Saving Fuel - Hypermiling Plus A Detailed Look At How Much Fuel Is Used While Idling

 With fuel prices at their highest numerical value ever (but still below the highest inflation-adjusted value ever of $5.37 per gallon), there is increased interest in electric vehicles. However, for drivers who are unable or unwilling to buy a new car, there are numerous ways to increase one's existing vehicle's fuel economy.

 There are the familiar tips like keeping your engine tuned up and your tires properly inflated, but hypermilers go far beyond the usual. Wayne Gerdes, who coined the term hypermiling, has broken several fuel economy records (including his own) in normal combustion vehicles, such as getting over 81 mpg in 2015 in a diesel VW Golf TDI rated at "only" 45 mpg highway by the EPA - an 80% improvement. While that car was provided by VW for the attempt, he got 59 mpg in his own non-hybrid used 2005 Honda Accord back in 2007 (depending on the engine/transmission combination, that year's non-hybrid Accords were rated at between 27 and 31 mpg on the highway, so his improvement's between 90-119%). The same techniques work to extend the range of EVs: during an LA to NYC cross-country record attempt, "Gerdes at times nearly doubled" the 225 mile EPA range of the 2021 Porsche Taycan he was driving - and spent less than $77 at charging stations for the entire 2800 mile trip. Although there are many approaches to hypermiling (such as this or this or this; the best single list I've found yet is this), some could be dangerous, like drafting other vehicles or shutting off the engine while coasting.

 Personally, I've been focusing on minimizing time spent accelerating (in other words, getting up to speed quickly, as traffic permits) and maximizing time spent coasting (while keeping the engine on!), and also driving in the slow lane on the highway with my cruise control set about 5-10 mph below the speed limit. For several months now, my average fuel economy is up to around 35 mpg calculated from miles between fill-ups divided by gallons added until the pump shuts off. Based on my mix of more highway than city driving (about 36% city / 64% hwy), that same combination of the EPA city/highway ratings for my car (21/29 mpg) should be about 26 mpg. That works out to a roughly 35% improvement - not as impressive as Mr. Gerdes but not bad at all for a casual and safe approach. The two approaches I'm going to add next are trying to time my arrival at intersections when the light turns green (braking gently earlier if necessary, but again, traffic permitting) so as to minimize accelerating from a standstill, and starting to move immediately after starting the engine when possible and shutting off the engine immediately upon parking.

 While I already tend to avoid sitting in drive-thru lanes, seeing images on the news of long lines of cars waiting at gas stations had me wondering how much fuel is wasted while idling. The only two sources I've found that appear to show reliable data are from Argonne National Laboratory, which lists a few specific passenger cars and numerous types of heavier vehicles (see their Excel worksheet for details), and a Complete Use article that mentions specific engines from two other passenger vehicles. To summarize their data for passenger vehicle gasoline engines with no load (i.e. not running the air conditioning or other accessories):

• Ford 2.0 liter:     0.16 gallons/hour, or 0.080 gal/hr per liter of engine size
• Ford 4.6 liter:     0.39 gallons/hour, or 0.085 gal/hr per liter of engine size
• Subaru 2.0 liter: 0.165 gallons/hour, or 0.083 gal/hr per liter of engine size
• Honda 3.5 liter:  0.3 gallons/hour, or 0.086 gal/hr per liter of engine size

 What's interesting is how close the numbers are for each liter of engine size, averaging about 0.084 gallon/hour per liter of engine size. This number allows one to estimate how much money is wasted by standing still with the engine on. Each 20 minutes of idling (to use one third of an hour as an example) thus burns about 0.028 gallon per liter of engine size. At the current national average gas price of $4.289 per gallon (as of March 17, 2022), that times 0.028 gallon equals about 12 cents every 20 minutes, per liter of engine size. As an aside, while I'm focusing on the financial aspect, those concerned with carbon should note that 0.028 gallon of gasoline produces about 249 grams or nearly 0.55 pound of CO2. Therefore, every 20 minutes, the fuel consumption, cost, and emissions are:

