(photo by Seetwist)

Being that I am a big advocate of riding a bike to save gas, every now and then in our lovely suburbanized America, we can’t avoid using a car. (News flash: those of you think you’re saving the environment by driving a hybrid: you’re not.) Today, I got this email from my grandfather’s buddy in the oil and gas industry. Not sure if this is a spammy email forward making the rounds, or if he really actually knows this dude, but it sounds good.

Behold, a geek’s guide to saving gas (other than driving less!):

1. Fill up your car or truck in the morning when the temperature is still cool. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground; and the colder the ground, the denser the gasoline. When it gets warmer gasoline expands, so if you’re filling up in the afternoon or in the evening, what should be a gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and temperature of the fuel (gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products) are significant. Every truckload that we load is temperature-compensated so that the indicated gallon age is actually the amount pumped.

A one-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for businesses, but service stations don’t have temperature compensation at their pumps.

2. If a tanker truck is filling the station’s tank at the time you want to buy gas, do not fill up; most likely dirt and sludge in the tank is being stirred up when gas is being delivered, and you might be transferring that dirt from the bottom of their tank into your car’s tank.

3. Fill up when your gas tank is half-full (or half-empty), because the more gas you have in your tank the less air there is and gasoline
evaporates rapidly, especially when it’s warm. (Gasoline storage tanks have an in ternal floating ‘roof’ membrane to act as a barrier between the gas and the atmosphere, thereby minimizing evaporation.)

4. If you look at the trigger you’ll see that it has three delivery settings: slow, medium and high. When you’re filling up do not squeeze
the trigger of the nozzle to the high setting. You should be pumping at the slow setting, thereby minimizing vapors created while you are pumping.

Hoses at the pump are corrugated; the corrugations act as a return path for vapor recovery from gas that already has been metered. If you are pumping at the high setting, the agitated gasoline contains more vapor, which is being sucked back into the underground tank, so you’re getting less gas for your money.

5. Do not top off your gas tank, when the pump shuts off, do not keep trying to add more gas………………a friend who owns a gas station says that by doing this, you are actually giving the next customer a $1.00 worth of gas. The gas you pump stays in the hose and never makes it to your tank………..good to know.

Browse Timeline

• « A Lovely Evening of Music
• » My Brother Loves Pumpkin Carving