Cheaper Gas & Electricity Bills

In the arena of ‘save energy tips’, one of the ones that hit closest to home in the past few years has been saving gas. I live out in the sticks, and doing almost anything involves driving several miles each way (nearest grocery store is a 9 mile round trip, for example). As such, when gas prices started spiking in 2008, gas economics became a big deal to me. Again, cause I live out in the sticks, most of the traditional tips like “share a ride to work” or “take bus” or “walk” or “ride a bike” just weren’t feasible. I realized pretty quickly how pedestrian unfriendly the country life can be

So I started looked at other ways to increase my fuel efficiency, thereby saving money. Obviously just driving less was important. I started prioritizing and grouping trips out more than I had. To be honest, I’d been starting to do that even before the gas spike, but more for time reasons. When each trip is a minimum of 30 minutes, “popping out” to do anything is going to be longer than it was when Iived much closer to civilization.

Next, I started keeping better care of my car. It’s nothing fancy, but I started being rather religious about regular oil changes and other maintenance. I found a good local garage that handles most maintenance services, and they make sure my tires, filters, oil, fluids, etc, are all as they should be. I don’t do the oil every 3000 miles – that always struck me as a little too often. The car’s manual isn’t much help, and recommends either every 3000 or 5-7000, depending on some factors they list, none of which seem to apply to me directly. I still get it changed around every 5000 miles to be on the safe side.

Next I started taking junk out of the car. I’m a bit of a packrat, and every few weeks I’d be carrying around a load of extra books and boxes and such that were easily adding another 50-80 pounds to the load. Not a huge amount, to be sure, but it was adding weight, so I ditched it (and kept reditching every few weeks!)

A friend of mine has a hybrid Civic, and we got to talking about ‘hypermiling’. He doesn’t do it himself, but it’s an interesting phenomenon in the hybrid world, where people try to eke out as many miles per gallon as possible. There’s not much I can do in my non-hyrbid beyond coasting, but I’ve become pretty good at that. I can time my coasts to get through the area lights without accelerating, I know when to speed up or slow down, etc. There’s a few area lights that can hold for up to 2 minutes. I’ll cut the engine if it’s going to be that long (easier to do in the winter than summer!)

Most of all, though, I’ve learned to drive slower. I use my cruise more, and often will cruise at or just below the speed limit. It makes a big difference, and helps me to remain a bit calmer while driving (I’ve given in to road rage a few times in the past – not fun).

Will all of these make a difference to you? Only if you put them in to practice. My car is rated at 26 mpg highway, 18 city, and 21 combined. My own driving habits in the first few years of owning the car were pretty carefree, and I averaged around 25 mpg (combined highway and city). After taking all these steps, I routinely average 28 mpg – a 10-12% increase. When I try to watch myself even more, I get 30 mpg (mostly city). I took a highway trip last year and got 35 mpg by keeping my cruising speed at 65. That’s not quite as good as the hyrbids get, but it doesn’t cost me anything (except a bit of time getting to my appointments). Would it be worth it to you to lower your gas bills by 10-15-20% every fill up? With gas prices on a recent upswing, it’s sure worth it to me!