Corn Squeezin's

Seeing the topic of ethanol is mentioned on at least two or three Wisconsin blogs thought I'ld give details on my study.

Since I have started keeping detailed documentation of my mileage with corn squeezin's here is what I report.

905 miles driven by burning 81.42 gallons of E85. This translate into 11.1 miles per gallon and 20.89 cents per mile (calculated based on three datapoints starting on Dec 22). A couple of notes, first this is winter driving and most of the miles are short trips and a fair amount of them in 4x4 or auto four wheel. This vehicle is a 1500 '04 LT Suburban with around 85 kmiles. One trip was to & from Marshfield originating in Appleton.

Before I started with the detailed documentation I seem to recall getting around 15-17 mpg on regular gasoline.

My incomplete but educated judgment is given identical driving patterns you may pay less at the pump for corn squeezin's but you visit the pump more.

My Mileage Tracking Methodology

Aaron notes:

Make sure you start you log from an empty tank, then run on the same gas for a few fill-ups in a row.

If the numbers don't work out the way you want, make something up. That's what "they" do.

Source: See the original blog & read his comment for the source.

First off, my motivation for tracking is to see which fuel is the most frugal. So, I am not going to manipulate the results to come to my favorite answer (which is? The one that results in the lower cents per mile!), so don't worry no manipulation or data massaging to come to a particular answer.

Now, back in April I started tracking the mileage on our primary (and it was our only vehicle until a little more than one month ago) vehicle and got a very good handle on our gasoline expenditures and mileage. I think I have a good system down.

I fill up my tank, I take the receipt and write down the reading from my trip-meter and reset that. In addition, I write down the numbers from my trip computer (e.g. average MPH, average MPG, gallons used etc) for comparison. When I get home I plunk the numbers into a spreadsheet I built for just such purpose and get the answers.

I work on one assumption, the gas I pour in is the gas I burned to drive the mileage on the trip-meter. I am rethinking that assumption due to the nature of the experiment with different fuel classes (E85, E20, E10, and straight gasoline). I still believe my assumption to be valid.

Some years ago I did something similar to discern any savings by using high-test grades of gasoline. Since, high octane is universally available I drove exclusively one grade of gas for a a number of tankfuls. However, now I am not guaranteed E85 will be available at fill up time. BTW, I do not recall high-test making a significant difference just in cost. I am thinking about revisiting this one too.

The calculations I use are straight-forward from a seventh-graders math book. Take the miles driven, divide by the gallons of gas consumed, take the price paid multiply by 100 and divide by miles driven (cents per mile). In addition, I do some totaling and averaging (monthly & annual).

I take the gas down to about 1/16-1/8 of a tank and then I gas up (sometimes sooner, sometimes later I was getting low on fumes tonight).

Two interesting side-effects. First, you can detect problems before they become serious. A previous vehicle showed the first symptoms of transmission problems by decreased mileage and you begin to see how your approach to driving affects your mileage.

Corn Squeezin's Economics

The Empress and myself just purchased a new vehicle. It is a flex-fuel vehicle and I am learning about corn squeezings aka E85.

Of course, it is not widely available. I also tell you 60-70 cents per gallon under regular fuel really gets your attention. However, I also notice a significant drop in mileage when running on corn squeezings. With the new years I am going to track the mileage very closely to determine the cents per mile. My guess the cents per mile will be close to a wash with perhaps a slight edge to corn squeezings.

Being that corn squeezings are not widely available another phenomena I see is wide variance in the price. For example, at the Corner of HWY 10 & South Oneida in Appleton (or is that Menasha there?) just across from Waverly Beach is a Kwik Trip (used to be a Shell Station) that sells corn squeezings. Then we have a Renew Station on Wisconsin Avenue on the West side of town (near Indian Darbar restaurant), the Renew Station sells E85, E20, and E10 corn squeezings.

The difference in price between the Renew and the Kwik Trip is significant, I don't know what it is now, but I remember seeing a 30 cent difference once.

E85 is new, the sources are few. This means knowledge of the marketplace is much more limited. I am driving to Menasha from Manitowoc there is no way I am going to know about the cheap E85 at the Renew station. Even for people who live in the area there is a good chance they will not know the large difference in price.