Nuclear Energy... Fact: more people die in coal mine accidents in one year that die in Nuclear Accidents. Fact: Emissions from Coal and Fossil Fuels contribute more to green house effect than Nuclear Energy Ever will. Fact: Renewable Resource, hence Cheaper than fuel that is non-renewable.
Cheaper,cleaner,safer
IT has a stigma from our parents generation (if your parent is a boomer), and of course 2 known accidents..Chernobyl which can be attributed to clumsy russians, and Three Mile Island...no one died at 3 mile island, back in 1986 we had the commodore 64 today we have Macs to give you an idea of were we are with technology, so to think an accident like chernobyl will happen again (in a 3rd world country, or anywhere) is highly unlikely. I wouldnt mind paying 2 bucks a gallon...
who drives a 2004 Toyota Tundra with the 4.7 V-8. His wife has a Sequoia with the 4.7, but not sure of the year. We started talking about gas prices the other day, prompted because he saw my behemoth of a '79 New Yorker, and was curious as to what kind of mileage it got.
Anyway, he commutes about 55-60 miles round trip per day, while his wife commutes about 80. He figures that between the two of them, they're blowing at least $700 per month on gas! He came to the realization that 90+ percent of the time, it's just him alone in his truck, and it's rare that he ever uses it for truck-type things. He's seriously considering selling it and getting a Corolla, or something similar that gets better economy. I'm curious to see if he really goes through with it.
I doubt if they'd ever get rid of the Sequoia though. They have two small kids, and I have a gut feeling that the wife probably feels that they "need" the "safety" of that big SUV because it's "for the chiiiiiiiillllllldren". :P
I know if I had a commute like that, I'd definitely be looking into a more fuel efficient vehicle. Or at least, I'd be using predominantly my Intrepid, which could easily get upper 20's in highway type driving. Something like my pickup or '79 NYer would be lucky to see 16.
if your co-worker were like me, they would just buy another fuel efficient vehicle and keep the other 2. if they could knock it down 300 a month, that pretty much pays for the 3rd vehicle. don't forget to factor in less maintenance on their current vehicles.
2024 Ford F-150 STX, 2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
i am new at this so if i do something wrong or stupid i apologize now. but my thoughts on gas prices is most people have the vehicle they have and cant afford a new one. we always get messages to not buy gas on certain days to hurt the gas companies. my idea is instead of not buying gas for a day, pick certain companies and go for a week or even a month without buying gas from them. if we were to not buy gas from shell or bp or any company of choice for a week or so that would make the companies go to a price war with themselves. possibly causing them to drop fuel prices.
A two minute net search flops up these significant nuke accidents:
Windscale fire. Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One Mayak (4 accidents) Fermi I ("we almost lost Detroit") and Fermi II
The average customer is paying fifty cents a month to Detroit Edison just to pay for decommissioning Fermi II and that's been going on for ten years now.
If nukes are so safe, why don't we repeal Price Anderson and let the private sector work?
twice what the iMIEV offers in "Economy" drive-mode, say it can go 100 miles right now, I would like 200 miles, I would perk my purchasing ears up a lot. And re-charging on a 100 volt connection takes 13 hours or thereabouts, that would be OK. I am looking at the EV being our only car, so range and the quickest charging delivering the most-full re-charge is more important. But range is only 100 miles right now and we need longer than that.
I mean, if a lot of thought and development work goes in to building these necessary re-charge stations and I could go 200 volts and re-charge in the city I'm visiting, at a very nominal fee(or free, with the station being funded by the Fed. government, to encourage "green" driving modes) that would be different and probably possible, yes. There are so many companies working on EV's and better batteries for EV's that I bet progress on these rigs picks up the pace here right quick.
China's BYD is hard at work on hybrids and all-EV's and that is significant because they also build their own batteries to propel their cars. As their pollution gets worse they are seeing the need for immediate "green driving methods" to go in to effect. And as they perfect these EV's the opportunity to sell in Europe, SA, NA, SK and Japan opens up as a real possibility. They are going to make their whole lineup of cars with the ability to go hybrid or all-EV, with the flick of a switch, between all-EV and hybrid. Yep, every model in their lineup(about 6 rigs right now)will have this capability. They brought a few to the Geneva Auto Show recently. If they can perfect the battery range issue, coupled with safety-testing and emissions concerns(a stumbling block for sure as far as the U.S. importing goes)I think they could be ground-breakers in this category. I'll be watching with baited eyes. :shades:
There would be a major shock to certain economies dependent on oil (Soviet Union,Middle East), guaranteeing certain war, famine and economic collapse as the price of oil shot to record lows.
They have it coming to them! They extorted the world for decades.
Of course there will still be plenty of ICE vehicles on the roads that still require gasoline for the forseeable future. I doubt I'd just junk my recently acquired vehicle to replace it with an electric vehice similar to it, (unless I was handsomely compensated). If so, I hope to see many smiles per mile in my extremely quiet Cadillac DTS-E (Electric) while our Middle Eastern "friends" go back to killing each other over the finer points of Islam.
Shoot, if I had to make an extreme commute like that, you'd see me driving a Prius or a Civic Hybrid. I remember when I first had my Cadillac Brougham and made just a 24-mile commute. I'd never try that with today's ridiculous fuel prices.
As for your friend selling his Sequoia, I don't know anybody reckless and self-destructive enough to buy such a vehicle in this environment. Maybe there's a BDSM community nearby?
Funny how people with kids suddenly need these behemoth SUVs. Heck, when my brother and I were kids, we were crammed in the back seat of my Dad's 1961 Chevrolet Biscayne two-door sedan. Heck, I'm toying with the idea of buying a minicar if my Park Ave ever bites the rust.
Shoot, if I had to make an extreme commute like that, you'd see me driving a Prius or a Civic Hybrid. I remember when I first had my Cadillac Brougham and made just a 24-mile commute. I'd never try that with today's ridiculous fuel prices.
I was just thinking about back in the day when I used to deliver pizzas. My Mom gave me her 1986 Monte Carlo in mid-March, 1998 and it got totaled on June 15, 1998. Funny how some dates just stick in your mind. Anyway, in those 3 months, I had driven that car 13,000 miles! Now it would get maybe 22-23 on the highway, but in local driving, pizza delivery, etc, 15 was the norm. So in those 3 short months, I probably burned up about 850-900 gallons of fuel. Back then it didn't seem so bad, when I was filling up for maybe $1.00-$1.20 per gallon. I was probably spending $300-350 per month on gas. Nowadays though, driving a car like that, I'd probably be spending over $1,000 per month!
If I had a commute like my co-worker, which is about 55-60 miles round trip per day (to round up, let's say 300 per week), I'd probably just tough it out with my Intrepid until it finally bit the dust, and then go with maybe a 4-cyl Altima or equivalent car.
As for your friend selling his Sequoia, I don't know anybody reckless and self-destructive enough to buy such a vehicle in this environment.
