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Hot Gas Might Be Costing You More
By Mr Ethanol | June 27, 2008
Indignant Consumer:
One of the oldest and most -contested bits of advice for saving on gas is that by filling up your tank in the morning, when it’s cool, you’ll get more gas for your money.
The idea is that a gallon is a gallon is a gallon, but when you’re talking about gas, what’s inside that gallon is subject to change.
The infinitesimally small molecules that make up a gallon of gas are tightly condensed when they’re cool. They expand when heated. That means a gallon of warm gas will contain fewer molecules than a gallon of cool gas.
The warmer the fuel, the fewer molecules the consumer will receive in a gallon.
The science of that is true, and experts say that warm gas may have actually cost individual drivers more at the gas pump generations ago, when gas stations stored fuel in all sorts of unregulated ways.
But these days, gas stations uniformly use 10,000 to 30,000-gallon fiberglass tanks. Because the tanks are insulated and underground, the temperature of their contents does not change dramatically with the hot and cool cycles of the day.
Thus, say oil industry experts, the idea that hot gas is costing you more money is a myth.
Why, then, consumer advocates ask, are oil companies giving drivers outside the United States a price break in hot weather?
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