MPG & More

[Auld Pharrrt]

My personal solution to partial fill-ups is to hold onto the receipt until my next complete fill-up and enter both together (my ss calculates the price per litre from the total cost/the amount put in the tank) ... I haven't looked at your ss in detail, but mine is very basic watch on MPG only.

I learned that excel is quite easy to work with because I used to do quite a lot of BASIC programming ... I have little (or no) use for it these days, but I used to enjoy using my spare time in a transport office reading the formulae and learning from there ... on several occasions I improved the original and this led me to a project to work out a method of "checking the figures" that was always done on paper (the number of chickens being collected from various sheds within various farms by various teams and everything had to be tallied to the individual bird numbers,) most of the others said it couldn't be done in a ss.

It did take me a while to get it working exactly right and even then I would double check it on paper, but once it proved reliable it was the biggest and best time saver in that office ... also avoided a number of common mistakes.

Doing the job on paper usually took at least 15 minutes (assuming no-one interrupted you) and often led to a great deal of head scratching and double/triple checking several other ss's when an error was noted. The ss calculated everything within seconds and would display exactly where any errors were by means of different coloured highlighting.
My wee ss got used for years after I left the office and was only dropped from daily use when they upgraded some things but no-one else could figure out how to edit my ss to suit.

Petty, I know, but one of my proudest achievements.

 

[sasquatch]

I just get in and drive and enjoy my trips!!!

 

[Auld Pharrrt]

I just get in and drive and enjoy my trips!!!

I do that too ... it's when I get home I fill out the data ... then I get to enjoy it all the more!

 

[Private]

Hey Brother!

My personal solution to partial fill-ups is to hold onto the receipt until my next complete fill-up and enter both together (my ss calculates the price per litre from the total cost/the amount put in the tank) ... I haven't looked at your ss in detail, but mine is very basic watch on MPG only.

I learned that excel is quite easy to work with because I used to do quite a lot of BASIC programming ... I have little (or no) use for it these days, but I used to enjoy using my spare time in a transport office reading the formulae and learning from there ... on several occasions I improved the original and this led me to a project to work out a method of "checking the figures" that was always done on paper (the number of chickens being collected from various sheds within various farms by various teams and everything had to be tallied to the individual bird numbers,) most of the others said it couldn't be done in a ss.

It did take me a while to get it working exactly right and even then I would double check it on paper, but once it proved reliable it was the biggest and best time saver in that office ... also avoided a number of common mistakes.

Doing the job on paper usually took at least 15 minutes (assuming no-one interrupted you) and often led to a great deal of head scratching and double/triple checking several other ss's when an error was noted. The ss calculated everything within seconds and would display exactly where any errors were by means of different coloured highlighting.
My wee ss got used for years after I left the office and was only dropped from daily use when they upgraded some things but no-one else could figure out how to edit my ss to suit.

Petty, I know, but one of my proudest achievements.

I understand your pride; justified it is too.
Excel is incredibly flexible & all the help you will ever need is just an internet search away.
I set up & operated my driving agency on MS office; particularly Excel.
Once the time consuming work of creating the spreadsheets has been done you know that the figures produced are going to be accurate every time.
I’ve attached a screenshot of the spreadsheet I created to calculate driver’s wages & at the same time our ‘profit’. It required minimal input & calculated the rest itself. It looks ungainly but that is because it started as a design for a printed timesheet then developed on from there.
The alternative of buying off the shelf software was far too expensive & offered too little by way of customisation. You also then have the effort of learning the intricacies of software with a narrow purpose. Bespoke software was even more expensive & had similar limitations.

With Excel any required changes can be implemented immediately, in-house. It is very powerful software & I have only learned its basic functions yet have managed to create some very functional spreadsheets in the past.

When I was day trading shares I used a spreadsheet to make sure the profit I thought I was making included all the fees & taxes before declaring a profit. The time spent learning a bit of Excel functionality literally paid dividends.

I’m not sure those who think it is a waste of time understand that you only have to input a few details & the spreadsheet calculates the rest - accurately & every time, forever!
People accept Sudoku or crosswords as good for keeping the mind active & exercised; creating a spreadsheet has similar benefits but with an ongoing purpose too.

