The Low Down On Green Living
March 31st, 2008
How To Save Money on Gas and Cut Global Warming
Stumble it!
As gas prices near $4 per gallon and artic ice shelves plunge into the ocean, there has never been a better time to save gas and help reduce your contribution to global warming. And hey, saving up to $100 per month doesn’t hurt either, eh?
There are many easy ways you can reduce your gas consumption, keep cash in your pocket, and be a better steward of the environment.
+ Use public transportation. Ride the bus, take the metro, ride your bike. Or, gasp!– walk.
+ Carpool. There is even a site that helps you find people to share with– eRideShare.com.
+ Telecommute. Could you work from home today? Got lots of emails and conference calls– consider doing them from home.
+ Combine errands and walk between stops. Can you go to the grocery store and the post office in one trip rather than two? Can you walk from the drug store to the tailor without re-parking?
+ Slow it down there, pardner. If you are driving, remember the faster you go the faster you burn fuel. And rapid acceleration is a big gas-burner too. Use cruise control when you can on the highway. Slow and steady wins the race.
+ Keep your tires well-inflated. Inflated tires help you get better gas mileage. It’s good to check your tires at least once per month.
+ Keep it light. Remove any un-needed weight from the car. Your fuel efficiency is highest when your vehicle is light and aerodynamic. Thus also remove any car racks you’re not using as they create drag.
+ Keep your car tuned up and change your air filter frequently.
+ Try to park in the shade. Gasoline evaporates out of your tank, and sitting in the hot sun speeds up that process. Parking in the shade also keeps it cooler inside, and you will need less A/C to cool off when you get back in.
+ If you’re in the market for car, please consider getting a low- or no-emissions vehicle. A hybrid can be a good option, or you can get a diesel and then use biodiesel fuel. To learn more about hybrids, click here. To learn more about biodiesel, click here.
+ Or what about a motorcycle or a scooter instead of a car? These two-wheel options are much cheaper than cars and they often get 70 mpg or better. You’ll save a ton of money over a car! Check out some cool motos and scooters here.
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Comments
victoria
April 1st, 2008 at 10:50 am
All of the above suggestions have been suggested before and I’m getting tired of them.
Carpooling is not an option when no one is going from the same location to the same destination. How can you carry 300 pounds of dog food, landscaping supplies, tools, 6 bags of groceries and assorted boxes of donation items on a bicycle or a bus?
The shade parking would be a good idea if there was any shade available.
A strong grassroots movement demanding Tesla engines or water/hydrogen power would be a much grander solution long-term.
Only a small amount of enterprises have telecommuting as an option.
Would it be at all possible to get the entire populace to participate in a no-drive day once a week or so? probably not. Too bad.
the best solution, lame though it may be, is to plan your trips in a circle for the sake of efficiency and to prevent back-tracking. A little forethought can go a long way.
laurelle
April 1st, 2008 at 11:08 am
I think the idea is to reduce everything we do. How much stuff do we really need? We are such a hungry nation that the idea of maybe NOT having something is traumatic. I say try buying only food for a month and see how much that reduces the cost of EVERYTHING.
Also I think trips to the various stores can be minimized. I went with my neighbor to the nursery as we both needed bag of dirt and new plants. We got there and realized we had most of what we needed between the two of us. So we did buy some dirt, some plants.
By propagating some of my plants for her and vise-versa we saved tons of water, transportation of new plants via gas vehicles and we SAVED money.
And I asked my daughter to take the bus to see a friend. In LA! She and her friends loved it so much they take the bus whenever they need to get somewhere and we are buying her a bus pass.
So it can be done!
Mary
April 1st, 2008 at 4:17 pm
How about making a committment to yourself that if you live within a 1-3 mile distance from your destination you will either ride a bicycle or walk. It will not only benefit the environment and your health, but will also force you to slow down just a little bit and enjoy the errand.
Shawn
April 1st, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Push our lawmakers, automakers, etc. to promote solar power AND electric cars. I have solar panels on my roof providing me with $3000 dollars in electricity each year. With an electric vehicle, or plug-in hybrid, and a few more solar panels I could be paying almost nothing for gasoline. My payoff of my solar panels would go from ten years to much less! I relish the day when I can decouple myself from the oil and gas industries, and the world instability that it causes. I already smile when electricity prices go up; I know I am saving even more money. Imagine smiling when gas prices go up as well.
