Status-Q

I’ve been driving an electric car for about a decade now, but because we also have a fossil-burning campervan, I do still occasionally need to visit one of those dirty, smelly, legacy refuelling stations, so…

If you use a site like PetrolPrices.com, you can find out roughly how much fuel costs at the various petrol stations near you.

This is handy. But it’s not really what you want to know, is it?

You actually want to know whether it’s worth driving 10 extra miles to fill up your tank at a cheaper location, given the extra time and distance involved and the fact that your tank is already half-full at present. It’s not always easy to translate a potential saving of 2.5p per litre into a number that means very much. Will it, for example, help pay off your mortgage, or just let you buy an extra chocolate biscuit when you get there?

So, in a burst of enthusiasm this morning, I threw together a little calculator to help with the maths:

Are you being a fuel fool?

Feedback and bug reports welcome!