Posts Tagged: ‘Save’

Tips to Save Fuel in 2011

February 3, 2012 Posted by admin

Fuel used to be something you didn’t need to worry about. You could drive out to the country each weekend without panicking whether you’d have enough fuel to get back again. Now most people are looking for ways to reduce their fuel consumption. Follow these tips and you could save fuel.

Anticipate the traffic ahead – if the cars in front of you are putting on their brakes to slow down, you should take your foot off the accelerator early on so that you don’t have to break suddenly. Heavy acceleration and then braking uses a lot of fuel. Drive smoothly.

If you are in a manual car, move to a higher gear as soon as possible whilst accelerating.

Keep your engine healthy, check your oil regularly and fix any problems as soon as they occur. Take the example of windscreens: a chip in your windscreen left unattended for months on end could lead to a crack, meaning you will then need a whole new windscreen instead of a simple repair.

Check that your tyres are at the correct pressure as shown in your car’s user manual, and make sure that they are not under or over inflated.

Remove unnecessary weight from your car.

You’d be surprised at how many people drive around with golf clubs or heavy equipment in their boot. The heavier your car is, the more fuel it will use.

Do you drive around town with a roof rack on your car, even when you’re not using it. This too will add to the overall weight of your car and your car will use more fuel than if you were to drive without your roof rack.

Turn off your air-conditioning (but you can keep your windows down) when driving under 80km/hour, however, if you are driving over 80km/hour, keep your windows closed as the air drag means your car has to work harder and therefore uses more fuel.

If you are lucky enough to have a cruise control function in your car then make sure you use it on major highways and in free-flowing traffic.

Put your car into neutral or park whilst you’re waiting at slow traffic lights.

Make sure you are ready to drive as soon as you turn on the ignition. Avoid excessive idling. If you expect to be waiting for more than 30 seconds, turn the engine off.

Avoid built-up areas where you need to break and accelerate frequently and avoid speed bumps.

Drive at the minimum (not the maximum) speed on the motorway; the faster you drive, the more fuel will be used.

As you can see, there are many things you can do to economise on fuel. Of course, the less you actually use your car, the better, so only use it when you need to and consider carpooling with others. In doing so, you are sure to save money on fuel.

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Categories: Fuel

Ways to save on your fuel bill

February 2, 2012 Posted by admin

The cost of fuel doesn’t seem to show any signs of coming down so more and more drivers are looking at ways to reduce their petrol or diesel costs. Short of parking the car and travelling on public transport, below are some simple ways of saving money on fuel.

The first thing to do is to look at your driving habits and see whether you can change the way you drive. The industry-wide test speed for best fuel economy is 55mph which means it might be worth joining the caravans in the slow lane on the motorway if you want to save some money. As the speed limit on country roads tend to be 60mph, it might make it worthwhile to slow down just a bit to make the fuel go a bit further.

The second thing to do is to learn to drive more smoothly as your car will burn less fuel if you avoid sharp accelerations or breaking. The trick is to read the flow of traffic and anticipate what will happen well in advance. Constantly breaking suddenly at traffic lights etc will burn up more fuel.

The next thing to do is to turn off you air conditioning as this actually uses up fuel. By turning it off and opening up a window instead a recent study has shown that fuel efficiency can improve by up to 8 percent.

It’s also important to remove any excess weight such as roof racks or clutter as the lighter your car is, the less fuel it will use. Cleaning out rubbish and bits and bods such as shoes and coats that have collected in your car will also reduce weight. Also make sure the tyre pressure is correct as soft tyres can add up to 2 percent on your fuel bills. The recommended tyre pressure for your car can normally be found in your vehicles handbook or on the inside of the front right hand door. Tyre pressure should be checked every few weeks with a tyre gauge when your tyres are cold.

Lastly, make sure you fill up at the cheapest petrol station near you and make use of any promotional vouchers you receive in magazines or when grocery shopping.

So regardless of whether you drive a large Land Rover in the Brecon Beacon’s or a small Suzuki Alto, London, follow the above tips and you should save some money on your car fuel bill.

 

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Categories: Fuel

Save Money by Saving on Fuel

February 1, 2012 Posted by admin

With recent economic uncertainty and the rising cost of living, budgeting for the necessities has become a daunting task. Filling up the petrol tank each week takes a lot out of your pocket, so here are some tips on how to save a dollar or two at the pump.