I stated with BASIC too. I still remember POKE 23609,X to change the Spectrum's keyboard click sound.
If you want to re-acquaint yourself with BASIC you could get a RasberryPi & install RISC OS.
RISC OS for Raspberry Pi - Raspberry Pi

 

[Auld Pharrrt]

I understand your pride; justified it is too.
Excel is incredibly flexible & all the help you will ever need is just an internet search away.
I set up & operated my driving agency on MS office; particularly Excel.
Once the time consuming work of creating the spreadsheets has been done you know that the figures produced are going to be accurate every time.
I’ve attached a screenshot of the spreadsheet I created to calculate driver’s wages & at the same time our ‘profit’. It required minimal input & calculated the rest itself. It looks ungainly but that is because it started as a design for a printed timesheet then developed on from there.
The alternative of buying off the shelf software was far too expensive & offered too little by way of customisation. You also then have the effort of learning the intricacies of software with a narrow purpose. Bespoke software was even more expensive & had similar limitations.

With Excel any required changes can be implemented immediately, in-house. It is very powerful software & I have only learned its basic functions yet have managed to create some very functional spreadsheets in the past.

When I was day trading shares I used a spreadsheet to make sure the profit I thought I was making included all the fees & taxes before declaring a profit. The time spent learning a bit of Excel functionality literally paid dividends.

I’m not sure those who think it is a waste of time understand that you only have to input a few details & the spreadsheet calculates the rest - accurately & every time, forever!
People accept Sudoku or crosswords as good for keeping the mind active & exercised; creating a spreadsheet has similar benefits but with an ongoing purpose too.

I stated with BASIC too. I still remember POKE 23609,X to change the Spectrum's keyboard click sound.
If you want to re-acquaint yourself with BASIC you could get a RasberryPi & install RISC OS.
RISC OS for Raspberry Pi - Raspberry Pi
View attachment 60131

Ha! ... I bet that timesheet took a bit of playing around when times went past midnight!

One of our "professionally written" office timesheets we used had a hideously complicated way of working it out ... I found a much simpler (and easily understood/edited method,) but because I was a driver who went into the office for a while, my methods were looked upon with suspicion until I proved myself with the checker ... even the IT guy in the main office, who was in charge of our stuff, admitted he couldn't have done it because he only knew excel and couldn't understand the commands I had used in the macro's ... I gained a LOT of respect for it.

Yeah, I agree, the MPG checking is only a by product of our interest in solving the puzzles that we stumble across when playing with excel and the like, there's few nicer feelings than fully understanding the job you are trying to do then working out a way of getting excel to do it for you in a fraction of the time and with zero errors.

My daughter has an IT hons degree (as well as others) and even she occasionally asks me to work something out for her because she knows I will sit for days on end until I get it ... usually from first thing in the morning to well into the wee hours the next day ... oh happy days, mostly bygone for me now, but I can spend more time working with excel than many people do playing games on their x,y & z boxes.

 

[kyran]

3rd attempt to post lol. I used to drive a Berlingo conversion self made and when we first built it we took it to Cornwall to see if it was viable to use actually worked out very user friendly.
After we filled up at sainsburys and stocked up With some food off we went I think the wood in the back weighed less the the rear seats we left at home because when we needed to fill up in Cornwall a few days later . Out came the calculator and it had done 59mpg miles more than our old Valentine. After a few more. Miles up and down the coast we managed to fine a sainsburys and filled up again ( I had 5p a litre off tokens lol.) still good 57 mpg. After some more wandering around lands end miniver theatre we headed home ish stopped at plymouth and as I had run out of tokens went in Asda to fill up worked out at 57 mpg again. Stopped at cheddar caves then down to hardy s monument then back to a stour house then homewards filled up in sainsburys again ( near our house) !!!! 47 mpg .. Well surprised but then I got a pad and started a log turns out sainsburys give more mpg than all the others Asda and bp being the worst
In our new to us motor home we don't seem to get much difference at all so it may be down to the car was a 1.6hdi Berlingo and the van is a 1.9 Berlingo

 

[Auld Pharrrt]

P.S. Be sure to check your litres to gallons figures ... most apps use gals US. which are smaller than imperial gals as we use ... I wonder how many people think they get lousy MPG because they don't realise this difference in their apps, I assume most apps have the ability to select which to use. The one I used for a wee while did.

