How Can I Make Great Gas Mileage Even Better?

Hey Mr. Green,

My 2007 Ford Focus has given me 44 mpg on highway trips, but I want to improve its mileage even more. Is it more fuel efficient to coast down hills and ride the brakes when necessary, resulting in higher brake wear, or shifting to a lower gear and using engine breaking to control my speed? —Pokey-but-saving-fuel, in Minnesota.

Pokester, if you’re getting 44 miles per gallon with that Ford Focus you should tell the world about your driving habits and maintenance, because the EPA’s highest rating for a Focus of this vintage is 37 mpg on the highway. You are a true “hypermiler.”

You won’t save fuel by shifting to a lower gear to brake the car, according to automotive engineers I’ve interrogated. You might even use more fuel because engines have to turn faster to maintain speed when they’re in lower gears. You’re better off just relying on the brakes, unless of course the hill is extremely steep, and the brakes are failing to slow you down enough, and you actually need engine braking to save your thrifty hide. But instead of “riding” the brake, please try pushing it intermittently instead keeping your foot on it constantly.

Do not—I repeat, do not ever simply turn off the engine and coast in neutral to conserve fuel, because it’s way dangerous, thanks to certain issues, like your power brakes won't function. Even for the most dedicated hypermiler, to lose one’s life to save gasoline is too great a sacrifice.

Okay. Now you’re wondering about the EPA rating, because, while you’re widely exceeding it, a lot of drivers out there in Gridlockia whine that they're falling far below the EPA mileage rating. Well, one reason a sensible driver can beat official rating is because the EPA bases its assessment partly on the very plausible assumption that many people drive without much concern for saving fuel: They speed, make jackrabbit starts and slam-the-brake stops, and run the air conditioner when they don’t need it. Add to these follies pointless idling, surplus cargo, lousy maintenance, low tire pressure, unnecessary four-wheel-drive engagement, failure to use cruise control or to shift into overdrive on the highway, and idiotic tailgating that requires incessant braking, and, of course they fall short of the EPA rating.

For some useful tips on “hypermiling,” see CleanMPG.com. To find a whole lot of information on car efficiency, go to the EPA site fueleconomy.gov. Your tax dollars at work, unless the anti-environmentalist right-wingers in Congress defund the EPA to the point where such services are scratched. 

 

Food Packaging, Food Cost, and the Environment

Hey Mr. Green,

I know that buying individual packaged items such as pudding, applesauce, or juiceboxes is bad when purchased at a normal grocery store, but is there any environmental reason not to buy these items at a discount grocery store that sells out-of-date items or slightly dented containers? Wouldn't these items just be thrown out otherwise? —Brinton, in Lititz, Pennsylvania

There’s no great harm in purchasing such discount items, though the fact that they are often heavily processed, refined, and suffused with additives might be reason enough to avoid them anyway. In the long run, you might save more money by purchasing foods that are simpler, more wholesome, and minimally packaged. For some useful advice on Better Eating Through Simplicity, see my “10 Ways to Eat Well” in Sierra.  

Of course not all food packaging is bad, for the obvious reason that it preserves literally millions of tons of food that would have gone bad and gotten dumped. The real problem with food packaging is too little is recycled, too much of it is not recyclable, and there is a wretched excess of it. For example, we’re still only recycling about 30 percent of plastic beverage bottles, while many types containers are either made of non-recyclable material or contain such a jumble of if that they can’t be economically recycled. And tro we really need all those teeny-weeny one-serving bags and boxes marketed in the name of America’s patron saint, Convenience?

Packaging as a whole accounts for about 30 percent of our 243 million tons of municipal waste, to which food packaging contributes about half, according to the Institute of Food Technologists.

But it’s not just the food packaging. Our waste stream has swelled steadily over the years, from 2.66 pounds per person in 1960 to 4.34 pounds today, of which 1.46 gets recycled, retrieved, or composted. If our quality of life had improved correspondingly there might be some justification for this proliferation of rubbish, but it’s hard to see any serious improvement in that department. The fact that we operate twice as many garbage trucks as city buses is an indicator of this folly. The fact that generating this prodigious waste adds to the Gross Domestic Product is a cold comfort indeed. I keep wondering if we’ll ever figure out environmentally gentler ways to beef up the GDP than to pile up more refuse or create more and bigger jails, casinos, gas guzzlers, trophy homes, bombers, malls, coal mines, parking lots, hog-manure lagoons, and tar-sand-oil-extraction ruins. Maybe the economic geniuses who dreamed up those theories to justify the hedge funds and derivatives that wrecked the economy can repent by turning their attention to some alternative paths to prosperity.

Meanwhile, kids, let us at least remember our 3 Rs: “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.”

 

How Do Fluorescent Lights and LEDs Compare?

Hey Mr. Green,

Your comparison showing energy use of incandescent bulbs to fluorescent bulbs was interesting. So how do LED bulbs compare to fluorescents? —Jeff, in Southhampton, U.K.

Your question arrived the day after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued its new Energy Star ratings for LED lights—a wonderful coincidence, if not necessarily inspired by the voice famed for declaring “Let there be light.”

Comparing the EPA’s Energy Star ratings for the two types of bulbs, you find fluorescents are somewhat more efficient LEDs, requiring about two-thirds as much energy for the same intensity of light. Fluorescents have a light output of 65 to 75 lumens per watt, compared to LEDs’ 45 to 55 lumens per watt. But of course LEDs are still way more efficient than incandescents, using only about a third as much energy for the same level of illumination.

An advantage for LEDs is their longer life span, most being rated for 25,000 hours of service, compared to 10,000 hours for most fluorescents, and the fact that they do not contain mercury. You can do your own comparisons of hundreds of lights by consulting the Energy Star ratings for fluorescent lamps  and the Energy Star ratings of LED lamps. Note that these ratings are for Energy Star-qualified models, not types that fail to meet EPA standards.

Price remains a barrier for LEDs, as is often the case for a new technology before economies of scale can be achieved and research and development costs are defrayed. Remember when fluorescent lights cost far more than today?

The cost problem might be eased if you can find rebates available from power companies and manufacturers, or tax incentives from the government. For information, go to  the U.S. Department of Energy’s Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency, or to the EPA’s Energy Star listings for incentives.

NOTE: These sources are worth consulting not just for lighting, but to find out about possible savings on alternative energy and numerous electrical appliances and devices designed to conserve energy.