Thursday, August 23, 2007

Gas Saving Tips

This is an email I received this morning and it makes sense to me.......your husbands might want to read it also.........

: Fwd: Good Gas Tips




I've not heard of this before....something to think about.
I've been in petroleum pipeline business for about 31 years, currently working for the Kinder-Morgan Pipeline here in San Jose , CA. We deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period from the pipe line; one day it's diesel, the next day it's jet fuel and gasoline. We have 34 storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons. Here are some tricks to help you get your money's worth.

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 gallonage 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 internal 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 â€" 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 â€" so you're getting less gas for your money.










7 comments:

dot said...

Good tips! I could certainly stand to save a little on gas.

TO BECOME said...

Betty, thanks so much for that article. I will make sure my husband reads it. It makes sense to me. Hope you are doing well. connie from texas

Susan said...

Very informative. Thanks for sharing.
Susan

Barbara said...

Just checked Amy's first 40 years in pictures. Very, very American.

Barbara said...

I mentioned this to Alan. He was an Engineer for British Petroleum and these things needed to be taken in to account in various calculations where they were dealing in hundreds of thousands of tons of fuel. Howev er he does not think it would make a significant difference in a car.

HORIZON said...

I took my time to read through these tips Betty. Our new car seems to guzzle the gas- arghh!
xx

Unknown said...

Thank you for posting these gas-saving tips. Practical and economical...this is a great combination.