Question about how often to refuel

[girlkunert]

We have our new 2009 Honda Civic GX and we have the Phill unit in our garage. I thought I had read somewhere that it is better to refuel every other night or something like that, rather than letting the natural gas tank get to empty and then refueling in one night. Is it better to fill up at home every few days, or just wait till the tank is near empty? It seems to take quite a bit of time for the Phill to fill up our tank. Is it on average a half-gallon for every hour? Our seems slower. We paid $3,000 to have it installed here in Northern California because there is one certified installer through FuelMaker and we had not anticipated that high cost of installation when we signed up for the Phill. But now we're pretty locked in to the whole deal so we are just trying to figure out the best way to refuel. Sorry for the weird question!

[BRodri]

Re: Question about how often to refuel

some say it is .3 gallons an hour. and they say to fill up only part way that way you get more fueling out of the phill. there are other posts on here i think it might be in the home fueling area. but i'm not to sure

[CNG MOTORS]

Re: Question about how often to refuel

I haven't used a Phill in a few years (FMQ2 now) but when we did we ran it every night. Unit goes through a drying cycle every so many hours, so it's best to keep topping it off every night. Some thing I noticed with my Phill, as the back pressure increases so does the rate of output by the unit, I would get .5 gges/hr when under 1000 psi but as I approach 2600 psi the rates slows to about .3 gge's. Also when the unit was coming to the end of it's service life (Yes I was one fo the first to time out a phill) the rates slows again. Cute little unit but for real users you'll need a FMQ2. Now if FM would only put out a oil unit to extend the service intervals.

[Lakewood90712]

Re: Question about how often to refuel

Sorry for the weird question!

This is CNGCHAT , without " Weird Questions " we would have nothing to chat about! .

[WellFedEd]

Re: Question about how often to refuel

No weird questions just greedy installers.

[CraziFuzzy]

Re: Question about how often to refuel

This will be the case with any gas compression. The flow-rate from the compressor drops as the discharge pressure increases. This means it fills slower the fuller your tank gets. Filling from empty to half will go quite a bit faster than half to full, so, you could, in theory use less electricity keeping your tank a little more empty, and not worrying about topping off, if you don't regularly need the range.

[freedml]

Re: Question about how often to refuel

That is true, but I think it is more than offset by the "cycling" effect -- the effect of starting and stopping the compressor repeatedly. The longer you let it run the fewer cycles you will accumulate and that is often a factor in a compressor system not reaching its full runtime.

[Curtis]

Re: Question about how often to refuel

Murph, I know of several working on competitors to the FMQ, some even are oilers. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the monoply will be broken in the near future.