Shop around: While you may be loyal to a particular petrol station, other places may have cheaper prices. Also be on the lookout for the weekly cheap day. Originally, it was on Tuesdays but this has been subject to change. Don’t forget to use your 4 cents off per litre shopping dockets at certain service stations.

Drive at a modest speed: You might think that the faster you drive, the quicker you arrive at your destination. But not only is it dangerous and illegal to drive over the speed limits, more fuel per kilometre is consumed at higher speeds than at 60 km/h.

Also accelerate moderately because when quickly accelerating or suddenly braking, the car consumes more petrol.

Reduce usage of air conditioning: During the summer, there are going to be some scorching hot days when you need to cool yourself down. Try to leave the windows open when driving or parking your car in a shady area. Minimising the usage of your car air conditioner can reduce the fuel consumption significantly.

Downsize your car: If you are shopping for a new car, think about purchasing a small sedan or hatchback because they are more fuel-efficient than big four wheel drives or larger sedans.

Buy a hybrid car: Hybrid technology uses a combination of petrol and electric battery power, which means you do not need to fill up as much at the pump. For example, the Toyota Prius, a hybrid car, uses 3.9L of petrol per 100km. Comparatively, the smaller and petrol fuelled Toyota Corolla uses 7.4L of petrol per 100km. When a hybrid car brakes, controllers redirect the kinetic energy back to the battery for recycling. In a normal car, that kinetic energy would usually be lost as heat or noise.

Switch to a diesel car: The diesel is marginally more expensive than petrol. However, cars on diesel use less fuel per kilometre than petrol run cars. For example, the fuel consumption of an automatic Jeep Wrangler Sport is 11.9L of petrol per 100km. The same model in diesel would run on 8.1L of diesel for 100km. So the diesel option is a money saver.

While you may not have the cash in hand to purchase a new car, you could consider opting for auto finance. Car loans can be designed to suit your budget in a particular time frame. Auto finance allows you to enjoy your new car while you pay it off.

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Categories: Fuel

Mpg Calculator Helps To Save Fuel

January 30, 2012 Posted by admin

The rapidly increasing fuel costs are causing people owning a vehicle to be very careful towards calculating and knowing the MPG of their automobile. Before looking ahead in future you should know the current MPG of your car. Few cars comprise of trip computers that make the owners get an approximate idea of fuel consumption of these vehicles. But it is tough for the owners who do not have any such device.

These owners should not worry as there is surely a way for them. The MPG calculator is available to manually calculate a car’s fuel efficiency. It could be worked out when you fill the fuel tank till the brim and record the reading on mileage meter. After this when the tank is refilled you should record the liters filled in as well as distance travelled using that amount of fuel. This would calculate the miles per liter travelled.

By this way you would be able to easily calculate the fuel cost of a car on annual basis.

The manual MPG calculator gives a good idea of how efficiently and well a car is operating or running. You should note that the results obtained from these calculations must be kept safe to compare them with the future records of consumption.

You must be aware of some facts that might affect your vehicle’s MPG. You should analyze them and may find some of them quite surprising.

There are some expert tips for saving fuel of a car. These are -

1. Driving style of a vehicle

This is a very important aspect that could affect MPG of an automobile.

If you drive using full race, frequent heavy braking as well as high rpm it would reduce the MPG of your vehicle. Very fast driving also reduces the MPG. On the other hand slightly slow driving would surely save fuel.

2. Maintenance

The cars’ MPG could be increased if you regularly check the oil level, air pressure of tires and air filters condition. The dirty spark plugs could also waste fuel. The MPG of a car depends on different factors like the condition of its engine as well as tires. A poor MPG would obviously suggest that the condition of tires or engine is bad.

3. Carrying load

If you overload a vehicle this would also lead to fuel wastage. This is due to the fact that it would need more power for pushing such a vehicle.

4. Air conditioner

Air conditioners or other electrical equipments are the accessories which drain out battery. Therefore, more fuel is needed to back them up. An air conditioner greatly consumes battery among other power consuming items in a car. For improving the fuel efficiency during summer, you can use other options to air conditioner such as air circulator for reducing fuel consumption.

Car tuning surely helps to get better results in regard to fuel consumption. Moreover, the engine also works more efficiently.An efficient engine due to car turning would save you much fuel. Take help of experienced turners to obtain best results in car tuning. There are many reliable car forums on internet which provide quality information in this regard.

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Categories: Fuel
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