 

[Auld Pharrrt]

3rd attempt to post lol. I used to drive a Berlingo conversion self made and when we first built it we took it to Cornwall to see if it was viable to use actually worked out very user friendly.
After we filled up at sainsburys and stocked up With some food off we went I think the wood in the back weighed less the the rear seats we left at home because when we needed to fill up in Cornwall a few days later . Out came the calculator and it had done 59mpg miles more than our old Valentine. After a few more. Miles up and down the coast we managed to fine a sainsburys and filled up again ( I had 5p a litre off tokens lol.) still good 57 mpg. After some more wandering around lands end miniver theatre we headed home ish stopped at plymouth and as I had run out of tokens went in Asda to fill up worked out at 57 mpg again. Stopped at cheddar caves then down to hardy s monument then back to a stour house then homewards filled up in sainsburys again ( near our house) !!!! 47 mpg .. Well surprised but then I got a pad and started a log turns out sainsburys give more mpg than all the others Asda and bp being the worst
In our new to us motor home we don't seem to get much difference at all so it may be down to the car was a 1.6hdi Berlingo and the van is a 1.9 Berlingo

I also noticed some differences between Tesco and Asda with my old Landrover Defender, but the one that surprised me the most was a tip I got from an off-road driving forum ... add about 250ml of 2 stroke oil (mineral rather than synthetic) to a full tank of diesel ... My spreadsheet has proven time after time that my MPG improves considerably every time I add 2 stroke (every second or third fill-up) with added redex injector cleaner every 5 fill-ups ... I've been doing it for years now.

 

[Private]

Only once.

Ha! ... I bet that timesheet took a bit of playing around when times went past midnight!

One of our "professionally written" office timesheets we used had a hideously complicated way of working it out ... I found a much simpler (and easily understood/edited method,) but because I was a driver who went into the office for a while, my methods were looked upon with suspicion until I proved myself with the checker ... even the IT guy in the main office, who was in charge of our stuff, admitted he couldn't have done it because he only knew excel and couldn't understand the commands I had used in the macro's ... I gained a LOT of respect for it.

Yeah, I agree, the MPG checking is only a by product of our interest in solving the puzzles that we stumble across when playing with excel and the like, there's few nicer feelings than fully understanding the job you are trying to do then working out a way of getting excel to do it for you in a fraction of the time and with zero errors.

My daughter has an IT hons degree (as well as others) and even she occasionally asks me to work something out for her because she knows I will sit for days on end until I get it ... usually from first thing in the morning to well into the wee hours the next day ... oh happy days, mostly bygone for me now, but I can spend more time working with excel than many people do playing games on their x,y & z boxes.

It works through midnight! It had to; we had drivers working nights.
Formula I used:
=D18-C18+IF(C18>D18,1)
Sample also shows automatic highlights for less than 8 hours worked to allow for manual adjustment if a minimum 8 hours pay shift was worked.


Revisiting the above shows me I did know not to use SUM all the time (as r4dent informed me), but I had clearly forgotten & proves I needed to refresh my knowledge which hopefully creating the MPG spreadsheet has done.

I thoroughly agree with perseverance being the key to success in these things. It beats spending time in front of the indoctrinator (AKA TV).

You must be very proud of your daughter’s achievements & I bet her interest in IT started through your own IT experience.

Never stop; there is so much to learn.

 

[jagmanx]

If you want a new Challenge

It works through midnight! It had to; we had drivers working nights.
Formula I used:
=D18-C18+IF(C18>D18,1)
Sample also shows automatic highlights for less than 8 hours worked to allow for manual adjustment if a minimum 8 hours pay shift was worked.
View attachment 60132

Revisiting the above shows me I did know not to use SUM all the time (as r4dent informed me), but I had clearly forgotten & proves I needed to refresh my knowledge which hopefully creating the MPG spreadsheet has done.

I thoroughly agree with perseverance being the key to success in these things. It beats spending time in front of the indoctrinator (AKA TV).

