You don’t have to put gas in your car!
Finally! We are seeing a future where the electric car will actually be on sale to us consumers. Consumer models are less than a year away and are going to be highly welcomed by many. But we also know they will be ridiculously expensive, and some believe too late. The initial batch will cater for high income people who feel good about helping the environment, but don’t even think about being frugal.
But some people can’t wait. After reading those who have taken the matter into their own hands by frankensteining their gas guzzlers in order to run on electricity, I thought it would be good to look into frugal alternatives to filling up with gas.
Gas Alternatives
The DIY Electric Conversion
credit: George Lange/Popular Mechanics
I just found out about this on CBC news yesterday. Many people are converting their old cars into electric cars, making them ideal for short commutes and daily use.
A DIY electric conversion reportedly sets you back around $7-9000.00. However, some highly frugal people reckon they have managed to do these conversion for under $1000 (see $800 Yugo EV)
The cost per mile is extremely low (approx .03 cents a mile). Apparently, the car also require less maintenance after conversion.
One can expect a converted car to last about 60-80 miles on a single charge and take about 12 hours to recharge. Think how suitable this system is for city driving!
If you are interested in such a project, I suggest you start here: DIY Electric Car.
Run your car on water
I have been seeing adverts and little snippets about converting a standard car to run on water for a while now but, until recently, did not understand the claims.
Basically the engine is a hybrid. It can harness the power of Hydrogen as a fuel source and claims to save up to 40% in fuel costs. The video is pretty cool, I think!
RunYourCarWithWater.com offers a conversion guide that sells for around $50. They claim that it costs only about $150 to buy and self-install the parts. Theoretically, over a year, this would save much more than it costs.
Gas gas, not liquid gas!
Natural Gas technology has been around for quite a while and has been in use for around 40 years. It is a wonder why we don’t all use it by now!
Having your engine flowing with natural gas, rather than sticky traditional gas, reduces wear-and-tear. Plus it allows you to run with fuel costs at around 15% cheaper.
Conversion is pretty cheap with DIY kits sometimes being a little over $100 and easily transferable to a new vehicle.
For further reading, Mother Earth News has an excellent article Convert Your Car to Propane.
Bio Diesel
Bio Diesel has been big news over the last few years. First hailed as the great alternative to gas and diesel, then very recently condemned for adding pressure to the food crisis.
Bio Diesel basically involves extracting fuel from plants, such as corn and canola. If produced correctly, it is carbon neutral. It’s cheaper than gas and is now sold at many gas stations. Furthermore, diesel engines can take the fuel directly with no conversion.
Some people opt to make the exercise of using bio diesel even cheaper by taking the DIY approach. It is possible to literally mix a vegetable oil with standard diesel in your vehicle, or you can build a mini conversion plant that will create fuel from used cooking oil (often from local restaurants), very cheaply. Many farmers have been doing this for years, but now many of the general public are learning these tricks (you have to pay tax on fuel in most places, so check your local laws before doing this!).
It is argued that if everyone made their own biodiesel, it would improve the food crisis situation we currently find our world in! Although their may not be enough used vegetable oil for everyone!
Journey to Forever is an excellent resource for those wishing to make their own bio diesel.
As you can see there are plenty of options diversifying for us all. Yet we have all been pushed into believing that gas is the best option. From a frugal stand point, it definitely is not the best option right now, for many reasons that extend beyond one’s personal finances. With a small investment now, you can probably save in the future and, in effect, help the environment too!
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Tags: alternatives gas, better cars for the environment, frugal ideas, frugality, make your car more cost effective, making your own bio diesel, oil prices sky high, running your car with water, running your vehicle on natural gas, saving money on gas
July 4th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Great info buddy, keep it coming, we need all the tips we can find on saving money!!!!
July 8th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
RunYourCarWithWater looks like a total scam.
mgrovess last blog post..Speedlinking, July 7th, 2008
July 8th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Hey Mr Groves,
I’m not sure how well it really works as I don’t even own a car!! It would be awfully un-frugal of me to own a car here in the city!!
As for it being a scam, I think the sales copy may be a little misleading but I have seen some amazing stuff recently and BMW will be releasing a car that seems to do the opposite and lets out water!! http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2006/11/20/029311.html
I think it probably could help reduce fuel consumption, especially after seeing so many reports recently on CBC and CNN about these crazy guys turning their gas cars into electric!! I have no doubts that you could mod a lot of equipment to run differently.
I am also sure that if you searched hard enough you would find the instructions to do this to your car for free somewhere on the web.
August 23rd, 2008 at 9:03 pm
i have been looking for ways to save gas so here is what i did: i have a 1988 lincoln town car, in great shape no mechancial problems: this week i put on my car a water device , it is easy to make and easy to put on, i bought mine already made but one can make the whole set up for 50.00 or less, anyway i flled up my car drove 140 miles than filled up again. my normal for my car is 15-16 miles a gallon with the water thing i got 20.4 miles per gallon. it may not seem like a lot but every little bit helps.
August 29th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
That sounds reasonable to me…. so how long does it take to save the $50 back and what exactly is the water device you installed. I would love to write more about it here for a blog post.
