A Way to Cut Down on Gas and Car Maintenance

What is hypermiling and does it really save on gas…or is it just hype? And a lesson on why your newer, more “efficient” cars are still sucking up gas.

Over $4.00 a gallon and still counting. What are we to do about the price of gas? Let’s conserve–a gallon at a time. How many articles have you read about doing just that—all the hype about pumping up your tires, pumping gas when it’s cold out (or is it when it’s warm out?), empty your trunk, etc. But in Fairfield County, I still hear reports from others that everyone is jamming the gas and brake peddles on the highway, on side streets, everywhere. We’re rough with our cars–probably taking out financial angst and anger on those darn peddles. But that is no way to treat your car because not only will you burn more fuel drip by drip and you will ruin your brakes, which will set you back some serious dough.

Well, here’s the hype about hypermiling, because it can make a difference in a few ways, including how it can save your sanity. I talked to my husband, Steve, a somewhat dedicated hypermiler (who also knows a ton of information about any and all cars) about his thoughts on the practice that tends to frustrate those of us who drive with, or behind, hypermilers. And for all of you who may not know what it is, hypermiling is really just a way to coast (downhill) without pressing the gas or brake peddle.

Even if you own a hybrid, you may want to hypermile to save on gas and wear-and-tear. You will get the mpg listed for your car if you are driving the 55 mph. Don’t expect to get that mileage when you are going over 60-65 mph on the highway. 2004-2007 Toyota Prius photographed in College Park, Maryland, USA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here’s a Q&A on the subject of hypermiling. If you want to learn more, please click here to go to a great article on hypermiling in Mother Earth News, and here, to this article in Mother Jones Magazine, called “This Guy Can Get 59 MPG in a Plain Old Accord. Beat That, Punk.”

Marilyn: How did you learn about hypermiling?

Steve: I’ve always done it, but I just heard the term a couple years ago.

Marilyn: Why did you always do it?

Steve: Why step on the gas unless you have to? It’s basic physics. You’re coasting down a hill and you don’t have to feed your car gas when going down a hill. But still, many people zoom down a hill 50 miles an hour. I don’t see people going slower, they gun it and go as fast as they possibly can. Once in a great while you see someone driving slowly. Not often. It upsets people behind me when I hypermile, but do I care? If they want to fill my gas tank with gas, then let them do it.

Marilyn: Do you see any savings?

Steve: Where you really save money is on the wear-and-tear of your car. Hypermiling means you are not braking so much, so you save on brake pads. Sometimes when I need to brake or slow down, I downshift to a lower gear.

Marilyn: Yes, but don’t you see savings when it comes to gas? Or why bother hypermiling?

Steve: Brake jobs are expensive! But as far as gas, the only way to save on gas is to go slower on the highway and do the speed limit around town. Any time you drive over 60 miles an hour on the highway you are burning up more gas as you would if you were going the speed limit. In other words, when you drive over 60 or 65 mph, you are bringing down your mpg by 4 miles. So, according to a CNN Money article, if you If a car gets 28 mpg at 65 mph, driving it at 75 would drop that to 24 mpg. Obviously, the faster you go, the more gas you burn. But there are some professional hypermilers around that save a lot of gas, like the guy featured in the Mother Earth News article and in the Mother Jones article. Around town, don’t do any jackrabbit starts, let your car accelerate up to speed after you leave a stoplight. People just plunge on the gas peddle to get away. And, don’t tailgate because you jam on your brakes, then you plunge on gas and that’s the biggest waste of gas.

Because I drive slow and don’t jam my peddles, I get 18 to 20 miles per gallon around town with an 8 cylinder SUV that’s 11 years old. Most people get 10 to 12 mpg around town with that kind of car, so hypermiling helps a bit with the gas.

The problem today is that newer cars don’t get as good mileage as they did 20 to 30 years ago. You could easily get 40 miles a gallon from older Hondas from the early 1980s. Older fuel-efficient cars from the 1980s were able to get so much better mileage. Years ago an old Honda CRF—the little two-door hatchbacks—used to get 50 miles per gallon, and if you drove well, you’d get better mileage. Now car manufacturers are shooting to get 40 mpg and they think that’s great. One of the problems with today’s new cars is that they are carrying so much more safety equipment so they are heavier, and that uses up more fuel.

Marilyn: You’re not such an angel when it comes to gas. You have a boat!