You must be very proud of your daughter’s achievements & I bet her interest in IT started through your own IT experience.

Never stop; there is so much to learn.

Then try using ACCESS (Database) to do this !

Not one or 2 days Maybe a week !!!:wacko::wacko::wacko:

 

[Private]

Tyres

3rd attempt to post lol. I used to drive a Berlingo conversion self made and when we first built it we took it to Cornwall to see if it was viable to use actually worked out very user friendly.
After we filled up at sainsburys and stocked up With some food off we went I think the wood in the back weighed less the the rear seats we left at home because when we needed to fill up in Cornwall a few days later . Out came the calculator and it had done 59mpg miles more than our old Valentine. After a few more. Miles up and down the coast we managed to fine a sainsburys and filled up again ( I had 5p a litre off tokens lol.) still good 57 mpg. After some more wandering around lands end miniver theatre we headed home ish stopped at plymouth and as I had run out of tokens went in Asda to fill up worked out at 57 mpg again. Stopped at cheddar caves then down to hardy s monument then back to a stour house then homewards filled up in sainsburys again ( near our house) !!!! 47 mpg .. Well surprised but then I got a pad and started a log turns out sainsburys give more mpg than all the others Asda and bp being the worst
In our new to us motor home we don't seem to get much difference at all so it may be down to the car was a 1.6hdi Berlingo and the van is a 1.9 Berlingo

My MPG improved a lot this trip & the only big change made was getting rid of my Hankook winter tyres.
I was showing below 30MPG last year & this year on the new tyres I'm showing a good 4/5 MPG more. I was aware there would be a difference but I am surprised at how much.
My use of a variety of fuel suppliers has shown no noticeable difference; I haven't been to Sainsbury's though!

 

[Auld Pharrrt]

Then try using ACCESS (Database) to do this !

Not one or 2 days Maybe a week !!!:wacko::wacko::wacko:

My major stumbling block in the office was Access ... I got a mild ticking off because whenever I looked at the set-up it would flag up in the main office that I had made changes (although I hadn't, I merely looked at it) and after the first couple of times they thought I was at the capers and asked me to leave it alone, even though I demonstrated that all I was doing was having a peek, but as the entire company used this database and depended upon it they were wary of letting me look at it ... Understandable I guess, how were they to know that years ago I used to make my own databases by directly accessing and manipulating my HDD sectors etc. ... It's hardly any wonder that my brain is burned out now, some days I lived and breathed hexadecimal numbers, fried my brain it did.

Part of my duties was entering data to the database, but they always used Excel to read and manipulate it ... which was why I was interested to look at the database ... I had hoped to make it so easy that anyone could have filled the data in but it wasn't to be.

 

[Private]

Then try using ACCESS (Database) to do this !

Not one or 2 days Maybe a week !!!:wacko::wacko::wacko:

Yes I looked once, then went back to what I already knew a bit of!
Thanks for the reminder that I should return to it; I will put it on the list.

 

[Auld Pharrrt]

It works through midnight! It had to; we had drivers working nights.
Formula I used:
=D18-C18+IF(C18>D18,1)
Sample also shows automatic highlights for less than 8 hours worked to allow for manual adjustment if a minimum 8 hours pay shift was worked.
View attachment 60132

Revisiting the above shows me I did know not to use SUM all the time (as r4dent informed me), but I had clearly forgotten & proves I needed to refresh my knowledge which hopefully creating the MPG spreadsheet has done.

I thoroughly agree with perseverance being the key to success in these things. It beats spending time in front of the indoctrinator (AKA TV).

You must be very proud of your daughter’s achievements & I bet her interest in IT started through your own IT experience.

Never stop; there is so much to learn.

That looks more like the idea I had (or something similar) they used a complex calculation which involved using the times and dates converted to the windows numerical equivalent, calculations made then converted back to times and dates .. it was stupidly ungainly and clumsy looking.

Yes, I am, especially since I was a single dad from when she was 4 years old ... she is now working on her 3rd degree and learning Gaelic as a hobby!

