“Hypermiling” is a term now in use for certain driving techniques designed to increase miles per gallon.
I think a lot of thriftmasters having been doing this, long before it had a name. Coasting up to red lights, accelerating as smoothly as possible, staying at or even slightly below the speed limit…it all does help get you further on a tank of gas. (One technique I think is a very bad idea, though, is switching from Drive to Neutral while the car is moving. It’s too easy to accidently slip into Reverse…and that will chew your transmission to pieces.)
Most hypermiling techniques, however, will save you money on more than gas.
Think about it. When you take your foot off the gas pedal and coast up to a stop sign or signal, you’re also decreasing wear and tear on your brakes, shocks and tires. Slow from 60 to 35 before braking and that’s 25mph less of inertia you have to overcome, meaning significantly less friction on your brakes and tires, and considerably less weight flung on your shocks.
Accelerate smoothly instead of shoving the gas pedal, and it’s a lot easier on your transmission. I have some friends who are “stompers” and you can definitely feel the jerk as the transmission shifts. Me? My goal is to pick up speed so smoothly that it’s actually hard to feel shifts. My old van seems to appreciate it, since at 247,600 miles he’s still running fine on his original automatic transmission, without any major repairs.(When the old man hits a quarter million miles, I’ll take a picture and post it.)
So if you want to save money, both on gas and maintenance, drive like a professional chauffeur. Their jobs depend on giving their clients a smooth, steady, quiet ride, not flinging them around with jackrabbit starts, lane weaving and hard braking. Treat your passengers—and your car—with the same consideration and watch both your gas and maintenance costs drop.
Showing posts with label Energy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Energy. Show all posts
Monday, August 18, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Saving Energy At Home, Part II
Turn off your air conditioner at night....and use fans.
Here in Texas, the temperature during the day has been 90 degrees or more for the last two weeks. But at night, by 10pm or so, it's cooled down outside to about 80 degrees. My house is reasonably well insulated, so it takes a long time for the heat to seep in. If you have a similar situation, try this: turn off the A/C at night just before you go to bed and turn on your bedroom ceiling fan, or buy table fans and aim them at your bed.. Sleeping with just a sheet for covering and the cooling power of the fan, you may find yourself quite comfortable at night with the A/C off. Just make sure you turn the A/C back on in the morning. If you have a thermostat, set it to turn off just after you go to bed and turn on just before you normally get up.
Two ways to cut your use of hot water
I keep seeing experts on the internet and in the newspaper suggesting that you take a bath instead of a shower to save on hot water. Does that really work?
By and large, it depends on who's trying to get clean. Try this little test. Ask yourself how deep you'd want the water when you take a bath. Six inches? Twelve inches? Then take a shower with the drain closed and see how deep the water gets. You may be surprised.
I decided that I'd need bath water to be at least ten inches deep. I took a shower, with the water at half-pressure, which is how I normally take a shower (see below) and was surprised to find I could take a leisurely 10 minute shower and the water was only five inches deep. So a shower works better for me.
By the way, I see no reason to spend $100+ to install "low flow" faucet heads (at a cost of $50 each) in your showers, since there aren't any laws on the books that say you have to turn the pressure on full-blast in the first place. I turn it on about 3/4 pressure, just enough to make the transition from main faucet to shower head, then back it off a bit to a perfectly pleasant half-pressure stream. Try it!
Buy yourself a large toaster oven.
It makes no sense to fire up a full-sized oven to bake a single pan of brownies or broil four chicken breasts or cook an 8" x 10" dish of lagsana or broil four hot dogs.. A large toaster oven with both top and bottom elements and a moveable rack can cook an astounding variety of food--mine is just big enough to cook a four-pound whole chicken. (As a single person I find the only time I use my full-sized oven is to cook a full-sized pizza). One caution: Because food in a toaster oven is closer to the heating elements, you may want to set the temperature a bit lower than a recipe calls for. And when you first start using one, keep an eye on your food when broiling. (By the way, I bought my toaster oven at a garage sale for $7-- and had the seller plug it in and demonstrate that it worked before I handed over the money, something you should do with anything electric.)
Here in Texas, the temperature during the day has been 90 degrees or more for the last two weeks. But at night, by 10pm or so, it's cooled down outside to about 80 degrees. My house is reasonably well insulated, so it takes a long time for the heat to seep in. If you have a similar situation, try this: turn off the A/C at night just before you go to bed and turn on your bedroom ceiling fan, or buy table fans and aim them at your bed.. Sleeping with just a sheet for covering and the cooling power of the fan, you may find yourself quite comfortable at night with the A/C off. Just make sure you turn the A/C back on in the morning. If you have a thermostat, set it to turn off just after you go to bed and turn on just before you normally get up.
Two ways to cut your use of hot water
I keep seeing experts on the internet and in the newspaper suggesting that you take a bath instead of a shower to save on hot water. Does that really work?
By and large, it depends on who's trying to get clean. Try this little test. Ask yourself how deep you'd want the water when you take a bath. Six inches? Twelve inches? Then take a shower with the drain closed and see how deep the water gets. You may be surprised.
I decided that I'd need bath water to be at least ten inches deep. I took a shower, with the water at half-pressure, which is how I normally take a shower (see below) and was surprised to find I could take a leisurely 10 minute shower and the water was only five inches deep. So a shower works better for me.