1. For a 1.0 liter engine: 0.028 gal/0.106 l, $0.12, 0.55 lb/249 g CO2
2. For a 2.0 liter engine: 0.056 gal/0.212 l, $0.24, 1.10 lb/499 g CO2
3. For a 3.0 liter engine: 0.084 gal/0.318 l, $0.36, 1.65 lb/748 g CO2
4. For a 4.0 liter engine: 0.112 gal/0.424 l, $0.48, 2.19 lb/993 g CO2
5. For a 5.0 liter engine: 0.140 gal/0.530 l, $0.60, 2.74 lb/1.243 kg CO2
6. For a 6.0 liter engine: 0.168 gal/0.636 l, $0.72, 3.29 lb/1.492 kg CO2

For intermediate or larger gasoline engines, just interpolate or extrapolate as the case may be. (Note, while the cost is variable, depending on the price per gallon, the emissions are directly proportional to the volume of fuel consumed.) What the above numbers mean for someone with, say, a 2.0 liter engine waiting in line to buy gas and buying 8 gallons, every 20 minutes spent idling is like adding 3 cents to the price per gallon. If they buy less, say 6 gallons, they're adding 4 cents to the price per gallon. For bigger engines it's proportionately higher.

 Use this information as you see fit. For me, it's a good incentive to continue to avoid idling as much as possible. Best wishes with your own fuel savings!

Early Retirement - One Approach... That Borrows From Many Others

Someone I know is retiring this month in his early fifties. I asked him how he did it. While he prefers to remain anonymous, he was willing to share his secret(s). In his own words:

"My secret isn’t some hot stock tip. It’s just a combination of frugality and investing a lot. I’ve been saving and/or investing around 20% or more of my pay for the last 25 years. I know that neither frugality nor saving that much is for everyone, but feel free to pick and choose what works for you. I’ve put that 20% into a combination of paying off debts, saving for emergencies, and investing in the stock market. It’s important to do all three at the same time – vary the percentage going to each category depending on what’s most urgent for you at a given time, but don’t get in the habit of neglecting a category for years.

Reducing debt/penalties. Years ago I had credit card debt that I kept transferring from one to the next introductory teaser rate, while paying balance transfer fees each time. It was a longer burden than it should have been, but I eventually paid it off. Frankly, it’s better to avoid most debt in the first place, with housing and education being the exceptions considered “good” debt as you’re likely to get a decent return on those investments, but still, keep even those small if you can.

• Credit cards. Finance charges, penalties, and transfer fees add up. I now try to avoid making large purchases (like vacations, or pricey items I’m eyeing) until I have enough saved up to pay the bill off completely by the end of the month.
• Housing. Right now interest rates are so low it’s a great time to look into refinancing your mortgage if you haven’t recently, or to get a mortgage if you’re thinking of buying a house. This alone is saving me over $400 a month now compared to what I was paying before.
• Student debt. I’ve seen a few articles mentioning it’s also a good time to refinance student loan debt, but can’t find the links. Be careful and do your homework if you do pursue this.
• Use your bank's website or app to automate your regular bill payments so as to avoid late fees/penalties.
• If you sign up for credit monitoring, which many credit cards offer for free (but not always; read the fine print), make sure you keep your contact information with the monitoring service up to date as your profile there may be separate from your profile with the credit card. I neglected this, and missed out on an alert about my credit which ended up dinging my credit score much worse due to the delay than it would have otherwise.

Saving/Investing. When you first start contributing to these types of accounts, the balances will be small at first, but within a few years compound interest will help them grow substantially. Resist the temptation to withdraw anything (unless it’s a *dire* emergency)! You’ll only hurt your future returns. The important part is to keep contributing – set it to automatic if you can.

