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T h e G r e e n Pa g e
green
Are you planning a summer vacation trip by car? By implementing the following suggestions you can maximize your fuel economy and save yourself some green while lowering your carbon emissions.
Tips for Improving Gas Mileage ÞÞ C hange your vehicles air filter. Changing a dirty air filter can increase your fuel efficiency by up to ten percent. ÞÞ B e sure that your tires are properly inflated. Be keeping them at the correct pressure, you can increase your mpg by up to 3 percent.
ÞÞ G et a tune up. If it has been awhile since your vehicle has been attended to, there can be many things that once corrected could significantly increase your fuel efficiency. ÞÞ T ake it easy and use cruise control. Aggressive driving (rapid acceleration and braking) can lower your gas mileage as much as 33% at highway speeds.
ÞÞ D rive the speed limit. Gas mileage decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 mph. As a rule of thumb, assume that for each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.10 per gallon for gas. ÞÞ D on’t be idle. When sitting still with your engine running, you are getting zero (O) miles to the gallon and using up to 1/8 gallon of gas every ten minutes. ÞÞ Pack lightly. Every extra one hundred pounds of cargo will cost you 1 mpg.
ÞÞ U se your vehicle’s air conditioner on the highway to cool off. True, using the air conditioner can reduce your fuel efficiency by up to ten percent, but when traveling over 40 miles per hour the drag caused by open windows will actually lower fuel efficiency even more.
ÞÞ G o to the car wash instead of washing by hand. Most professional car washes use 60% less water and recapture some for reuse. Also, the water that does go down the drain is treated to be less environmentally damaging. ÞÞ P urchase carbon offsets to balance out your vehicles global warming emissions. When you purchase these offsets from organizations (such as TerraPass.com) your money is invested in clean energy projects that “offset” your carbon emissions by producing green, sustainable energy that replaces other non-sustainable energy sources.
Visit www.kcsm.org/green for more green tips, carbon offset info and other green resources.
Your feedback, comments and questions are always welcomed! Email me at g reen@kcsm.net