Transportation

So... going places, going green. From about the spring of 2006 to the spring of 2007, I ran a Ford f-250 turbo diesel and a VW TDI Jetta on home "brewed" veggie diesel (made mostly of free, used vegetable oil I collected from neighborhood restaurants). Why did I stop you ask? Well, that's complex, but basically a few reasons:
1. my VW kept needing repairs on a WEEKLY basis... no, not engine repairs (though I did have one glow plug relay go out, but unrelated to fuel use), but electrical. I am not a mechanic or an electrician (unfortunately), so after burning up thousands of dollars in repairs over three months, I sold the thing. My old Ford diesel is just, well, old and has also been needing lots of repairs... some of which may have been related to my next problem
2. I got very annoyed with restaurants dumping water into the oil I collected, even after I supplied them with equipment to avoid this
3. I moved to a home where I no longer had the space to make my veggie diesel
4. I got too darn busy to make it anymore (it easily took 5 - 10 hours a week to collect, clean, mix, filter, pump, etc the diesel... I needed a co-op!).

I learned a lot during this whole process though, namely that diesel engine vehicles can run perfectly on free/cheap fuel - vegetable oil... that there are better ways to go about doing that than the way I did and it if I did it over I would either convert my vehicles to run on straight vegetable oil (I was mixing in about 10 - 15% diesel and some other diesel additives to condition the veggie oil first), or I would collaborate with a community of people to either make our own bio-diesel with commercially available kits or buy in bulk from places like Dr. Dan's. For now, I just buy bio-diesel or bio diesel blend (B20) from one of the gas stations in the Bellevue area where I work.

But all of this costs a lot of money, or know how, or just plain guts (scary thought to put bio-diesel in your vehicle if/when doing so voids your warranty). What would be some easier ways to make your daily ride greener than it is today? Well, for starters... say you drive a gasoline powered car. EVERY gasoline powered car can run on a blend of 10% ethanol... currently most ethanol produced today is made from corn, unfortunately, which usually means it is overall as much or more polluting than gasoline is (when you factor in all the energy that goes into making the ethanol from corn). See these links for some more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel
(general info about ethanol production and more links)
http://www.igreens.org.uk/ethanol_from_corn_.htm
(criticisms on how ethanol has typically been produced in the U.S.)
http://www.springerlink.com/content/r1552355771656v0/
(some information about energy outputs from different plants for ethanol and biodiesel)

But the bottom line about ethanol is there are truly sustainable ways to make it; check out an article in Wired magazine about one Vinod Khosla's approach (one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems):
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.10/ethanol_pr.html

* We could utilize every part of the corn plant in the process, we could power the production facilities with methane produced from farm animals that eat the waste cellulose fiber (all of this is from article on Khosla's efforts).

* We could make the ethanol out of grass or algae or any sort of cellulose, preferably types we don't eat.

* We could optimize our engines (increase compression, etc) to run further on ethanol - currently, those flex-fuel vehicles you may have heard about... can run on up to 85% ethanol, but they get worse fuel economy on E85 than when running on lower mixes of ethanol or gasoline... because the engines are not optimized for ethanol.

To do that, gasoline/ethanol engines would have to be built more like diesel engines (higher compression and heavier/sturdier engine blocks). So, there are lots of ways we could be handling this better and cellulosic ethanol seems to be a mass production reality waiting in the wings... and in the meantime, increased demand should speed its development/circulation. So, find out where the blended ethanol gas stations in your neighborhood are and find out if they sell E10 (which ANY gas powered car will run on) or E85, fuel up with that stuff to cut down your carbon emissions a little. Note, since the MTBE gasoline additive was discontinued, ethanol is typically being used in most part of the country now during the colder months to oxygenate our fuel. Which means you are likely using it already, at least part of the year... but why not use it year round?

If you want to get more ethanol powered locomotion, see if you can't get your car converted to run on E85 (This article makes it seem relatively easy, but then... maybe it is more complicated than it sounds; I'm not a mechanic, and NEVER do anything like this without doing adequate research first and or asking a qualified shop to do the work for you). Hop online, do some research.