August 29th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
ok Forest, here is info on the water device i put on my town car[1988] as i said above i got 5 miles extra. well that is good but when installed they reversed the voltage wires, there is low and high voltage, it was on low voltage, so we switched wires [as it should be] then i filled my car and drove 60 miles, my gas milage now is 29.3 a gallon. my dad put one on his cadallic this week and drove it a little over 100 miles…avge. 34.7 there are 4 of us now that have installed them. one small car, two lincoln and a cadallic. anyone can make these, all parts can be bought at the hardware or auto part store. if took pictures of it and i am sending pictures to friends and also info on it. people laugh when they see it as they think it wont work because it is so simple. if there is some way i can leave u my e-mail u can get ahold of me and i will send pictures and list of parts. the man that made the ones we have does not have a web site. in fact my dad ordered 10 of them [35.00] each if ordered in lots of ten. 55.00 otherwise. i have all instructions of what u would need.
August 29th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Forest, my dad is going to write on here and try to send u pictures of it and will give u all information. so check back, he is doing it now..Aug 29.2008 at 2:21 p.m.
August 29th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
To whom it may concern: 8/29/08
Troy is a retired Liberian 88 years old living on a fixed income (small) in small town in Arkansas. A friend of his informed him that he could by a kit for $50.00 plus $5.00 freight that would increase his gas mileage at least 10 mpg. So I ordered the kit. The kit is not complete so I had to buy vacuum hose, small plastic tee, a nut that had a hose connection on it and a 10 amp fuse, and a couple feet of cooper wire, some of the parts from a Auto Supply store and others at a Hardware store, in all they cost about $12.00.With a 68 dollar investment Troy was ready for an experiment. He went to his local mechanic and asked him to install the kit but he refused and said he did not wont to have anything to do with gas savers for he had install a few such devices and none of them ever worked.
Then a few days later Troy’s friend, a construction worker and a car tinker took a look at the devise and said he could install it. It took him about 45 minutes and Troy was ready to roll. The friend that informed me about the device came over and said we should take a ride and test it. We went to Wal-Mart and filled up to running over then drove to Branson Missouri and back a 40 mile trip and I filled it up to running over at the same gas stall the we used at the beginning. I told my friend that I would be 10 dollars against 10cents that we would not get 35mpg. It averaged out to 35.4.
The car I am driving is a 93 Cadillac De Vile with 171270 miles on it. This is unbelievable but I witnessed the whole experiment and know it really works.
The device consist of a quart Ball fruit jar with 3 coil springs in it and it turns H2o into HHo. The jar of water is suppose to last 900 miles so you are not running on water. The HHo gas acts as a catalyst and you burn all the gas and none goes out the exhaust. The ordinary gas combustion engine is only about 40% efficient so you waste 60% and this gas saving device makes the gas burning more efferent. My daughter Romona put one on her Lincoln Town Car and she averaged 28.5, her car is badly in need of a tune-up. Tuned up she should get 30 plus.
August 29th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Hey Troy this is great… I really want to write a post about this…. if you could mail me some pictures and where I can find out more about this kit and I’ll do some more research, find some more testimonies and write the post.
September 1st, 2008 at 8:59 pm
To whom it may concern: 8/31/08
This is Troy Anderson reporting from Harrison, AR.
Troy reported the mileage that he got on his 93 Cad after putting on a gas saver as 35.4 mpg.. this was on a 40 test run and it was double checked and he is quit sure that that was a true check. Today after putting 157 miles on his Cad he checked the mileage and found that he was getting about 14.2 mpg.
Now what happened I really don’t know. The water in the jar was down about 1/3. The inf on the internet said that the water would last for 900 miles but at the rate it went down on my car it would not last more than 300 miles.
We are going to do another test today and I will send you results as soon as we get them. If you haven’t put the inf I sent you on the web then don’t. If you have we will have to give the web this later inf.
One must be honest even if it is embarrassing.
Sincerely, Troy Anderson
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:17 pm
To Whom It May Concern: 9/3/8
Troy Anderson reporting from Harrison AR.
Troy put a gas saver on his 93 Cad and gave it a number of test to see if it would give him more mileage. He had various results but after many test decided that the devise did not perform as it was said to perform. Romona put one on her 88 Lincoln Town Car and thinks that it probably increased her mileage 5 mpg but she is not sure for she did not know what she was getting before she put the gas saver on. Another party Joyce also put one on her 89 Lincoln Town Car but like Romona she did not know what she was getting before the device was installed so her experience is not reliable. Another friend of mine made a device just like the bought one and he saw no improvement. So Troy’s suggestion is that you should be extremely skeptical until you have seen real documentary proof to the effect that it really works and you have a iron-clad guarantee that the device will perform as advertised.
Sincerely, A Skeptic, Troy Anderson
September 5th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Thanks Troy,
I am really grateful for all this info… Cheers.
October 23rd, 2008 at 2:08 am
Thanks buddy. I have found since last 2 month for this info…thanks a lot for that…maybe i should try using running my car with water…i heard this technology has been running at Japan with 100% hidrogen…cause my fren have see it at Japan using Skyline car with 100% hidrogen conversion….
October 23rd, 2008 at 2:29 am
Hey Chuckiesd, thanks for stopping by. I have never tried running a car on water so can’t verify that it works but it would be cool if it did!
As for hydrogen, I have seen that…. that would be a cool vehicle to have.
October 23rd, 2008 at 3:06 am
yup…now i got a few friend here doing the investigation about this kind of technology..they have install to his car…and result is 40% fuel save…i’m on plan to put in to my car and see the result later…
October 23rd, 2008 at 3:11 am
Thanks very much… please please keep me informed and maybe send me a photo to post here on the site.
October 25th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
It is a quite interesting post but quite difficult to understand for me -