Monday, November 24, 2008

computing (car) mileage

I've been thinking on how best to get an accurate estimate of fuel consumption on my Honda Civic. Here is what I came up with:
  • keep a notebook in car
  • upon filling up the tank with gas:
    • fill the tank all the way up
    • note how many litres were purchased; write this down in the notebook, with today's date
    • also write down how many kilometres were travelled since last such refueling
    • reset the "fuel" distance counter
Figuring out the mileage over the distance travelled since the last refueling thus becomes trivial:
mileage = 100km / distance travelled * litres consumed
This gives you Canadian-style mileage, expressed in litres per 100km.