Prius owners. Many people automatically sacrifice air conditioning thinking they will get better performance. But it turns out the Prius air conditioning system is engineered differently than the one on my Lexus. I grew accustomed to turning on the A/C and having frigid air hit my face within seconds. The Prius doesn’t work that way.
Instead of focusing on the direction of the air, the system is designed to ensure a cool environment throughout the car, and it adjusts the blowers accordingly.
There’s a good explaination of its system here. I’m going to come down on the side of “use it if you like it,” rather than sweat to save a fraction of a gallon.
Recently I finished relamping our house with CFLs. About a year ago I changed out our most used lights with GE CFLs that I got at Target. After taking the Minnesota Energy Challenge, I decided it was time to finish the relamping and bought a bunch of CFLs when I was at Ikea. I liked that the Ikea CFLs I bought had globes around the spirals since I was going to use the CFLs in table lamps.
With small kids playing about, I thought that would be a bit safer than the GE mini-spirals that I had in the ceiling lights.
I also got some GE dimmable CFLs from Target for our dining room light fixture that is on a dimmer switch.
Now that I’ve finished the relamping, I have to say that I prefer the GE CFLs. They attain full brightness very quickly. The Ikea CFLs take a bit of a wait to reach full brightness. The dimmable CFLs were fairly expensive. They have a limited range of dimming and go completely off at a fairly bright threshold. Of course, after I did my relamping, a link has been posted of recommendations for good CFLs to buy for different applications. I’ve heard that Home Depot sells good CFLs.
CFLs contain mercury and so they can not be thrown away and must be recycled. Menard’s has a free recycling program and they will take broken CFLs (if they are stored in a ziploc bag). The Home Depot and Ikea also have free recycling programs for unbroken CFLs.
And now for something completely different. I just hooked up my computer to a Smart Strip power strip.
It did take some adjustments for it to work with my iMac. Initially when I shut down my Mac, the power strip would not shut off all the peripherals. I needed to adjust the potentiometer on the side of the power strip by turning it counter clockwise by about a quarter of a turn. It now works well.
The Smart Strip saves energy by eliminating standby power aka phantom loads. It automatically turns on and off my peripherals when I start or shut off my computer. I need to get one for my TV and stereo.
Update: Still having trouble with the Smart Strip and my Mac. I decided instead to hook it up to my TV and it now works great. I had my computer on standard power strips before and was manually shutting those off so it’s not big deal. This way, we will be saving more energy since the TV and all the other AV devices shut off completely now. The biggest advantage is that everything now comes on when we turn on just one device. Karen will be happy since it means using less remotes. She may actually even learn how to turn the TV on.
Update 2: I just ordered another Smart Strip for my stereo. I was doing errands this afternoon and neither Target, Home Depot nor Best Buy carry the Smart Strip. I ordered it from amazon.com. I’m glad that I didn’t make a special trip to search for one. I think a good case could be made that Internet shopping is both a time and energy saver.
Update 3: After a few weeks of using the Smart Strip, I’ve come away disappointed. The Smart Strip that is connected to my TV set works well in turning on all the devices but its success in turning off the devices is haphazard. It seems that the longer the devices are on, the Smart Strip either takes a longer time to turn all the devices off or doesn’t turn them off at all. I finally connected the VCR and cable box to another power strip that I leave on all the time. I then manually turn the Smart Strip off and on when the power strip does not turn off all the devices immediately. Obviously, this could just as easily be done with a normal power strip at a fraction of the cost. The problem that I had with adjusting the setting of the Smart Strip was that when I set it low enough to turn off all the devices. It was at too low of a setting to turn all the devices on again. I finally set it at the lowest setting that would work and this still creates a situation where the power strip does not turn all the devices off.
Update 4: I’ve found a good alternative to the Smart Strip. It’s the Belkin Conserve surge protector.
