GreeniacsArticles
Automotive
Hypermilers Unite
|
Written by greeniac1217
|
||||||||
| Wednesday, 30 April 2008 | ||||||||
Hyper Miles Unite
Unfortunately, we cannot all drive a biodiesel or hybrid car. Furthermore, we do not all have the option to bike or commute by public transportation to work. So what is the alternative for everyone else that relies on their vehicles and is hostage to these ridiculous gas prices? A new wave of drivers has the secret: hypermiling. What exactly is hypermiling? It is a method of increasing your car's gas mileage by making skillful changes to the way you drive, allowing you to dramatically increase your MPG and thereby have an easier time withstanding the rising oil and gas prices. Hypermiling is all about making adjustments to your driving habits to minimize the work your engine does and maximize your gas mileage. The best part about hypermiling is that many of these techniques work whether you're driving a hybrid or a Hummer. In addition to saving you money at the pump, hypermiling reduces the amount of CO2 and other pollutants emitted when gasoline is combusted. So, not only does hypermiling save you some cash at the pump, but it helps you do your part to protect the environment! According to Hypermiling.com, the basic techniques of hypermiling can be simplified in six steps:
1)
Start recording you
gas mileage.
2)
Become aware of how
you drive. Minimize aggressive behaviors (braking most importantly), leave at
least 2 seconds of room between you and the car ahead.
3)
Minimize the time you
spend with your car idle. Take your foot of the accelerator as soon as you see
brake lights.
4)
Save gas in traffic
jams by coasting. Minimize use of brake and idling.
5)
Accelerate slowly.
After you take your foot off the brake, apply to gas slower than usual.
6)
Use cruise control!
Try using cruise control to accelerate and decelerate as well.
To see the actual benefits of hypermiling, let’s take a look at the most famous hypermiler, the king of hyermiling, Wayne Gerdes. Hypermiling began decades ago, when drivers began to notice that by using certain driving techniques, they could greatly improve their fuel efficiency. With the aid of real time mileage displays, drivers were able to refine these driving techniques and greatly exceed the EPA rating for their vehicle. Decades before the word 'hypermiler' was used, many of these techniques were implemented when gas was being rationed during World War II. The results provided by hypermiling are outstanding, and you can start doing it today, in the car you are already driving!
1. 21-09-2011 22:50 Techniques used to improve fuel economy include basic techniques that can be used by most drivers, and advanced techniques that are more specialized, but can be used to achieve extremely high mileage. Registered 2. 17-08-2011 22:05 Good Tips To save the fuel is to produce it. So the every tricks to save the fuel is very important the above tips helps a lot to control the fuel consumption in very simple way. Registered 3. 19-06-2008 12:36 Good Tips This is incredible. Several people I know live in the suburbs, where it does seem necessary to have a car, especially to get to work. I will definitely forward these ideas to them. In fact, I think these techniques should be taught in every drivers' education course. How much extra time would it take to teach this in drivers' education courses? Fifteen extra minutes? It could be such a small investment with such great results. Registered 4. 01-05-2008 12:47 Good Tips Awesome article! I'm going to try this! Registered Only registered users can write comments. |
||||||||
| Last Updated ( Thursday, 10 February 2011 ) | ||||||||
SEARCH GREENIACS.COM
Latest News
- Brazil Navy investigates new oil spill off coast
- South Kingstown Journal: In Rhode Island, Protecting a Shoreline and a Lifeline
- Green Blog: On Our Radar: A Nuclear Snapshot
- Apple to use only green power for main data center
- Brazil’s President Faces Defining Decision Over Forest Bill
- Denmark aims low with green energy policy
Green Facts
-
An aluminum can that is thrown away instead of recycled will still be a can 500 years from now!
-
Americans use 100 million tin and steel cans every day.
-
Bamboo absorbs 35% more carbon dioxide than equivalent stands of trees.
-
American workers spend an average of 47 hours per year commuting through rush hour traffic. This adds up to 23 billion gallons of gas wasted in traffic each year.
-
Every week about 20 species of plants and animals become extinct.
-
Turning off the tap when brushing your teeth can save as much as 10 gallons a day per person.
-
Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch.
-
States with bottle deposit laws have 35-40% less litter by volume.
-
A tree that provides a home with shade from the sun can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.
-
One recycled aluminum can will save enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours.
-
Americans throw away more than 120 million cell phones each year, which contribute 60,000 tons of waste to landfills annually.
-
Current sea ice levels are at least 47% lower than they were in 1979.
-
77% of people who commute to work by car drive alone.
-
A laptop consumes five times less electricity than a desktop computer.
-
You will save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide for every 10,000 miles you drive if you always keep your car’s tires fully inflated.
-
Shaving 10 miles off of your weekly driving pattern can eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year.
-
In California homes, about 10% of energy usage is related to TVs, DVRs, cable and satellite boxes, and DVD players.
-
Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months
-
Recycling 100 million cell phones can save enough energy to power 18,500 homes in the U.S. for a year.
-
Due to tiger poaching, habitat destruction, and other human-tiger conflicts, tigers now number around 3,200—a decrease in population by about 70% from 100 years ago.
-
Recycling 1 million laptop computers can save the amount of energy used by 3,657 homes in the U.S. over the course of a year.
-
Glass can be recycled over and over again without ever wearing down.
-
Nudge your thermostat up two degrees in the summer and down two degrees in the winter to prevent 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.
-
It takes 6,000,000 trees to make 1 year's worth of tissues for the world.
-
Less than 1% of electricity in the United States is generated from solar power.
-
You will save 100 pounds of carbon for each incandescent bulb that you replace with a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL), over the life of the bulb.
-
Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute.
-
If every U.S. household turned the thermostat down by 10 degrees for seven hours each night during the cold months, and seven hours each weekday, it would prevent nearly gas emissions.
-
The World Health Organization estimates that 2 million people die prematurely worldwide every year due to air pollution.
-
For every 38,000 bills consumers pay online instead of by mail, 5,058 pounds of greenhouse gases are avoided and two tons of trees are preserved.
-
In the United States, automobiles produce over 20 percent of total carbon emissions. Walk or bike and you'll save one pound of carbon for every mile you travel.
-
A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.
-
82 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from burning fossil fuels.
-
You’ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle.
-
Washing your clothes in cold or warm instead of hot water saves 500 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, and drying your clothes on a clothesline six months out of the year would save another 700 pounds.
-
Refrigerators built in 1975 used 4 times more energy than current models.
-
Recycling for one year at Stanford University saved the equivalent of 33,913 trees and the need for 636 tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone.
-
A steel mill using recycled scrap reduces related water pollution, air pollution, and mining wastes by about 70%.
-
Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.


