Refuel? Probably Tomorrow

The new carpool plan has helped me go more than twelve days without
refueling the Mighty Corolla. This is nice, seeing on how gas
apparently is quite expensive. I am happy to be doing something more
about it other than drive like a grandma to get better mileage.

So far in 2008 I have refueled on average every 9.27 days. By hitching
a ride twice a week, this in effect reduces my gas consumption by 40%,
provided we can stick with the plan over time. Gas has not gone up 40%
in price since last year (yet!), so I may end up seeing an end result of
less money spent on gas this year.

Carpooling May Reduce Posts

Well, I am in week 2 of the carpool with my friendly coworker Sandra.
The plus side is that, if we keep to our proposed schedule of each
giving the other a ride to work twice a week, my gas consumption will be
reduced about 40%. The minus side is that that means I will refuel less
frequently and thus have less data to post.

So far, the carpooling isn't that hard. I wake up about 10 minutes
earlier in order to get to the meeting point (about 1.2 miles from my
house) on time, and other than that, commute times are so far about the
same. Only less stress on the days I don't drive.

Another downside is I am not able to listen to my books on the CDs as
much so far. Perhaps that will change in the future. But I think the
notable and dramatic dip in my gas usage makes up for it.

New Tank - 30 April 2008

Finally refueled again at the Fredericksburg Costco yesterday evening.
Squoze in 11.024 gallons after zipping 434.3 miles, making for a fuel
economy number of 39.40 miles per gallon. This is notable, because
normally, the fuel economy when I refuel at Fredericksburg the tank
after I refueled at Woodbridge, my mileage suffers. This time, it
remained above 39 miles per gallon.

The spreadsheet I use to track these things is unavailable to me at this
time. It's on a "private drive" in a different location at work, and
that connection has been lost for the last couple of weeks. So I
continue to track the data on paper and hope that the connection is
restored soon so I can go back to checking out historical data and
trends.

I have started carpooling with a coworker who lives nearby in
Fredericksburg. On the days she drives, I will get picked up at the
K-Mart parking lot that is about 1.5 miles from my house. On warm clear
days, I believe I should be able to ride my bike there to prevent any
need of even starting up the car (It's not actually my bike, I'm just
holding on to it for a friend who has storage problems).

Quick rough estimates lead me to believe that saving one trip a week of
me driving saves about $7.50 to $8.00 worth of gas for me, and probably
closer to $11.00 or more for my coworker. Doing this once a week for an
entire year will keep me from spending over $350.00 in gas, assuming gas
prices stay at this level. If we share driving 4 days a week, that'd
save my car two trips a week and double that spending reduction.

I hesitate to say I'll be "saving money" by carpooling because most
likely that cash will be frittered away elsewhere. The only way I'd
actually save that money is if I consciously take $8.00 a week and put
it in a piggy bank or hidden location. Most likely I will spend that
unspent money at woot.com for something, or somewhere else.

The unknown variable is how my coworker and I will handle the time where
we're stuck in the car together. Today is day 2, and we're still in the
"isn't this fun?" stage. Time will tell, but I think we'll both agree
that the prevention of spending hundreds of dollars over the course of a
year will be worth it.

Oh, yeah, the lessened environmental impact and "being green" and blah
blah as well.

Green Minivan Trip Computer of Deception!

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to refuel the green
minivan yesterday, which I really wanted to do because I secretly put in
the two ounces of acetone that allegedly was going to increase the fuel
economy by TEN MILES PER GALLON.

Sadly, it appears there has been little to no effect.

The trip computer indicated fuel evonomy of 17.7 miles per gallon, which
is a shade higher than the 17.6 mpg the computer showed last time.
However, when I took the time to crunch the numbers (259.9 miles on
15.390 gallons), the tank gave us just 16.89 miles per gallon.

All of this was around town mileage, and it took us twelve days to go
that far.

