Efficient 20 Fuel Consumption Database
D2.2 Free Farmer’s/Forester’s User Guide
Version 1, 11/02/2013
David Ellis
Ruralnet Futures
[email protected]
Efficient20 Database – Free Farmer’s Guide
Version 1
11/2/2013
Contents
1
INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................................3
2
LOGGING IN TO THE DATABASE.........................................................................................5
3
REGISTERING YOUR FARM AND EQUIPMENT ................................................................8
3.1
Registering your Farm.........................................................................................................8
3.2
Registering your Vehicles...................................................................................................8
3.3
Registering your Implements ...........................................................................................9
3.4
Registering your Drivers...................................................................................................10
4
PRINTING FORMS FOR RECORDING FUEL CONSUMPTION ....................................12
5
VIEWING AND ENTERING FUEL MEASUREMENTS......................................................13
5.1
Recording comparable measurements .......................................................................16
6
VIEWING FUEL CONSUMPTION REPORTS .....................................................................18
7
DATA EXPORT ...........................................................................................................................20
8
FURTHER HELP .........................................................................................................................20
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1 Introduction
Welcome to the Efficient20 project and this short guide to using the Efficient20
fuel-measurement database.
Background
Fuel used in farming machinery represents more than a third of the energy
consumed in agriculture, so introducing fuel saving measures can play a
significant part in reducing input costs and improving farm profitability.
While most farmers do their best to work efficiently, there are usually several
improvements that can be made to the way the tractor is set-up, driven and
maintained which together substantially reduce fuel consumption per hectare.
More information about each of these fuel-saving “techniques” can be found in
the Efficient20 Fuel Efficiency Guide , available on the Efficient20 website
http://uk.efficient20.eu/2012/07/18/fuel-efficiency-guide/
Measuring is the key to success
Recording actual fuel usage is the starting point for making savings. The
simplest way to measure fuel usage is to begin with a full tank and then refuel at
the end of an activity, recording the filled volume. Fuel measuring equipment,
such as a CAN-BUS or flow-turbines fitted to the tractor fuel lines permit in-field
measurement, while on-board computers on some tractors can show fuel
consumption. Knowing litres used per hectare, tonne or kilometre is generally
more useful than litres per hour.
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The Efficient20 database has been developed to help you monitor your fuel
consumption and to see the effect of applying some of the fuel-saving techniques
identified in the Fuel Efficiency guide.
The database is also being used by farmers and foresters from across 9 the
European countries participating in the Efficient20 project. To date, over 2,000
fuel measurements from a wide variety of agricultural and forestry operations
have been recorded, enabling farmers and foresters to compare their fuel
measurements and determine which fuel-saving techniques have the greatest
impact in reducing their fuel consumption.
How often should fuel usage be recorded?
We recognise that farmers and foresters are busy people and we don’t want to
add to the burden of paperwork associated with modern farming. There is no
need to record fuel usage every time you get in the cab; instead try measuring
your fuel usage for the same activity (for example, for ploughing) three of four
times when working in similar conditions. This will help to establish your
average fuel consumption for that activity. You can then try implementing one
of the fuel-saving techniques, such as adjusting your tyre pressures or working
at a lower engine speed (rpm), and measure the fuel used again to see how
consumption has changed. The database enables you to compare these “before”
and “after” fuel measurements to see the impact.
Can any farmer of forester use the Efficient20 database?
Yes. Any farmer or forester can register to use the database at
http://efficient20.eu/appfarms/register
Will my fuel measurement data be visible to anyone else?
No. The measurements that you record in the database cannot be seen by other
farmers or members of the public. Your data may be used to produce reports
and graphs on fuel consumption, but your identity or the name of your farm will
not be shown in any published material. Efficient20 project partners have access
to all measurement data within the database, but will only use this for the
purposes of analysing fuel efficiency.
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2 Logging in to the Database
From the Efficient20 website, http://efficient20.eu select “Database” from the
menu bar.
On the Database page, enter your login details in the box beneath the bar charts
and click on the “Login” button.
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Once logged in, the database home page and menu is displayed.
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Once logged in, you can :
-
Print out forms for recording your fuel consumption (Print form menu).
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Add and view fuel measurements (Operations menu).
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View graphs showing fuel consumption by activity, implement and fuelsaving solution (Reports menu).
-
Export your data to a spreadsheet for your own analysis (Data export
menu).
However, to get started, you first need to register the equipment that you’ll be
using. This only needs to be done once – please follow the steps set out in
Chapter 3.
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3 Registering your farm and equipment
Before entering any fuel measurements, you must first register your Farm and
details of the Vehicles (tractors, sprayers, combine harvesters, etc), Implements
(e.g. disc harrow, seed drill, baler, trailer) and Group Members (drivers). You
don’t need to register everything – just the equipment that you’ll be using when
recording your fuel usage. This information only needs to be entered once.
When entering a fuel measurement, you simply select which tractor, implement
and driver was used (from your registration list) and then record the litres of fuel
used and the area worked (or volume harvested, distance travelled, etc).
3.1 Registering your Farm
Clicking on the
symbol next to the Farm heading opens an empty form.
Fields marked with are mandatory.
3.2 Registering your Vehicles
Clicking on the
symbol next to the Vehicles heading opens an empty form.
Fields marked with are mandatory.
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3.3 Registering your Implements
Clicking on the
symbol next to the Implements heading opens an empty form.
Fields marked with are mandatory.
