Rob Relyea: GreenRob

"My car runs on oil from a baby seal"

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 11:17:31 GMT

Had a work lunch with a teammate and a few folks from another Microsoft group the other day. I drove the 4 of us to lunch (in my wife's new hybrid). My teammate, contrasting it with my hybrid, said his Porsche "runs on oil from a baby seal." :-)

Gallons per Day (GPD)

My gallons per day interest continues, but Ski season (a 90 mile roundtrip once per week in my SUV to the mountains) has hurt my numbers...I also haven't taken the bus for several weeks... :-( Since October I'm averaging 1.53 gallons per day. My wife is a similar 1.57 gallons per day.

Good idea of the Day - cars which help drivers understand their GPD

Would be great if my car could automatically report to me my gallons per day...the last few days, average performance for the year, etc... In fact, everybody's car should do this - getting the right data in front of people in a grokable fashion is the key to awareness and change.

New Category of Posts - GreenRob

This post and a few of my previous posts are now marked with the "GreenRob" category.

Global Impact: GPD: Gallons per Day

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 15:41:45 GMT

I'm interested in lessening my impact on the health of the planet. One of the ways I'm doing that is I'm tracking how many gallons of gas my wife and I use each day.

The major variables are how much we drive, how we drive, and what we drive.

How much we drive
I'm being pretty good about taking a bus to work 3-5 days a week. When the bus isn't late (15 minutes late yesterday during the heavy downpour in the afternoon), I find it is a good use of time as well, as I'm usually working on my tablet.
How we drive
My wife's new hybrid has indicators to show what the current gas mileage you are getting is and also a historical view over time (per minute) as well as an average mileage. With the right information, I can balance how fast I need to accelerate with how it is affecting my mileage.
What we drive
1 Hybrid, 1 SUV

Gallons/Day

Last tank, my car did:

219.4 Miles
15.908 Gallons
13.8 MPG
13 Days
1.22 Gallons/Day
16.87 Miles/Day
$3.94/Day

Last tank, my wife's hybrid did:

389.2 Miles
13.625 Gallons
28.6 MPG
9 Days
1.51 Gallons/Day
43.24 Miles/Day
$4.92/Day

I'll keep track and hope to keep GPD low and get lower...

Tracking Gallons per Day

Write down Total Mileage and Trip Mileage on your gas receipt.

Enter it into this GPD-GallonsPerDay spreadsheet.

Link to zip file containing .xlsx
Link to .xlsx (gotta work with my ISP to upgrade servers to understand new Office mime types)

(Excel 2007 (.xlsx) format. Download and install the Office Compatibility Pack to enable opening these new file types in previous Office versions.)

Global Impact: disposal of Compact Fluorescent Bulbs (mercury)

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 11:53:08 GMT

A post on my new energy conservation by using more Compact Fluorescent (CF) bulbs drew a comment by "nerddawg" questioning the impact of the additional mercury. Thanks Ashish for raising my awareness to this!

A quick search on "mercury recycling cf" in my search box in IE7 found the following:

Proper disposal of CF bulbs is important. Fluorescent bulbs contain mercury.
- It is unlawful for anyone to dispose of fluorescent bulbs as universal waste in the states of California, Minnesota, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin [LightBulbRecycling.com]
CFLs Responsible for Less Mercury than Incandescent Light Bulbs Ironically, CFLs present an opportunity to prevent mercury from entering our air, where it most affects our health. The highest source of mercury in our air comes from burning fossil fuels such as coal, the most common fuel used in the U.S. to produce electricity. A CFL uses 75% less energy than an incandescent light bulb and lasts at least 6 times longer. A power plant will emit 10mg of mercury to produce the electricity to run an incandescent bulb compared to only 2.4mg of mercury to run a CFL for the same time. [GE Lighting fact sheet (pdf) (html)]
- Note: this is the fact sheet from a producer of light bulbs...haven't verified this data elsewhere...
- My impression is that power creation in the state of Washington is cleaner than this (due to major river generated power??)...but I'm not sure...

Proper Disposal of Household Hazardous Waste

Earth911.org helps US or Canada residents find your nearest household hazardous waste disposal facility. There are 3 permanent facilities in Seattle/Bellevue and a WasteMobile which rotates around different community locations.

I save household batteries for periodic disposal at the Bellevue waste facility...now I know that CF bulbs need the same treatment.

I wonder how my neighbors do at this? Perhaps I should tell them I'm planning on going to the facility and help take things there for them.

Energy Conservation: Bulbs and Tankless Water Heater

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 16:43:41 GMT

Compact Fluorescent Bulbs

Shortly after I posted about Energy Conservation, I replaced about a dozen bulbs in the house with Compact Fluorescent bulbs.

Flood Lights

This week, I replaced 9 flood lights (65w each) in my kitchen and main hallway with much more efficient but similar amounts of light Feit High Heat EcoBulb® R30 Reflector bulbs (15w each). (I bought them at Lowes or Home Depot when I stumbled on them the other day.)

4 lights in the hallway now use 60w total instead of 260w.
5 lights in the kitchen now use 75w total instead of 325w.

Dimmable Flood Lights

I just placed an order for 10 GE R30 Dimmable Flood lights for the rest of the flood lights in my kitchen.

Tankless Water Heaters

Several years ago when our water heater failed, we replaced it with a natural gas powered tankless water heater. Now, this past week, as part of a kitchen remodel in our weekend place, we moved to an electric powered tankless water heater. We no longer pay to keep water hot, until we need hot water.

Car

No progress on my car...I have read about bio-diesel and hybrid and other things in the future. The new wave of low emission diesels seem promising, but most car manufacturers are waiting until 2008 to deliver cars capable of dealing with that fuel.

I love the sound of a plug-in hybrid like the Chevy Volt. It seems like controlling emissions at a electricity plant is easier to do than on millions of cars.

One thing I've wondered about is the impact on frequency of car purchases impacts the environment. My current car isn't terribly efficient, but would the environmental impact of building a new car for me be worse than my inefficiency?

I'll keep reading about new developments on AutoblogGreen.

Energy Conservation

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 16:03:32 GMT

I'm looking more into energy conservation.

Part of the problem is that it isn't easy to figure out how you are doing, compare it with how you should be doing, set goals to improve and measure.

Here are a few things I've started to look into:

EPA's Personal Emissions Calculator
Energy Star: Home Energy Yardstick
Automobiles
- FuelEconomy.Gov Vehicle Comparison
- Yahoo's Green Cars
Individual writing about things he has done for sustainable living

I'm going to be more concious in my choices that impact my energy use.