I guess if you really needed something like that, and could get it at a decent price, and didn't do a whole lot of driving, it might not be a bad vehicle. But as a solo commuter car doing 400 miles per week, yeah, it's pretty masochistic. Heck, in my case, if something like that could get 15 mpg in my type of local driving, whereas my old pickup is only getting 12, it would be using 25% less fuel. But as little as I drive, it would never be cost effective.
Funny how people with kids suddenly need these behemoth SUVs. Heck, when my brother and I were kids, we were crammed in the back seat of my Dad's 1961 Chevrolet Biscayne two-door sedan.
I guess one advantage I can see is that it's probably fairly easy to get a child car seat in and out of one of these monsters compared to a regular car. Still, I think a minivan would be easiest...if not especially cool. I remember trying to get one of those seats in the back of my Dart once...what a pain! First, we had to pull the seat out to get to the seatbelts, because they had been tucked under the seat years before.
The average customer is paying fifty cents a month to Detroit Edison just to pay for decommissioning Fermi II and that's been going on for ten years now.
Do the Europeans and Japan have the problems with Nuclear power that we have had? I think France & Japan are over 50% Nuclear powered. Is our problem giving the bid to the lowest bidder? I know the plant here at San Onofre was being built when I was in High School in the 1950s. It is still producing electricity.
I think it can be done safely. And no power source is any cleaner.
Seriously, though, I'd love to go nuclear here in the U.S. Although, even if we started building today, I'm sure it'd be 15 years before any plants started kicking out electricity.
Anyway, the opponents fear the waste and the potential for a meltdown. The famous quote from The China Syndrome was that it would render "an area the size of Pennsylvania" contaminated.
Well, the waste can be recycled, as France has demonstrated. And what waste is left can be dumped in the Yucca Mountain depository that the federal government is constructing right now in Nevada.
As for the meltdown factor, the gov't could simply build the nuclear plants in remote areas to minimize the risk. After all, if they could find places do detonate nuclear bombs, they can certainly find places to locate nuclear power facilities.
And getting the electricity from remote locations to major metropolitan areas is no problem either. Hoover Dam powers huge parts of Southern California. Why couldn't a nuke plant at the Nevada Test Site power San Francisco, Portland and Seattle? Why couldn't another plant in New Mexico power Denver and Dallas?
That way we'd have plenty of cheap electricity to charge our battery-powered cars that burn ZERO $4/gal. gasoline! .
In the steel/shipping business we used rail all the time moving containerized cargo from the eastern ports to the midwest. Containerized cargo generally comes in 40' lengths on huge container ships which are offloaded directly to flatbed railcars. Generally two of these 40 footers can be put on one flatbed rail car.
A 40' container generally carries about 50,000# worth of cargo.
As long as they address the waste problem and set up better safety guidelines (placing the plants in remote areas is an excellent idea) I am all for expansion of nuclear power.
I think one area that the French have us beat in is plant design. We tend to build plants individually and thus replacement parts vary from plant to plant. The French just build the same plant in multiple locations and the parts are interchangeable. This works for me. Generally I'm not looking for nuke plants to win beauty contests.
2015 Mazda 6 Grand Touring, 2014 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback, 1999 Mazda Miata 2004 Toyota Camry LE, 1999.
The devaluation of the $ does make ALL U.S. products and services attractively priced. The company I work for benefits greatly as we sell overseas and collect Euros, and also our product can be priced lower than our foreign-made competition. However it is not so good when it comes to buying oil with $'s.
The international agri-giants are not unaware of the US$ situation. Like your company they know what their product is 'worth' when exported. Corn products I'm certain are being exported to Europe now as in the past.
At the end of 2000 the US$ was $.86 to 1 Euro. This week the US$ is about $1.55 to 1 Euro.
To the producer in the US it appears that pricing has jumped by almost 80%. Hallelujah!!! To the buyer in Europe there has been ZERO change in in his pricing.
What this effectively does is make us the US consumers compete against others outside our country for our own products. A corn producer says 'Hey I can get an 80% price increase ( in US$ ) if I send this product to Europe. If you don't want to pay me the price I want, I'll just export it. Doesn't make any difference to me. Money is Money.' So we pony up and ...'pay the man his money' ... to steal a line.
This devaluation is a lot more important reason for our surging prices than any diverted supplies IMO.
A little so-called "pain" for having to spend a few minutes with the child seat -OR-
Pain in your wallet / purse and budget every week driving a behemoth?
Unfortunately most people picked the behemoth, using that same line of thinking to justify the large vehicle purchase. I've done the baby seat mambo in smaller cars than your Dart. And when the kid was big enough, the seat took a powder. Not so easy to do with a large vehicle, especially nowadays. A lot of these people are getting caught with these land barges and can't get rid of them (I see many For Sale signs on these trucks / SUVs on my daily route). And our local papers are flooded with the big boys at "Blowout Prices"; well, according to the dealerships.
"What will you do when gas price rises above $4/ gallon?"
Breath a sigh of relief and return to common sense. I identify with a previous poster - my Dad would have the pack transporting back from Grand ma's or wherever in an ancient Dodge Dart in the late sixties/early seventies or so.
I still remember accommodations being made for an Aunt in addition to the usual suspects and the weather being, well, a complete blizzard as we made our way back home from a relative's home.
The Dart got through the snow, no four-wheel-drive SUV or excessive gas consumption required..... Amazing. How could we have ever managed back then? (yes, that's sarcasm.)
I have gone through life without any requirement of a vehicle, because of size or drivetrain, got less than 20mpg and find it quite humorous to watch these barges tankering up fuel and resource because...... it's easier to get the car seat in. You have GOT to be kidding...... (squeaking sound of world's smallest violin).
Recent article in the USA Today showed (photo) the Soccer Mom completely bewildered as to why she had to resort to minimum payments on the credit card, floating a credit card balance the size of Texas while filling up what appeared to be....
A LARGE SUV
This is really going to put a dent in the Starbuck's budget....
Unfortunately most people picked the behemoth, using that same line of thinking to justify the large vehicle purchase. I've done the baby seat mambo in smaller cars than your Dart.
Well, in my case I never bought the Dart thinking I'd ever put a baby seat in the back! I'd already had the thing for several years, and I remember we had to go somewhere and take my (ex) wife's cousin's 3 year old along. Anyway, the Dart was a low-slung 2-door hardtop with a really small backseat. Simply from a whole other era, a more innocent era where we dashed our young on the metal dashboards or ejected them through the windows, rather than try to secure them in place!
I'm sure if it had been a more upright 4-door sedan, it would've been a lot easier to get that seat back there. I joked about tying him to the roof, but the wife found no humor in that. :P
Well if someone is dumb enough to shell out $40k plus on a vehicle then scream because they can't afford the gas, it's hard for me to feel sorry for them. If your having to take a 7 year loan with no money down to buy a vehicle, then you probably can't afford it, period.
I use my Suburban for what it's intended. Hauling kids, a boat, and a travel trailer. While I don't like seeing gas approach $4/gal it's still far from the biggest exense in our household and is not an issue. Sure, it sucks seeing near triple digit fillups, but I'm willing to pay in order to enjoy our recreational activities.
