10 ways to save money on gasoline

Scotts Contracting brings you this Article on Saving Money while Driving.

(Photo: Getty Images)

The United States has a reputation for guzzling gasoline, especially in summer, when increased demand and processing costs drive up the price by an average of 10 to 20 cents per gallon. And while the recession has helped reduce U.S. gas demand in recent years, summer heat — combined with unforeseen variables like hurricanes and oil spills — can still wreak havoc with prices at the pump.

But whether you're planning a cross-country road trip or just trying to avoid spending your paycheck on commuting, there's plenty you can do to save money on gasoline. The best strategy is to simply drive less often, maybe carpooling or biking instead, but don't feel discouraged if that's not an option.

Check out these 10 ideas for ways to cut back the amount of time and money you spend at gas stations this summer:

 

       (Chart: fueleconomy.gov)

 

1) Slow and steady wins the race
Gasoline mileage drops off in most cars once you're going faster than about 60 mph (see chart at left). For every 5 mph you drive over 60 mph, you're essentially paying an extra 24 cents per gallon of gas.

Try using cruise control on interstates and other highways to maintain a constant speed. It can also help to use your car's overdrive gears, which save fuel and engine wear by reducing your speed.

 

2) Be cool in traffic
Aggressive driving — speeding, swerving, sudden acceleration and braking — is not only dangerous, it can lower your gas mileage 33 percent on highways and 5 percent on city streets. Revving your engine while stopped is even more wasteful.

 

3) But not too cool
Air conditioning can be a big drain on gasoline, so make sure you don't just leave it on absentmindedly, and certainly don't leave it on while windows are open, even if they're just cracked. You can improve your fuel efficiency in stop-and-go traffic by turning off the A/C and rolling down the windows instead, but that's not necessarily always the best idea.

When driving above 55 mph, especially for long periods on highways, the opposite is true — open windows make a vehicle less aerodynamic by letting in air, which increases air resistance and decreases fuel efficiency. On long road trips, using air conditioning could actually improve your mileage by up to 20 percent.

 

4) Don't just sit there
On top of pointlessly pumping out greenhouse gases without actually getting you anywhere, idling automobiles also contribute to ground-level ozone, airborne particulate matter, and other near-surface air pollution. These emissions can aggravate asthma and even hinder breathing in otherwise healthy people, especially children and the elderly.

If you're just idling to warm up your car in winter, it still only needs to run about a minute. Anything beyond that is just wasting gas.

 

5) Stay in tune
Fixing a car that needs a tune-up or has failed an emissions test can improve its fuel efficiency by an average of 4 percent. More serious problems, like a faulty oxygen sensor, can reduce mileage by up to 40 percent.

And don't forget to get an oil change roughly every 3,000 miles or three months, whichever comes first (or you could look into installing an Electro-Lube Oil Refiner, which reportedly eliminates the need for oil changes while boosting efficiency 3 to 4 percent).

 

6) Get pumped
Keeping a car's tires properly inflated can improve fuel efficiency by about 3.3 percent. It's also safer and lengthens the lifespan of your tires, since under-inflated tires lose their tread quickly in addition to wasting fuel. Regular checkups for your tires' alignment and balance aren't a bad idea, either.

 

7) Take a load off
While it mainly affects smaller cars, carrying extra weight means burning extra gasoline, no matter how big your vehicle is. On average, you may be cutting your fuel efficiency by up to 2 percent for every 100 extra pounds you haul.

 

8) Develop motor skills
Using the manufacturer's recommended grade of motor oil can boost mileage by 1 to 2 percent. Try to also use the lowest grade of gasoline that's appropriate for your car, since high-octane grades cost several cents more per gallon.

Check your owner's manual to be sure, but as long as your engine doesn't start knocking, you're probably OK. Switching from premium to regular gasoline would save hundreds of dollars every year.

 

9) There's a cap for that
Gasoline can evaporate from a vehicle's fuel tank if it's able to find an opening, which is bad for your wallet and your lungs. Make sure your gas tank's cap is tightened securely after you fill up, and if the cap's threading is stripped or it fits too loosely, you might want to buy a new one.

