Unfortunately this is not a post packed with all the latest fuel saving technologies (it’s coming, just give me some time), instead, it’s a practical guide on how you can reduce spending, which to be honest, if you’re doing a lot of driving, quickly adds up to quite a large amount of money.
While we’re stuck with burning fossil fuels, we might as well make the best of it until the eco-friendly alternatives are widely implemented.
Do less braking and less acceleration, that means do some planning when you’re driving. When you’re in a speed bump zone, accelerating to a speed bump and then braking just doesn’t make sense, every time you accelerate, you burn up more fuel, rather keep going at a speed on which your car can handle the speed bumps and maintain that speed during the speed bump zones. After all, speed bumps are designed to slow you down.
Also, speeding to a red traffic light doesn’t make sense either, you’re only making yourself vulnerable to smash-and-grabbers when yo have to sit and wait there (something which seems to be a common phenomena in Jo’burg, no wonder people skip red lights), instead, gradually slow down and see if you can catch a green light.
Also, when you’re doing a lot of downhills and uphills, see if you can use the car’s momentum to your advantage by keeping the petrol down just enough to make it uphill and using the downhill to build up enough momentum that you don’t have to accelerate unnecessarily.
The point is, try keep a steady speed most of the time by planning ahead where you should accelerate or slow down and keep it to a minimum.
Keep your rev counter as low as possible. It’s simple, the higher the revs, the faster your engine turns, the faster your engine turns, the more fuel you burn. To keep your rev counter as low as possible, accelerate slower and shift gears sooner. Don’t drive in third gear when you can be driving in forth gear, as long as you don’t stall the car. My car gives me about 20km/l when I keep the engine running as close to 2000rpm as possible, getting closer to 3000rpm, it’ll drop to 18km/l or lower, when I go pass 3000rpm, I’ll be getting somewhere around 15km/l, 4000rpm and above, below 11km/l. These values will obviously differ from car to car, experiment a bit and find the sweet spot where your car runs at its optimal fuel efficiency.
Is that air conditioner really necessary? Switch it off if you’re not using it and keep your windows up to reduce drag. At slow speeds, rather turn the windows down than switching the air conditioner on, air conditioners take away engine power which means you’ll need to drive in a lower gear which means the rev count is a lot higher. That roof rack, have you ever used it before? If not, take it off, it creates extra wind resistance. Same goes for trailers and bike racks.
Keep your tires well inflated, tires lose air over time (about one psi per month) and due to temperature changes (about one psi for every degree drop). Proper inflated tires have less rolling resistance, be sure to check them at least once a month and make sure you check them while they are cold (not after using the car to drive somewhere).
If you buy tires that are wider than your stock tires, you’re probably going to get a lot better handling from the car, but also, the rolling resistance will increase which means you burn more fuel. If you really need the extra handling (which I doubt you’ll need under normal circumstances), at least keep the stock tires for driving long distances.
When you choose new tires, choose a radial-ply patterned tire over a cross-ply patterned tire to reduce rolling resistance and make them last longer.
Service and clean out your car regularly to make sure everything is working properly and that you’re not carrying excess weight. Check your air filter, a dirty air filter reduces performance and fuel economy. Consider getting a K&N or similar permanent filter which is cleaned rather than changed and thrown away, they are much less restrictive to airflow than paper filters. Check that there are no holes in your exhaust, a hole will cause a drop in exhaust back pressure which can lead to several problems including a drop in high speed power, torque as well as a drop in fuel economy.
If you’re in the market for a new car, carefully take a look at what you REALLY need, buying a 4×4 to basically drive to work every morning is not the smartest choice when you can downsize a bit and save a lot of money on fuel consumption. Prioritize where you need to go and rather drive less but longer distances. Driving to the supermarket and the next day driving to the store just a little further on is not only a waste of fuel, but also a waste of time, rather go there once and do everything at once. (Read David Allan’s book “Getting Things Done” if you need help prioritizing your activities and life to achieve optimum levels of productivity)
Driving to the cafe around the corner is not only a waste of fuel, but also puts unnecessary wear and tear on your cold engine, walk or use a bicycle when it’s close enough to do so (A cold engine also uses a lot more petrol than when it’s warm). Also avoid prolonged idling, if it’s been idling for longer than a minute, rather switch of the car, same goes for warming up the engine on cold mornings, 20-40 seconds should be enough.
Check how much fuel you’ve used since the last fill up and calculate whether your fuel consumption has dropped or increased, if you can’t measure it, you can’t control it. If possible, install a fuel consumption gauge, that should make it a lot easier to tweak the variables responsible for fuel economy.
Will post some more information about building your own HHO kit and using hydrogen injection to massively reduce fuel costs.