As for car seats and vehicles. You can't beat a mini-van for family utility. We used to own a mini-van prior to our boating/camping days. I even used the minivan to tow our first boat, but our current boat is to heavy for a minivan, so going to a full-size BOF SUV is needed for us.
Gas jumped another 20 cents here in central Illinois to $3.39/gal. Diesel is $4.09 ouch.
I think your ideas have a lot of merit. I you position a lot of nuclear plants in the middle of Nevada you've solved several problems. For one that is near the disposal site, so you don't have to deal with transporting nuclear waste through populated areas. Also putting plants in the same location reduces the investment that would be required in securing these plants.
You can transmit electricity thousands of miles. Sure there are losses. I'm thinking maybe 25% sending electricity from Nevada to the east coast. Probably still worth pursuing when you consider the alternatives.
You guys really ought to get out west and spend some time in the high desert. The middle of Nevada is mighty nice country and I'll take it any day over Vegas. Try Great Basin National Park for starters.
If you insist on building nukes, at least put them close to the population centers where the users are. We don't need any more of this "out of sight, out of mind" mentality. They have nukes near DC, right? May as well put one or two on the Mall.
I live within 6 miles of a nuclear power plant, Calvert Cliffs in MD. I have no problem being this close to a nuclear plant but a lot of people do. Placing them in remote locations would probably make it an easier sell to the public. Also, like I previously said, these plants do require quite a bit of security. That being the case does it really make sense to scatter them about?
What's wrong with the out of sight, out of mind mentality? I'd rather not live near a prison, landfill, rendering plant, paper mill, etc... If you can put these types of facilities in places where people don't have to deal with them then what's wrong with that?
BTW, I lived in NV for 2 years. I'm pretty familiar with the state.
I was one of those dumb people 5 months ago. worst mistake I ever made. last week, I sold it for a 4K loss and got a minivan that costs $200 less per month, and does reasonably well mpg wise. I am MUCH happier and so relieved. Yet, i saw 3 new large SUVs on the road this evening on the way home.
Yet, i saw 3 new large SUVs on the road this evening on the way home.
As I pedaled to work this afternoon there was a long line of vehicles stopped at a traffic light going the opposite direction. One guy, sitting in a huge gas-guzzling truck, yelled "Idiot!" at me as I rode past.
I half thought about turning around and asking him, "Which one of us is paying over $3/gal for gas and sitting here, wasting their time and fuel in traffic? Now tell me who the real idiot is."
Instead, I just gave him a couple of toot-toots from my squeeze bulb horn and kept riding.
live within 6 miles of a nuclear power plant, Calvert Cliffs in MD. I have no problem being this close to a nuclear plant but a lot of people do.
We have a nuclear plant about 20 miles away. We regularly go boating on the lake that is used as a cooling source. It's actually great since the lake water is nice and warm early in the season.
Another bonus, is we all glow at night after spending the day in the lake. LOL
Simply from a whole other era, a more innocent era where we dashed our young on the metal dashboards or ejected them through the windows, rather than try to secure them in place!
Ah yes, the good ol days. When you could put your child on the rear package tray with a couple of tie-downs and hit the road. Just have to remember to turn them over once in awhile for even baking. :P
Am fully aware of what a Dart is; again had a couple of vehicles way smaller than a Dart and fitted the child seat along with the accompanying complaining adult or larger child. Mustang IIs, particularly the hatchback/fastback and Nissan Pulsars are "nice" for this challenge.
Ah yes, the good ol days. When you could put your child on the rear package tray with a couple of tie-downs and hit the road. Just have to remember to turn them over once in awhile for even baking.
I had a college professor once say that the safest place to put an infant, if you don't have a car seat, is down in the footwell area of front passenger side. I remember he caught a lot of flak from the students for that comment! Still, it does kinda make sense I guess. Pretty well-protected area, and being up under the dash like that, probably less likely to be ejected than just sitting in someone's lap.
BTW, when did child car seats come out? I don't ever remember riding in one. Heck, I remember as a small kid, being pretty much free to roam in the car. If I got bored with sitting up front, I'd climb over the seat into the back, or vice versa. My Mom had a '75 LeMans coupe that had a huge rear window and large shelf. I'd always wanted to climb up there, but Mom & Dad put their foot down on that idea.
...guys on bicycles these days. Pretty soon, Oxford Avenue's going to look like Shanghai circa 1976. Funny, more and more Chinese are ditching their bicycles for cars while Americans are ditching their cars for bicycles. Maybe I'll someday pass a giant portrait of Chairman Bush as I pedal past on my Schwinn.
I'd actually consider riding my bike to work, if it was safe to do so. But there are too many stretches where there's either no shoulder, or too many turn lanes that would force me to contend with inattentive motorists. Still, there are a few people that ride their bikes to work. I see a guy on a bike pass by my house around 7:20 or so every morning. I think he works at the same facility I do. Sometimes I'll end up passing him a few minutes later on my way into work, and he makes pretty good time. I'd imagine that 3 1/2 miles would only take about 10-15 minutes by bike?
As for driving, I haven't done much this week. Filled up my Intrepid on the way home from the bank on Saturday. Used it for commuting this every day this week. Let the roommate run out to get cigarettes one day, instead of taking the truck. And went over to see my Granddad the other day. As of right now, the trip odometer is reading about 49 miles.
Passing the Shell station this morning coming in to work, I see 87 is up to $3.269. I think 93 was around $3.489, and Diesel is pushing $4.00 per gallon!
I also got a home heating oil bill the other day. They came out Tuesday and filled me up. 155 gallons. $575 total. They previously came out in early January, so that represents $575 burned in something like 65 days. I guess that's chicken scratch compared to the typical oil bill up north!
I use natural gas. My last month's gas bill was $173 which is reasonable considering how crooked PGW is.
I'd consider riding a bike to work, except there's two extremely dangerous intersections that are scary enough to navigate by car. Yet, some guys still manage to do it. I'd have to alter my route somewhat to mitigate the perils of these intersections. But then there's another problem: sociopathic street thugs. I'd hate to be stopped at a stop sign or light to be jumped by these hoodlums who would use the opportunity to steal my wallet and jack my bike.
I live in New Hampshire and unless you're near the coast or in the few medium size cities, natural gas isn't an option. Oil and propane are the 2 main fuels. And I believe you'll find the same in Maine and Vermont. Electric was very expensive due to overruns at a nuclear plant, but now it is more competitive.
Speaking of riding in vehicles as a kid, my favorite was riding in the bed of my uncle's pickup, in town. Many times he'd go out of his way to hit the bumps, and we loved it. Yes it was more dangerous than sitting in a car seat, but many fun things are dangerous.
As far as bike-riding ... I do that between may and Oct. only when the weather is nice. You'd have to be a masochist to ride a bike now in this area, between the cold, ice and sand on the roads and sidewalks, and the ever-enlarging potholes.
I'd find a carpool, or take a cab, or move before ever trying to make biking a way to get around in this climate.
I remember that the K-car wagon had some funky orange seat belt in the center of the second row that I understood to be for baby seats or the like. Booster seats used the regular lap belt, IIRC.
