Thursday, April 27, 2006

609 MPG on my Segway !!!

At my current cost of 10 cents ker kwh of electricity, and getting 21 miles per charge, taking one kwh for a full charge, here is the chart which indicates how many "miles per gallon" the Segway gets at given gasoline costs:

Price MPG
$1.399 294
$1.499 315
$1.599 336
$1.699 357
$1.799 378
$1.899 399
$1.999 420
$2.099 441
$2.199 462
$2.299 483
$2.399 504
$2.499 525
$2.599 546
$2.699 567
$2.799 588
$2.899 609

So the Segway marketing info falls WAY SHORT at today's gas prices. They say "400-450 MPG" and when gas is $1.89 to $2.15 then they are correct. At $2.89, the savings add up QUICKLY.

Monday, April 24, 2006

Earth Day Weekend and The Segway

Well, I did my share on Earth Day weekend. 34 miles on the Segway when I might have driven the Hybrid instead. That which would have cost me $2.29 in gasoline costs only set me back about 17 cents of electricity costs. Not a lot by any stretch, but if every American drove 34 miles less on a weekend and spent $2.12 less on gas, let's see, that's about 3.4 BILLION fewer miles driven and $212 million saved in gas money, figuring about 100 million USA drivers. I did my part FOR SURE. As far as the 375VA UPS charging the Segway - NOT !! It charged it for about 5 minutes before running out of juice. Not good.

The Scottsdale Culinary Festival was "OK" but not great. I never got a good map, so I did not really know where EVERYTHING was located. I ate a couple of chicken tacos at one place, a shrimp cocktail at another, some chips and salsa at another, some strawberry shortcake at another, and hit the Gelato Spot two different times. Did not see ONE PERSON besides myself wearing Crocs. Sad.

On Sunday, the kids and I biked/Segged to the Phoenix Zoo. That was fun. Kids enjoyed the new Treehouse and play areas. They have added a water play zone too, and we'll hit that next time if we go in hot weather. I always forget how much walking that Zoo entails - whew !!
Segway destroys UPS

The 375VA UPS charged the Segway for about 5 minutes. Those LI-ON batteries just SUCKED UP that available juice. On my 22 mile round trip Saturday, the Segway ran out of juice AT MY COMMUNITY GATE. Exactly as I was gliding through the gate. I had to push it the last block. Pretty decent range.