By the way, I see no reason to spend $100+ to install "low flow" faucet heads (at a cost of $50 each) in your showers, since there aren't any laws on the books that say you have to turn the pressure on full-blast in the first place. I turn it on about 3/4 pressure, just enough to make the transition from main faucet to shower head, then back it off a bit to a perfectly pleasant half-pressure stream. Try it!
Buy yourself a large toaster oven.
It makes no sense to fire up a full-sized oven to bake a single pan of brownies or broil four chicken breasts or cook an 8" x 10" dish of lagsana or broil four hot dogs.. A large toaster oven with both top and bottom elements and a moveable rack can cook an astounding variety of food--mine is just big enough to cook a four-pound whole chicken. (As a single person I find the only time I use my full-sized oven is to cook a full-sized pizza). One caution: Because food in a toaster oven is closer to the heating elements, you may want to set the temperature a bit lower than a recipe calls for. And when you first start using one, keep an eye on your food when broiling. (By the way, I bought my toaster oven at a garage sale for $7-- and had the seller plug it in and demonstrate that it worked before I handed over the money, something you should do with anything electric.)
Saving Energy at Home, Part I
Back to the Past....Using a Clothesline
My electrical bill is now consideralby higher than it was last year, so, like many people, I really need to cut energy use. How? Try Grandmom's method.
Any form of heat generation uses a lot of energy, and that includes your clothes dryer. So you might want to try a clothesline. If you don't have a suitable place outside (some municipalities and homeowner's associations won't allow outside clotheslines) see if you have an appropriate spot in a dry finished basement or attic where you can screw some eyebolts solidly into studs. (Clothes won't dry in a damp basement. They will, however, mildew. Ugh.)
Outside, you'll need also some solid anchors, (it's surprising how much pull wind blowing through blankets or sheets can generate) though unless you're planning to dry tons of clothes, you don't need the traditional steel multi-line T-top posts. I just have a line strung between eyebolts in the tops of two four-by-fours sunk solidly into the ground about eight feet apart. I can dry five or six towels, a few sheets or five or six cotton T-shirts at a time....and in the hot Texas sun, they dry quite quickly, believe me.
I don't dry everything outside, just heavy stuff that takes a long time to dry in my dryer, such as blankets and towels. One caution though, if you do this....be sure to put some liquid softener in your washing machines rinse cycle or your towels and blankets will end up feeling like planks.
Any clean, dry place in your house will work. And this saves a lot of energy.....you should see how fast the wheel spins on my electric meter when my dryer is on.
Turn Electronic Equipment All the Way Off
When you leave your VCR, your computers, monitors, printers, TVs or other electronic equipment in "Sleep" or "Standby" mode, they're still using electricity. At the end of the day, switch this equipment completely off and save on your electrical bill. One way to make this easier is to plug a number of them into a one-switch power strip. Just be cautious though, with things that lose programming if you switch them completely off, such as routers.
Don't Heat Your Closets!
It makes no sense to heat unused space, so keep your closet and storage area doors closed. If you have rooms you don't normally use, like a guest bedroom, keep that door closed too, and shut the heating vents. Just make sure you don't leave a room with exposed or uninsulated water lines unheated....or accidently lock a heat-sensitive plant or one of your pets inside.
My electrical bill is now consideralby higher than it was last year, so, like many people, I really need to cut energy use. How? Try Grandmom's method.
Any form of heat generation uses a lot of energy, and that includes your clothes dryer. So you might want to try a clothesline. If you don't have a suitable place outside (some municipalities and homeowner's associations won't allow outside clotheslines) see if you have an appropriate spot in a dry finished basement or attic where you can screw some eyebolts solidly into studs. (Clothes won't dry in a damp basement. They will, however, mildew. Ugh.)
Outside, you'll need also some solid anchors, (it's surprising how much pull wind blowing through blankets or sheets can generate) though unless you're planning to dry tons of clothes, you don't need the traditional steel multi-line T-top posts. I just have a line strung between eyebolts in the tops of two four-by-fours sunk solidly into the ground about eight feet apart. I can dry five or six towels, a few sheets or five or six cotton T-shirts at a time....and in the hot Texas sun, they dry quite quickly, believe me.
I don't dry everything outside, just heavy stuff that takes a long time to dry in my dryer, such as blankets and towels. One caution though, if you do this....be sure to put some liquid softener in your washing machines rinse cycle or your towels and blankets will end up feeling like planks.
Any clean, dry place in your house will work. And this saves a lot of energy.....you should see how fast the wheel spins on my electric meter when my dryer is on.
Turn Electronic Equipment All the Way Off
When you leave your VCR, your computers, monitors, printers, TVs or other electronic equipment in "Sleep" or "Standby" mode, they're still using electricity. At the end of the day, switch this equipment completely off and save on your electrical bill. One way to make this easier is to plug a number of them into a one-switch power strip. Just be cautious though, with things that lose programming if you switch them completely off, such as routers.
Don't Heat Your Closets!
It makes no sense to heat unused space, so keep your closet and storage area doors closed. If you have rooms you don't normally use, like a guest bedroom, keep that door closed too, and shut the heating vents. Just make sure you don't leave a room with exposed or uninsulated water lines unheated....or accidently lock a heat-sensitive plant or one of your pets inside.
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