Alternative Fuels & Fuel Conservation
As gas prices continue to soar, we have made some searches and comparisons,
and found FREE services that list the cheapest prices in your area, or along a
trip route. Also, we discuss some safe alternatives for the immediate to distant
future (if there is one).
Gas prices seem to defy physics and have beaten Newton’s law of gravity. As
we’ve seen for decades, what goes up, doesn’t come down.
Monday, May 15th, it was reported that a Bush administration Deputy Energy
Secretary Clay Sell said there is not much more the government can do about it.
According to Dep. Sell, we’re caught between soaring oil demand, a lack of
investment on the supply side. While visiting federal labs on the West Coast and
promoting administration plans for recycling nuclear fuel, Sell said it will be
a very long time before there’s more oil.
Sell suggested we might be in better shape if Congress had approved drilling in
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off the Continental Shelf. Many experts,
including Severin Borenstein, a professor in Berkeley's Haas School of Business
and director of the University of California Energy Institute, disagree that it
would have made a noticeable price difference.
What the feds can and are doing is pushing new fuel supplies. The direction it
seems to be going is towards corn/crop based ethanol. Taxpayers would subsidize
and double federal research funds. I can save you the time and money. I remember
ethanol was added to gas decades ago and then pulled because of its problems.
Maybe engines have changed, but experts say there are many better solutions, and
ones that won’t keep increasing global warming which many scientists say it’s
too late to stop the extinction level damages from. Even if the entire world
stopped everything that contributed to it NOW. As you read on though, you’ll see
we have possible survival solutions, along with “quickie” gas price problem fix
ideas.
In any case, we’ve never seen gas prices go down once they’re up, so let’s look at things we can do to help now, and in the future.
WE HAVE SOME SUGGESTIONS TO HELP
As with everything in our lives, living like an ostrich with our head in the
sand pretending we’re safe, is anything but. All good change starts with
stopping living in denial.
Yes, but we need to start by being totally realistic. If you want to skip the
sermon about what’s happening in our world and why, click here, otherwise read
on and you’ll get to the suggestions and “cheap gas price” deals anyway.
Anyway, besides electric powered vehicles that are available now, and hydrogen
fuel cell powered ones are the most amazing.
Hydrogen is simply the purest and totally non polluting fuel there is. Unlike
the bad publicity it’s gotten about being dangerously explosive,
it’s far safer than things like gas. And it’s basically just a matter of using a
bit of power (solar even) run through plates in a water tank. That breaks down
the water into it’s parts (H20 - hydrogen and oxygen), then when they are put
back together (through a membrane like cube about the size of a small to medium
cooler) it makes electricity. What’s really cool is that the only resulting
“pollution” is distilled water. It’s possible, but difficult, to do this
yourself, but it “ain’t gonna happen”.
While these fuel cells are being used in cars and for generating power in
National Parks, they’re widely “unavailable” at a reasonable price or size.
However there are some loopholes you can use. I.e., it’s possible to make electricity just from the
Earth’s electromagnetic field, Tesla and thousands of others have done it, but
they and or their devices or plans are gone. Consider this, the electromagnetic
field is what makes a compass needle point north, deflects powerful solar flare
magnetic and plasma (worse than lava) blasts away from the Earth (for now, it’s
weakening and shifting. Already it’s reversing, and instead of going from pole
to pole, it’s starting to go back in, or out, in the area of southern South
America or Africa, and other places – this is science fact, along with other
disturbing details involving it’s spin and wobble). On a small level, your car
battery is being charged by a thing called an alternator or generator, that’s
just a bunch of coiled up wires spinning inside some magnets. It’s spinning
because it’s hooked to a belt that’s attached to the engine, so when the
engine’s on, it turns a shaft, and a belt from that turns your alternator. The
same with wind power generators, except the wind is turning the alternator or
generator. The same with a fuel powered generator. Those who’ve come up with
the free power systems either using magnets, the Earth’s field or some other
means, are either bought out or “stop”.
You can make your own solar or hydrogen power, they’ve allowed that, but it’s
priced outside the reach of practicality. So it all comes back to the “Earth
friendly” alternatives need to be turned into something that they control and
make money from, and that’s about the only way it’s ever going to go anywhere on
a large scale.
In California, they’ve succeeded in this with hydrogen to a limited degree. They
have set up hundreds of hydrogen fuel stations with the help of a program, I
think a government one but I’m not sure. So if you own one of the few hydrogen
powered vehicles (which are really cool by the way because they have that
silent, powerful electric motor propulsion system powered by a hydrogen fuel
cell) you can drive anywhere you can make it between fueling stations, which
I’ve heard keeps growing.
Nationally though, it seems like they’re pushing the “turning fermented crops
into alcohol and adding it to gas”, called “ethanol”. Not the cleanest thing.