• Do invest in tax-advantaged retirement plans, such as a 401k if you have access to one at work. If you don’t (or even if you do), open an IRA too, either at a brokerage, bank, or credit union (credit unions may allow you to open one with a very modest initial contribution).
• As mentioned at the links, each of the above come in two flavors: Traditional, which provide an advantage “now” (when you contribute); and Roth, which provide an advantage “later” (when you withdraw). Ideally contribute to *both* types to give yourself the most future flexibility. Note that withdrawing from any of these accounts before age 59.5 carries stiff penalties.
• Open a separate non-retirement investment account to be able to access the funds before age 59.5 (but note there’s no tax advantage). Look for low fees, and if you hire a broker/advisor/planner to make stock recommendations, avoid those who charge commissions instead of a flat fee – they have a conflict of interest.
• I’ve had much better luck with mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) vs. individual stocks (they spread out the risk). See how the choices compare regarding low fees and decent historical returns (not a guarantee of future performance, but a decent indication) to decide which to pick.
• At minimum, an index fund that tracks the entire market (and/or the entire S&P 500) is a good base. As you get more comfortable, add others with different specializations (e.g. value, growth, dividends, tech, emerging markets, commodities, or others).
• Understand that the markets go up and down daily but the overall trend over decades is upward.
• Avoid needless stress by *not* checking your balances often! 😊
• There’s a saying “It’s not timing the market, but time in the market.” It’s better to start as soon as possible and invest continuously than only when some pundit says it’s a good time to. So-called dollar-cost-averaging is your friend (true for all currencies)!
• DO NOT SELL during a downturn! Every downturn is followed by a recovery, and the biggest gains happen early in a recovery. Don’t lock in losses like one of my friends did in 2008 and miss those gains. I stayed invested, and actually increased my contribution rate since the underlying stocks in the funds I was buying were now cheaper. By mid-to-late 2009 I had more than recovered my losses while my friend had a permanent setback.
• Put money you might need soon (i.e. emergency fund) in a high-yield savings account and short-term CDs.
• Check Bankrate for best current rates, and use the FDIC site to verify a bank actually insures deposits.
• Leverage such savings accounts for best advantage. For the past few years I’ve actually had most of my paycheck deposited directly into my online high-yield savings account. These accounts typically limit you to 6 transactions per month, so I have two automatic transfers to my checking account (at a different bank) scheduled a few days before major bills are due each month. This allows me to maintain the highest savings balance for the most days to get the most interest while avoiding late fees on any regular bills due. For any occasional other large expenses, I schedule a separate transfer.
• For retirement planning, be aware of the 4% Rule – whatever you have saved for retirement will last 30 years or more if you withdraw just 4% per year.
• This is the maximum “safe” withdrawal rate determined by financial planners & economists looking at market performance from the 1920s-1990s, and later re-confirmed with data from the 1870s-2010s.
• Look at several past months’ bank statements to figure out your spending rate (don’t forget big once or twice a year payments like auto insurance or annual subscriptions). If you have no other income sources in retirement like a part-time job, rental property, annuities, or Social Security, you will need 25 times your annual spending amount invested and earning 7% or more to retire.
• It thus helps to lower your expenses – you’ll be able to save more each year, and you won’t need as much when you do retire (meaning you can retire sooner). Which brings us to…

Frugality. I’m pretty frugal (some might say cheap), but one doesn’t have to go to extremes. Check out the following to see what might work for you.

