Lower your mileage and save money by changing
driving habits with Fuel Efficiency Adviser (FEA).
Laws have been passed to ensure automobile manufacturers increase the required MPG and reduce the acceptable carbon output of new cars, and programs like Cash for Clunkers help car-owners trade up and green up. Yet, not every driver can afford to get behind the wheel of something fresh off the assembly line.
There are an estimated 196,000,000 licensed drivers who operate more than 220,000,000 non-hybrid or low-mileage vehicles in the US alone, How do we make a green impact with these vehicles? In order to make a significant impact in fuel savings and CO2 emission reductions, Dallas-based Fuel Efficiency Centers decided to focus on the vehicles that are already parked in our garages.
The company began testing fuel savings devices last year as fuel prices skyrocketed. “When gas was $4 per gallon, you could not get a Prius. In fact many used Prius’ were selling for more than a new one”, said Karl Singer, President of Fuel Efficiency Centers. “It was about this time that a light clicked on. The talk was all about what’s coming, not what it already here. And what is here, will be here for a long time."
The company began looking away from vehicles with low-MPG vehicle's short-comings, and examined the instead the habits fo the driver. "What if we could alter the driving habits of people in their existing cars? What if we could increase fuel savings by over 30% and at the same time create the incentive for drivers to limit their carbon output?" pondered Singer.
Fuel Efficiency Center created the Fuel Efficiency Adviser (FEA), a real-time measurement device that easily plugs into any 1996 or newer passenger car or light truck. The FEA informs the driver of the actual real time cash costs and subsequent savings of his/her driving behavior, most significantly how they handle their gas pedal and braking. "With an FEA installed is in your vehicle, you should expect at least a 20% increase in fuel savings (the average has been around 29%)," reports Singer.
The Fuel Efficiency Adviser is also purported to save most drivers between 200-300 gallons of fuel per year. Each gallon of fuel saved equates to a 19.4 lbs of CO2 reduction--decrease over 2 tons annually. Priced at $159, Singer suggests drivers should have a payback between 12-16 weeks, and will save $700 per year.
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Comments
Excellent article - almost anyone can get 20% or better fuel mileage with a few simple changes to driving habits - no need to saddle yourself with a new car payment to do it. Tools like the ScanGaugeII are terrific for immediate MPG feedback for car w/o a built-in option. What's even more important is to get some basic eco-driving training, then monitor your performance over a period of time to see how well you are doing, and how much you are actually saving.
Rebecca, take a look at FuelClinic.com - this is an Orlando based business that is building one of the most advanced eco-driving driver training and performance monitoring systems available anywhere. If you want to learn more about it, check the Fuelishness! blog at that same site. It's free, and it works.
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