Petrol Stations charging standard litres

[Gremlin]

I called in today to my local petrol station which has just had all of it's pumps replaced. At a closer inspection just to the right of the litres dispensed is a icon saying 15c, this means that these pumps are set up to charge fuel out at what is known as standard litres.

This means that if the fuel passing through the pump is at 15c then you will get the amount shown, however if the fuel is colder than this say 5c which is more likely at this time of year what you are getting into your tank (measured litres) is less than what is displayed on the pump. A simple equation is that if you purchased 100 litres at 15c from this pump you would receive 100 litres, if the fuel is at 5c the pump would still display 100 litres but you would only get 99.25 litres into your tank.

For people like myself who are on heating oil this is also happening with some distributors.

It is a two tier system that operates in the UK that most people don't even know about, it's perfectly legal to charge for fuel in standard litres as long as the fuel pump at the garage shows 15c or the delivery ticket for your heating oil shows 15c next to the printed litres delivered.

Has anyone else got fuel pumps in their area with 15c displayed ?

[katana]

Surely though a colder fuel has an increased density so carrying 'effectively' more power producing energy? This is why F1 regs measure fuel capacity by weight and they banned the cooling gear that all the teams were using as sub zero temp fuel occupies less volume but weighs more (fractions but it all counts!)

[RSGB]

Agree with the above,
also did you know they higher the ron rating in the winter!

[Gremlin]

The density of fuel doesn't change with temperature changes, only the physical volume will change when the temperature rises and falls. Winter petrol and diesel have winter additives added to the fuel at the refineries and this is to prevent waxing.

My point about being charged standard litres for fuel is that over a year in the UK you will be paying for fuel that you are not getting. At the moment when I load 36000 ltrs of diesel onto my truck the petrol stations are getting charged for around 36300 ltrs, so the garages are now installing these new pumps to shift this cost to the end user.

[Gremlin]

The density of fuel doesn't change with temperature changes, only the physical volume will change when the temperature rises and falls. Winter petrol and diesel have winter additives added to the fuel at the refineries and this is to prevent waxing.

My point about being charged standard litres for fuel is that over a year in the UK you will be paying for fuel that you are not getting. At the moment when I load 36000 ltrs of diesel onto my truck the petrol stations are getting charged for around 36300 ltrs, so the garages are now installing these new pumps to shift this cost to the end user.

I meant the density will change slightly but the main effect is physical volume, the RON of petrol is more important than it's density when it comes to power.

[katana]

I'm still not following your point? A litre is a litre whatever the temp. If colder than 15C density increases / volume decreases so you get more energy potential from each 'litre', if warmer the converse applies. When driving you'll use less fuel when cold and more when warm. It'll average out over the year and as 15C is a lowish mean average temp for the UK i'd say you might actually benefit!

A 'litre' isn't a standardised measure of volume. By adding the '@ 15C' you are certain to get 1/1000 of a cubic metre of fuel volume. If it makes you feel so bad why not fill up at a station without the 'calibrated' pumps?

[Gremlin]

A litre is 1000 cubic centimetres this is a standard measure, a litre dispensed at 15c under the guise of standard litre is only 1000 cubic centimetres at 15c. As the UK fuel supply chain will only peak above 15c at the height of the summer then over the year you will lose out. Most pumps dispense a measured litre so you get a litre at what ever temperature the fuel is at unlike these new style pumps.

I have no problem with this the point of my post was to let people know what is happening as most people are not aware of the new style of pumps.