Speaking of riding in vehicles as a kid, my favorite was riding in the bed of my uncle's pickup, in town. Many times he'd go out of his way to hit the bumps, and we loved it. Yes it was more dangerous than sitting in a car seat, but many fun things are dangerous.
I went to a private school in 7th and 8th grade where you had to pay extra to ride the school bus, and it didn't come out our way anyway. So we joined a carpool. My Mom & stepdad both worked, and my grandmother was still working too, so Granddad drove us. He had a '76 GMC crew cab pickup, and on nice days he'd let us ride in the back. We must've looked like a bunch of hicks pulling up to that school, dressed in our nice uniforms, hopping out of the bed of that pickup truck, but it sure was fun! This was like 1983-1984. I imagine the cops would have a fit nowadays.
Electric was very expensive due to overruns at a nuclear plant, but now it is more competitive.
Doesn't electric heat tend to get less and less competitive, the further north you go? Now where I'm at, in the Maryland suburbs east of DC, it usually doesn't get THAT cold. Heat pumps seem to be the HVAC method of choice. But once you get further north, those things pull less and less heat out of the air, and start relying on full electric backup, and then things can get really expensive. I know those little strip electric baseboard heaters can be horribly expensive as well. When I bought my condo in late 1994, it still had its original equipment 1972 Rheem electric furnace. That sucker was expensive to run. It was easy to get electric bills as high as $350 in the winter. Some of my neighbors said their bills got to $400-500! I replaced the whole system around 1996 with a heat pump, and I think my worst monthly bill was only around $200 after that.
Oil and propane are the 2 main fuels.
I've always wondered about propane. Is it very cost-effective as a heating/cooking fuel? Natural gas has always scared me. I know there are all sorts of safeguards built into the systems to keep them from blowing up. And I'm sure it's very rare that a natural gas system does blow up. But I just can't get it out of my mind. Guess the same thing could happen with propane, too.
One factor might be that when a natural gas home does blow up, it makes the news. It's spectacular enough to be newsworthy, and that probably sensationalizes it, puts it fresh in my mind, and makes it seem more common than it really is. Plus, it's a common cliche in the movies.
You don't hear about heat pumps or oil furnaces blowing up, though. Although last May, someone parked a Honda Accord next to the oil tank of an old vacant house two doors down from me and lit it on fire. Burnt the Accord to a crisp, but thankfully the fire dept got to it before it caught the house on fire. I know heating oil won't blow up like natural gas, but I'm sure it would still help fan the flames, so to speak! :surprise:
"As I pedaled to work this afternoon there was a long line of vehicles stopped at a traffic light going the opposite direction. One guy, sitting in a huge gas-guzzling truck, yelled "Idiot!" at me as I rode past."
Yep.... bicycle rage.
I use to bicycle to work years ago in Houston TX and it was in the bad economic times of the mid to late eighties (Houston basically collapsed into a financial tailspin) and had an entire shoulder to myself.... no impedance of traffic at all but you still got the occasional horn. You got the palpable sense that some motorists literally hated your guts, like you were getting away with something..... SUV's were not the fully developed monster-trend back then like they are now, I can only imagine it's worse now. Very strange behavior. I started carrying pepper spray - and it wasn't for dogs!!!!
I guess some mental midgets never grow up passed Jr. High and keep the "good old days" of picking on the runt in the hallway (the bicyclist) going. Probably the same dolts that buy an SUV without the proper financial ability...... maybe they're going to start bullying McFly for gas money now instead of cafeteria lunch money.
Just a note, I'm not an SUV basher - I think they have their place and are useful but I see too many people using them for inappropriate activity. If you're driving to work, Monday thru Friday, one person, SUV, and you're work doesn't involve transporting big objects, you have no grounds to complain about gas prices - you will get no empathy from this snarky poster....
All electric home here (1700 sq. ft). Most recent bill was $123. Heat pump, new water heater, hot tub but few power bricks or lights on if no one is in the room. Highest bill has been around $200, lowest in the shoulder season runs around $48.
Idaho Power keeps asking for rate increases because they have to use more natural gas (and coal) when the hydro production falls due to low water. A decade ago, they were a favorite company of investors because they didn't have any nuclear exposure back when the cost overuns were hurting stock prices of other utility companies.
They did some fuel cell research (via Ballard Research) but mostly they don't seem to have any interest in wind or solar or any other alternative to petroleum and coal. New hydro sites are pretty limited.
Heat pumps seem to be the HVAC method of choice. But once you get further north, those things pull less and less heat out of the air, and start relying on full electric backup, and then things can get really expensive.
I've only had a heat pump once, when we had a place in northern Indiana, and it was great. It had a natural gas backup furnace rather than electric, so once it was too cold outside to move enough heat, it ran like a regular natural gas forced air furnace. That was around 20 - 30 degrees F. Heat pumps don't make heat, they just move it, so use about 1/3 the energy of a system that has to make heat. But as air temps go down, there is less and less heat to extract from the air to move into the house. Also, the duct air temp is cooler than with a conventional heater, so even though it's blowing 80 degree air, it can feel cool to the skin if the vent is blowing right where you are sitting. They also run in reverse in the summer to provide your A/C.
The best way to use a heat pump is a geothermal. Rather than the outside heat exchanger sitting above ground and exchanging heat with the air, the exchanger is under ground where the earth stays around 50 degrees year round. That really lets it work well to pull in heatfrom the ground and move it into your house in the winter time and to dump heat into the ground in the summer time to cool your house in the summer.
Our current place (in Montana) is natural gas forced air. I wish we could have had a heat pump. It's a high-efficiency furnace and our electric and gas bill combined rarely climbed above $120 this winter (and that was a month with a week long negative 30 degree snap). We plan to build a new house in the next couple years and have a whole folder on all the efficient/green building techniques that we will employ, include a geothermal heat pump.
Oh, and just so this stays a little on topic regarding gas...living at around 5,000 feet above sea level vs. at sea level has had the expected impact on my gas mileage. Increased it by just over 10% in my 2003 Chev. Avalanche (5.3 liter 4x4). On long highway cruises at 70mph, I used to get 17mpg. Up here I easily pull 19 mpg and often get 20 or 21mpg if I make the same drive (90 miles) at 65mph.
On my drive to and from work, which is a short 9 mile commute, even this short trip will give me 19 - 20mpg because it's on a straight highway with no stops and about a 60mph drive. As expected, I have less pep at full throttle, but I rarely do that anyway (I try and drive reasonable to get the best mileage). At sea level it was rated at 285hp. I'm not sure what that is down to up here at elevation, but it's never been an issue pulling pretty heavy trailers.
I just don't understand the horsepower wars for the 1/2 ton truck segment. All the new technology (like variable valve timing) that could be used to improve mileage is instead squandered on making more hp while retaining the same gas mileage. But then we can't blame the manfacturers for that. They make what buyers demand. Buyers rarely buy the lower hp version of vehicles. They buy their trucks and SUV with the largest, highest hp engine offered. And car buyers do the same. They buy the high output version of a V6 rather than the lower hp V6 or I4 versions. The small engined versions sit on dealer lots unsold. Then those same people that "must have" the 330hp version engine in their trucks drive 85mph, jackrabbit start, don't time stoplights and then complain about the poor mileage they are getting and also the price of gas. To that I say life's all about choices so don't complain about the ones you make and then not take responsibility for them.
