Tag: notes

Electrified Driving Notes

updat­ed 4/24/23

Just some gen­er­al notes from dri­ving elec­tri­fied vehi­cles I’ve owned

Hybrid — Ford Maverick

  • Elec­tri­fied dri­ving oper­ates at low speeds/revs
  • When coast­ing or sit­ting still, no fuel is used, mean­ing no emmis­sions
  • If bat­tery runs out of juice, gas engine will kick in
  • Nev­er needs to be charged by per­son, will charge via dri­ving or gas engine
  • 2‑levels of brak­ing: regen­er­a­tive and phys­i­cal
  • Bat­tery recharges with either coast­ing or regen­er­a­tive brak­ing
  • Ini­tial thought was that hybrid would be great for sit­ting in com­muter traf­fic. How­ev­er, it would only be good in sub­urb traf­fic or light traf­fic where lots of coast­ing is pos­si­ble. Heavy traf­fic (where there is a lot of small, quick bursts of accel­er­a­tion) is NOT the best for rely­ing on pure elec­tric dri­ving
  • Ini­tial elec­tric pow­er is high torque, so smash­ing accel­er­a­tor off a stop is impres­sive and fast (depen­dent on over­all pow­er)
  • Haul­ing heavy items in trunk is also impres­sive in the Mav­er­ick where the hybrid pow­er is very help­ful
  • High­way dri­ving is sur­pris­ing­ly effi­cient. End­ed up with about 20% of high­way trip miles elec­tri­fied
  • Bet­ter dri­ving habits yield bet­ter effi­cien­cy
  • Cut gas con­sump­tion in half com­pared to pri­or pure-gaso­line cars
  • More effi­cient in cities than rur­al dri­ving, but still cuts reliance on gaso­line
  • Just uses gas, no need to charge
  • Main­te­nance: Need oil change, flu­id flush­es, and oth­er main­te­nance like pure gaso­line cars…but pos­si­bly at less­er inter­vals
  • Best dri­ving tech­nique: Feath­er the accel­er­a­tor. Just keep tap­ping it enough at the low­est revs to uti­lize the elec­tric dri­ving in order to keep the car mov­ing while not jump­ing into the gaso­line con­sump­tion. All good-dri­ving rules will increase MPGs

1 year driving (January through January) Stats for 2022 Ford Maverick

  • Total Run­ning Costs: $2,997.52
  • Run­ning Cost per day: $6.56
  • Run­ning Cost per mile: $0.37
  • Dis­tance per day: 18 miles
  • Total Miles Dri­ven: 8,050.6 miles
  • Total Time: 1 year
  • Aver­age MPG: 38.213 (Min: 31.5; Max: 43.6)
  • Aver­age Price per Gal­lon Gaso­line: $3.83
  • Aver­age Price per Fuelup: $26.72
  • Aver­age Fuelup Quan­ti­ty: 7.01 gal­lons
  • Miles per Fuelup: 266 miles
  • Days per Fuelup: 12 days
  • Total Ser­vice Cost: $2,222.59

Battery Electric Vehicle — Ford Mustang Mach‑E

  • Smooth, silent dri­ve
  • 2 lev­els of brak­ing: regen­er­a­tive and phys­i­cal
  • Option for 1‑pedal dri­ving
  • 3 dri­ving modes: Whis­per (low accel­er­a­tor response, extend­ed coast­ing, minor regen­er­a­tion), Engage (mod­er­ate accel­er­a­tion and brak­ing, regen­er­a­tive brak­ing), Unbri­dled (high accel­er­a­tion sen­si­tiv­i­ty, respon­sive brak­ing, high regen­er­a­tive brak­ing– halfway between reg­u­lar dri­ving and 1‑pedal)
  • HVAC usage is big drain on bat­tery con­sump­tion
  • High torque –> high accel­er­a­tion
  • Heav­ier load –> high­er bat­tery usage
  • Hard accel­er­a­tion quick­ly drains bat­tery
  • Elec­tron­ics use only a frac­tion of bat­tery
  • When not mov­ing, no pow­er used
  • Fan­tas­tic for heavy traf­fic and heavy brak­ing (equals more regen­er­a­tion, less pow­er usage)
  • Good dri­ving habits yield bet­ter effi­cien­cy
  • In cold weath­er, dri­ving faster might mean bet­ter effi­cien­cy (have to eval­u­ate data more)
  • No tailpipe emis­sions
  • Min­i­mal noise pol­lu­tion
  • My usage is about 50kWh a week. That’s 200kWh a month (for com­par­i­son an aver­age house­hold uses 877kWh a month in 2019). That’s $30 a month in fuel costs if price is $0.15 per kWh like mine res­i­den­tial
  • Main­te­nance: No oil, no belts, no flu­ids to main­tain. Required for wheels, tires, and brakes

