This Wednesday: Going Farther on a Gallon
July 11th, 2007 by Progressive Wednesday
Problem:
Gas. It costs $3.20 per gallon. A trip to the gas station seems more like a trip to the bank to take out a second mortgage. We’re not talking about the five-cents-per-gallon that we used to get so upset about back when Ross Perot became a household name and the Buffalo Bills were regulars in the Super Bowl. No, we’re talking about increases in the dollar-per-gallon range, a number that puts a strain on the budget of most Americans that’s a bit more than theoretical. All this while Exxon/Mobile posted $39.5 billion in profits, the largest profit for any company in history, and ponied up $400 million to its retiring CEO.
And gas is made from oil, which is pulled from the bowels of the earth in countries located in the most volatile region on the planet, countries that actively and openly support terrorism, making it possible for terrorists to fund their operations. While we spend our resources and personnel in Iraq, those who actually stand to harm our country are getting richer and stronger, and it’s coming out of our own pockets.
Then there’s this thing called the environment. Every time we burn fossil fuels we take a small step closer to becoming fossils ourselves. Automobile emissions are cause number one of global warming. Americans make up only 5% of the world’s population, yet we blow 45% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions out our tailpipe, literally. We burn gas like it’s our job (I know, for some of us, it is). We need the biggest, fastest, strongest, roomiest, sexiest four-wheel-drive vehicle on the market, and because of that the polar ice caps are melting, Texas is under water, and California is on fire.
So, to sum up, we’re paying a ridiculous amount of our hard-earned cha-ching to fill the pockets of the big oil companies, fund extremist militia groups that aim to attack our country, and to… well… destroy our planet and everything that lives on it. Sound scary? Sure. But we can do something about it.
Make Progress:
The bottom line is that we need to reduce our dependency on oil, foreign or otherwise. We need to drive less and more efficiently. To try and tackle each and every way would fill a year of Wednesdays. So waddaya say we get started?
The debate about alternative fuels is as strong in this country as it has ever been. There is a great race to create a new “juice” that will get us from A to B. We’re not going to participate in that debate–at least, not today. No, today we’ll concentrate on things you can do to reduce the gas you use in the car you already have, the one sitting out in the driveway right now.
Photo credit to this unlucky gas buyer
Tires with low air pressure create more road resistance, or “drag,” making the engine work harder to go the same speed. According to research done by the United States Department of Energy:
Drivers can improve their gas mileage by about 3.3 percent by keeping tires inflated to the proper pressure. Under-inflated tires waste 4 million gallons of gasoline daily – or nearly 1.5 billion gallons annually.
I’ve never won a Field’s Medal, but by my calculation that comes out to $4,800,000,000 extra that Americans pay every year because we don’t want to pay 50 cents to use the air pump. And according to a study by the Rubber Manufacturers Association, only one out of seven Americans know how to check their air pressure. eHow.com has a great blow-by-blow description, complete with a video for visual learners. So keep those tires pumped up to the proper pressure.
But for the real “mileage hounds” (myself included), or anyone interested in saving the planet and a few bucks at the same time, try filling your tires with nitrogen instead of air. It’s been in Europe for several years now and has recently grown in popularity in the U.S., and you can find a nearby nitrogen station anywhere in the U.S.
The benefit of nitrogen is simple: tires stay fully inflated 3-6 times longer than those filled with air. If you were to check your pressure every week, this might not be a huge advantage, but I don’t think too many people check that often. The cost used to be considerable, but with more and more stations offering a nitrogen fill-up, the cost has come down to around $2-$3 per tire. Cars that use it tend to get about 3% better gas mileage. It’s well worth it in the long run. You can learn where to get nitrogen for your tires here.
Picture clicked by this nitro-filler
This one might seem like a no-brainer, but turn off your car when not in use. When a car is idling, whether it’s a Hummer or a Prius, it is getting zero miles per gallon. Even if it’s just for 30 seconds, turning the car off will save gas and money.
I have heard a lot of people suggest that warming a car for a few minutes is better for the car or that it uses less fuel to idle for a minute than to restart the car. Unless you’re driving a Model T, to be blunt, that’s crap. According to the EPA, running newer engines at a low RPM (idling) causes significantly more wear on internal parts compared to driving at regular speeds. It was best described by the Canadian Office of Energy Efficiency. Here it is:
An idling engine isn’t operating at its peak temperature, which means that fuel doesn’t undergo complete combustion. This leaves fuel residues that can condense on cylinder walls, where they can contaminate oil and damage parts of the engine. For example, fuel residues are often deposited on spark plugs. As you spend more time idling, the average temperature of the spark plug drops. This makes the plug get dirty more quickly, which can increase fuel consumption by 4 to 5 percent.
They give a few more reasons why idling is bad; you can check out the whole article here. The bottom line? Idle as little as possible. Turn your engine on only when you’re ready to drive away and turn it off as soon as you are in park. It may not seem like much, but when that small savings is multiplied by the 250,000,000 registered cars in the United States, well, you get the idea.
So dump that remote starter, stop going thru the drive-thru (or fast food restaurants at all), greet people at the terminal instead of the arrival lane at the airport, and park the car and take your time at the grocery store instead of running in while the car idles. Save just one gallon a week. That’s over 10 billion gallons a year if we all do it. Not bad. It’s a start.
This picture taker saw the long and the short of it
Maintaining your engine is obviously a great way to improve your vehicle’s mileage; changing spark plugs and oil helps your car save gas and extends the life of the car. But, unless you’re auto-mechanically inclined, which most of us are not, those things should be done in the shop.
But there is one thing that most of us can do that doesn’t take much time, money, or an in-depth knowledge of the internal combustion engine that can save a lot of gas and cash: replace your car’s air filter. According to FuelEconomy.gov, replacing a dirty air filter can improve your gas mileage by as much as ten percent.
So stop into an auto parts dealer and tell them what kind of car you have. They’ll get you the right filter. Six bucks later, all you have to do is pop the hood, open the air filter container (you can find out where it is in your manual), take out the old and put in the new. Just make sure that gasket is on tightly, and put the cover back on. All that’s left is to figure out what you’ll do with all the money you’ll save.
Picture taken by this mechanical engineer
There are as many rumors going around about the practicality and efficiency of hybrid cars as there are about the seventh Harry Potter book. Some are true; some are not. But as the owner of a Toyota Prius, I can tell you from first-hand experience, there aren’t very many downsides. In fact, I don’t know that there is anything I would change about mine. It gets 53 mpg, has more than enough pickup, plenty of room (and I’m 6’7’’), and, with tax rebates, the price of gas, and my wife’s lengthy commute, the sucker has more than made up for the premium we paid after just the first year of ownership.
But I understand that it’s not very reasonable to ask everyone to go out and trade in their two-year-old car for a new one. All I ask is this: sign up for the HybridCars.com newsletter.
Purchasing any car is a major decision; switching to a different technology can be even more nerve-racking. But learning about the latest real-life experiences of those who own hybrid cars makes that decision a bit easier. This once-a-month newsletter might just shatter the ideas that you had about hybrids. If you still don’t want one, fine. But the worst thing you could you would be to avoid a hybrid because you don’t have the most recent and accurate information.
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