My truck is payed off and I keep looking at buying an addition, better mileage vehicle, but I can't really justify buying one. I need to keep my truck for towing and hauling. Besides, I really put so few miles on it a year, I can't justify buying another vehicle just for mileage. We have my wife's car to do most other driving (30+mpg) and for 7 months out of the year (down to about 19 degrees F.) I ride one of my motorcyces to and from work and for most errands. One gets 40mpg and the other get 70mpg.
I've always wondered about propane. Is it very cost-effective as a heating/cooking fuel? Natural gas has always scared me. I know there are all sorts of safeguards built into the systems to keep them from blowing up. And I'm sure it's very rare that a natural gas system does blow up. But I just can't get it out of my mind. Guess the same thing could happen with propane, too.
No need to worry about 'blowing up'. That is a movie thing. You are more likely to perish in a regular house fire (wiring, accident, etc.) than be blown up by natural gas. As a matter of fact, you are probably more likely to be struck by lightening while being attacked by a wolverine in a plane as it crashes. They even did a segment on mythbusters about a house blowing up and the amount of gas it took was incredible, and even then it was a weird burst thing and not the big explosive fireball they do in the movies. With that much gas in a house, you would be dead from breathing it before it blew up. And even a gas leak big enough to cause you to pass out or die just doesn't happen (that is another reaon, though, they have the sulpher/rotten egg smell added to natural gas (and propane) because otherwise those gasses have no scent.
The bigger problem is people not having their furnace serviced and it cracking the heat exchanger or having a plugged flue and the Carbon Dioxide (CO2) getting into the house. But then, everyone that has a gas (natural gas or propane) furnace or water heater has a CO2 monitor in their house, right? (hint: you should. They are cheap at any walmart and less maintenance than a canary).
It's usually not like that but I guess yesterday was not usual. Another driver blasted his horn as he went past, when I was already hugging the white line and no shoulder available.
Gas price finally eclipsed the $3.00 barrier here. It went from $2.96 on Monday to $3.09 Tuesday. Sensing a price increase I filled up on Monday, drove home and it has been parked ever since. If I keep riding, except on rainy days, I might not have to fill up until the end of the month.
Speaking of home heating, we did some major work to the house about a year ago that made a significant improvement to the insulation factor. I just received my latest natural gas bill of $274 for the month. I can't imagine what it would have been without the home improvements but I thought this price was ridiculous enough. The house is a little over 3,000 sq ft.
A reporter wants to interview people who have switched their daily driver from a truck or SUV to a car within the past 18 months. If you have done so, or if you are considering doing so, and care to share your story, please reply to jfallon@edmunds.com no later than Monday, March 17, 2008 and include your daytime contact info and the makes/models involved.
Yes I'm thinking that electric rates have been fairly steady, at least compared to the price increases that affect the oil-market. I'd believe that during the last 10 years electric rates might have gone up 25%, the price of heating oil has gone up 300%
Oil demand is reaching a point where either little more can be pumped, found, or refined, while electricity being based on more plentiful natural gas and coal can be more easily expanded.
Which just brings this back around to my and many other people being more concerned about home-heating than gasoline.
But since oil prices are affecting peoples' budgets, and that is affecting their ability to pay their mortgage and credit cards, and that is driving the economy down in general, the issue of higher gasoline/heating prices has a huge effect. Many trillions of $ of wealth have been wiped out in the housing and stock markets; far beyond the 10 or 20 billion extra $'s we're paying at the pumps.
Andre - I believe the price of propane is very close to the heating oil price. But I think heating oil has slightly high energy/unit. Propane is a 3-carbon chain molecule, and I know the trend is that larger hydrocarbons have higher combustion energies. Also in the oil/propane vs. electric heating analysis, one must consider that the electric system is relatively simple and low maintenance (no burner or chimney cleaning, no ignition switches, and no air-intake and blower fans).
If I built a new home right now it would have a wood pellet stove, supplemented by electric. I'd save the $ on installing a furnace and oil-tank. I'd also do an "instant water-heater" rather than a tank.
A reporter wants to interview people who have switched their daily driver from a truck or SUV to a car within the past 18 months. If you have done so, or if you are considering doing so, and care to share your story, please reply to jfallon@edmunds.com no later than Monday, March 17, 2008 and include your daytime contact info and the makes/models involved.
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Fact: more people die in coal mine accidents in one year that die in Nuclear Accidents.
Fact: Emissions from Coal and Fossil Fuels contribute more to green house effect than Nuclear Energy Ever will.
Fact: Renewable Resource, hence Cheaper than fuel that is non-renewable.
Cheaper,cleaner,safer
IT has a stigma from our parents generation (if your parent is a boomer), and of course 2 known accidents..Chernobyl which can be attributed to clumsy russians, and Three Mile Island...no one died at 3 mile island, back in 1986 we had the commodore 64 today we have Macs to give you an idea of were we are with technology, so to think an accident like chernobyl will happen again (in a 3rd world country, or anywhere) is highly unlikely. I wouldnt mind paying 2 bucks a gallon...
Anyway, he commutes about 55-60 miles round trip per day, while his wife commutes about 80. He figures that between the two of them, they're blowing at least $700 per month on gas! He came to the realization that 90+ percent of the time, it's just him alone in his truck, and it's rare that he ever uses it for truck-type things. He's seriously considering selling it and getting a Corolla, or something similar that gets better economy. I'm curious to see if he really goes through with it.
I doubt if they'd ever get rid of the Sequoia though. They have two small kids, and I have a gut feeling that the wife probably feels that they "need" the "safety" of that big SUV because it's "for the chiiiiiiiillllllldren". :P
I know if I had a commute like that, I'd definitely be looking into a more fuel efficient vehicle. Or at least, I'd be using predominantly my Intrepid, which could easily get upper 20's in highway type driving. Something like my pickup or '79 NYer would be lucky to see 16.
I toy with getting a commute vehicle but every time I do the math the insurance would eat my gas savings.
Oil shouldn't be traded in commodity market, just as important as water & electricity for people.
A two minute net search flops up these significant nuke accidents:
Windscale fire.
Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One
Mayak (4 accidents)
Fermi I ("we almost lost Detroit") and Fermi II
The average customer is paying fifty cents a month to Detroit Edison just to pay for decommissioning Fermi II and that's been going on for ten years now.
If nukes are so safe, why don't we repeal Price Anderson and let the private sector work?
I mean, if a lot of thought and development work goes in to building these necessary re-charge stations and I could go 200 volts and re-charge in the city I'm visiting, at a very nominal fee(or free, with the station being funded by the Fed. government, to encourage "green" driving modes) that would be different and probably possible, yes. There are so many companies working on EV's and better batteries for EV's that I bet progress on these rigs picks up the pace here right quick.
