Gas Saving Tips & Myths

Being a car freak I thought I would list a few tips to help you save some gas along with some myths that either don’t work or can cause other problems. Just keep in mind, these are not "cumulative savings" so you are not going to get 50% better mileage by following all of them. Just check them out and decide which ones you think area good bang for the convenience buck.

Tips

1. Check and fill your tires. It won’t put gas in your tank like some people believe, but it does help you save what gas you have. This one can save you up to 10% so it’s worth a minute to check and fill to the proper pressure. The important part of this is “to the proper pressure”. Don’t fill your tires to the pressure listed on the side of the tire. That is the maximum pressure the tire can hold. You can usually find the correct pressure on a sticker that is on the driver’s door or door jamb. Some cars have the sticker under the hood or trunk lid so look there if you don’t see it on the driver’s door. Also pay close attention. Many cars have different pressures in the front and rear tires. My wife’s car takes 29psi up front and 36psi in back so it can be a pretty big difference. This is also important for tire wear and safety.
   
   
   
2. Take it easy on the gas. A lead foot really drinks gas. When you are going from a dead stop, the engine has to work hard for the car to gain momentum. If you hit the gas hard the engine is trying to push out the torque so it increases the fuel level to achieve this. If you can take it a little easier on the gas pedal you can save up to 20%. This one is totally dependant on the car. In my wife's car it yields a 5% increase but in our small SUV it yields 20%. The higher yields will tend to come from SUVs and luxury cars while lower yields will tend to come from sports cars because of the way the computers are programmed in the different types of vehicles.
   
   
3. Use the cruise when possible. When you use the cruise control, the car's computer manages the acceleration. The reason this can help is a driver has a tendency to push the gas pedal in and out constantly. This is caused by bumps in the road, fatigue, trying to keep up with the guy in front of you, etc. If you want to see how much this happens, pay close attention to what your foot is doing the next time you are driving down the freeway. You will be surprised. When you use the cruise, the computer only hits the gas when it feels the car actually slow down. It keeps a steady pace so you can save up to 10% by using the cruise control when it's safe to do so. Don't forget, never use the cruise control in the rain.
   
   
4. Turn off the compressor when you are sitting still if you can. There is a button in nearly every car to turn off the A/C compressor. It's usually the one with a snow flake on it. Turning it off when stopped or in stop & go traffic helps save gas and keeps the engine cooler. This one is only good for 1-2% improvement. The compressor is run by a belt so it is using engine power by putting “drag” on the engine. Turning off the compressor removes the drag and makes your engine run more efficiently. It also reduces the heat in the engine bay and keeps the engine cooler so it does not overheat while idling. An engine running above normal temperature is also inefficient so it is a good thing to keep the engine cool while idling. I say “if you can” because if it’s 95F outside it’s just not a good idea. Also, this only saves a little gas but when you’re waiting in line and running on empty it may keep you from having to push it to the pump.
   
   
5. Not for the faint of heart. There is one more thing you can do that can really boost your mileage, but it's not for the complete car novice. I have mentioned the car computer several times. Did you know you can tune your computer for different driving styles? There are tuners available in every car magazine that will change the timing, fuel/air ratios, etc. to meet your needs. You can make the engine more aggressive for sport driving and also tune it down so it is more efficient. Even though I will not recommend a specific tuner, I will recommend you get one that has presets. With those types of tuners you can choose the "mode" you want such as sport or economy and it does all of the computer adjustments for you. You must be careful if you do this. If you don't kow what you are doing and you start "tweeking" outside of those preset modes you can mess it up to where the car will not start. This can save a great deal of gas, up to 30%, but you have to take into account the cost of the tuner which is usually at least $300 to determine if it works for you.
   

Myths

1. Turn off the radio to save gas. The radio being on does not use more power from the engine. The radio is run off the battery and the battery is charged by the alternator. The alternator is always charging whether electric accessories are on or not. It has a switch inside that sends the power to the battery for recharge as needed, but even when that switch is off the alternator is still running off the engine so it is a constant drag on the engine no matter what.
   