Steve: Yes, I do. Instead of hypermiling in a boat, we just anchor a lot! All that money I save by hypermiling pays for gas for the boat (chuckle). But, if I could figure out a way to efficiently hypermile on the water…

Marilyn: So, what should we do in our cars?

Steve: Stop being in such a rush and don’t take out frustrations on your gas and brake peddles. And if anyone knows of a bumper sticker that says “Be Patient, I’m Hypermiling,” please send it along to me.

Marilyn: Thanks for your tips.

Additional Articles on Hypermiling

• Hypermiling Tips-Hypermiling Forum
• No Hybrid? No Problem! Cost-Effective Ways to Save on Gas (savings.com)
• Hypermilers focus on cutting gas consumption (timesunion.com)

Frugal and Green: The Values of Cutting Our Grass with a Reel Push Mower

No fumes to pollute the clothes hanging on the line !

In two years of using our push mower, we have not only saved gas, but added more frugal exercise to our already frugal regimen of running.  Mowing the lawn with this thing on our .22 acre lot is quite the cross-training workout.  In the summer, I can work up a great sweat.

I love it because it is nice and quiet.  Most of all, it is an environmentally sustainable practice.

Have we gotten rid of our Circa 1980 Honda gas mower?  No.  Especially since you won’t find a more well-made Honda mower brand new!  We have it for those stretches of summer days when the lawn grows faster than we can get to it.  But with the price of a gallon of gas going up and up, you may want to look into stretching out your dollars with a good manual reel push mower.

Here’s an excerpt from Mother Earth News in 2002:

Reel Mowers: $100 to $225

Hand-pushed reel mowers offer multiple advantages over gas-powered mowers: no noise, no noxious air pollution, no danger of flying rocks, low maintenance and no worries about getting them started. Plus you get a great aerobic workout every time you use them, burning about 300 calories an hour.

The secret to easy cutting with these mowers is frequent mowing. If you let the grass get too long, the reel mower blades will tend to bind up or take an inordinate amount of pushing to get the mower through long grass. Cut when the grass is no more than an inch longer than you want it. A quarter acre (100 feet by 160 feet) of lawn can be cut in about an hour with a reel mower. For areas larger than that, you may want to go to a walk-behind, gas-powered cutter, either push or self-propelled.

As always, do the research before buying. As you can tell, I am partial to Mother Earth News, the Original Guide to Living Wisely.

~Aimee, TFF

Related links:

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2002-02-01/The-Many-Methods-of-Mowing.aspx#ixzz1sgfnBmva

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/Push-Reel-Lawn-Mower.aspx

Frugal and Green: Consider the Comeback of the Clothesline

It was a huge-load clothesline day!  Two-tiers a grandmother would be proud of!

Consider installing one outside (and, even inside!).

Your children and your children’s children will be proud because you saved your family money and the future of their planet.

Using a clothesline is just one of those things grandmothers did when they were young.

The way things are going these days, we can all stand to learn from the ways of our grandmothers!

For more info on installing a clothesline, please read our previous post by clicking here.

~Aimee, TFF

Recommended Links

http://www.laundrylist.org/

http://mothering.com/green-living/clothesline

http://www.ctpost.com/default/article/The-humble-clothesline-gets-a-second-look-3397313.php

http://agreenliving.net/clothes-lines-and-line-drying-benefits/

http://www.homeimprovementpages.com.au/c/clothesline

Are People Who Use Clotheslines Poor…or Frugal?

Sorry, we don’t look like this when hanging clothes — in fact, my husband hangs clothes in the morning for me! Image via Wikipedia

Do your neighbors think you’re nuts, poor, or just plain old frugal if you hang your clothes out to dry?

When we moved to our Fairfield neighborhood nineteen years ago, I often snickered at the people down the road who hung their laundry outside. I called them the “Ozzie & Harriet” couple. How quaint (ie: ridiculous) to have a clothesline, I thought. And I used to snicker with another neighbor about how hilarious it was to see the family’s underwear on the line. Well…the joke’s on me, because we’ve now had a clothesline in our backyard for about two or three years, and we love it. That’s why we were so happy to see that The Connecticut Post ran an article, “Green Households Giving the Clothesline a Second Look.”

Homeowners pay lip service to saving energy…

In a nutshell, the article says that only 5 percent of American households today hang laundry (in other countries, over 50 percent of people air-dry laundry), that some people don’t even know what a clothesline looks like, and that most people don’t know how to find a clotheseline and pulley system or how to set it up. Well, my husband easily found a clothesline–pulleys and all– in Home Depot and set it up rather quickly–one post, one tree, a clothesline system, hammer, screws, and there you go–it’s up and running.