China's BYD is hard at work on hybrids and all-EV's and that is significant because they also build their own batteries to propel their cars. As their pollution gets worse they are seeing the need for immediate "green driving methods" to go in to effect. And as they perfect these EV's the opportunity to sell in Europe, SA, NA, SK and Japan opens up as a real possibility. They are going to make their whole lineup of cars with the ability to go hybrid or all-EV, with the flick of a switch, between all-EV and hybrid. Yep, every model in their lineup(about 6 rigs right now)will have this capability. They brought a few to the Geneva Auto Show recently. If they can perfect the battery range issue, coupled with safety-testing and emissions concerns(a stumbling block for sure as far as the U.S. importing goes)I think they could be ground-breakers in this category. I'll be watching with baited eyes. :shades:
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
Regards,
OW
They have it coming to them! They extorted the world for decades.
Of course there will still be plenty of ICE vehicles on the roads that still require gasoline for the forseeable future. I doubt I'd just junk my recently acquired vehicle to replace it with an electric vehice similar to it, (unless I was handsomely compensated). If so, I hope to see many smiles per mile in my extremely quiet Cadillac DTS-E (Electric) while our Middle Eastern "friends" go back to killing each other over the finer points of Islam.
As for your friend selling his Sequoia, I don't know anybody reckless and self-destructive enough to buy such a vehicle in this environment. Maybe there's a BDSM community nearby?
I was just thinking about back in the day when I used to deliver pizzas. My Mom gave me her 1986 Monte Carlo in mid-March, 1998 and it got totaled on June 15, 1998. Funny how some dates just stick in your mind. Anyway, in those 3 months, I had driven that car 13,000 miles! Now it would get maybe 22-23 on the highway, but in local driving, pizza delivery, etc, 15 was the norm. So in those 3 short months, I probably burned up about 850-900 gallons of fuel. Back then it didn't seem so bad, when I was filling up for maybe $1.00-$1.20 per gallon. I was probably spending $300-350 per month on gas. Nowadays though, driving a car like that, I'd probably be spending over $1,000 per month!
If I had a commute like my co-worker, which is about 55-60 miles round trip per day (to round up, let's say 300 per week), I'd probably just tough it out with my Intrepid until it finally bit the dust, and then go with maybe a 4-cyl Altima or equivalent car.
As for your friend selling his Sequoia, I don't know anybody reckless and self-destructive enough to buy such a vehicle in this environment.
I guess if you really needed something like that, and could get it at a decent price, and didn't do a whole lot of driving, it might not be a bad vehicle. But as a solo commuter car doing 400 miles per week, yeah, it's pretty masochistic. Heck, in my case, if something like that could get 15 mpg in my type of local driving, whereas my old pickup is only getting 12, it would be using 25% less fuel. But as little as I drive, it would never be cost effective.
I guess one advantage I can see is that it's probably fairly easy to get a child car seat in and out of one of these monsters compared to a regular car. Still, I think a minivan would be easiest...if not especially cool. I remember trying to get one of those seats in the back of my Dart once...what a pain! First, we had to pull the seat out to get to the seatbelts, because they had been tucked under the seat years before.
Do the Europeans and Japan have the problems with Nuclear power that we have had? I think France & Japan are over 50% Nuclear powered. Is our problem giving the bid to the lowest bidder? I know the plant here at San Onofre was being built when I was in High School in the 1950s. It is still producing electricity.
I think it can be done safely. And no power source is any cleaner.
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Anyway, the opponents fear the waste and the potential for a meltdown. The famous quote from The China Syndrome was that it would render "an area the size of Pennsylvania" contaminated.
Well, the waste can be recycled, as France has demonstrated. And what waste is left can be dumped in the Yucca Mountain depository that the federal government is constructing right now in Nevada.
As for the meltdown factor, the gov't could simply build the nuclear plants in remote areas to minimize the risk. After all, if they could find places do detonate nuclear bombs, they can certainly find places to locate nuclear power facilities.
And getting the electricity from remote locations to major metropolitan areas is no problem either. Hoover Dam powers huge parts of Southern California. Why couldn't a nuke plant at the Nevada Test Site power San Francisco, Portland and Seattle? Why couldn't another plant in New Mexico power Denver and Dallas?
That way we'd have plenty of cheap electricity to charge our battery-powered cars that burn ZERO $4/gal. gasoline!
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A 40' container generally carries about 50,000# worth of cargo.
I think one area that the French have us beat in is plant design. We tend to build plants individually and thus replacement parts vary from plant to plant. The French just build the same plant in multiple locations and the parts are interchangeable. This works for me. Generally I'm not looking for nuke plants to win beauty contests.
The international agri-giants are not unaware of the US$ situation. Like your company they know what their product is 'worth' when exported. Corn products I'm certain are being exported to Europe now as in the past.
At the end of 2000 the US$ was $.86 to 1 Euro.
This week the US$ is about $1.55 to 1 Euro.
To the producer in the US it appears that pricing has jumped by almost 80%. Hallelujah!!!
To the buyer in Europe there has been ZERO change in in his pricing.
What this effectively does is make us the US consumers compete against others outside our country for our own products. A corn producer says 'Hey I can get an 80% price increase ( in US$ ) if I send this product to Europe. If you don't want to pay me the price I want, I'll just export it. Doesn't make any difference to me. Money is Money.' So we pony up and ...'pay the man his money' ... to steal a line.
This devaluation is a lot more important reason for our surging prices than any diverted supplies IMO.
A little so-called "pain" for having to spend a few minutes with the child seat -OR-
Pain in your wallet / purse and budget every week driving a behemoth?
Unfortunately most people picked the behemoth, using that same line of thinking to justify the large vehicle purchase. I've done the baby seat mambo in smaller cars than your Dart. And when the kid was big enough, the seat took a powder. Not so easy to do with a large vehicle, especially nowadays. A lot of these people are getting caught with these land barges and can't get rid of them (I see many For Sale signs on these trucks / SUVs on my daily route). And our local papers are flooded with the big boys at "Blowout Prices"; well, according to the dealerships.
Breath a sigh of relief and return to common sense. I identify with a previous poster - my Dad would have the pack transporting back from Grand ma's or wherever in an ancient Dodge Dart in the late sixties/early seventies or so.
I still remember accommodations being made for an Aunt in addition to the usual suspects and the weather being, well, a complete blizzard as we made our way back home from a relative's home.
The Dart got through the snow, no four-wheel-drive SUV or excessive gas consumption required..... Amazing. How could we have ever managed back then? (yes, that's sarcasm.)
I have gone through life without any requirement of a vehicle, because of size or drivetrain, got less than 20mpg and find it quite humorous to watch these barges tankering up fuel and resource because...... it's easier to get the car seat in. You have GOT to be kidding...... (squeaking sound of world's smallest violin).
Recent article in the USA Today showed (photo) the Soccer Mom completely bewildered as to why she had to resort to minimum payments on the credit card, floating a credit card balance the size of Texas while filling up what appeared to be....
A LARGE SUV
This is really going to put a dent in the Starbuck's budget....
