Whats your fuel log telling you?

[Matt Herring]

sorry for the long post but i think its a cool thing

in a recent thead i read about a fellow ecomodder that took a different approach to ecomodding...considering how much fuel he was consuming in addition to what his mpg was...rationing his total miles per month in the car. its simple but brillant and got me thinking about how much i consume as well.

ive been on ecomodder for almost 4 months exactly and with my limited math skills it seemed like the perfect time to multply my ecomodder log times 3 to figure out my estimated total yearly consumption.

my total miles driven since june is 4284 miles. ive consumed 191 gallons of gas at the cost of $707.

when seeing these numbers i thought it would be great to have this info included in all fuel logs...maybe as a header comparing actual total fuel used vs what you would have consumed with your epa number. a digital readout of "free miles driven" would be cool! my total free miles since june is 1435 taking into account my 33 percent over epa times miles ive driven so far on ecomodder. check out your own free miles...it will make you happy!

its great to have the ecomodder community to promote efficient driving and after doing this math rather than telling someone im 33 percent over epa (a different language to lay people) im going to tell them ive driven 1400 miles for free since june thanks to ecomodder! id love to see a digit counter on the front page of the site that says "free miles driven" as it takes into account all members total miles driven times percent over epa. i think that makes lay people interested to change their driving habits to get their own free miles.

nike.com does this on the front page of their nike plus running shoes to track total miles run by people that own the nike plus gear. its over 100 million miles run...an impressive figure that makes me want to run more and gives me a cool community feel. just a random thought that probably makes more work for the moderators of the site...sorry!

[ac7ss]

Doing the math from my logs starting on 8/31, I have saved 10.7 gallons over 1819 miles, or have had 271 free miles. (actual mileage vs. EPA corrected reference.)

[Matt Herring]

i love the free miles stat and considering im pretty much a non highway driver...avg about 12000 miles driven a year...some of the more impressive ecomodders on this site should be able to post out of this world free miles from their fuel logs!

id love to see total miles driven...total gallons consumed...free miles driven all added to the fuel log to take it a step further. i keep a pen and paper log so i can track it myself if its too difficult to program into the site.

someone getting 50 mpg might be driving thousands of miles for free every year and its cool to see that! at the same time they might actually be consuming the same amount of fuel as a guy getting 30 mpg if theyre driving alot more miles a year. all told its cool to see just how many free miles and how many gallons of fuel the ecomodder community is saving! without knowing the actual number of vehicles on the ecomodder site i wouldnt be surprised to see hundreds of thousands of free miles and thousands of gallons of fuel saved!

[groar]

My fuel log tells me :

• Rear skirts are effective : my 2008-09-01 tank was done with cardboard rear wheel skirts and same techniques as previous one. I had to improve my skills and techniques during 2 months to achieve an equivalent mpg.
• Traffic jams kill FE : my last 3 tanks has been done with more and more traffic jams.
• NICE-On Coasting (coast in neutral engine on) is better than DFCO (Deceleration Fuel Cut Off, ie engine break) only, and the better the tires are pumped up the better the mpg.
• In 4 months I avoided to feed 22 trees for 1 year (1l of diesel = 2.66kg of CO2 - 1 tree absorbs 10kg more CO2/year than what it generates), but I fed 61 trees

Denis.

[taco]

i have gained 1 free day to work or 130 miles every tank.
went from abou 70 miles quarter to 120ish a quarter i use to have old fuel logs when i drove like a bat out of hell and i got 17-19 every day and best was 24 on a trip. now 24 is a bad bad tank. so i went from 250 miles to 400 miles a tank.

i also notice i have a short temper that leads to mpg drop even if i was the one who made me mad, or if i just want to get there. 1.5 hours each way to work seems so long some days.

like one day trip home can be 30 mpg, the next day might be 27 mpg. or a trip to work when i leave on time = about 27-28 mpg alot of evelevation change 1200 plus 3 mountains not included in that number) or if i am runnign late 25-27 mpg.

which considering my truck has 252 thousand mile and is a 4x4 and rater for 17 combined aint all the bad but speed kills it. 55 mph= 30-32 mpg 65-70 mph =24-25 mpg.

[wagonman76]

Originally Posted by taco

i have gained 1 free day to work or 130 miles every tank.

Thats how Ive been looking at it as well. Over a tank of going to work and back, I can usually get a free trip to work and back with the mileage I am getting now, as compared to before I joined the site. Going downstate and back, its about a free trip every 2 months.

[ConnClark]

My mileage log tells me that I am fairly consistent in my driving. It also show the drastic difference between highway and in town miles.

The latest trend is a sharp drop in mpg due to energy required to heat the engine in the cold mornings. Also the fact that the gas stations are beginning to receive shipments of winter diesel that has a lower btu content further drops my mileage.

[Matt Herring]

my commute to work is only 8 miles round trip so in just 6 months i build up enough free miles over epa to ride free to work for a year! over the course of a year i drive about 2900 free miles! thanksgiving should include a special "thanks" to ecomoder!

[cfg83]

Matt -

Hrmmmm, interesting POV. Here's another one from a $ POV. Assuming $3.50 per gallon :

New (Ecomodder) MPG : 40+
Usual fill-up : ~5.5 gallons (1/4 tank to 3/4 tank)
New fill-up Miles : 40 MPG * 5.5 gallons = 220 Miles
Cost : 5.5 gallons * $3.5 = $19.25

Old (pre-Ecomodder) MPG : 30+
Gallons to go 220 Miles : 220 Miles / 30 MPG = 7.33 gallons
Cost : 7.33 gallons * $3.5 = $25.67

Cost Difference : $25.67 - $19.25 = $6.42 => ~$6.50 for each fill-up.

---------------

Now, let's look at a year. I project about 20,000 miles this year :

20,000 / 30 MPG => 666.67 Gallons
20,000 / 40 MPG => 500.00 Gallons
Difference = 666.67 - 500.00 = 166.67 Gallons saved per year

Money Saved Per Year : 166.67 * $3.50 = $583.45

CarloSW2

[Matt Herring]

daycfg... i cant take credit for the pov ecause it was motivated by another ecomodder but i will take credit for the term free miles...i think it puts it in laymans terms and really makes people think about what 1000 or 2000 or 5000 free miles means to them. it might be 50 freetrips to work or 20 free trips to taking their kids ack to college after holidays. whatever it means to them...its personal and i think it means mora than percent over epa to someone not fully comitted to what we do every day. dayday