I'm as thick as the proverbial two short planks, but I always read her a bedtime story and encouraged her as best I could ... she did the rest ... she was a weird kid, actually liked school and got upset when she got the occasional day off because I had to go somewhere.

 

[Auld Pharrrt]

Bloody hell ... I just realised the time ... I better get oot o' ma bed!

 

[malagaoth]

... add about 250ml of 2 stroke oil (mineral rather than synthetic) to a full tank of diesel ... My spreadsheet has proven time after time that my MPG improves considerably every time I add 2 stroke (every second or third fill-up)

Assuming this works (which if Im honest im sceptical about) 250ml of two stroke even if bought by the gallon would set you back the better part of £1 what sort of MPG improvement is claimed 5%? 10%?

Lets be generous and say 10% which seems implausible - a peugeot boxer fuel tank is 80L which even at current rates will cost less than £100 to fill so a 10% saving would be in the order of £0.90.

It is claimed that the oil need only be added on every third fill so on its face that would seem to be a saving of about £1.80 over the three fills BUT surely the effect on the second tank is less than on the first and the effect on the third is reduced even further so the total saving might be £1.50 or less over three tankfulls a saving £1.50 or less on an expenditure of £270 hardly seems worth any effort.



any one know the effect of two stroke oil on EGR valves, particulate filters and catalysts?

I have over the years heard claims for all sorts of wonder additives for diesel - acetone used to be popular none of them provide real worth while savings and none of them can be recomended.

 

[Auld Pharrrt]

Assuming this works (which if Im honest im sceptical about) 250ml of two stroke even if bought by the gallon would set you back the better part of £1 what sort of MPG improvement is claimed 5%? 10%?

Lets be generous and say 10% which seems implausible - a peugeot boxer fuel tank is 80L which even at current rates will cost less than £100 to fill so a 10% saving would be in the order of £0.90.

It is claimed that the oil need only be added on every third fill so on its face that would seem to be a saving of about £1.80 over the three fills BUT surely the effect on the second tank is less than on the first and the effect on the third is reduced even further so the total saving might be £1.50 or less over three tankfulls a saving £1.50 or less on an expenditure of £270 hardly seems worth any effort.



any one know the effect of two stroke oil on EGR valves, particulate filters and catalysts?

I have over the years heard claims for all sorts of wonder additives for diesel - acetone used to be popular none of them provide real worth while savings and none of them can be recomended.

Dunno about the rest of it but I reckon 10% of £100 is £10, not 90p ... all I know is myengine runs smoother and, according to the MPG more efficiently.

 

[jagmanx]

I have never

Assuming this works (which if Im honest im sceptical about) 250ml of two stroke even if bought by the gallon would set you back the better part of £1 what sort of MPG improvement is claimed 5%? 10%?

Lets be generous and say 10% which seems implausible - a peugeot boxer fuel tank is 80L which even at current rates will cost less than £100 to fill so a 10% saving would be in the order of £0.90.

It is claimed that the oil need only be added on every third fill so on its face that would seem to be a saving of about £1.80 over the three fills BUT surely the effect on the second tank is less than on the first and the effect on the third is reduced even further so the total saving might be £1.50 or less over three tankfulls a saving £1.50 or less on an expenditure of £270 hardly seems worth any effort.



any one know the effect of two stroke oil on EGR valves, particulate filters and catalysts?

I have over the years heard claims for all sorts of wonder additives for diesel - acetone used to be popular none of them provide real worth while savings and none of them can be recomended.

Used any additives to fuel Petrol or Diesel .. "Redex shots" were popular 50 tears ago
Then STP

I even shy away from "super diesel" as I do not believe you get your money back from enhanced mpg

To get enhanced mpg just have a "Light Right Foot" on both accelerator and brake and most importantly look ahead
(but not so far that you hit the vehicle immediately ahead !)

Clearly a 2 stroke engine needs a petrol / oil mix but that is different

 

[Auld Pharrrt]

Oh and my egr valve is shut off ... I prefer to let my engine breathe fresh air rather than exhausted gases.

 

[Private]

Spreadsheet?

Dunno about the rest of it but I reckon 10% of £100 is £10, not 90p ... .

I agree; should we create a spreadsheet to ensure accurate calculations?!!