Race cars and airplanes have used this technology for a long time. Now, filling your car's tires with nitrogen, not just air, is the newest thing. It will cost you about $10 per tire. But if your tires are properly inflated, it could save you some gasoline and tire wear. See, nitrogen molecules are bigger than air molecules, so nitrogen might leak out of your tire more slowly. Nitrogen makes up
about 78 percent of dry air, but this new technology fills tires with a nearly pure form of the gas.
The St. Petersburg Times story on all of this reported that advocates of nitrogen tires claim that tires filled with air might lose 2.7 pounds of air per month, while nitrogen-filled tires might only lose 0.7 pounds per month.
I suppose there is a question about whether or how you could, over time, save $40 worth of gasoline by using nitrogen to even out the cost. GizMag says:
As a rough rule of thumb, if your tires are 20 percent below the optimum, you'll reduce your tire life by up to 50 percent, and the additional rolling resistance can add 10 percent or more to your fuel consumption. Across the life of a tire, that's a massive financial penalty on the driver, and it's no wonder that the U.S. Department of Energy reports that the national U.S. fleet burns 4 million gallons of gasoline unnecessarily every day due to low tire pressure.
Edmunds.com puts it this way:
The U.S. Department of Energy says for every 1 PSI [(pounds per square inch) that your tires] are under the optimal rate, you lose 0.4 percent of your miles per gallon. It estimates the average person can improve mileage by 3.3 percent by inflating their vehicle tires regularly.
Car parts stores and dealerships are all over this. You will probably soon be seeing systems, like this one, that dispense nitrogen.
Ingersoll-Rand Co., which makes nitrogen tire inflation systems, claims:
Better air pressure retention. The single biggest reason for tire failure is lack of maintenance of tire pressure. In fact, 54 percent of all vehicles on the road have low tire pressure. Oxygen in compressed air can permeate the tire wall reducing tire pressure. With nitrogen, diffusion is 30 to 40 percent slower than oxygen. As a result, nitrogen maintains tire pressure longer than ambient air.
Enhanced fuel economy. Maintaining tire pressure can boost fuel economy by as much as 6 percent. Nitrogen disperses heat more quickly than ambient air. By restraining the heat in the tire and reducing rolling resistance, you get better fuel economy.
Longer tread life. With quicker heat dispersion, you get a cooler running tire which helps extend tread life and reduce tire failure. Nitrogen also prevents oxidation which can not only lead to tread separation and belt failure but, when combined with moisture, corrode rims. In fact, moisture can result in rust flakes that can fall into the valve stem, block the valve and cause under-pressurization. It can even cause the valve stem itself to rust.
Slow chemical aging. Filling a tire with nitrogen also significantly slows the chemical aging process of the tire's rubber components. This leads to fewer catastrophic failures like blowouts. Slower aging lengthens tire core life, which yields extra retreads and lower fleet costs.
The industry Web site, TireBusiness.com, has included several conversations on this issue.
Take a "tire inflation" quiz from the Rubber Manufacturers Association.
Top 10 Ways to Improve Fuel Economy
Edmunds.com has the list -- it's better than the usual stuff you see that tells you to slow down and tune up your car. For example, should you turn off your air conditioning and roll down the windows?
Running your air conditioner does cause your vehicle to consume more fuel, but driving with your windows rolled down can be even worse due to the increase of drag on the vehicle. If you are driving slowly, such as around town or in city traffic, then you are better off leaving your windows open, if at all possible. For highway driving, roll up the windows and turn the air conditioning on.
And there is note about how and when to use cruise control, which I think I had assumed was better for gas mileage:
Using cruise control can improve your gas mileage by helping you maintain a steady speed, but only if you are driving on mostly flat roads. If you are driving in hilly terrain, using cruise control typically causes your vehicle to speed up faster (to maintain the preset speed) than it would if you were operating the accelerator yourself.
The Food Stamp Maze
My friend Teresa Nazario at KYW-TV in Philadelphia passed along this excellent article from the
Philadelphia City Paper. The story takes an inside look at how people who are without food make it through the maze of soup kitchens, food pantries and food stamp sign-ups. It is like a full-time job just finding food (and resources to buy food) when you are jobless.
I highly recommend the story and the topic as something you could explore locally. Plus, it is a way for you to find a path to the food pantries on a day other than Thanksgiving.
"Plan B" Delayed Again
You may have missed it -- I know I did -- when Hurricane Katrina struck. In that same week, then-Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Lester Crawford (he resigned last week) postponed indefinitely any decision to make "Plan B" (sometimes referred to as the "morning-after pill") available over the counter. Crawford said there needs to be a more "open" process for making the decision, including an invitation for public comment.
Susan Wood, the assistant FDA commissioner for women's health and director of the FDA's Office of Women's Health, quit in protest.
We have covered this issue a lot on Al's Morning Meeting. Here are some resources.
Podcasting Police
I am not making this up. The NYPD now has a weekly podcast. Listen if you dare. This week, the podcast includes road closings and an interview with the city's new anti-graffiti czar. Just the thing to listen to on your commute or during your workout.
MultiMedia Worth Watching
Once in a while I pass along some innovative online multimedia projects that are worth a look. Here are some of the latest I have come across:
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The Greensboro, N.C.,
News & Record's multimedia piece on the North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University's marching band:
Click on it in the multimedia box.
While you are on the N&R's front page, also check out the "Town Square" section, which I like. It is a list of running conversations, blogs, forums and podcasts under way on the paper's site.
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The Graveyard Shift, an
Oakland (Calif.)
Tribune paper
, profiles people who work while you sleep.
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The Oakland Tribune also has an interesting story on a rat infestation, which is a very different story online than could be told just in print.
Your DNA as Art
For $400 or so, you can turn your DNA into wall art. All you have to do is submit saliva, and DNA11.com turns it into a graphic art piece. Here is an FAQ. I predict this will show up in an upcoming "CSI" episode.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible.
