America’s guzzling of gasoline has many negative consequences. Not only does it serve to quickly drain your bank account, it does so to the wealth of the entire nation. Being a net exporter of oil, America essentially is draining its national treasury by sending hundreds of billions of dollars abroad. One noted financial expert recently asserted that it was the greatest transfer of wealth the earth has ever seen.

Most associated with the oil patch do not see things changing. Peak oil is upon us with most of the easily accessed reserves tapped. New supply must come from highly remote and difficult environments. Many include politically sensitive areas like Anwar and the intercontinental shelf.

Exploration in such places is highly expensive. Proven reserves mostly reside in places which entail international political risk. Many of America’s entanglements arose from necessity of a free flow of oil. Even with increased crude oil supply, our nation’s refineries are inadequate to meet increasing demand. A new one hasn’t been built in over thirty years.

The burning of fossil based fuels also releases massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. The more carbon based fuels we burn, the worse it becomes. Inefficient, low mileage vehicles are great contributors to this phenomenon which is called global warming. So, with all these problems, are there solutions?

Increased efficiency through higher mileage is universally recognized as a positive step. Many options are currently available in the marketplace. Most simple is just to make the car smaller. Smaller cars obviously get better mileage. Also available are hybrids which increase efficiency through a recharging battery.

On the horizon are other cutting edge solutions. One is a hydrogen fuel cell. With this technology, it is theoretically possible for us to run our cars on water. If not fully, others are exploring mixing this technology with the combustion engine to increase mileage obtained up to fifty percent.

Whichever the solution, the time has come. With skyrocketing gas prices most of us do not have a choice. There are many options to explore to seek the best fuel economy possible. Your bank account and planet both depend on it.

Technorati Tags: Best, Bill, Economy, Fuel, Reduce

Improved gas mileage was up to 15% in gained fuel efficiencies with these, then available, methods. However, these methods did not improve combustion efficiencies. I even tried out magnets on the fuel line resulting in some interesting fuel economies, but no scientific explanation as to why. Then I discovered an aftermarket “Add on Hydrogen Gas Generator”, which produces small quantities of hydrogen gas for injection into the air intake of the engine. The results exceeded my expectations by far.

One of the many arguments offered against this method is based on a limited application of the 2nd law of thermodynamics and read here why it does not apply to this hydrogen enhanced combustion technique:

It is correctly argued that the electric energy, required to convert water into hydrogen gas, is greater than the energy available from the generated hydrogen. The multiplier or leverage effect the injected hydrogen has on the Normal 0 Normal 0 hydrogen enhanced combustion efficiency, when mixed with the fuel air mixture, is preferably ignored.

Take a look at this simplified equation on the power ratio of energy required to convert the water into hydrogen gas:

To convert water into hydrogen gas with such an “Add on Hydrogen Gas Generator” uses about 100watt (8.3Amp on a 12Volt system), which is equivalent to the power of a conventional domestic incandescent light bulb. Considering the car alternator efficiency at 60% then the power consumption of this 100watt “Add on Hydrogen Gas Generator” is 167watt or 1/4hp, which is an insignificant amount of additional power consumption.

Your Headlights will use that much!

Here is a more simplified explanation of your, by now, Hybrid Car Engine:

This small quantity of hydrogen gas, added to the fuel/air mixture, causes a faster burn rate. This hydrogen enhanced combustion, causing a faster burn rate, will take place over a substantially shorter distance of the piston stroke than it would otherwise; leaving a longer distance of the piston stroke to extract more useful work at reduced operating temperatures.

This applies to gasoline and, especially, diesel engines.

Call this leverage, because one small energy loss is offset against an increased energy gain at a positive multiple of the initial energy loss.

Small energy input results in a larger energy output and this has absolutely nothing to do with perpetual motion. The combustion takes place over a shorter part of the piston stroke, leaving a longer part of the piston stroke to extract more work and consequently increases gas mileage. The shorter combustion period caused by the hydrogen injection results in lower operating temperatures and consequently lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Technorati Tags: bills, Engine, HydrogenBoosted, Method, Proven, Really, Reduce, Simple, Works

Regardless of the seasonal warmth, your gas bills will still be affected by heating water, which is the same year round, so here are some top gas saving tips in order to cut back on your utility bills.

Where possible, switch off ventilation fans in bathrooms and on kitchen hoods. If it’s warm, you can open a window in a bathroom to let out the condensation without wasting electricity to drive the fan. If it’s not so warm, putting on the fan will suck all the warmth not only from the bathroom but also from the surrounding area. The average house could lose all its heated air from a single bathroom fan in a little over an hour if left on continuously, so keeping ventilation use to a minimum is a plus for keeping your house warm.

If the weather does take a turn for the worse, don’t immediately whack up the thermostat as high as it goes. Setting the thermostat to a high temperature will not heat your home any quicker but it will put a strain on your boiler.

A gas boiler will have to work much harder and use more  gas in order to achieve a higher temperature. However, the speed with which a given temperature is reached will remain the same regardless of the temperature set. If you don’t have a programmable timed thermostat, you should consider installing one, as you can then tailor the heating of your home to suit your schedule.

If you live in a slightly larger house, make sure you are not heating areas you don’t use all that often unnecessarily. This can be achieved as simply as shutting the door to spare guest rooms and switching off the radiator in areas of the house that aren’t used continually.

Technorati Tags: bills, Reduce, Summer, Tips