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Title: Fuel consumption impacts of auto roof racks

Journal Article · · Energy Policy
 [1];  [2]
  1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

The after-market roof rack is one of the most common components attached to a vehicle for carrying over-sized items, such as bicycles and skis. It is important to understand these racks' fuel consumption impacts on both individual vehicles and the national fleet because they are widely used. We estimate the national fuel consumption impacts of roof racks using a bottom-up approach. Our model incorporates real-world data and vehicle stock information to enable assessing fuel consumption impacts for several categories of vehicles, rack configurations, and usage conditions. In addition, the model draws on two new data-gathering techniques, on-line forums and crowd-sourcing. The results show that nationwide, roof racks are responsible for 0.8‰ of light duty vehicle fuel consumption in 2015, corresponding to 100 million gallons of gasoline per year. Sensitivity analyses show that results are most sensitive to the fraction of vehicles with installed roof racks but carrying no equipment. The aerodynamic efficiency of typical roof racks can be greatly improved and reduce individual vehicle fuel consumption; however, government policies to minimize extensive driving with empty racks-if successful-could save more fuel nationally.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE); USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308; AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1257753
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1359069; OSTI ID: 1440929
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5400-66646
Journal Information:
Energy Policy, Vol. 92; ISSN 0301-4215
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 10 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (1)

The Negative Impact of Vehicular Intelligence on Energy Consumption journal July 2019

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30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
roof racks
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