• Look into the FIRE movement for ideas (Financial Independence, Retire Early). Many of its adherents retire in their 30s or 40s. Some good sources (there are many others):
• Mr. Money Mustache
• My Money Wizard, in particular this list
• Financial Mechanic
• A Purple Life
• Pretired. This blog’s no longer active, but I had found a lot of good info back when it was, and the old articles are still online.
• Recent Business Insider article about someone who retired early following the same idea.
• Avoid lifestyle creep!
• As your pay goes up, avoid the temptation to let your spending go up too. When I got raises, I would increase my savings/investment rate by the same amount. I wouldn’t always do this immediately since it’s nice to see a bigger paycheck or have a little extra cash to celebrate, but generally I didn’t want to get in the habit of squandering it.
• When I got bonuses or other windfalls, I’d keep a portion to have fun with but invest the rest in my non-retirement investment account. That account is what I’ll be living off of until I’m old enough to access my retirement accounts without penalty.
• Housing and Transportation. These are generally the biggest expenses for most people. Get a home and vehicle you like, but *not* the most expensive one you can afford. Bigger homes/autos not only have bigger loan payments but also bigger utility and maintenance payments.
• If possible, live close to where you work & shop, to reduce wear & tear on your car.
• You might be able to use a bicycle for some trips – helps your wallet & health & the planet.
• Take care of your car so it’ll last long after it’s paid off!
• I’m on year 6 with my current car and hoping to get 20 or more out of it. I got 17 years out of my last car, 13 of which were payment-free (more funds that could then be invested!).
• Many, but not all, personal finance writers recommend buying used cars to avoid the depreciation, but that’s up to you. It’s nice to drive a new car once in a while if you can afford it, but make it last!
• Consider maintenance costs of the model you choose. For example, a new set of tires for a big SUV or flashy sports sedan can be well over $1000, while for a smaller car it can be under $500 (my last set was $550 installed).
• Find a trusted mechanic so you won’t have to rely on pricey dealerships after the warranty expires.
• Learn to do some maintenance yourself or by someone in your household (YouTube’s a great source of helpful videos) – even just replacing your own bulbs, windshield wipers, air filters, or hood/trunk lift struts can save a few hundred dollars.
• Another option to reduce retirement living expenses that I don’t expect to need but might consider (if only for the sake of adventure!) is to move to a country cheaper than the US, but that still has modern healthcare.

Lastly, while there is a lot of great personal finance information available in print or online, be aware that they often include a sometimes not immediately obvious sales pitch. With that in mind, this slideshow is actually a decent high-level summary of a fair amount of the above. As always, do your homework, but don't let fear lead to delay.

I hope I’ve thought of everything! A lot of behaviors have become so ingrained over the years that I don’t consciously think of them anymore – they’re just automatic. Also, for the record, I have no financial or other interest in any of the sites I've provided links to - I've simply found the information there useful. Anyway, I hope these thoughts and resources help you on your own retirement journey."

Commemorating Iwo Jima and Ira H. Hayes

(Originally posted by me on Rantlust.com on February 22nd, 2011; republishing here since Rantlust is no longer active.  Original comments included below; any non-original text is in green.)

One of the most iconic images of World War II is the photograph of five Marines and one Sailor raising the U.S. flag on Mt. Suribachi, on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima, on February 23rd, 1945. One of the Marines was Private First Class Ira H. Hayes, a Pima Native American from Sacaton, AZ, a town about 30 miles southeast of Phoenix on the Gila River Reservation. The photo, taken by AP photographer Joe Rosenthal while the battle for the island still raged, reinvigorated waning public support for the war in the U.S. and brought considerable fame to Ira Hayes and the other two flag-raisers who survived the Battle of Iwo Jima. It also served as the basis for the Marine Corp War Memorial outside Arlington National Cemetery, where Ira Hayes, after being promoted to Corporal but leading a troubled post-war life, was buried.

(photo credit: http://www.iwojima.com/)

Ira Hayes was never comfortable with his fame and invitations to the White House, feeling guilt over surviving the war when so many of his comrades didn’t (only five of his platoon of 45 survived, and three of 

Rantlust Resurrected

This week my friend Anup restored all of the posts and comments on rantlust, which had been down for weeks, and where I and several others blog too.

Thanks, Anup!

The Diminishing Returns of Ever-Higher Fuel Economy

While it's great that there are more and more cars on the U.S. market that get 40 mpg (5.9 l/100km) or better, does it make sense to spend a fortune developing and/or purchasing cars that get even better mileage? For example, Volkwagen recently announced that their 261 miles-per-US-gallon (310 miles-per-Imperial-gallon) XL1 concept will go into limited production. However, with only 100 units planned, the per-unit price will likely be rather high, meaning that the fuel savings would need to be substantial to offset the purchase price premium.

Being curious about the possible savings, I wrote a