   
2. Turn off the A/C and roll down the windows. Turning off the A/C will save a little on gas, but only if you are driving around 35mph or slower. After that the drag on the car actually uses more gas than running the A/C with the windows up would use. This one was finally debunked by the Myth Busters TV show.
   
   
3. Turn off the engine at stop lights or when waiting in a gas line. The line I was in today moved about every 1-2 minutes so people were turning off the engine then restarting every time they moved. In a line of 30 cars that's a lot of starts. I have also seen others on the Internet recommending turning off the engine while waiting at a stop light. The problem with doing that is every time you stop the engine, all of the oil drains down into the oil pan. The engine is left unprotected so when you restart, your engine wears more than when it is just running at normal temperature. Granted it is not as bad as a morning, cold start, but still worse than letting it run. All of the parts involved that wear can add up to thousands of dollars for replacement in order to save a few dollars in gas. This one is not really a myth because unlike the old carbureted engines, modern engines do not use more gas at start up than when idling so it does save a little gas, just not enough to cover the cost of a worn out starter, etc.
   
   
4. 55 saves gas. In the '70s the government instituted a nationwide 55mph speed limit to save gas. It may have worked a little (and I'm talking about very little) with carbureted cars back then, but it is not the case at all anymore. As a car speeds up, the wind force increases making it harder to push the car through the wind. The engine pushes against that force so it reaches a point where it requires so much energy just to push the car through the air that it negates the increased speed gained. Try not to glaze over on this part and hopefully I can make some sense of this. If you are driving a car at 10mph and it takes 1000rpm to keep moving at that speed then the engine will make 6000 revolutions every mile. With each revolution gas is sprayed into the cylinders. Next, if you are going 60mph and it requires 2500rpm to keep the car moving at that speed then the engine will make 2500 revolutions every mile. Since a car's computer manages how much gas is sprayed, you can see an across the board 55 saves gas is not even close. In our three cars, #1 gets the best gas mileage at about 80mph, #2 at bout 65mph and #3 at about 75mph. You would need to do some testing to figure out where you car does best, but overall 55 does not save gas.

Hope it helps.

Gasonomics

Since gas prices have been in the news continuously I'll start by answering the question "Why am I paying so much at the pump?" It all comes down to supply and demand, but most people don't know how we got to this point "without any warning". The warnings have been there since the '70s but we have chosen to ignore them.

Over the past several years demand for gasoline has increased tremendously. There are new economies in China and India. In China alone, between 2003 and 2004, the number of private cars grew from 5 million to 9 million. That number is expected to be about 140 million by 2020. That's only cars. Next add the new power needs from factories, office buildings and bringing electricity to new areas of these nations. The US population alone has grown from 225 million in 1980 to just over 300 million currently and half of those people own cars, live in powered homes, work, etc. Europe has grown, North Africa, South America...the list goes on. All of this growth is the reason demand has grown tremendously all over the world.

Since we have seen demand growing steadily over the past 40+ years, we have prepared for this...right? Wrong.

As the demand throughout the world grew, foreign sources of oil kept up with world demand outside of the US. The world production was able to keep up until about 2003-2004 when the exploding demand began.

So why can't we meet the demand? Mostly because of the beaurocracy and stifling by the US government. Here are the biggest contributors that tied the hands of oil companies and kept them from being able to increase supply:

1) The last time a refinery was built in the US was 1976. This is not because oil companies do not want to build any new refineries. There is so much regulation and red tape, it makes it impossible to build one and make any kind of profit. Because of this, the US not only has to import oil, we also have to import refined gasoline to meet our needs.