 

10) Join the masses
Carpool or, even better, don't take a car at all — walk, ride a bike, or take mass transit. It saves you money, improves your personal health, and helps the planet by keeping greenhouse gases out of its atmosphere. See MNN's guide to greening your commute for more ideas.

 

Do you have other money-saving tips we left out? Please leave them in the comments below.

And for more ideas and information about gas prices and other fuel-efficiency issues, check out these related articles from MNN:

• 10 best and worst cars for fuel efficiency
• Eco-friendly tips for a 50-mile daily commute
• Turning sawdust into gasoline
• Never change your oil again
• How do oil spills and hurricanes affect gas prices?

 

By Russell McLendon, writes for the Mother Nature Network, where this post originally appeared.

Posted Tue Jun 22, 2010 9:43am PDT

Related topics: Tips, Cars, Commuting, Saving Money, Saving gas

More from Guest Bloggers blog

Company Info- Scotts Contracting

Your Green Builder for the St Louis Area. My Crew of Dedicated Green Pros: will bring you the Greenest Products and Green Expertise available- while working on your Project. For us being Green and Eco Friendly is not just a FAD. It has become a lifestyle that we have incorporated into the way we choose to do business.

When you contact Scotts Contracting for a Green Site Evaluation. Scotts Contracting- will bring you Cost Effective Solutions for your Green and Eco Friendly Projects.

Here are just a few of the Ways we will save you $money$ on your Green Projects:

1. The Bid / Estimating Process- Our Knowledge and Experience of the Buildings Structure allows us to foresee any unseen building components that are causing: Energy Losses, Inefficient Design, Building Flaws, and other Issues.

2. DE-Construction or Demolition- we provide outlets for all the Recyclable Materials. Some of these Outlets even pay Cash for your Recyclable Goods which will help off-set the Cost of your Project. Others such as a Habitat For Humanity gladly accept donations of used Building Materials. (Tax Breaks and Incentives are available)

3. Because of the Extensive knowledge of your Buildings Structure- the Estimating Department will not add extra materials into the Bid/Estimate Proposal. This translates into Savings for You! We will not be wasting Time and Money:

   1)Procuring the extra materials and then

   2)Transporting the Extra Materials Weight to the JOB Site and then the Transporting of UN-needed materials back to the Store after the Job is over.

4. While we are working on your Job Site: We work as efficiently as possible, while being acutely aware of the- Customers Needs, Budgeting Concerns, and Time Frame.

To Schedule your Green Site Evaluation click here to email Scotts Contracting for an Affordable Green Solution in the Construction of Your Next Project- Large or Small.

Best Recycling Story of 2010!

I'm proud to bring you the: Best Recycling Story of 2010!

• One Ton of Aluminum Cans brings: $3,800-from recycling 400,000 Aluminum Cans and Completely pays for Couples Wedding!
  

(Photo: Tyson / Yellow House
Photography)

Couple recycles 400,000 cans to pay for wedding

When Peter Geyer caught the garter at a wedding last fall, his girlfriend Andrea Parrish immediately dropped to her knee, pulled out an opal earring, and proposed to him. Parrish admits they had been discussing getting married, so she was kind of prepared for such a moment just in case it happened. "What better way to announce it to the family than with a big dramatic moment?" asks the 25-year-old marketing writer.

It seems Parish and her fiancé have a flair for creating buzz. Known as the "wedding can couple," Geyer and Parrish have been in the news because they are paying for their July 31 wedding solely with the $3,800 in proceeds they earned from recycling 400,000 cans.  

The Spokane couple reached their goal last week when over a ton of aluminum cans was hauled off their porch by a local recycler. They continue to collect cans to raise money for their honeymoon and to donate to Doctors Without Borders and Rim Country Land Institute.  

How did they come up with the offbeat idea? Parrish said they quickly realized they'd have to save around $500 a month to pay for their wedding if they wanted to get married in a reasonable amount of time and avoid getting into debt. They didn't have much extra cash because Parrish was laid off from her job right after they purchased a house.  

Parrish and Geyer already had some experience collecting aluminum cans. Geyer, who works as a digital print technician, also melts cans down on his Weber grill and uses the metal to create art in his spare time.