Another allowed alternative, that has up and downsides, is conversion to natural
gas, methane or propane. Propane converted cars and trucks have been around for
decades. It’s much cleaner burning and engine parts last a very long time. I
used to have a truck I had converted, and could just flip a switch to change it
from gas to propane or back. But it is oil based also, so it’s cost has gone up
with oil.
SO HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO, FROM THE OBVIOUS, MOST SIMPLE, TO THE MORE
SOPHISTICATED:
First, buy gas for the best prices. We’ve done comparisons. These companies use
volunteer “gas price spotters” to find the best deals. We recommend the first
one, since it’s been around longer and in our tests it turned up prices in areas
where the second company didn’t have any volunteers yet (unless you’d like to
start helping out and become a spotter). Secondly, they have a trip planning
feature (I don’t know if that’s free or not, but you can just check the prices
free as you go if necessary. http://www.gaspricewatch.com/new/ and
http://www.gasbuddy.com
1) Retrain yourself to drive “gas friendly”:
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I.e., the faster you speed up/the harder you press the accelerator pedal, the
more gas you’ll use.
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The faster you drive, the worse your mileage will be.
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Driving up hill, and keeping up with speed, uses more gas.
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Braking more, then speeding back up, uses more than a style of thinking ahead,
letting your foot off the gas to slow down, then gently catching back up as the
traffic moves again.
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Actually having a clean and/or waxed car helps a bit at high speeds.
2) Lose Weight and keep your tires inflated properly: The heavier your car, the
worse your mileage. The more people, items and junk in your car, the more power
it takes and more gas it guzzles. Many people don’t even think about the
unnecessary junk or weight they just leave in the back or trunk. As far as
tires, keep them inflated as high as is safe. Check with an expert at what you
can keep it at. Also, often, when loaded down and going on trips, you’re
supposed to inflate more. Again, check with a tire company expert, read them
what it says on the side of you tires. Since many experts also don’t know what
they’re talking about, I have a general rule of getting three opinions that are in
agreement before I accept it.
3) Keep your vehicle tuned up. It’s not just a matter of running better anymore.
Again, with the new gas prices that are still climbing, it will pay for itself
and then keep saving you.
4) Additives. Some companies claim they have additives that increase mileage.
This may or may not be true. Sometimes doing a search online for forums
discussing their experiences with a product will tell you, but you have to watch
out for “plants” working for the company, or competition, putting down a
company.
5) Synthetic oil helps just about everything, from engine wear, working in a
wide range of heat and cold without changing “oil weight”, and if it reduces
friction, it will increase mileage and power. Companies like Porsche don’t
recommend only using it, for no reason. Keep it clean for the same reasons.
Change the oil at it’s recommended milage, along with oil filters – whatever
your car manufacturers says.
6) Diesel – This is even worth considering
selling your vehicle and repurchasing one with a diesel engine, in more than one
way. While diesel prices have oddly risen beyond gas prices in the last year or
so, when it used to be less, I’ve heard diesel vehicles actually get better mileage,
outweighing the cost difference. Engines using it also last far longer. Think
about it, there’s a reason the big rig truck drivers use diesel engines rather
than gas – and they have to make a living, so fuel costs and engine wear/repair
cut directly into their income bottom line.
So if you’re shopping around, and have an option, it’s probably the better bet.
SusPro is even hoping for contributions of diesel trucks, vehicles, storage
tanks and construction equipment. It’s also an extremely safe fuel. I’ve tried
to light it directly, and it won’t even burn.
Keep in mind that the increase in diesel fuel costs, in particular, have hurt us
all economically in a big way by making shipping more expensive (remember that
before complaining about higher shipping costs or flights – fuel costs have
really increased it).
Another reason to buy diesel, is that if there is a fuel crisis, keeping trucks
moving (supplies, food, you name it), agricultural equipment, construction, etc.
will be a priority, and thus may be the governments priority, and available when
gas isn’t. It’s invaluable. It can be used for heating also, and you can buy
diesel generators or “3 fuel/tri-fuel” models.
Bio Diesel – Save money, pollution, and take a “green” ecological Earth friendly
approach by recycling. There are new home/farm diesel making products available
– once you make the initial investment of between 5 and 8 thousand dollars
(seems like a lot at first, but if you can make it for about a buck a gallon,
how long before the equipment pays for itself, and you are saving money like
crazy. Plus, if fuel isn’t available, you could be making your own in an
emergency. It can also use old frying oil from restaurants or new vegetable oils
to make. Restaurants must pay to have old oil legally disposed of otherwise, and
you can even make your own veggie oil if you know what to grow and can do it.
One man in Europe makes a huge business making oil from sunflower seeds that is
then used as bio-diesel. In a pinch, I’ve heard that you can even run a diesel
engine on just veggie oil.
Email Us if you are interested in making a contribution, buying equipment
that has passed our experimental programs, or perhaps becoming a dealer for some
of alternative or sustainable living companies that have affiliate or wholesale
programs.
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