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In the “Mulitlingual” field, select the type of implement from the drop-down list.
Implements in the list are grouped according to the type of agricultural work –
i.e. breeding (livestock), loading, fertilising and crop protection, forestry
preparation, forestry harvesting, harvesting, manure and slurry spreading, soil
tillage, transport).
3.4 Registering your Drivers
Having registered for access to the Efficient20 Fuel Consumption Database, you
will already have an account (user name and password) and will be registered as
a Group Member (Driver). You can add additional drivers by clicking on the
symbol next to the Group Member heading, which opens an empty form. Fields
marked with are mandatory
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The Username can consist of letters and/or numbers, but no other characters or
spaces are allowed.
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4 Printing Forms for Recording Fuel Consumption
All of the tractors and implements that you listed when joining the Efficient20
project are already registered in the database. To make it easy for you to record
your fuel usage in the tractor cab, a recording sheet is available for each type of
activity.
From the Database home page, choose “Print form” from the menu bar.
Select your farm and the activity type from the drop-down list and click the
“Print form” button.
Each form shows the tractor(s) and implements that you have registered,
making it easy to record the equipment that you use for each operation that you
measure.
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5 Viewing and Entering Fuel Measurements
From the Database home page, choose “Operations” from the menu bar.
Click here to enter
new measurements
Existing fuel measurements are displayed, with the option to filter these
according to implement type and activity type (Harvesting, Breeding, transport,
Soil Tillage, Fertilisation and crop protection, Loading, Manure and slurry
spreading, Forest harvesting and Forest preparation).
To enter a new fuel measurement, click on the green plus sign (
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Begin by selecting your farm and the tractor that you have used from the dropdown list.
Then select the activity type from the drop-down list
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The form then shows the mandatory fields (marked with a *) that need to be
completed and optional fields that are relevant for the activity you have selected.
An example for Soil Tillage is show below:
Field name
Information required
Comparison ID
See Section 4.1
Fuel consumption
The fuel used for this activity in litres.
Measurement method
How you measured your fuel consumption. An onboard computer measurement showing l/hr should be
classed as an “instantaneous measurement”, while
measuring fuel consumption over a given area or
duration should be classed as a “plot measurement”.
Solution
The type of fuel-saving technique that you were using.
Where no specific technique was used, choose “None”
from the drop-down list.
Solution precision
Details of the fuel saving technique – e.g. tyre
pressures, changes to working depth, engine or PTO
rpm.
Global duration
How long the activity took (according to the tractor’s
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hours meter) including any travel to the field if this was
included in the fuel measurement (i.e. when fuel
consumption is measured by filling the tractor in the
yard and re-filling it after the work is complete).
Worked area
The area that was worked.
Work duration
How long the activity took (according to the tractor’s
hours meter), excluding any travel to the field.
Having completed all of the mandatory fields and any optional fields, click on the
“Save” button to save the data.
5.1 Recording comparable measurements
One of the best ways of measuring the effectiveness of a particular fuel-saving
technique (solution) is to record your fuel consumption for an activity working in
your normal way (a baseline measurement), and then repeating the
measurement when using the fuel-saving technique. Ideally, these two
measurements should be carried out under identical conditions (such as working
in the same field on the same day).
Record the fuel measurements in the database in the usual way (as described
above). However, to indicate that they are comparable measurements, the two
operations need to be linked together. To do this, the ID of the baseline
measurement needs to be recorded in the Comparison ID field of the repeat
measurement record. A list of measurements (including IDs) is displayed on the
Operations page. The list can be shown in date order by clicking on the Date
column heading.
Record ID
Click on the ID to
edit the record
Having found the ID of the baseline measurement, edit the record of the repeat
measurement by clicking on the ID number, and enter the ID of the baseline
measurement in the Comparison ID field.
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ID of baseline
measurement record
entered here.
Details of fuelsaving solution used
entered here.
As can be seen above, records 74 and 75 are now linked.
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6 Viewing Fuel Consumption Reports
The Reports menu provides three types of fuel consumption charts:
i) A fuel consumption by activity chart, which displays the fuel consumption
recorded for any of the 9 types of farming/forestry activity. The highest,
lowest and average fuel consumption recorded by farmers/foresters using the
same type of implement is shown. Data can be filtered according to country,
and fuel consumption can be displayed in different units (i.e. l/ha. l/km, l/ton
or l/hr) according to the activity.
The example above shows the fuel consumption that has been recorded for
harvesting activities involving a variety of different implements.
ii) A fuel consumption by solution chart, which shows the impact of using
different fuel-saving “solutions” (e.g. eco-driving, or changing the ballast).
For each of the 9 farming/forestry activities, average baseline fuel
consumption and average consumption achieved using a specific fuel saving
solution are displayed for different implement types.
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The example above shows the effect that eco-driving has had on soil-tillage
activities.
iii) A fuel consumption by implement chart, which displays the individual fuel
consumptions achieved by farmers/foresters using a specific implement.
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In the example above, each blue bar is a separate fuel measurement
recorded by farmers across Europe (in this case using a 5 furrow plough).
Yellow bars show your own fuel measurements and how these fuel
consumptions compare with those recorded by other farmers.
7 Data Export
The Data export feature allows you to export your fuel measurement data to an
Excel spreadsheet or similar application. Farm, vehicle and implement details
are included (rather than just showing Tractor_ID, Implement_ID, etc) to
support offline analysis.
8 Further help
For help in using the Efficient20 Fuel Consumption Database, please email
[email protected]
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