This makes me wonder if those trip computers on Priuses are really
accurate. If my minivan's computer is off by 5%, then conceivably a
Prius that is off by the same amount will not be delivering 41 miles per
gallon, but 39, which is about what I can achieve on my regular old (yet
Mighty) Corolla.

I am curious to know if other car trip computers are wrong by so much.

On another front, I was once again able to use the pumps at Costco.
Although I cancelled my membership, the gas pumps still let me use them.

No Membership, But Costco Gas Anyway!

Refueled this morning at the Woodbridge Costco, which is notable because
I canceled my Costco membership earlier in the week, and my Costco
American Express card still worked.

However, my data tracking spreadsheet is not working, so all I can say
is that my last tank provided me with 418.5 miles. I put in 10.532
gallons, making for a fuel economy of 39.74 miles per gallon.

As you know, I had put in one ounce of acetone this tank. I refueled at
the Woodbridge Costco, which I suspect has the automatic shutoff feature
set at a higher sensitivity setting, so that less fuel is put in the
tank than otherwise ought to go in, which artificially inflates my fuel
economy numbers. I did not bring the acetone bottle with me, so I could
not add two ounces for this new tank.

In short, my higher fuel economy on this last tank may be due to the
fact I refueled at the Woodbridge Costco just as much as it may be due
to the acetone I placed in the last tank.

I am totally excited that my I was still able to get Costco gasoline, as
it was three cents per gallon cheaper than a nearby gas station. But I
will still start looking for gas stations that serve 100% gas rather
than the gas/ethanol blend that Costco delivers (10% ethanol per the
pump sticker this morning).

A few days worth of in-town driving were done on this tank, so the
increased fuel economy was a moderate surprise. If my next tank shows a
big dip in mileage, say down to 36 mpg, then my idea that the Woodbridge
Costco gas pumps are more sensitive will stand. If it's higher, like
37.5 ot 38, then perhaps the acetone theory has some merit.

No More Costco Gas... Probably

Well, Yesterday I cancelled our family membership to our local Costco,
almost entirely because of their new milk jugs. The new rectangular
jugs are quite unfriendly to the casual user, and although they save
Costco ten cents per gallon, they cause about a dollar worth of
aggravation. One should not have to live with drippy, hard to pour milk
containers.

So I got $100 cash back from Costco as my membership refund, promised
I'd come back when they go back to the better milk jugs, and took that
cash across the street to BJ's Wholesale club.

BJ's does not sell gasoline, but the membership was $20 less for the
otherwise same benefits. Costco gas is about 5 cents less than the
Fas-Mart nearby, so it will take about 400 gallons of gas to cost me
that extra $20 it costs to be a member of Costco. That is about a
year's worth of gas for the Mighty Corolla.

But the happiness of not buying those awful square milk jugs is totally
worth more.

Also, BJ's will reimburse me 2% of the amount I charge there on my
credit card (Costco did this as well). In addition, I can use my Disney
Visa card, which gives me 1% of all purchases towards Disney-related
stuff. So in a way, this BJ's membership will help me out more than
Costco did.

I will now likely be buying gas from a variety of different sources. I
hope to find a regular gas station that does not have a 15%-ethanol
mixture, to see if my mileage increases like everyone says it should.

I am getting near the end of my final Costco gas tank, that also has one
ounce of Acetone in it, so the next several tanks ought to be
interesting.

The green minivan also is working through its tank that has two ounces
of acetone in it, and so far, the trip computer indicates no real change
in fuel economy. But to its defense, I think the prior tank had one
highway trip on it that bumped the fuel economy higher than it
ordinarily would have been.

One loose end that I will test soon is that my friendly coworker has had
a lapsed Costco membership for a long time, but she reports still being
able to buy gas from Costco. I'll probably test that at some point.
That would be kind of nice, since Costco gas is still less than most
other places. But if there's a competitor that does not have the 15%
ethanol mix that Costco has, and my fuel economy is better on a 100% gas
tank, then a competitor would still be better.