Record prices at the pumps could succeed where 6,000 cameras and millions of pounds in road-saftey advertising have failed for decades – by securing compliance with the speed limit.
Driving more slowly will save drivers up to £500 a year in fuel costs, according to a study, which reveals that the most efficient speed is much lower than most people think.
With the average price of petrol at £1.17 a litre and diesel at £1.30 – 20 per cent higher than a year ago – the financial incentive to obey the speed limit has never been greater.
Car manufacturers suggest that the optimum speed for fuel efficiency is between 50mph and 60mph and a recent survey found that two thirds of drivers believe this to be the case. But the study, commissioned by What Car? magazine and based on five cars of different sizes ranging from a 1 litre Toyota Aygo to a 2.2 litre Land Rover Freelander, found that the most efficient speed was below 40mph for all five and as low as 20mph for two.
Above 40mph, fuel consumption increased sharply and by 90mph the miles per gallon had halved on average.
The study comes as the Government prepares to put in place emergency measures to prevent a strike by Shell oil tanker drivers from creating fuel shortages across the country. Downing Street urged drivers yesterday not to panic buy, which would cause shortages even if fuel deliveries continued as normal.
The study, by Peter De Nayer, a former AA fuel efficiency expert, involved fitting cars with a fuel flow meter and testing them at Millbrook proving ground in Bedfordshire. He found that a Citroën C4 1.6 diesel achieved 99.6mpg at 20mph but only 29.3mpg at 90mph.
The average car consumes 38 per cent more fuel at 70mph than it does over the same distance at 50mph. At 60mph it uses 34 per cent more than at 40mph.
The average driver travelling at 90mph on a motorway will spend £1.20 more on fuel every eight minutes than a driver travelling at 70mph. The 90mph driver will have travelled farther in that time but will still be spending 40 per cent more per mile than the 70mph driver.
Ben Webster,
full article
Wednesday 11 June 2008
Tuesday 10 June 2008
Fuel savers: how to beat the soaring cost of petrol and home heating
With a full tank now costing many drivers more than £60 and the average domestic energy bill forecast to reach £1,300 this year, Lisa Bachelor offers tips from industry experts on ways in which you can reduce the growing financial burden
A debt charity that helps professionals who have fallen on hard times has raised how much it gives out for transport costs in the last month by more than half, entirely because of rising petrol prices.
Elizabeth Finn Care, which says its clients are typically those with good qualifications and responsible jobs, spent a total of £17,000 on transport in March, which includes petrol, tyres, servicing and MoT. In April, this amount shot up by 53 per cent to £26,000.
The charity gives to those who have suffered from events that have left them struggling to cope on very little money, including things such as long-term physical or mental illness, family breakdown, bereavement or redundancy.
'This rise in the amount we have paid out in the past month is entirely to do with the increase in the cost of fuel,' says Rebecca Ward of Elizabeth Finn Care. 'Our clients tell us that without our help they now wouldn't be able to afford to take their kids to school.'
The charity's spending reflects the rise in fuel costs affecting the whole of the country. According to comparison website Uswitch, petrol prices are up 31 per cent since last year, with the average driver now paying around £64 for a full tank. Last month oil prices broke through the $125 mark, fuelling a near-record rise in petrol prices, according to the AA. The average petrol price - at the time of writing - is 116.3p per litre, while diesel is 129.8p.
Domestic energy prices are also at record highs, with experts predicting that gas and electricity bills could rise a average energy bill in the UK to around £1,300. Heating oil users, typically those who live in rural areas and have no access to mains gas, have been hit even harder. The average price for heating oil has almost doubled over the past year, from 32p a litre to 60p a litre last week, according to supplier website Boilerjuice. So what can you do to keep costs down?
Lisa Bachelor
full article
A debt charity that helps professionals who have fallen on hard times has raised how much it gives out for transport costs in the last month by more than half, entirely because of rising petrol prices.
Elizabeth Finn Care, which says its clients are typically those with good qualifications and responsible jobs, spent a total of £17,000 on transport in March, which includes petrol, tyres, servicing and MoT. In April, this amount shot up by 53 per cent to £26,000.
The charity gives to those who have suffered from events that have left them struggling to cope on very little money, including things such as long-term physical or mental illness, family breakdown, bereavement or redundancy.
'This rise in the amount we have paid out in the past month is entirely to do with the increase in the cost of fuel,' says Rebecca Ward of Elizabeth Finn Care. 'Our clients tell us that without our help they now wouldn't be able to afford to take their kids to school.'
The charity's spending reflects the rise in fuel costs affecting the whole of the country. According to comparison website Uswitch, petrol prices are up 31 per cent since last year, with the average driver now paying around £64 for a full tank. Last month oil prices broke through the $125 mark, fuelling a near-record rise in petrol prices, according to the AA. The average petrol price - at the time of writing - is 116.3p per litre, while diesel is 129.8p.
Domestic energy prices are also at record highs, with experts predicting that gas and electricity bills could rise a average energy bill in the UK to around £1,300. Heating oil users, typically those who live in rural areas and have no access to mains gas, have been hit even harder. The average price for heating oil has almost doubled over the past year, from 32p a litre to 60p a litre last week, according to supplier website Boilerjuice. So what can you do to keep costs down?
Lisa Bachelor
full article
Sunday 8 June 2008
Gas bills to soar by another 40pc
Gas bills will rise by 43 per cent in the next 12 months and electricity by 21 per cent, an average £360 per home, because of a sudden surge in market prices, industry experts are warning.
Wholesale gas prices, the prices energy companies buy at, soared to a record high on Friday, taking the increase since the beginning of the year to 76 per cent.
