Have you ever actually worked out how much a journey would cost? Or how many €’s you spend a week on unnecessary trips? Suzanne Keane offers some tips for working out your actual fuel consumption
Most manufacturers will give a rough guide of the consumption of a car but the only way to truly work out what you’re using in your car is to measure your own consumption! It’s always best to buy fuel in number of litres, rather than € amounts, switch off anything you’re not using (that includes the a/c – this is Ireland after all!), empty the boot and back seat – and shop around for the best prices!
How to measure your actual fuel consumption:
1. Fill your car with fuel – stop when the pump does, don’t try to squeeze in that extra bit because it will distort the reading.
2. Reset your trip counter
3. Drive! Try to get a good mixture of your usual journeys, whether that is city/town or motorway driving.
4. Fill up again – but make sure you stop when the pump does.
5. Take a note of number of litres used – not the price
6. Take note of the reading on the trip counter (miles or km)
7. Now get your calculator!
– If your car reads km, simply divide the kms on your trip counter by the number of litres used to get your accurate l/km reading.
kms/litres =km/l
– If your car reads miles, divide the number of litres by 4.54 to get the number of gallons used. Then divide the miles on your trip counter by the number of gallons to get the accurate mpg reading!
miles/(litres/4.54)=mpg
To get the most accurate reading for your car it’s best to measure this again and again over a few weeks and keep an eye on our Facebook page every Friday for a fuel saving tip to help reduce your consumption!
Suzanne Keane
4th November, 2016