Well, in my case I never bought the Dart thinking I'd ever put a baby seat in the back! I'd already had the thing for several years, and I remember we had to go somewhere and take my (ex) wife's cousin's 3 year old along. Anyway, the Dart was a low-slung 2-door hardtop with a really small backseat. Simply from a whole other era, a more innocent era where we dashed our young on the metal dashboards or ejected them through the windows, rather than try to secure them in place!
I'm sure if it had been a more upright 4-door sedan, it would've been a lot easier to get that seat back there. I joked about tying him to the roof, but the wife found no humor in that. :P
I use my Suburban for what it's intended. Hauling kids, a boat, and a travel trailer. While I don't like seeing gas approach $4/gal it's still far from the biggest exense in our household and is not an issue. Sure, it sucks seeing near triple digit fillups, but I'm willing to pay in order to enjoy our recreational activities.
As for car seats and vehicles. You can't beat a mini-van for family utility. We used to own a mini-van prior to our boating/camping days. I even used the minivan to tow our first boat, but our current boat is to heavy for a minivan, so going to a full-size BOF SUV is needed for us.
Gas jumped another 20 cents here in central Illinois to $3.39/gal. Diesel is $4.09 ouch.
You can transmit electricity thousands of miles. Sure there are losses. I'm thinking maybe 25% sending electricity from Nevada to the east coast. Probably still worth pursuing when you consider the alternatives.
Right on -- nuclear power can propel an aircraft carrier to 30 kts. So you know it can produce a lot of electricity.
"If your having to take a 7 year loan with no money down to buy a vehicle, then you probably can't afford it."
Correct -- the rule on cars is that if you can't afford the payment on a 3-year loan, you can't afford the car.
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If you insist on building nukes, at least put them close to the population centers where the users are. We don't need any more of this "out of sight, out of mind" mentality. They have nukes near DC, right? May as well put one or two on the Mall.
What's wrong with the out of sight, out of mind mentality? I'd rather not live near a prison, landfill, rendering plant, paper mill, etc... If you can put these types of facilities in places where people don't have to deal with them then what's wrong with that?
BTW, I lived in NV for 2 years. I'm pretty familiar with the state.
last week, I sold it for a 4K loss and got a minivan that costs $200 less per
month, and does reasonably well mpg wise. I am MUCH happier and
so relieved. Yet, i saw 3 new large SUVs on the road this evening on the
way home.
As I pedaled to work this afternoon there was a long line of vehicles stopped at a traffic light going the opposite direction. One guy, sitting in a huge gas-guzzling truck, yelled "Idiot!" at me as I rode past.
I half thought about turning around and asking him, "Which one of us is paying over $3/gal for gas and sitting here, wasting their time and fuel in traffic? Now tell me who the real idiot is."
Instead, I just gave him a couple of toot-toots from my squeeze bulb horn and kept riding.
Some commutes are more entertaining than others.
We have a nuclear plant about 20 miles away. We regularly go boating on the lake that is used as a cooling source. It's actually great since the lake water is nice and warm early in the season.
Another bonus, is we all glow at night after spending the day in the lake. LOL
I know someone who makes a 125 mile one way commute. Of course the first few miles are in his truck the rest is via AmTrak.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Ah yes, the good ol days. When you could put your child on the rear package tray with a couple of tie-downs and hit the road. Just have to remember to turn them over once in awhile for even baking. :P
Am fully aware of what a Dart is; again had a couple of vehicles way smaller than a Dart and fitted the child seat along with the accompanying complaining adult or larger child. Mustang IIs, particularly the hatchback/fastback and Nissan Pulsars are "nice" for this challenge.
I had a college professor once say that the safest place to put an infant, if you don't have a car seat, is down in the footwell area of front passenger side. I remember he caught a lot of flak from the students for that comment! Still, it does kinda make sense I guess. Pretty well-protected area, and being up under the dash like that, probably less likely to be ejected than just sitting in someone's lap.
BTW, when did child car seats come out? I don't ever remember riding in one. Heck, I remember as a small kid, being pretty much free to roam in the car. If I got bored with sitting up front, I'd climb over the seat into the back, or vice versa. My Mom had a '75 LeMans coupe that had a huge rear window and large shelf. I'd always wanted to climb up there, but Mom & Dad put their foot down on that idea.
As for driving, I haven't done much this week. Filled up my Intrepid on the way home from the bank on Saturday. Used it for commuting this every day this week. Let the roommate run out to get cigarettes one day, instead of taking the truck. And went over to see my Granddad the other day. As of right now, the trip odometer is reading about 49 miles.
Passing the Shell station this morning coming in to work, I see 87 is up to $3.269. I think 93 was around $3.489, and Diesel is pushing $4.00 per gallon!
I also got a home heating oil bill the other day. They came out Tuesday and filled me up. 155 gallons. $575 total. They previously came out in early January, so that represents $575 burned in something like 65 days. I guess that's chicken scratch compared to the typical oil bill up north!
I'd consider riding a bike to work, except there's two extremely dangerous intersections that are scary enough to navigate by car. Yet, some guys still manage to do it. I'd have to alter my route somewhat to mitigate the perils of these intersections. But then there's another problem: sociopathic street thugs. I'd hate to be stopped at a stop sign or light to be jumped by these hoodlums who would use the opportunity to steal my wallet and jack my bike.
Speaking of riding in vehicles as a kid, my favorite was riding in the bed of my uncle's pickup, in town. Many times he'd go out of his way to hit the bumps, and we loved it. Yes it was more dangerous than sitting in a car seat, but many fun things are dangerous.
As far as bike-riding ... I do that between may and Oct. only when the weather is nice. You'd have to be a masochist to ride a bike now in this area, between the cold, ice and sand on the roads and sidewalks, and the ever-enlarging potholes.
I'd find a carpool, or take a cab, or move before ever trying to make biking a way to get around in this climate.
I went to a private school in 7th and 8th grade where you had to pay extra to ride the school bus, and it didn't come out our way anyway. So we joined a carpool. My Mom & stepdad both worked, and my grandmother was still working too, so Granddad drove us. He had a '76 GMC crew cab pickup, and on nice days he'd let us ride in the back. We must've looked like a bunch of hicks pulling up to that school, dressed in our nice uniforms, hopping out of the bed of that pickup truck, but it sure was fun! This was like 1983-1984. I imagine the cops would have a fit nowadays.
Electric was very expensive due to overruns at a nuclear plant, but now it is more competitive.
Doesn't electric heat tend to get less and less competitive, the further north you go? Now where I'm at, in the Maryland suburbs east of DC, it usually doesn't get THAT cold. Heat pumps seem to be the HVAC method of choice. But once you get further north, those things pull less and less heat out of the air, and start relying on full electric backup, and then things can get really expensive. I know those little strip electric baseboard heaters can be horribly expensive as well. When I bought my condo in late 1994, it still had its original equipment 1972 Rheem electric furnace. That sucker was expensive to run. It was easy to get electric bills as high as $350 in the winter. Some of my neighbors said their bills got to $400-500! I replaced the whole system around 1996 with a heat pump, and I think my worst monthly bill was only around $200 after that.
Oil and propane are the 2 main fuels.
