Tips on saving petrol

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I don’t know what you guys are paying for petrol … but here in Durban, we are also paying high for petrol, up to 47.35 per litre of petrol. But my line of work is in a petroleum company for about 40 years, so here are some tricks to get more of your money’s worth for every litre of petrol.

Here at the Marini Hike pipeline, where I work in Durban, we delivery about 4 million litres of petrol in a 24 hrs period thru the pipeline.
One day is diesel, the next day is jet fuel, and petrol, LRP and Unleaded. We have 34 petroleum storage tanks here with a total capacity 16,800,000 litres.

Tip #1 Only buy or fill up your cars or bike in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all petrol station have their petrol storage tanks buries below ground. The colder the ground, the denser the fuel, when it gets warmer, petrol expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening, your litre is not exactly a litre of petrol. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the petrol, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum product play an important role. A one degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this petroleum business. But the petrol station do not have temperature compensation at the petrol pumps.

Tip #2 When you are filling up petrol, do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look, you will see that the trigger has three stages, low, middle and high. In slow mode, you should be pumping petrol on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapours that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the petrol pump have a vapour return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your petrol tank becomes vapour. Those vapours are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you are getting less worth for your money.

Tip #3 One of the most important tips is to fill up petrol when your tank is half full. The reason for this is, the more petrol you have in your tank, the less air occupying its empty space. Petrol evaporates faster than you can imagine. Petroleum storage tanks have an internal floating roof, this roof serves as zero clearance between the petrol and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike petrol station, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated, so that every litre is actually the exact amount.
Tip #4
Another reminder, if there is a fuel truck pumping into the petrol storage tanks, then you stop to buy, do not fill up. Most likely the petrol is being stirred up as the fuel is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom of the petrol storage tank.

Tip #5
One of the most easiest way to save petrol is to keep your tyres inflated. You should maximize the pressure of the car tyre to maximize fuel efficiency. Deflated tyres run hot and jeopardize safety. It will also cause your car tyres wear out abnormally and affect your car adversely. Based on the information from tyre manufacture, tyres lose approximately 1 psi pressure per month if the tyre hitting holes, bumps or kerbs. Therefore, the tyres should be checked at least once a month. Based on study, a deflated by 2 psi on a tyre will result in a 1% increase in fuel consumption!

Tip #6
Avoid to drive high speeds on an open roads would cause a better fuel consumption. When you drive in a highway, there would be more than 50% of the power produced by the car engine is utilized to overcome aerodynamic drag. Drag and thus fuel consumption would increases rapidly at speeds above 90km/h. A car uses about 15% more fuel at 100km/h, and 25% more fuel at 110km/h compared to 90km/h.

Tip #7
Do not press the accelerator pedal repeatedly when you are starting your car, this is wasting your petrol. When starting the engine, idle the engine for not more than 30 seconds to warm it up, the engine will warm up itself when you are driving on the road. Avoid sudden acceleration also before the engine has warmed up sufficiently.

Tip #8
Replace the air filter frequently, this would efficiently increase the petrol consumption for restricting more air flow through the engine.

Tip #9
Turn off the car aircond when your car is in idle, some of the old aircond system may consume about 5% of your petrol.