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Is it bad to roll down a hill slowly to regen?

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Schwachs

International Man of Leisure
Jan 5, 2018
38
13
Arlington, MA
This is probably a stupid question but...

I live at the bottom of a very steep hill. The top of the hill is at a light and can usually coast down the hill (once I'm thru the light) very slowly in what I like to imagine is full regen mode. The S moves quite slowly - and I'm wondering is there too much resistance going on - aka - should i give it a little help w/ the pedal or does it not really matter either way?

Thanks.
 
Accelerating to go down faster means more regeneration so ideally it should be the same, but because nothing is 100% efficient just letting it go down the hill to regenerate will give you the most net power. However the time it takes you to go down the hill slowly with your lights on, heat/ac, etc. may give you less net power. I would say keep your speed to where you don't need to use your friction brakes and you'll be fine.
 
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I'd modulate the pedal to go down hill at the appropriate speed.

If, at the bottom you ultimately either regen to a full stop if needed, or can then accelerate to the desired speed once it flattens out, your total energy gained should be roughly equal to if you had traversed the whole thing more slowly.
 
Unless it's a very steep hill, you're going to slow down to where regen kicks off (5 mph).

Also, your speed really doesn't affect regen very much. You are recovering ENERGY. Power is the rate of energy usage/recovery.

BIggest regen I've had is descending Pike's Peak, roughly 7000 vertical foot descent. I gained 25 miles of range!