2) The ability to drill for oil is restricted tremendously. In 1995 Congress passed a bill to allow drilling in ANWR to retrieve its' 10.4 billion barrells of oil, but President Clinton vetoed it. The biggest complaint about the bill was "it won't make a difference for 10 years". It has been 13 years since then and look at the mess we are in. There are 1.8 trillion barrells in midwest shale oil, (that can be up to 8 times Saudi Arabia's total oil reserves available) but leases to oil companies were made off limits last year by the Democrat controlled Congress attaching a provision in the omnibus spending bill to make sure the President could not veto it. That same congress refuses to pass the ANWR bill again for the President to sign. The last place drilling is restricted is in the Gulf of Mexico. China is currently drilling with the help of Cuba in areas where American oil companies are restricted. The Congress is working on a bill now, but it still restricts drilling within 50 miles of the coast. The problem is...that's where the oil is located. They want to make it look like they are doing something while continuing to blame the oil companies and speculators.

3) We have been extremely slow moving on truly viable alternative energy sources. Nuclear energy is clean and extremely efficient. It is such a great resource, France derives nearly 80% of its' electric power from Nuclear power, but the US has not built a nuclear power plant since 1996. Wind and solar energy are still not powerful enough to make a big difference, yet those are the only "alternatives" even being considered by Congress.

4) There are currently 45 different kinds of gasoline that are required in different states. This makes the already limited number of refineries have to shut down, clean out and retool to make the next kind. These requirements come from EPA mandates by unelected officials. If there is any disruption in supply of one type of gasoline and it is not currently being produced there is a big delay while the refinery shuts down, cleans out and retools. That is what is causing the current lines at gas stations in Georgia.

So the problem with the current high gas prices all boils down to lack of supply with the government being the cause of this low supply through over-regulation and beaurocracy. You will hear politicians saying it's oil companies trying to keep the price high and make more money, but that makes no sense. The oil price is set by the world market and American oil companies are a tiny fraction of the total market. Expensive, imported oil is driving the price up. American oil companies make about 10 cents per gallon at any price so they would much rather be able to bring the price down and sell more gallons of gasoline to increase their profits. These politicians are beholden to extreme environmentalist groups who lobby them and contribute millions to their campaigns. They are only interested in re-election so that is why Congress does not pass anything that makes it easier for us to get our own oil to help bring the price down for your family. Remember that the next time you go vote.

The blame lies squarely on Congess and groups like MoveOn.org, ELF, Sierra Club and Greenpeace

In The Beginning...

...there was supply and demand. It is so important and so consistent, it is called the "Law of Supply and Demand". It is the most powerful influence on the market, but it is not taught in most schools unless you are an economics major. I'm absolutely convinced this lack of education costs our economy huge amounts of money. One quote I believe is so very true is "Ignorance costs the American economy more than anything else".

I am a big fan of Guitar Hero so I'm on their community forum occasionally for tips and I am amazed at some of the posts. There is always a new thread with several posts like this:

"GH is rippin' us off! That stupid extra guitar controller I just bought was 50 bucks! It's probably $2 worth of plastic so they shouldn't charge that much!"

The first problem with these quotes is "...I just bought..." It must not be "too expensive" or they would not have purchased it. The second problem is they don't consider the man hours put into developing that controller. Game developers are paid pretty well so it's not cheap to develop games and accessories. The third problem is nobody seems to take into account the number of hours of fun you get for that $50. Compared to most forms of entertainment, it's a cheap "per hour" cost. (Those last two don't have anything to do with the supply/demand issue, just pet peeves. ;)

All things considered, is $50 too high a price for the controller? Not when you take supply and demand into account. You can find the true "value" of something when supply = demand. If you can crank out X number of controllers a month and enough people are willing to by X number of the controllers each month at the $50 price, then that is the value.

This is the point every manufacturer or service provider wants to reach. They all try to figure out what the "magic price" is so they can maximize their profit, keep up with production and not have a bunch of unsold stock left at the end of the selling period.

If supply does not equal demand, then you get fluctuations in price both up and down.