Parrish came up with the idea to pay for their wedding in the middle of a sleepless night. She had just helped Geyer sort through some cans that evening and knew you could get money for aluminum by the pound, so she figured why not collect aluminum cans to fund their wedding and help the environment.

She woke Geyer up at 1 a.m. to share her plan. "When I told Peter about it, he kind of gave me a look that said this is a crazy idea, but you're the type of crazy that can pull it off," she says.

Indeed, Geyer was right. Parrish built a website and spread the word amongst friends and through social media. Alcoa donated 150,000 cans to the cause and United Recycling Services contributed another 73,000.  And others are copying their idea to raise money for weddings and other causes.

(Photo: Andrea Parrish)

Their wedding will also be light on the planet. With only $3,800 to spend on a party for 150 people, there's little room for excess and waste. The couple has focused on what's most important to them (gathering their family and friends together for a lively celebration), and they've also enlisted help.

Here are some details about their DIY wedding:   

Venue: Corbin Art Center in Spokane, WA. Cost: $1,000.

Food and beverages: The bride and groom are providing some food, but it is mostly potluck style.  The groom has a friend who brews beer as a hobby so he's contributing a keg or two. Parrish and Geyer are making the wine in their basement. The bride's mom, who owns a catering and reception center in Idaho, is baking and decorating the cake. "We asked our friends to bring a potluck dish, bring yourself, and have fun, because that's all we care about," says Parrish.

Flowers: Parrish's sister-in-law is growing all the flowers for bouquets and decorations.

Music: A harpist is playing free of charge during the service. Afterwards it's "DJ by iPods," says Parrish. Friends are creating the playlists.

Clothing: The matron of honor's mother-in-law is sewing Parrish's floor-length black, red, and white wedding dress. Total cost: $250 for the fabric, plus another $200 for the custom-made corset she's splurging on. Geyer is sewing his own vest from fabric that cost $25. The couple is making ties for all of the groomsmen and telling everyone in the wedding party to wear whatever they'd like.

By Lori Bongiorno

Posted Wed Jun 30, 2010 2:12pm PDT

Related topics: Finances, Romance, Recycling, Saving Money

More from Green Picks blog

BMW-Joins Electric Car Race

• Battery Technology has reached the point where it really makes sense to drive electric
• carbon Fiber utilized in the Design of Car
• All the major carmakers have realized that they need electric vehicles to succeed in China, a crucial market where the government is keen to promote emission-free transport
• battery power is a matter of long-term company survival
• The megacity vehicle takes advantage of the fact that an electric motor is much more compact than a gasoline engine
• does not need a transmission, exhaust or muffler.
  
• The electric motor will go in the back of the vehicle. The batteries, the heaviest and bulkiest part of the drive train, will go under the floor in the aluminum chassis.
• carbon components, which it says are central to giving the car an upscale image.
• the manufacture of carbon components, which it says are central to giving the car an upscale image.
• Electric Cars Never need oil change!!!

Latest Electric Car Will be a BMW, From the Battery Up

BMW lifted the veil this week on its planned battery-powered car, in an indication that it is serious about building a new class of vehicle and delivering substantial numbers to showrooms by 2013.

Vehicle Design Sketch (BMW)

BMW, the German carmaker, created Project i in late 2007 with the goal of building a car for urban areas where more than half the world's people live. But, as with many corporate green projects, it was sometimes hard to tell whether the effort was sincere or just a way to generate sustainability credentials.

During two days of briefings for journalists at a garagelike BMW plant outside Munich, the company devoted major resources to proving that battery-powered cars were practical. The demonstration was also intended to allay doubts about whether traditional carmakers were innovative enough to make the leap from gasoline.

Battery technology has "reached the point where it really makes sense to drive electric," said Ulrich Kranz, director of the project's team, who previously led the BMW team that revived the Mini brand in 2001.

BMW has crash-tested prototypes of the chassis and frame of the electric car, and this month it will break ground on a factory in Moses Lake, Wash., to produce carbon fiber for a lightweight passenger compartment.

Auto industry specialists said they were encouraged by the developments.