To restore the balance between wholesale prices and those that householders pay, the average gas and electricity bills a year will have to increase to £1,410, almost £500 more than a year ago.
'The last time wholesale gas prices broke above retail gas prices was three years ago, in June 2005,' said Joe Malinowski of TheEnergyShop.com. 'In the following 18 months energy bills rose by a record 47 per cent. A very similar thing is going to happen this time around, except that the money value of the increase is going to be even higher.'
The surge came on the same day that the price of oil shot up by its biggest one-day advance ever to hit a record of more than $139 a barrel. The rise staggered Wall Street, causing the Dow Jones Index to close 3.1 per cent down, its eighth-biggest point drop ever.
Yesterday energy officials from the world's biggest consumer nations started two days of talks in a bid to tackle the growing global economic threat of soaring oil, coal and natural gas prices.
New highs in food and energy bills have been a particularly heavy burden for pensioners in recent months, with eight out of 10 admitting that they have already cut back on their spending this year.
full article
Wholesale gas prices, the prices energy companies buy at, soared to a record high on Friday, taking the increase since the beginning of the year to 76 per cent.
To restore the balance between wholesale prices and those that householders pay, the average gas and electricity bills a year will have to increase to £1,410, almost £500 more than a year ago.
'The last time wholesale gas prices broke above retail gas prices was three years ago, in June 2005,' said Joe Malinowski of TheEnergyShop.com. 'In the following 18 months energy bills rose by a record 47 per cent. A very similar thing is going to happen this time around, except that the money value of the increase is going to be even higher.'
The surge came on the same day that the price of oil shot up by its biggest one-day advance ever to hit a record of more than $139 a barrel. The rise staggered Wall Street, causing the Dow Jones Index to close 3.1 per cent down, its eighth-biggest point drop ever.
Yesterday energy officials from the world's biggest consumer nations started two days of talks in a bid to tackle the growing global economic threat of soaring oil, coal and natural gas prices.
New highs in food and energy bills have been a particularly heavy burden for pensioners in recent months, with eight out of 10 admitting that they have already cut back on their spending this year.
full article
Water is the new oil
So what will be the next hot commodity?
Goldman Sachs, the investment bank that coined the term Bric (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and was talking about $100 oil when everyone else was stuck at $40, thinks it has found the answer: water.
It has called the commodity the “petroleum for the next century” and says it has been grossly undervalued for years. The story behind it is the same for every other commodity: demand is soaring while supply is tight.
In the United States, water demand has tripled in the past 30 years, while the population has grown just 50%. Globally, water consumption is doubling every 20 years, more than twice population growth.
Given current trends, it is estimated that by 2025 about a third of the world will not have access to adequate drinking water.
On the flip side, supply is fixed. Only 2.5% of all water is fit for human consumption and around two-thirds of that is locked away in icecaps and glaciers. That percentage is not about to change.
Even if there were enough to go round, piping it to those who need it is getting harder. America desperately needs to upgrade its water infrastructure, a job that will cost between $300 billion (£153 billion) and $1 trillion (two-thirds of which is for distribution pipes and pumps).
An estimated 60% of America’s water main pipes will be classified as substandard by 2020.
And the water supplied is deteriorating. American companies test for nearly 100 known contaminants, and a disturbing number of new compounds are being found - a glass of water could contain aspirin, caffeine, and even animal growth hormones from farm-water run-off.
One solution to the global problem is desalination, which is already popular in the Middle East. It is an expensive solution - 100m gallons of seawater produce just 50m gallons of desalinated water - though costs have fallen three to four times in the past 30 years.
The problem for investors is that the world leader in water and desalination, American giant GE, gets only 2% of its revenues from this area, so it hardly offers pure exposure.
Goldman tips smaller companies such as filtration specialists Clarcor and Pentair. They should benefit from the recent backlash against bottled water and are likely takeover targets as the $425 billion industry consolidates.
by Kathryn Cooper
full article
Goldman Sachs, the investment bank that coined the term Bric (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and was talking about $100 oil when everyone else was stuck at $40, thinks it has found the answer: water.
It has called the commodity the “petroleum for the next century” and says it has been grossly undervalued for years. The story behind it is the same for every other commodity: demand is soaring while supply is tight.
In the United States, water demand has tripled in the past 30 years, while the population has grown just 50%. Globally, water consumption is doubling every 20 years, more than twice population growth.
Given current trends, it is estimated that by 2025 about a third of the world will not have access to adequate drinking water.
On the flip side, supply is fixed. Only 2.5% of all water is fit for human consumption and around two-thirds of that is locked away in icecaps and glaciers. That percentage is not about to change.
Even if there were enough to go round, piping it to those who need it is getting harder. America desperately needs to upgrade its water infrastructure, a job that will cost between $300 billion (£153 billion) and $1 trillion (two-thirds of which is for distribution pipes and pumps).
An estimated 60% of America’s water main pipes will be classified as substandard by 2020.
And the water supplied is deteriorating. American companies test for nearly 100 known contaminants, and a disturbing number of new compounds are being found - a glass of water could contain aspirin, caffeine, and even animal growth hormones from farm-water run-off.
One solution to the global problem is desalination, which is already popular in the Middle East. It is an expensive solution - 100m gallons of seawater produce just 50m gallons of desalinated water - though costs have fallen three to four times in the past 30 years.
The problem for investors is that the world leader in water and desalination, American giant GE, gets only 2% of its revenues from this area, so it hardly offers pure exposure.
Goldman tips smaller companies such as filtration specialists Clarcor and Pentair. They should benefit from the recent backlash against bottled water and are likely takeover targets as the $425 billion industry consolidates.
by Kathryn Cooper
full article
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