Low Impact

This is our second article in the “Using Less” series, this time on how you can use less petrol in your day-to-day life. The green benefits of using less fuel are obvious – every litre of petrol results in around 2.2 kilograms of CO2 being emitted into the atmosphere. There’s also an obvious benefit to your hip pocket – in fact, that benefit seems to get clearer every week as petrol prices keep rising and rising!

As is often the case, there isn’t too much in the way of rocket science here – we’ve just gathered together a few common-sense things that we can all do to reduce our petrol usage. If you have any great ideas that we’ve missed or skipped over, feel free to share them in the comments below.

Commuting

We’ve all got so used to the regular “commuter crawl” into work that we can forget there are other ways of transporting ourselves to our desk. And given that most of us will drive to and from our workplace at least 200 times a year, any saving we can make in our daily commute will really add up.

The cheapest way to get to work is human-power. A few lucky people live within walking distance, and many more live within cycling distance. If you live within around 12-15 kilometres of work, a leisurely bike ride shouldn’t take you any more than about 45 minutes – maybe 30 minutes for you fitness freaks!

This can make a huge difference to your environmental impact, as well as the weekly budget. Lets suppose you live 15 km from work, and you normally drive in 200 days a week in your car that gets 10 litres/100 km. Now lets suppose you start to ride your bike in 50% of the time (we’ll assume you wimp out in the cold weather, or if its raining! ). This non-to-strenuous regime will save you 300 litres of fuel over that year. That saves around 650kg of carbon dioxide (over half a tonne!) and at today’s prices, almost $500! Factor in parking at $5 a day, and your savings rise to $1000 a year!

If cycling or walking is not an option, there are still some motorised options that will save you money. First (and you’re going to hate me for this) there’s public transport to consider. Public transport often gets a bad rap, and unfortunately, this can be deserved. Stories of inefficient routes, and expensive tickets abound. But there’s a chicken and egg situation here – without passengers, there’s no money or incentive for public transport to improve!

It’s worthwhile giving public transport a second look. With the cost of petrol going through the roof, even the most expensive bus ticket is beginning to look like value for money. Given the traffic snarls that many of us face in the daily commute, a trip on the tram or bus might not actually take any longer as well as having the added benefit of not needing to concentrate on the road. You can actually use the trip time to read a book or listen to that podcast you’re falling behind in, as opposed to cursing at your fellow car drivers!

Car pooling is another option. Its usually not too hard to find some workmates who live in your area. Failing that, there are websites around to help you organise a car pool with people in your local area. Any inconvenience in synchronising your start and finish times at work will probably be outweighed by the fact that a carpool of 3 people will cut your petrol consumption for work by 2/3!

Choosing a new car

When it comes time to buy a new car, you’ve got a great opportunity to reduce your future fuel consumption. Fuel consumption differs widely from vehicle to vehicle. A big SUV can consume almost 4 times the amount petrol of a small or hybrid car over the same distance!

In Australia, a great resource is the website www.greenvehicleguide.gov.au. This allows you to compare different cars at a glance to see how much petrol they use. Take some time to think about your driving patterns too – if you spend a lot of time on the highway, the modern european diesels are just the ticket. Similarly, a hybrid is perfect if you spend your time in the stop-start traffic of the city.

The market has come a long way from when you could basically only pick between the Ford Falcon and the Holden Commodore. The market is awash with low fuel alternatives, and all the press suggests that there’s more to come. In Australia, we have 3 different hybrids at time of writing to choose from (A top-of-the-line Lexus, the Toyota Prius, and the Honda Civic Hybrid). Then there’s the European Diesels like the VW Golf, and the Peugeot 307 HDi. Or how about one of the compact cars like the Yaris, or the Jazz, or the more extreme example in compact, the Smart? The smaller the car, the less petrol you burn to carry all that metal around.

Going further with your current car

There is an entire movement, called hypermiling, which covers tips and techniques for getting more from your tank of petrol. A quick search on the internet will provide a wealth of sites that will help you get the best efficiency out of your current car. These sites range from tips provided by the Australian Government for more fuel-efficient driving, to forums of people swapping stories about truly phenomenal mileage figures from stock standard cars. Some of these sites take it to extremes in the search for low fuel consumption, but there are some basic tips that we can all use.

First, check your tire pressure. Running your car with partially deflated tires is not only bad for handling, but can also reduce your fuel efficiency by 10% – if you’re spending $2000 a year on petrol, flat tires could be costing you $200. Make a habit of checking your tire pressure every couple of weeks, when you go to fill up.

Secondly, check whats in your back seat, or the boot. If you’re carrying around two sets of golf clubs, but only get to the course twice a year, you’re burning extra petrol to carry that excess weight.

Thirdly, resist the urge to show the car next to you just how fast you can take off from the lights, only to have to slam on the brakes 200 metres down the road at the next set of traffic lights. Aggressive driving consumes a lot more fuel than more careful, anticipatory driving.

If your car supports it, you might also want to check out ethanol-blended petrol. This is petrol that has a certain amount of ethanol blended in. Technically, you still use the same number of litres to get around – its just that some of that “petrol” was actually ethanol. This not only makes it cheaper (in Australia, the E10 fuel sells for around 3-4 cents a litres less than normal petrol), but better for the environment. This is because the CO2 that is released from ethanol is derived from plants that had just absorbed that CO2 from the atmosphere. By contrast, the CO2 that is released from petrol originates from oil that was previously locked away under the ground. But do make sure that you can use ethanol-blended fuels in your car – some vehicles (especially older ones) can’t use ethanol-blended fuel – so check out your manufacturer’s website or give them a call.

Summary

This is clearly not an exhaustive list, but hopefully it has given you some ideas on how you can reduce your petrol bill. While we might see petrol prices settle to some degree, most of the analysts say that the days of cheap petrol are long gone. With any luck, these tips can reduce the pain in your wallet just a little.

Not only that, but with transport-related emissions totalling 25% of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions, reducing your petrol use is helping to do your bit to lower our environmental impact.

Categories: DIY, automotive, efficiency, environment, green, hybrid, reduce, transport

Tags: automobile, car, driving, hybrid, oil, petrol, reduce