If you are sick to death of these rediculous gas prices, do what I did and you too can improve your fuel economy, save time, save money, save the environment and save what's left of your sanity.
Listen up! First off, you can not tell how you are doing when trying to conserve gas without the proper data. So, you need to start collecting the data on your gas consumption. You need to establish your baseline . For example, keep a notepad and pen in your car so you can record the following information:
* The date of the fill-up. This data will allow you to easily SEE and track how often you visit the gaspump.
* How many gallons you consumed (or purchased). This is useful because you can start to get a feel for how much you actually consume.
* How many miles you actually drove. Most cars have a trip gauge you can reset to track this mileage information easily. Reset it each time you fill-up.
* Record the amount of money you spent filling your pig up. This data will allow you to see where it hurts and much it hurts.
I usually print off and keep the receipt from the gas station so I can refer to it in my logs.
Ok. So now what?
Fair enough. I found this nifty little site called ecomodder.com that helps you nicely track all this information. You create an account, add your vehicle information and the data that you have been tracking. You essentially create a travel log that will graph your vehicle's gas consumption data in a nice, clean format. See my latest information below:
From the above graph, you clearly see in just 36 days of modifying my driving behavior, I improved my gas mileage by 5 Miles per Gallon! or a 19% increase. That's pretty huge! Especially when you learn what I did to gain those extra 5MPGs.
What I did to improve my fuel economy ---
First thing I did was SLOW DOWN! My commute is approximately 15.7 mile each way. So 31.4 miles per day to and from work. A decent relatively painless commute by today's standards, to say the least. My average commute is approximately 25-30 minutes. For the 85% of my entire commute, I would drive between 70-85 Miles per Hour. I know, lay off the pedal, Leadfoot! According to cnnmoney.com: "Every 10 mph faster reduces fuel economy by about 4 mpg, a figure that remains fairly constant regardless of vehicle size."
Since tracking all this stuff and modifying my driving habits, I have been driving 85% of my commute between 60-70 mph. Not bad huh? But still there is still room for improvement. I am trying to get the sweetspot between 55-60 mph. I will post how many middle-fingers I encounter when I am driving in this range.
One of the benefits to driving sloooooooowwer is that I soon realized that I actually had extra time to think and relax... rather than blazing down the highway with white-knuckles at 80+mph, risking life and limb, I was able to use this time as 'wind-down' time. I am now able to think clearly about things... I think about Home, the family, work, friends, music, money, life, death, everything that is important to me. This helps me to walk into the house and greet the family with a smile and be the best Dad and Husband I can possibly be. As opposed to being a wired, stress ball from an unnecessarily fast and unsafe commute.
One additional benefit from driving slower is that I have reconnected with some good old music from the personal collection. I have been spinning Run-DMC - Raising Hell, Rush - Moving Pictures, Mad Season - Above, Anthrax - Among the Living. These have made a leisurely commute that much more enjoyable. Good times.
Now you ask, ok... what ELSE have you done to improve your fuel economy?
The next change in my driving habits may be considered unsafe by some so use it with caution, or do not use it all. Its known as drafting.
Wikipedia defines 'drafting' as: Drafting is a technique in sports racing where competitors align in a close group in order to reduce the overall effect of drag or fluid resistance of the group in a slipstream. Especially when high speeds are involved, drafting can significantly reduce the average energy expenditure required to maintain a certain speed.
I only do this if the situation presents itself. For example, when an 18-wheeler is close enough to catch up to it without going over my alloted 65mph. Of course, I always maintain maximum safety. I do not get right up on his ass. I maintain a 2-5 carlength distance to ensure adequate reaction time.
Once engaged in 'the draft', you can actually feel the car in the pull of the semi. During this you do not have to press the gas, only have to give it slight 'feather touches' to maintain the draft. Obviously, the less gas you use, the better gas mileage. Again, do not do this if you are unsure of what you are doing. All that extra time 'thinking and relaxing' will go to waste if you are dead.
Perhaps the most fun driving behavior modification I have employed to date is coasting. Basically this entails throwing the car into neutral when, for example, going down a hill or when your car's momentum can get you where you want to be using as little gas as possible.
I have made a game out of it where I compete with myself trying to beat my previous coasting record. For example, I figured out exactly where I can throw it into neutral and coast all the way into the garage. Which I have only done twice since starting this. The map at the left illustrates the 'garage coast' path. Which according to google, is approximately 3/10th of a mile. Not too shabby. I keep pushing back the point where I toss into neutral, in an attempt to find the sweetspot. Try it! It's fun! AND you will save gas!
Other things I have done to improve gas mileage are smaller things, but nonetheless, should improve my gas mileage. This will become clear as times marches on, and I collect more data about my usage.
Lose the weight. I did. I removed an extra children's carseat, a 20lb trailer hitch, about 5 pounds worth of to-be-recycled-papers and 5 pounds of my own fat. (I dropped 5 pounds since recently working out). Basic idea here... less stuff moving around at 60mph, the less energy used. Easy.
Inflate your tires properly. I did. Next time you are out, count how many cars you see on the road with low, under-inflated tires. If everyone had properly inflated tires, we could save 1000s of dollars and improve our overall mpg. When tires are under-inflated, the car works harder to overcome the additional friction produced while tire is running on the road. Properly inflated tires reduced the surface area of the tire on the road and reduces friction. You may experience a slightly 'harder' ride, but you will get over it fatty. And for all you tree-huggin, Birkenstock wearing, Environmentalists out there, less fuel consumption equals less CO2 emitted into the atmosphere. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
There are other tips and tricks I have yet to try out such as: Properly tuning our vehicles. A nice, clean well tuned engine runs more efficiently. I need to save some pennies for this one. We are still waiting for Economic Stimulus Check for this purpose.
Fuel additives can also improve fuel economy. There is a product called BG 44k. I have a can ready to roll, I just need to drain my current tank and then I will add it, document it, check the results and post em up..
There are several other suggestions out there on the web I found. I will check them out and post them up here if there are any worth while.
Ok. So now what? Above, I described the process on how to effectively improve your gas mileage and the benefits of such actions. Now you need to enable your plan of attack and actually DO SOMETHING! Do it for yourself by saving your money... Do it for your family by slowing down and living with less stress and perhaps reducing the risk of getting into a fatal car crash... Do it for the environment and all the little creatures on God's Green Earth... and imagine this... Do it for the sake of HAVING FUN! However, if none of these reasons listed are compelling enough for you to change your driving habits, do it so you can tell the Middle East where they can shove their precious oil!
Feel free to comment and / or DIGG IT! if you liked it!
--jcz
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