I should possibly make this a mini series on the future at the moment as I have this post and another coming up all about future inventions, generations etc! I think it’s just a thing as you get older that you start thinking more about the future and what it means for us, for our generation.
I recently came across the #makethefuture hashtag on Twitter and watched this video on the “Reverse Engineers” with familiar face Rachel Riley talking about fuel efficiency – how to get the best out of your fuel:
Ben and I love watching programmes like these – a little bit nerdy, I know! How It’s Made is an old one that is super easy to watch when nothing else is on, but one of our current favourites is Food Unwrapped. This is one that we actually watch over and over and have converted friends to watching too 😀 It looks in detail at where exactly your food comes from, asking all those really awkward and weird questions that you think about like where do pine nuts come from? (Seems so obvious, but me and Ben’s sister were AMAZED when we watched it XD)
So the energy efficiency challenge in the above video was really interesting. As someone who has a commute by car to work everyday, fuel efficiency is often on my mind. My commute is around 30 minutes and is mainly on back roads, meaning my speed is up, down and all over the place. I have about a mile on a motorway which means I have to speed up dramatically on a slip road then drop back down again when I come off.
I’m lucky because I get a fuel allowance at work, but that doesn’t mean that don’t still see the pounds and pennies that are being poured into my car every week at the garage. Fuel economy was a big consideration when buying my current car – a Hyundai i30 – and it’s definitely made a difference on my old car, a Nissan Micra. I’m spending a lot less than I used to on fuel and filling up a lot less frequently.
In the challenge, they asked the question “How can we go further with less?” and are given a small vial of fuel to power a car. The aim of the game is to use up as little fuel as possible while getting as far as possible. Apparently with the research that’s been done with the Shell Eco Marathon Programme with over 500 universities around the world, you can now get a car from London to Moscow then half way back again on a single litre of fuel thanks to the cars they’ve engineered. Wait, whut?! My commute to work must take about a litre of fuel as it is!
To be honest, the cars they assemble don’t exactly look appropriate for a commute to work on the North Yorkshire back roads! The super sleek tyres wouldn’t really work on our pot holed filled and often icy during the winter roads and I definitely wouldn’t fit all my parcels in one of those on the way back from work, but it really does give you something to think about. The cars are super lightweight, aerodynamic and are driven in the most economical ways possible. How can I drive more carefully in future and what’s being done now to make cars more eco-efficient and to save money from a consumer point of view?
And it’s pretty outstanding to see just how little fuel is used in these cars in the end – it’s barely anything! Just imagine if you only had to fill up your car as often as these ones, madness! I’m looking forward to seeing how much of a difference we’ll see in future compared to now with fuel efficiency based on these tests.