| Updated: 7/14/2009 7:14 pm |
Published: 7/14/2009 5:37 pm
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The scorching temperatures may be having an impact on your wallet when you fill up your tank. As Fox 23’s Douglas Clark explains, it has to do with what happens to gasoline when it gets hot.
The weather can have an effect on the amount of gas you put in your tank. As it gets hotter, gasoline expands and takes up more space. According to some consumer groups, that means you’re getting less fuel for the same price.
Sixty degrees is the standard temperature at which volumes of gasoline are measured. But the temperature of the gasoline at the pumps can be 70-80 degrees or higher.
“The volume of 100 gallons of gasoline if it goes up 10-15 degrees, will increase by about 1% in volume,” says TU Professor of Chemical Engineering Geoffrey Price.
That, according to the Owner-Operator of Independent Drivers Association, is short-changing consumers when they go to fill up and decreasing their gas mileage.
“I did not know that,” says driver Brad Jones. “It’s good to know.”
“No, I did not know that,” says driver Katherine Parish. “Over time it could be a big margin. You could save money. So it’s surprising.”
According to estimates, consumers lose $2.3 billion every year because of gasoline sold at unregulated temperatures. But according to Professor Price, competition between gas stations levels the playing field for consumers.
“Somebody who is selling hot gas above 60, may be selling more volumes, but so is everybody else,” says Price.
The real problem, he says, is the difference between the temperature of fuel when loaded into trucks and the temperature when sold to drivers.
“They take the temperature into consideration in the wholesale market. So when an oil company sells 100,000 gallons to a retailer, they sell it corrected to 60 degrees. The retailer puts in his tank. If the tank is 75 degrees, then the retailer has 101,000 gallons. They can then turn around and sell 101,000 gallons.”
There are devices that can be installed on gas pumps called temperature compensation devices. But only one state requires them – Hawaii.
Experts say gasoline also contracts during the winter, which could help offset the extra money you pay during the summer.
