efficient 20 fuel consumption database d2.2 free farmer’s ......efficient 20 fuel consumption...

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).

- Add and view fuel measurements (Operations menu).

- View graphs showing fuel consumption by activity, implement and fuel-saving 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.

purchased


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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.

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 ( )

Click here to enter

new measurements


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Begin by selecting your farm and the tractor that you have used from the drop-down 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 on-

board 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.

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.

Record ID

Click on the ID to

edit the record


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As can be seen above, records 74 and 75 are now linked.

ID of baseline

measurement record

entered here.

Details of fuel-

saving solution used

entered here.


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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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