Phinally.
The Phill has been installed.
After waiting almost two months from the time we placed the order for the home fueling device at the end of December, I pumped the first made-at-home CNG into our long-term 2007 Civic GX on Friday evening, after the electrician did his thing and hooked the machine up to a 240-volt circuit.
Dr. Drain, aka Michael Fossler, the only Phill installer in my area of Southern California, had delivered, unpacked and hung the nifty little natural gas compressor/pump unit on the garage wall on Thursday.
Took about 3 hours to do the job, which involved boring a 6-inch hole through the wall for an external vent; hooking up the gas intake and exhaust plumbing (there's an exhaust line that lets natural gas spew to the outside in case of a breakdown) and a gas leak sensor and alarm and checking things out to make sure it all works.
I'll probably get in trouble, but I couldn't resist trying things out even before the system has been inspected by the city (that's supposed to happen this week). But honest, your honor, I only used it a little bit, and only once.
One thing with the home unit is that there's no gauge or readout to tell you how much gas it is delivering to the vehicle, and it is not metered separately from regular household natural gas consumption, so there's no really accurate way right now to continue tracking the GX's fuel economy.
We're trying to work out a system with Honda engineers for making accurate estimates of gasoline gallon-equivalents pumped – as the retail CNG pumps do – by assigning values to each of the 20 little bars that track fuel usage on the car's instrument panel.
Soon as we get a good system going we'll lay it out right here.
Meantime, I can report that the car had 82.3 miles on the trip odometer when I started the Phill at 4:35 pm Friday and that eight of the fuel gauge bars had disappeared. Today I'm also down eight bars, but with 109.5 mileson the trip meter.
It took almost 9 hours to top up the tank (the Phill pumps for a while, stops to cool itself down and run a drying cycle to purge any water vapor that came in from the home gas line, then repeats the cycle until the tank is full.
It's slow – FuelMaker Co., the manufacturer, says it takes about 12 hours to fill an empty GX tank—pumping the equivalent of about 7.5 gallons, but ambient temperature, the state of the car's fuel tank when you start and a few other things can affect the fueling time.
The slow pace is supposed to help it give a better fill than a retail pump.
The Phill fills until its sensors read that the tank has reached full pressurization of 3,600 pounds per square inch.
That slow trickle at full pressure puts more fuel into the tank than do retail pumps that are listed at 3,600 psi but often only pump to around 3,200 pounds because the gas in the underground storage tanks isn't up to maximum pressure. I've noticed more than once that at least one of the bars on the fuel gauge isn't lit up after I've stopped to top off the tank and the readout on the pump says the car's tank is full.
Now I'm in the process of emptying the tank as much as possible to see if filling with the Phill gives me any more distance on my daily commute route than does filling at a retail pump.
Stay tuned.
John O'Dell, Senior Editor, Green Car Advisor @12,561 miles.
firstwagon says:
01:02 PM, 03/ 3/08
Seems more trouble then it's worth.
philip17 says:
01:28 PM, 03/ 3/08
Have you done a conversion yet to see what fuel is costing from home versus at the pump?
thebigal says:
02:17 PM, 03/ 3/08
ya it does seem like it's more trouble than it is worth. Especially since there is no way to gauge how many "gallon" you have used. I guess you could sort figure out usage based on your average home usage and then subtract that from total usage to give you a vehicular usage, but would be too vague to compare to what you would use in a normally gasoline powered vehicle.
ahightower says:
02:17 PM, 03/ 3/08
I like the Mazda in the driveway.
redliner says:
04:46 PM, 03/ 3/08
In combination with regular fueling, i could see how this might help range, but it sure seems slow
kscng says:
06:46 AM, 03/11/08
A separate natural gas meter could be added in front of Phill to determine how many mcf of natural gas is used per tank. Also writer made mistake as Phill only takes 120 volt electricity ; larger fmq2-36 which goes OUTSIDE garage (pumps 1 gge/hour versus only .5/gge/hour for Phill) is the Fuelmaker that takes 220 volt electrical connection.
General rule is that home cng using Phill or Fuelmaker fmq2-36 runs about $1/gge or $1.25/gge - - that's how to put it to Big Oil!!
I have both Honda Civic GX (dedicated cng) and Chevy Cavalier (bi-fuel cng/gas) and love both!! My travel in Oklahoma works out to 3 cents a mile since cng is only $0.91 per gge (gallon) all across OK!!
CNG is way to go!! Do NOT buy another vehicle that is not cng . . BOYCOTT all US auto dealers until cng is sold here in USA - - example is GM who sells GM/Opel Zafira cng in Europe/Asia/S America but NOT in USA. Same for Ford Focus cng, VW Ecofuel Caddy van cng, upcoming VW Passat bi-fuel cng/gas, Volvo bi-fuel, etc. FORCE Toyota to bring back terrific Toyota Camry cng!! Buy the Honda Civic GX - - Cleanest Car On The Planet for 5 years running!!
See for yourself at:
www.ngvglobal.com
www.cngchat.com
Go CNG !!! cng_across_usa@yahoo.com
firstwagon says:
02:14 PM, 03/11/08
"CNG is way to go!! Do NOT buy another vehicle that is not cng ."
Shhh, you might want to keep that to yourself. If the demand for cng suddenly rose, so would the price. Supply is limited just like oil and the infrastructure (piping etc) is built for the current demand.
At one time CNG was the greatest thing for heating houses here in Canada. Way cheaper then electricity or oil. Everyone switched to it and the price shot up. Now it's cheaper to heat with electricity (although that will change over the next few years as those pricces shoot up too).
Remember, shhh.
jodell says:
01:05 PM, 03/21/08
for kscng:
"writer made a mistake.."
sorry, but here in California, at least, the Phill requires 220.
igotgas says:
12:07 PM, 04/ 4/08
Phill Related
CP of an eamil I got today first one like this I got in November.
A specific production run of the refueling nozzle used on the Phill refueling appliance has been recalled by the manufacturer.
A recalled nozzle can be identified by the “date code” stamped on the nozzle assembly (please refer to the attached picture). The date code can be found on the nozzle hex nut located next to the black plastic handle. If the date code ends with “YO” it has been recalled and is to be exchanged ASAP.
Could you please verify the date code on the refueling hose nozzle, thank you? Please let us know ASAP, thank you.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
FuelMaker Corporation
thebundo says:
02:40 AM, 05/ 5/08
The reason the refueling stations don't reach the 3600 psi is this, they DO, but while the gas is hotter than with a Phill, because the gas is compressed faster and gets hotter. Hence, the gas cools, and you are at about 3200 psi real-world. That's the price of the fast fill. No way around it, but if you can fill at night near home, and top off again in the morning before your commute, you'll get most of the missing gas in there.