(As an aside, it’s pretty funny to find a Febreze oil scent product that offers “the wonderful scent of linens and towels right off the clothesline.”)

What makes me crazy is that people associate clotheslines with poor people here in the United States. (Same thing with coupons, though study after study proves that people with incomes over $70,000 regularly use coupons and people with incomes under $30,000 rarely use coupons.) In fact, clotheslines are considered a “nuisance” and are banned in certain neighborhoods and homeowner assocations. Greenwich, CT, for example, inevitably banned clotheslines in senior housing apartments because they posed a “threat” to people running through the yard who become tangled in garments. However there are a few areas around Connecticut that do restrict clotheslines–mostly in multi-unit housing complexes.

The $64,000 question….how much  money do we save by using a clothesline?

But, as the reporter grappled with–it’s tough to put a dollar amount on the money you save by air-drying clothes versus using the dryer. The article says it costs about .30 to .40 cents to run one dryer load and that based on that, it would save a family about $100 a year. My husband and I were discussing the fact that we seem to save a heck of a lot more than $100 a year by hanging laundry. We notice the increase in our U.I. bill in the winter when we use our dryer more. But we aren’t quite sure of the exact amount of money we are saving, but it’s enough to keep us hanging clothes without thinking twice.

And, by the way, for those out there who will say “I don’t have time to hang clothes…” it takes ten minutes to hang a full line of laundry in the morning, and about five minutes to pull the clothes off at the end of the day. Plus, it’s good excercise for the arms!

~Marilyn, TFF

Zero-Energy-Cost Homes Gaining Popularity

This housing development for Navy families built in Hawaii are considered energy efficient; each has a solar hot water heater. Energy-efficient homes have come a long way since this development was built in 2004. Image via Wikipedia

Sign us up NOW for a zero-energy-cost home! See this new article featuring some designers and manufacturers of zero- or near-zero-energy-cost houses. These are definitely the dream homes for future generations if not for this generation.

~Marilyn, TFF

Innovative and Budget-Minded — Oransi’s Robby Wash Ball Laundry Detergent

Here's a Robby Wash Ball in a traditional washing machine ready to go. Note the detergent pellets in the ball.

 

As promised, we tested the Robby Wash Ball, a new, innovative, space-saving, and possibly money-saving product from France (which we love). The manufacturer says that one ball should last for 12 months, or, for 120 loads. But, that is assuming you wash one load every three or so days. Many families need to wash one load a day. It’s also good for all types of washers, including HE. 

We’ve used it for a month. Here’s the review. 

How it’s going: Not bad! We’ve been using it in cold water for a month. It’s so easy to use, we haven’t even had to add more detergent granules to the ball. The ball is so easy to use! Just pop it in the wash (see photo) and forget about it. You have to take it out of the washer when done so it can dry, but it is no muss, no fuss. 

How it cleans: It cleans well. We don’t notice if it’s better than other detergents, but it is just as good as other detergents. 

How it smells: It is a fragrance-free product. Some people will love that, some won’t. 

Pre-treatment of stains: We love the pre-treat stain stick! It works, it works! It works on tough stains (on jeans, on shirts, etc.) 

One con: We had some clothing with some odors on it. We smelled a faint whiff of the odors even after washing. But, we washed it in cold water, so we will try again in hot water. Since this is a fragrance-free product, there is no fragrance to mask the smell of odors that may not wash out right away. 

Cost: $32.95 for one ball which is supposed to last one year assuming you do 120 loads a year. That means about 10 loads a month, which means about two loads a week.  

The reality of the cost: (also see above and below) Based on what the manufacturer says, our ball won’t last a year. We do a load or two a day, which means our ball will last only a couple of months, three at the most. But, we have to say, the granules are slow dissolving, which we guess is good news. We haven’t had to use other detergent yet, so we are satisfied for now. 

Is it economical?: Yes…and no. For families who use low-cost detergent ($2.99 or less a bottle which lasts about three weeks), this option may not be economical. We pay about $40 a year for laundry detergent (we don’t buy fancy or expensive products and our washer is not HE) so the Robby Ball would not necessarily save us money. For families who opt for more expensive detergents ($3.99 and up), this could be a very economical option, and we’d highly recommend it. 

How to order: Online only, but click here for ordering details.