I did not hear about this in the news:
Evidently there was a shortage of fuel a bit north of here. Very interesting, particularly when US refineries are down to 87% capacity, gasoline stores are low, and the summer 'driving season' is set to begin.
Yesterday I ended the first of several experiments in driving behavior with my aging 1995 Geo Prism with 195,000 miles. On 9.4 gallons of 10% ethanol gasoline I drove 308 miles for a total of 32.7MPG. Normally the car gets about 25MPG so my change in driving behavior increased my mileage by 30%. I drove for about 4 and a half weeks on the one tank of gas which cost me about 29 bucks.
For this phase I tried to be as extreme in conservation as possible, given that there were other cars on the road. First, I drive after peak traffic times, so I will have more freedom to depart from the usual driving patterns (and piss of fewer people). I reduced acceleration to a minimum, I take my time accelerating away from a stop, taking as long as 30-45 seconds to go from zero to 45mph (taking into consideration traffic). I observe the timing on traffic lights and attempt to time my arrival to eliminate stops and starts. I avoid taking unnecessarily hilly routes. When stopped anywhere that I will have more than a 30 second wait I turn off the car. Anywhere the car is headed downhill and can coast for more than about 20 seconds I drop into neutral and turn off the engine, then restart when speed drops below about 45 (this kills the power steering, but it is not difficult to compensate as long as you are aware of the restriction. Brakes remain powered on the residual vacuum). When coasting with the car off I have to be careful to leave the ignition in the 'on' position so that the odometer continues functioning, otherwise the fuel-free miles traveled are not recorded.
For the next phase I'll stop turning off the car and just coast in neutral. I'm not sure how much fuel the car uses when idling, but I'm curious to see how much of an impact turning it off has on mileage. For this tank I'll be driving in the same conservative way and just leaving it idling in an attempt to determine how much that impacts the efficiency. My prediction is that I'll see about 29mpg on this tank, as I've done this before.
I wonder how hard it would be to modify a car with an electric motor large enough to do the work of moving the car away from stops. Car dealerships often use little battery powered pushers to move cars around the lot at up to 3mph. It seems, without doing the calculations, that three car batteries could provide a commutes-worth of low speed operation of a smallish car, allowing one to save the gasoline engine for high speed operation.
Last weekend across southern South Dakota the pumps went dry. Gas
terminals from Sioux Falls to Yankton to Sioux City were empty. “There
is simply not enough fuel coming down the pipeline into the delivery
system” said a BP station owner. Eventually the tankers were sent to
Nebraska to find gas. (read more)
Evidently there was a shortage of fuel a bit north of here. Very interesting, particularly when US refineries are down to 87% capacity, gasoline stores are low, and the summer 'driving season' is set to begin.
Yesterday I ended the first of several experiments in driving behavior with my aging 1995 Geo Prism with 195,000 miles. On 9.4 gallons of 10% ethanol gasoline I drove 308 miles for a total of 32.7MPG. Normally the car gets about 25MPG so my change in driving behavior increased my mileage by 30%. I drove for about 4 and a half weeks on the one tank of gas which cost me about 29 bucks.
For this phase I tried to be as extreme in conservation as possible, given that there were other cars on the road. First, I drive after peak traffic times, so I will have more freedom to depart from the usual driving patterns (and piss of fewer people). I reduced acceleration to a minimum, I take my time accelerating away from a stop, taking as long as 30-45 seconds to go from zero to 45mph (taking into consideration traffic). I observe the timing on traffic lights and attempt to time my arrival to eliminate stops and starts. I avoid taking unnecessarily hilly routes. When stopped anywhere that I will have more than a 30 second wait I turn off the car. Anywhere the car is headed downhill and can coast for more than about 20 seconds I drop into neutral and turn off the engine, then restart when speed drops below about 45 (this kills the power steering, but it is not difficult to compensate as long as you are aware of the restriction. Brakes remain powered on the residual vacuum). When coasting with the car off I have to be careful to leave the ignition in the 'on' position so that the odometer continues functioning, otherwise the fuel-free miles traveled are not recorded.
For the next phase I'll stop turning off the car and just coast in neutral. I'm not sure how much fuel the car uses when idling, but I'm curious to see how much of an impact turning it off has on mileage. For this tank I'll be driving in the same conservative way and just leaving it idling in an attempt to determine how much that impacts the efficiency. My prediction is that I'll see about 29mpg on this tank, as I've done this before.
I wonder how hard it would be to modify a car with an electric motor large enough to do the work of moving the car away from stops. Car dealerships often use little battery powered pushers to move cars around the lot at up to 3mph. It seems, without doing the calculations, that three car batteries could provide a commutes-worth of low speed operation of a smallish car, allowing one to save the gasoline engine for high speed operation.
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