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Friday, September 7, 2007

Good Estimate of Fuel Consumption


My colleague was telling me about her car's heavy fuel consumption and elaborated that it was an average of 400 km on about $70 tank of petrol. So how accurate is the estimate of fuel consumption? Fuel consumption is defined in my opinion as the distance in kilometres travelled per one litre of petrol (since we are using the metrics system of measure). $70 worth of petrol at a price of $1.70 per litre is only about 42 litres. Thus, her estimate is 400/42 = 9.5 km/l.

There is a more accurate way to track your fuel consumption:
Step 1. Fill your tank completely.
Step 2. Reset your trip meter.
Step 3. Drive till your fuel guage is low.
Step 4. Read your trip meter when you arrive at the pump for the refuel.
Step 5. Fill your tank completely.
Step 6. Write your distance travelled on your fuel receipt and you can compute the fuel consumption on the previous tank of petrol by dividing the distance travelled (km) with the volume of petrol added (l).
Step 7. Go to step 2.

You should do this continuously or at least several times in a cycle to get a good estimate because pump attendants practise personal approach to fill your tank - some rely on the auto-stop, some continue to add till the nearest dollar value, some continue to add to the brim, etc. You got to watch out for your paintwork if the petrol overflows, so observe if the attendant splashes water at your fuel inlet. The variability of the auto-stop also introduces some difference to the actual fuel added.

So, what is your accurate fuel consumption? My 5-year-old 2.0 MPV is still doing a 9.1 km/l.

New - Tool page is added.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi, skxly, I'm Li, a third-year Ph.d student in economics at George Mason university in Virginia, USA. The Vehicle Quota System in Singapore is a very interesting case for me to work on auction design for my dissertation. I'm very glad to find your blog that regularly covers the COE. Please send me an email at LHAO@GMU.EDU. I'd love to learn more about what actual debates and concerns are about the system. It would be very helpful to my research. Thank you so much.

skxly said...

Yes, the COE bidding system is a unique way of managing vehicle population. I will respond to you separately in email.

joon said...

Been using this method. Over the last 4 top-ups, my new car has been averaging 14.5-15.2 km per liters

skxly said...

Wow! 15 km/l is hard to beat. You must be a light footed driver. What car are you driving? I can consider that when the time come for me to say goodbye to my faithful MPV.

Anonymous said...

Good Job! :()

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Aneesh said...
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