ACtion Magazine - June 2012 - (Page 14)

Leonard’s Law f you want to start an argument, begin by talking politics or religion. However, if you want to simply start a conversation with someone, talk about the weather, anywhere. We currently cannot change it and it is therefore a safe topic of conversation. You can comment on the weather and it is unlikely that anyone will try very hard to persuade to their view of the weather instead of your own. You may not particularly like the rain, but I doubt that anybody will get agitated when they tell you that the rain was needed. We all know that weather conditions can be a cause of motor vehicle accidents; whether it is a car sliding on ice into something or somebody, or it is a truck running into a car because visibility was bad due to fog. Well, until the gasoline powered internal combustion engine is phased out (which I will not live to see) and everyone begins driving hybrids, electric vehicles, or some other future form of vehicle that does not use gasoline, what effect does weather have on your vehicle’s gas mileage? When you consider only air temperature, a car will generally get better mileage in hot instead of cold weather. Hot air is less dense than cold air, thereby requiring the engine to have to “breathe” in less hot air in order to burn the gasoline powering the car. Less dense air also means less resistance to movement and allows the vehicle to more easily move along the road. Further, the lubricants in the engine will run hotter and will be thinned out, again reducing the amount of power and fuel needed to maintain the motion of the vehicle. Of course, turning on the air conditioning system in your vehicle to cool down increases the loads on the engine and the operation of the electrical systems in your vehicle. The increased loads on the engine will then outweigh the favorable effects of the reduced air density of hot weather and will increase the vehicle’s fuel consumption. The internal combustion engine works by combining the fuel with oxygen under pressure, producing an explosion which drives the pistons and produces the usable energy that moves the vehicle. Thus, when the barometric air pressure decreases, it is more difficult for the combustion to occur. The more difficult the combustion becomes the more fuel that will be needed to produce the same amount of energy to move the vehicle. Forced induction systems such as a turbocharger can be fitted into a vehicle to increase the vehicle’s combustion efficiency. How about the effect of weather on a hybrid vehicle? Hybrid vehicles use their electric motors for slow-speed driving and the gasoline engine is used when more power and speed are required. Cold weather will certainly reduce the fuel efficiency of a hybrid vehicle. The battery charge in such a vehicle will run out sooner, requiring the vehicle to switch over to gasoline usage sooner than it would in warm weather. Further, it will take longer for the car’s engine to reach its normal operating temperature where it achieves its maximum fuel efficiency. 14 ACTION • June 2012 I Keith N. Leonard Esquire Everybody talks about the weather With gasoline prices rising, most everyone should want to get better fuel economy out of their car or truck. Each of us can try various products available in the marketplace in effort to improve our vehicle’s fuel economy. The success or failure of many of those products has been tested and published. However, other than moving to another part of the country, we are going to be facing substantially similar weather patterns each year (unless global warming changes things further and/or faster) and the resulting effects on fuel economy. When those of us of a certain age experienced our first “oil crisis” in the early 1970s, the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) published a technical paper in 1974 entitled “Nine Ways to Get Better Fuel Mileage.” Their suggestions were to: use moderate speeds (generally 30-40 mph), drive at a smooth, steady pace as traffic permits, accelerate slowly and allow automatic transmissions to upshift, anticipate stops and minimize braking, avoid prolonged warm-up idling, limit extensive idling, be sure the parking brake is fully released, minimize electrical loads and use of the air conditioner, and to consolidate short trips, plan routes in advance, and avoid heavy traffic. More recently published articles have repeated the suggestions of avoiding unnecessary and extensive idling and aggressive driving, driving at more moderate speeds, and avoiding heavier traffic times and patterns by changing your driving habits and times. Other suggestions include reducing the extra weight in our vehicles (think trunk junk), using cruise control and GPS devices, finding cheaper gas online and using discounts (e.g., gift card promotions), buying a vehicle with a manual transmission instead of an automatic one, and several others including careful maintenance. Unfortunately, to this author’s wandering eye as he drives the roadways and watches through the windows of a train while commuting, the suggestions are commonly ignored. Those of you who think that NASCAR is largely limited to the Southeastern part of the United States will learn otherwise when traveling in my neck of the woods. I-95 is that certain north-south Interstate highway passing through Philadelphia, but far too many drivers believe the highway number sign to be the speed limit. And judging by the number of SUVs and other vehicles in the parking lots around where I live and work, there has not been any mass switch to more fuel efficient vehicles. I therefore predict that the economy will improve well before our (including my own) driving habits. ❆ Remember that laws are constantly changing and are often not uniform throughout the United States. Do not place unqualified reliance on the information in this article. Always contact legal counsel for detailed advice. If you have a particular issue, law or problem you would like to see addressed in a future column, please contact me at KLeonard@LeonardSciolla.com, or Leonard, Sciolla, Hutchison, Leonard & Tinari, LLP 215-567-1530. ,

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ACtion Magazine - June 2012

ACtion Magazine - June 2012
Contents
Outlook
Expansive Valve
Technically RELAY-ted
Under the Southern Cross
Leonard's Law
Cooling Corner
Virtual View
News & Updates
State of the Art Detection
Running Short On Time and Info
The End of R-134A?
Association News
Quick Check
New Products & Services
Last Watch

ACtion Magazine - June 2012