Decrease Fuel Consumption While Driving
Mother Earth needs all the help it can get, so if you are one of the many that want to know how they can play their part in being more eco-friendly, you probably want to learn how to decrease your fuel consumption.
Steps
- Plan your trip. Keep lists of needs that will require a trip & try to accomplish multiple objectives with each. This will help to drive less & thus fuel can be saved.
- Create a local car pool. If your children go to the same school as the children next door, it is a good idea to take it in turns to drive. The best way to improve your car’s efficiency is by not using it so much.
- Park in a cool place. Heat causes fuel to evaporate. Parking in a shady spot has the added benefit of keeping the car cooling, lessening the necessity of air conditioner.
- Lighten your load. Weight is one of the biggest causes for loss of kinetic energy of a car. Get the lightest car that will serve your needs. Take the extra weight from your car. An extra weight of 100 pounds (45.35 kg) increases fuel consumption by 1-2%.
- Slow down. The faster you drive the harder the engine has to work to push through the wind. Speeding can reduce fuel efficiency by up to 33%. Always maintain the economy speed.
- Use cruise control. Using cruise control reduces fuel consumption by maintaining the constant speed.
- Accelerate slowly. Try not to accelerate or decelerate too quickly. This is often linked to poor gear shifting where you are either shifting the gears too often or not enough, it overworks the engine & in turn wastes fuel.
- Practice short shifting. In manual transmission shift to higher gear as soon as you reach your desired speed by skipping intermediate gears.
- Avoid braking whenever possible. Brakes waste energy of the fuel which is already burnt & accelerating after braking consumes more fuel than driving at constant speed.
- Set your tires to proper inflation. We can reduce the fuel efficiency up to 3% by maintaining the proper inflation of tires. It is recommended to check the tire pressure at least monthly, more preferably weekly.
- Tune up your engine. A proper tuned engine maximizes power & can enhance fuel efficiency.
- Maintain the air filter. The air filter should be cleaned as a dirty filter will reduce fuel economy or may make the engine stall when idling. Replace it as per the manufacturer instruction.
- Avoid excessive idling. Idling a vehicle consumes significant amount of fuel. The best way to warm up the engine is to drive it slowly until it reaches the proper operating temperature.
- Minimize use of air conditioner. Avoid using air conditioner in stop & go city driving. Studies show that at highway speeds, cars get somewhat better mileage when using air conditioner.
- Drive the car with rolled up the windows. The drag caused by rolled down windows at high speed reduces fuel efficiency.
- Find your car’s sweet speed. Some cars get better mileage at specific speed (sweet speed). Find your car’s sweet speed & pick your roads accordingly.
- Use synthetic oil. Fuel can be saved by using synthetic oil. Oil having less viscosity would cause a car to work less hard. Lightest oil can also be used as substitute.
- Learn to watch and predict traffic signals. Use the proper idea to maintain the driving as per the traffic signals. Stop & go driving is wasteful.
- Select the narrowest tire. Narrow tires have less frontal area & thus can reduce aerodynamic drag in addition to reduction of contact surface, resulting in low frictional resistance.
- Keep your foot away from clutch. Using the clutch in running condition results in wasting the energy that is already produced due to burning of fuel. Except during changing gears, the clutch is not to be used.
- Switch off the engine if you stop for more than 2 minutes. It helps to reduce useless burning of fuel.
- Maintain the fuel filter. Change the fuel filter as per the manufacturer instruction.
- Check the car's condition regularly.
- Choose a substitute way to warm-up. Have a block heater, save fuel by using a heater to raise the engine temperature instead of idling.
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