Steven
April 1st, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Hydrid vehicles and CFL are not a panacea for all that this country is ailing. Do you consider the Cradle to Grave? CFLs cost more because they use much more energy to build, contain mercury and phosphorus, along with electronics. Hybrid vehicles have toxic batteries that need to be disposed of roughly every 5 years. Solar panels are okay, but they are not free of their problems, one of them is being only 11% efficient. Iwould rather see striling engines and solar power from the heat of the sun. There needs to be an advancement in another storage medium, other than batteries. And I agree with Victoria, these ideas have been regurgitated so often and I can’t fathom anyone not knowing them.
Shawn
April 1st, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Steven,
No intention of starting an argument here. Just getting facts straight. Yes, batteries are a problem. At least we have been doing a fair job of recycling lead-acid batteries and hopefully other battery types will find some sort of cradle-to-crade existence. And yes, something such as an ultra-capacitor would be great but we have to start somewhere. Without a market for the electric vehicle, I question how quickly the development of these sort of technologies will happen, especially considering how little the government is doing to promote these types of advancements. But, the Prius warranties the Ni-Cd batteries in the Prius for 10 years/150, 000 miles. My friend has a well functioning 1996 Toyota RAV 4 electric vechile with the original Ni-Cd batteries. There is over 100, 000 miles on the vehicle. For the solar, my SunPower 220 watt panels are approximately 22% efficient. Not great, but a lot more efficient than the combustion engine, and not nearly as efficient as an electric motor. As for other problems, other than the not-so-environmentally friendly production process, I don’t feel there are any. They are warrantied to produce at least 90% of their output (which I easily track) for 25 years, and I won’t have to replace the inverters until year 12 or so. They may not be perfect, but more practical than installing solar thermal on my roof and then trying to convert that to electricity.
Some good news, 3 new solar thermal installations are being place in the Mojave desert-enough to produce something like 375 Mwatts.
Brian
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:08 am
I have to agree, I’ve heard all these ideas before, and unfortunately alot of them for me are impracticle. When I live 19 miles away from work (Thank goodness I moved closer to work, twice in the last 5 years) I can’t walk, there’s very little public trans options, and it wouldn’t matter anyway since I have to take my oldest son to school in the morning first.
As for my wife, she needs to take the other 3 to drop the second oldest off, and taking 2 babies on public trans I can’t imagine being anything less then a tremendous effort, not an easy one. Aside from which, she has to pick up both older children, and have the babies when coming home from 2 schools, in 2 different towns. Luckily we have a mini-van with an “eco” factor, it cuts of 3 cyls when not needed, but there really isn’t a smaller vehicle that’s a practical option.
Steven
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Shawn,
I didnt’ mean to start an argument, I am just sick of haring people promote items without fully investigating them. I am impressed by warranty from Toyota, Honda was 5 years. I am also impress by SunPower being 22%, everything that i have researched shows them in a range from 11% to 14%. Not saying thay are a bad idea, but PV, as it is now, is not the complete answer to our power issues. Actually there isn’t A answer, but many answers. You won’t see oil, coal, etc go away, you will (hopefully soon) them fade from the primary energy means. Where I live there is an abundant supply of wind, but most people have that “Not in my backyard” syndrome while they are complaining about fuel oil and gas prices. The internals combustion engine is about 20 to 30% efficient deffinitely not the same as an electric motor, but remember the more your convert energy the more you loose
One last thing, if anyone waits for the government to do something about anything they need to smarten up. What we need is less government (so it is harder to corrupt) and more private investors to push forward against the corporate powerhouses. It would also help if the public wasn’t apathetic.
At least it sounds like you consider more than what you are told.
Justin
April 28th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
I took my spring break to try and find ways to improve the mpg of my truck and I wrote about it on a blog @ greenergas.blogspot.com… I hope some of the information is helpful, it was a really fun side project and I think a lot of people could use it to their advantage.
Cheers,
Justin
Joesblue
May 29th, 2008 at 7:52 am
I dont know what all the big deal is about 30+ miles a gallon
I have a 1991 Geo Metro that gets 35MPG on average and needs a tuneup
Its a 4 cylinder built in 1991
Someone tell me why I would want to “upgrade”
joesblue@gmail.com
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johnk
August 30th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Here’s a web page that helps you calculate the cost savings of riding a bus: http://riceball.com/drupal/node/568
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