90 Day Driving (January through April) Stats for 2023 Ford Mustang Mach‑E

  • Total Run­ning Costs: $84.71
  • Run­ning Cost per day: $0.94
  • Run­ning Cost per mile: $0.06
  • Dis­tance per day: 17 miles
  • Total Miles Dri­ven: 1,517 miles
  • Total Time: 90 days
  • Aver­age MPGe (Fuel): 95 (Min: 78; Max: 114; ADJ: 108)
  • Aver­age MPGe (Trip): 96 (Min: 30; Max: 172; ADJ: 119)
  • Aver­age Price per kWh: $0.14
  • Aver­age Price per Fuelup: $3.39
  • Aver­age Fuelup Quan­ti­ty: 29 kWh
  • Aver­age Miles per Fuelup: 64 miles
  • Aver­age Days per Fuelup: 3 days
  • Total Ser­vice Cost: $0.00

Trip Comparison

Trip: A to B to C to D (same exact des­ti­na­tions, same exact route, same dri­ving mode)

March 20th (40F and windy cold): 39% to 34% to 31% to 30% = 9% charge used

May 8th (76F and humid): 36% to 35% to 34% to 33% = 3% charge used

Heo Quay — Crispy Roasted Pig Belly

Writ­ten Jan­u­ary 23, 2023, updat­ed Jan 31, 2025

First attempt
Beau­ti­ful crispy skin, but over­cooked

2nd attempt
Deli­cious but no crispy skin 🙁

What

Crispy-skinned roast­ed pork bel­ly

Ingredients

2–3lb slab  Pork Bel­ly

1 Tbsp  Gar­lic, minced or crushed

2 Tbsp  Shaox­ing Wine

½ Tbsp  Hoisin Sauce

½ Tbsp  Oys­ter Sauce

¼ tsp  Salt

¼ tsp  Sug­ar

¼ tsp  Pep­per

pinch — ⅛ tsp  5‑Spice Pow­der

Kosher Salt/Vinegar

Time

20 minute Prep, 4 hours – Overnight Mar­i­nate, 1–2 hour Cook

Prep

  • Turn pork bel­ly skin side down onto some paper tow­els
  • Cut ver­ti­cal lines into the meat, mak­ing sure NOT to cut into the fat for the mari­nade
  • In a sep­a­rate bowl, mix Soy Sauce (1 Tbsp), Gar­lic (3 cloves, crushed or minced), Salt, Sug­ar, Pep­per (¼ tsp each), 5‑Spice Pow­der (pinch — ⅛ tsp), Hoisin Sauce (½ Tbsp), Oys­ter Sauce (½ Tbsp), and Shaox­ing Wine (2 Tbsp)

Option­al: Before prepar­ing meat, mix the Gar­lic (3 cloves, crushed) with But­ter (2–3 Tbsp, soft­ened or melt­ed). If melt­ed, then allow to solid­i­fy overnight in refrig­er­a­tor, if soft­ened, then mix togeth­er. This helps the mix­ture stick to the meat

  • Taste and alter if nec­es­sary (it should be more saucy than liq­uidy)
  • Rub the Spice Mix­ture into the meat, mak­ing sure NOT to get any on the skin
  • Place it meat side down into a bak­ing dish or plate

Option­al: Cre­ate a dish the size of your Pork slab out of Foil, fold­ing up the sides to hold in the sauce close to the meat. Place a piece of Plas­tic Wrap inside of that, then place the meat and any sauces meat-side-down into it

  • Dry the skin with a tow­el (needs to be dry)

3 Choic­es:

Rub with a sprin­kle of salt

Light­ly brush on a salt/vinegar mix

Just dry it

  • Place UNCOVERED in the refrig­er­a­tor 4 hours or overnight (prefer­able). The goal here is to get the skin super dry

Cooking Day

  • Pre­heat oven to 400F degrees Roast set­ting
  • Dry the skin
  • Line a bak­ing sheet with foil
  • Place meat skin-side-down on the foil
  • Roast for 40ish min­utes until inter­nal tem­per­a­ture exceeds 160F (See NOTES)
  • Take it out, flip it over so skin is up

Option­al: Dry it and then either prick tiny holes in the skin or score it — either way be care­ful NOT to cut past the skin and into the fat. Oth­er­wise it will NOT get bub­bly and crispy

  • Brush on a thin lay­er of vinegar/salt com­bo
  • Broil on High for 3–5 min­utes until desired temperature/doneness (WARNING: This process pro­duces a LOT of smoke. Rec­om­mend open­ing win­dows and cre­at­ing a cross­wind to pre­vent buildup)

Serve

  • Let sit for 15 min­utes
  • Slice into lit­tle squares
  • Serve with rice or noo­dles

Notes

  • Part of the rea­son I’ve been unable to get a prop­er crack­ling exte­ri­or (apart from my mis­takes) is because I real­ized that the skin has been removed on the pieces I buy. It’s just a fat pad

Tem­per­a­ture Guide (SOURCE)

  • 160–165°F – Fat begins ren­der­ing, meat starts becom­ing ten­der
  • 175°F – Fat ren­dered, meat is ten­der
  • 185°F – Fat most­ly ren­dered, meat very ten­der
  • 195–205°F – Fat ful­ly ren­dered, meat fall-apart ten­der