Tag Archives: Fuel Consumption

How to calculate the fuel consumption of your heavy equipment

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With every passing day the fuel rates are going high. It is becoming very difficult for the users of heavy equipment to gain profit due to the constant increase of fuel price. Moreover, the heavy equipment consumes more fuel due to the heavy work load it has to perform. However, if the rate of fuel consumption by heavy equipment goes higher, then it would become more difficult by the users to control the expenses and at the same time, gain profit.

Why do you need to calculate the consumption of fuel by your heavy equipment?

Measuring the fuel calculation of heavy equipment is very important. This is due to several reasons:

  • Excessive fuel consumption leads to point that the engine may be facing some problems and hence requires a treatment.
  • It may also denote that the person who is controlling the equipment may be mishandling it. Therefore, he might need a training to learn how to operate heavy equipment.
  • It might also indicate that there is a chance of fuel theft that is resulting in the absence of fuel in the tank no matter how much carefully you operate the machine.

How to calculate how much fuel your heavy equipment is consuming?

There are quite some ways to calculate the fuel consumption of your heavy equipment.

  • The first thing you must do is to maintain the records of both the amount of fuel that has been filled in the tank, as well as the hours that the machine has worked. This can be done by following the engine’s hour meter that is present in most of heavy equipment.
  • It is very important to note down the data as accurately as possible. For that, one can note the starting hour and then the ending hour and by subtracting the former from the latter will result in the exact time period.
  • After every shift, you should note the amount of fuel refilled in the fuel tank and the accuracy should be maintained from the fuel meter.
  • Normally the amount of fuel that is required to fill the tank of heavy equipment is measured in gallon.
  • After a shift of work, the amount of fuel needed to fulfil the fuel tank is the amount consumed by the machine while working. However, it should also be noted that the machine has performed only an average work. If the work performed by your heavy equipment is more than the average, then one must note that also, since the more heavy work is done by the machine, the more amount of fuel will it consume.
  • The calculation part is the easiest part of the whole process. All you have to do is to divide the amount of fuel required to refill the tank by the number of hours the machine has worked in that particular shift. Suppose it needed 80 gallons of fuel to fill the tank after 8hours of work, then the consumption rate is 10 gallons per hour.

Installing a Fuel Filter Will Prolong on Fuel Consumption

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The construction sector is often hit with factors like finances, land acquisition, environmental issue etc that plays a major role in the fluctuation in the price of this industry. In addition to this, the rising cost of transportation and other essential commodities required to keep the construction sector running has become a deeper worry for construction companies. Keeping all these into consideration, any increase in the price of fuel works as the last nail in the coffin. You require fuel to run the heavy equipment and a rise in the price will definitely bring you in a high and dry situation. It can also hamper your business if you are not able to cope up with the problem. However, the question here is do we have any option to get through with this issue?
Well as a matter of fact, there are few options available which we can use to contain this issue if not eliminate it for once and for all. Heavy equipment manufacturing companies are in the process of designing heavy equipment that runs on electricity. It means that this equipment will not require any fuel to run. All you have to do is just charge the batteries of the machines and it will be good to go. This sounds like a wonderful idea but there has to be a catch behind this new stuff. Well, it ideally doesn’t have a catch to be precise but the problem is they would be very expensive than their predecessors and since they are in testing phase, one cannot guarantee if it will be as effective as their precursor. Also, being in the testing phase, the first option isn’t of much use to the construction houses and hence they might look for other alternatives.
What can be done in this scenario is install your machine with stuffs that help to reduce the consumption of fuel. You might also want to change fuel filters every 250 hours or less or find alternatives that consumes less fuel. The clean fuel filter simply prolongs the consumption of fuel which makes it an all the more expensive affair for companies to operate these machines. The fuel filters are though important for your machine needs to be replaced only if you can install something that is capable of doing the work with the same intensity. In order to know the alternatives, the best available option would be to contact an expert who has studied in length on machines and has equivalently worked all his years with them. These experts will be in a position to advise you with the various alternatives available that can be installed in place of a fuel filter without compromising the quality of the work and also help in reducing the consumption of fuel.
Alternatively, you can also make use of internet and try to search options that can help your cause and simultaneously can bring down the consumption of fuel. There are many articles written by experts where they write on giving up the fuel filters and use an alternate in its place. You may also find the name of the companies/brand that you can use in your machines.