"It's not just a marketing project," said Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, a professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen who studies the auto industry. All the major carmakers have realized that they need electric vehicles to succeed in China, a crucial market where the government is keen to promote emission-free transport, Mr. Dudenhöffer said.

BMW is taking a different path than competitors by designing the so-called megacity vehicle around its electric drive system from the start.

Daimler will beat BMW to showrooms with a mass-produced electric vehicle, due in 2012. But Daimler's e-car is a battery-powered version of its two-seat Smart car.

"I don't know of any other manufacturer that has conceived of a car exclusively as an electric vehicle," Mr. Dudenhöffer said. "The rest are based on conventional cars."

BMW says it also plans to put its own name at risk, creating a subbrand that will probably contain the initials BMW. Daimler has always kept a distance between its Smart line and the Mercedes brand.

BMW engineers, or at least the ones working on the electric car project, seem to believe that shifting to battery power is a matter of long-term company survival. The company says it expects sales of gasoline and diesel-powered cars to begin declining in 2020.

"The departure from fossil fuels is an irreversible trend," said Kai Petrick, a BMW marketing and product strategist.

BMW is not only breaking with the petroleum era but the age of steel as well. By building a substantial amount of the car from carbon fiber hardened with epoxy and molded into components, BMW aims to offset the additional weight that batteries add to the car and increase its range.

At the new vehicle's core is a carbon-fiber passenger compartment that has already passed crash tests. The fiber, which in its raw state resembles horse hair, will come from the Moses Lake plant, where BMW and the SGL Group, the carbon company, are building components specifically for the new vehicle.

"Carbon fiber construction is one of the enablers of electric mobility," said Jochen Töpker, a BMW engineer who manages the company's joint venture with SGL, which is based in Wiesbaden, Germany.

The megacity vehicle takes advantage of the fact that an electric motor is much more compact than a gasoline engine and does not need a transmission, exhaust or muffler. The electric motor will go in the back of the vehicle. The batteries, the heaviest and bulkiest part of the drive train, will go under the floor in the aluminum chassis.

Despite some analyst predictions that all electric motors will be alike, BMW plans to build its own, betting it can imbue the power plants with BMW-like performance and feel. BMW engineers say they have acquired substantial understanding of how to make the motor work best with the battery array, which would be a competitive advantage. BMW is also keeping close control over the manufacture of carbon components, which it says are central to giving the car an upscale image.

BMW is still being quiet about how the car will look. But it showed journalists an impressionistic sketch of a four-passenger vehicle that looked a bit like a streamlined, low-slung Mini. BMW's design chief, Adrian van Hooydonk, said that his team was still tinkering with the look of the car but emphasized that it would be a sporty, stylish vehicle worthy of the BMW name.

Speaking to reporters at BMW's in-house museum in Munich on Tuesday, Mr. van Hooydonk described the design as "premium sustainability," implying that it would not be a boxy-looking Toyota Prius or Nissan Leaf.

BMW engineers insist that the limited range of electric-powered vehicles is not a big issue. The company leased a fleet of Minis converted to electric drive to customers in the New York and Los Angeles areas. Surveys showed that the Mini E's range of 250 kilometers, or 150 miles, between charges was plenty for urban driving, BMW said.

BMW engineers are fond of saying that electric vehicles do not need to represent "a rolling vow of poverty." The company has not named a price for the new car, but it will be aimed at affluent drivers in urban areas who want to appear environmentally conscious. The car probably will cost more than a comparable gasoline-powered vehicle, though owners will recoup some of the extra investment in lower fuel and maintenance costs. Electric cars never need an oil change.

As a test drive of a Mini E in the Bavarian countryside confirmed, electric cars have a number of selling points beyond the environmental argument. Electric motors have inherently fast acceleration. The only running noise is a faint whine. There is no smell of exhaust or fuel. One gear suffices, so shifting is unnecessary.

Even braking is rarely necessary. The car slows when the driver takes pressure off the accelerator, as a recuperation system kicks in and regenerates power from the momentum of the car.

"Electric cars are fun to drive," said Mr. Kranz, the project director.

by Jack Ewing
Friday, July 2, 2010

provided by