Of course, there are all the really easy things like:
* drive less
* ride a bike
* take the bus/train/alpaca/mule train
* walk
* drive a motorcycle/scooter instead of a car
* move closer to work/school
* inflate your tires properly
* get oil and filter changes at regularly scheduled intervals
* drive less aggressively
* coast whenever safe to do so
* turn off your engine if you are sitting still in a traffic jam for more than a minute (all newer fuel injected cars, unlike cars more than 15 - 20 years old, or so, do NOT use more gas by turning them on/off... they waste gas by idling though)
* use your engine to slow down/break as much as possible (down shifting)
* carpool
* combine errands
* drive stick rather than auto (if you can)
* don't haul around extra weight when you don't need to
* buy the most fuel efficient vehicle that suits your needs

and so on... the boring stuff basically (but smart never the less). But I want to share/hear about better ways to get ourselves around that go beyond the simple things, I want to hear about/share some unorthodox approaches.

Anybody else got any ideas? Me... I'm waiting for electric (think Tesla motors, but for the common people... wish I could afford a $109,000 car now though), and or plug-in hybrid cars... and if plug in hybrid, hopefully capable of running on ethanol, bio-diesel, or compressed natural gas (GM says the Volt will run on ethanol, in some versions perhaps, and has an optional solar panel roof to extend range! Do some searching). Hydrogen is too far out for now, though it does seem like a nearly perfect solution (as long as they are generating that hydrogen in a green way... like through solar powered electrical process). Time for bed... and greener dreams. :o)

What have I done?

So, put up or shut tinman.... what exactly have you done, so far, to be Greener Than? Well... the whole point of this blog is to chronicle steps, stages, compare notes, compete (in a friendly sort of way) to do even more, do better, do it right so that all of us can exist more sustainably... so this is just the beginning and this doesn't include everything, and some things I did, but don't do now, and some things, I'll say, are what I hope to do.

Perhaps the biggest things I have done is go solar (see photos). Specifically, I have a 2.7kw PV array plus a 20 tube Thermomax hot water heater system. 2.7kw is enough for about 35 - 40% of my yearly total power (based on last year's bill). I am trying to lower my power use by at least 10% from last year by switching to LED lights (the one flood pictured uses just 2.75 watts of power... compared to 16 watts for the compact florescent I replaced and lasts 10x longer, and mercury free to boot), replacing desktop PC's with laptops, plugging everything possible into power strips to completely cut them off when not in use, line drying, replacing appliances as they fail with the most efficient, longest lasting types I can find, turning down the heat, and so on. The solar hot water by the way has, since July, made 100% of all the hot water we need. In Seattle... I expect that our gloomy winter will reduce that significantly... but I expect overall for the 20 tube unit to make 60% of our total hot water, or better, on average.

There is much more to update on re: household greening... like comparing gas + electric bills before and after the solar stuff. Before, (2007) my August gas + electric bill was $85 (our house is already extremely well insulated). After, (2008) $12 in my favor (this is after factoring in the WA state incentive that I won't receive until July 2009... my actual power bill was $33). Our only natural gas use was to keep pilot light running on original water heater and our PV made approximately 57% of our total electricity). In the next two years, I plan to add additional PV to get to at least 3.5kw, hopefully more (this stuff ain't cheap, that's for sure). Next time... transportation.

Links:
http://www.ledlight.com/LZHousehold.aspx
(LED light source)
http://www.ccrane.com/lights/led-light-bulbs/index.aspx
(another LED light source)
http://www.aandrsolar.com/
(PV and water heater installers, I endorse these guys - they do great work and they are friendly, well informed, communicative contractors)
http://solar.sharpusa.com/solar/modules/1,2474,4-2,00.html
(I have Sharp PV panels)
http://www.thermomax.com/Tech_Index.php
(Thermomax - my brand of solar hot water collector)
http://www.iinet.com/~solarwashington/
(another great site for research on WA state solar resources)