A good example of what happens when demand far exceeds supply was the 1996 release of "Tickle Me Elmo". When that doll was first released at Christmas time, the manufacturer had no idea it would be so popular. Everybody wanted one for their kid. The stores receiving the dolls decided they would set the price at around $30 when they arrived. The word spread about how popular the doll was going to be so once the company shipped out the first batch of dolls, they were gone in a flash. Enterprising people waited hours to get in stores and get a doll. They knew the demand was so high they would surely be able to make a profit by reselling them.

Well, they were right. Since the manufacturer could barely supply half as many dolls as the people demanded, the price went through the roof. Private resellers listed the dolls on eBay and there were reports of this $30 doll selling for up to $1500! Demand was much greater than supply so the price went way up.

A good example of what happens when supply exceeds demand is Overstock.com. When companies have more supply than they can sell, they want to get it out of the warehouse and make room for another product that will sell better. To do this, they drop the price and sell it to a place like Overstock.com. Overstock.com gets such a good price on these items they can turn around and mark the price up for retail but still sell it for less than the usual retail price. Supply exceeded demand so the price dropped.

Supply and demand affects everything. It affects the retail market, the employment market, the stock market, the currency market, the tax market (yep, taxes are a market too), literally everything. That is why it is important to understand how it works and to teach our children about the greatest market force. It affects everyone, every day so if you grasp how it works you can't be fooled by rhetoric and you can make informed decisions about what is reported to you on a daily basis.

I hope it didn't bore you to death, but I think it's important to make sure all readers are exposed to this important concept before I get started with the actual problems we find in today's economy.

If you would like more info on supply and demand including a graph of the supply curve and demand curve check this site out http://www.netmba.com/econ/micro/supply-demand/

What Free Market?

It's all over the media. Stock prices are down, gas is going up, unemployment is a whopping 6%, people are spontaneously combusting, America sucks...the world is coming to an end!!

So who's to blame for all of the calamity? Well, that depends on who you want to listen to and whether or not the truth matters. According to the US House and Senate Democrats (and unfortunately some Republicans as well), the blame always seems to land squarely on the free market. It's the investors' fault, or the CEOs' fault, or Big ______s' fault(fill in the blank with any industry), or not enough regulation for those industries. The demons are the successful, demonized for wanting to make a profit. Their answer is more government control through regulation, or lately by simply bailing out and taking over the company. This mantra is amplified by the "main stream media" every single day and the problems just compound.

With all of the regulation that has been thrown on the private sector the "Free Market" is no longer free to work. Instead we end up with a semi-socialized market where the government tries to micro-manage the entire economy by centralizing control over as much as possible. We want a completely risk-free market with no ups and downs so the micro-management gets tighter and tighter. This ties the hands of the market not allowing it to self-correct in the normal business cycle which eventually results in a much worse correction when it finally gets to the saturation point. I'm not a believer in a complete "hands-off" market so please don't think I'm saying zero regulation would make everything just fine.

So with this in mind, whose' fault is this current situation we find ourselves in? It's our fault. Before you pop a few expletives at me and disappear for blaming you, please hear me out.

Here are three of my reasons:

1) For years we have put up with an education system (also centralized) that teaches very little, if anything at all, about real economics. Sure, they teach you how to balance a checkbook and go grocery shopping, but that's about it. This lack of economic education makes us vulnerable to all of the propaganda that is thrown our way. Some of the comments made by leaders of the United States House and Senate are laughable to anyone who has studied basic economics, but they sound good to most people.

2) We play the class warfare game. We used to long to be like that successful person we saw on TV. Now most of us want to punish the successful to cut them down to size. Instead of asking "how can I do that?" we demand it be taken away from them by force to "level the playing field".

3) The final reason it's our fault is the lack of respect for our duty to vote. In most local elections, 10% turnout is high even though those people have the most control over our communities. 35% is good for a mid-term national election and 50% for the presidential election. We are neglecting our duty so we "get what we pay for".

Since the school systems don't teach the basics, I'm going to attempt to explain the economics behind a few of the problems we are currently experiencing. Over the next several posts I'll talk about economics of gas/oil, housing, banking and general economics.

Stay tuned...