LPG Car Conversion Kenya: Today I am going to get up close and candid with LPG conversions and why they might NOT save you any money.
Lately there has been a craze of LPG conversions on cars in Kenya with the biggest contributing factor being that LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) goes for about Ksh.60 per litre.
Before you convert your vehicle to LPG; there are a few things you need to know..
There are a few advantages that come with an LPG conversion namely;
- Reduced emissions.
- Price of LPG.
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But these benefits are brushed off by a few other factors..
There are a few problems with LPG and regular internal combustion engines.
If you want your car to run on LPG, import a vehicle whose engine is designed to run purely on LPG. (there are quite a good number of Toyota Probox that run on LPG that you can get on Beforward Japan)
- If you do an LPG conversion of your petrol propelled vehicle you will experience efficiency losses of up to 20%. The reason behind this is that a normal petrol engine will not have a compression ratio suitable enough to exploit the 110 RON rating of LPG. To get optimum efficiency from LPG you need a compression ratio of about 12:1.(Remember that discussion about V-Power we had?)
- Increased fuel consumption by up to 40-50%
If your car consumes 1 litre of petrol for every 12KMs, well you will get 6KMs per litre of LPG.
The factual reason behind this is that LPG has a lower energy density compared to Petrol. 26 million Joules per litre vs 34.2 Joules per litre. This means that more of LPG has to be burnt to achieve the same results petrol would give. This brushes off the reduced emissions advantage.
- Your vehicle will loose several ‘horse powers’ running on LPG.
Other cons of doing an LPG conversion are
- LPG is not as widely available as petrol. You will still need to have petrol in your fuel tank in case you run out of LPG in a place; (well most places) where you cannot access LPG.
- The conversion will cost you around Ksh.55,000. Why do you need to spend Sh. 55,000 and still have petrol in your tank?
If you do a cost benefit analysis of an LPG conversion; well the figures do not really show value for money. LPG Car Conversion Kenya.