I've always wondered about propane. Is it very cost-effective as a heating/cooking fuel? Natural gas has always scared me. I know there are all sorts of safeguards built into the systems to keep them from blowing up. And I'm sure it's very rare that a natural gas system does blow up. But I just can't get it out of my mind. Guess the same thing could happen with propane, too.
One factor might be that when a natural gas home does blow up, it makes the news. It's spectacular enough to be newsworthy, and that probably sensationalizes it, puts it fresh in my mind, and makes it seem more common than it really is. Plus, it's a common cliche in the movies.
You don't hear about heat pumps or oil furnaces blowing up, though. Although last May, someone parked a Honda Accord next to the oil tank of an old vacant house two doors down from me and lit it on fire. Burnt the Accord to a crisp, but thankfully the fire dept got to it before it caught the house on fire. I know heating oil won't blow up like natural gas, but I'm sure it would still help fan the flames, so to speak! :surprise:
Yep.... bicycle rage.
I use to bicycle to work years ago in Houston TX and it was in the bad economic times of the mid to late eighties (Houston basically collapsed into a financial tailspin) and had an entire shoulder to myself.... no impedance of traffic at all but you still got the occasional horn. You got the palpable sense that some motorists literally hated your guts, like you were getting away with something..... SUV's were not the fully developed monster-trend back then like they are now, I can only imagine it's worse now. Very strange behavior. I started carrying pepper spray - and it wasn't for dogs!!!!
I guess some mental midgets never grow up passed Jr. High and keep the "good old days" of picking on the runt in the hallway (the bicyclist) going. Probably the same dolts that buy an SUV without the proper financial ability...... maybe they're going to start bullying McFly for gas money now instead of cafeteria lunch money.
Just a note, I'm not an SUV basher - I think they have their place and are useful but I see too many people using them for inappropriate activity. If you're driving to work, Monday thru Friday, one person, SUV, and you're work doesn't involve transporting big objects, you have no grounds to complain about gas prices - you will get no empathy from this snarky poster....
Idaho Power keeps asking for rate increases because they have to use more natural gas (and coal) when the hydro production falls due to low water. A decade ago, they were a favorite company of investors because they didn't have any nuclear exposure back when the cost overuns were hurting stock prices of other utility companies.
They did some fuel cell research (via Ballard Research) but mostly they don't seem to have any interest in wind or solar or any other alternative to petroleum and coal. New hydro sites are pretty limited.
I've only had a heat pump once, when we had a place in northern Indiana, and it was great. It had a natural gas backup furnace rather than electric, so once it was too cold outside to move enough heat, it ran like a regular natural gas forced air furnace. That was around 20 - 30 degrees F. Heat pumps don't make heat, they just move it, so use about 1/3 the energy of a system that has to make heat. But as air temps go down, there is less and less heat to extract from the air to move into the house. Also, the duct air temp is cooler than with a conventional heater, so even though it's blowing 80 degree air, it can feel cool to the skin if the vent is blowing right where you are sitting. They also run in reverse in the summer to provide your A/C.
The best way to use a heat pump is a geothermal. Rather than the outside heat exchanger sitting above ground and exchanging heat with the air, the exchanger is under ground where the earth stays around 50 degrees year round. That really lets it work well to pull in heatfrom the ground and move it into your house in the winter time and to dump heat into the ground in the summer time to cool your house in the summer.
Our current place (in Montana) is natural gas forced air. I wish we could have had a heat pump. It's a high-efficiency furnace and our electric and gas bill combined rarely climbed above $120 this winter (and that was a month with a week long negative 30 degree snap). We plan to build a new house in the next couple years and have a whole folder on all the efficient/green building techniques that we will employ, include a geothermal heat pump.
Oh, and just so this stays a little on topic regarding gas...living at around 5,000 feet above sea level vs. at sea level has had the expected impact on my gas mileage. Increased it by just over 10% in my 2003 Chev. Avalanche (5.3 liter 4x4). On long highway cruises at 70mph, I used to get 17mpg. Up here I easily pull 19 mpg and often get 20 or 21mpg if I make the same drive (90 miles) at 65mph.
On my drive to and from work, which is a short 9 mile commute, even this short trip will give me 19 - 20mpg because it's on a straight highway with no stops and about a 60mph drive. As expected, I have less pep at full throttle, but I rarely do that anyway (I try and drive reasonable to get the best mileage). At sea level it was rated at 285hp. I'm not sure what that is down to up here at elevation, but it's never been an issue pulling pretty heavy trailers.
I just don't understand the horsepower wars for the 1/2 ton truck segment. All the new technology (like variable valve timing) that could be used to improve mileage is instead squandered on making more hp while retaining the same gas mileage. But then we can't blame the manfacturers for that. They make what buyers demand. Buyers rarely buy the lower hp version of vehicles. They buy their trucks and SUV with the largest, highest hp engine offered. And car buyers do the same. They buy the high output version of a V6 rather than the lower hp V6 or I4 versions. The small engined versions sit on dealer lots unsold. Then those same people that "must have" the 330hp version engine in their trucks drive 85mph, jackrabbit start, don't time stoplights and then complain about the poor mileage they are getting and also the price of gas. To that I say life's all about choices so don't complain about the ones you make and then not take responsibility for them.
My truck is payed off and I keep looking at buying an addition, better mileage vehicle, but I can't really justify buying one. I need to keep my truck for towing and hauling. Besides, I really put so few miles on it a year, I can't justify buying another vehicle just for mileage. We have my wife's car to do most other driving (30+mpg) and for 7 months out of the year (down to about 19 degrees F.) I ride one of my motorcyces to and from work and for most errands. One gets 40mpg and the other get 70mpg.
I've always wondered about propane. Is it very cost-effective as a heating/cooking fuel? Natural gas has always scared me. I know there are all sorts of safeguards built into the systems to keep them from blowing up. And I'm sure it's very rare that a natural gas system does blow up. But I just can't get it out of my mind. Guess the same thing could happen with propane, too.
No need to worry about 'blowing up'. That is a movie thing. You are more likely to perish in a regular house fire (wiring, accident, etc.) than be blown up by natural gas. As a matter of fact, you are probably more likely to be struck by lightening while being attacked by a wolverine in a plane as it crashes. They even did a segment on mythbusters about a house blowing up and the amount of gas it took was incredible, and even then it was a weird burst thing and not the big explosive fireball they do in the movies. With that much gas in a house, you would be dead from breathing it before it blew up. And even a gas leak big enough to cause you to pass out or die just doesn't happen (that is another reaon, though, they have the sulpher/rotten egg smell added to natural gas (and propane) because otherwise those gasses have no scent.
The bigger problem is people not having their furnace serviced and it cracking the heat exchanger or having a plugged flue and the Carbon Dioxide (CO2) getting into the house. But then, everyone that has a gas (natural gas or propane) furnace or water heater has a CO2 monitor in their house, right? (hint: you should. They are cheap at any walmart and less maintenance than a canary).
It's usually not like that but I guess yesterday was not usual. Another driver blasted his horn as he went past, when I was already hugging the white line and no shoulder available.
Gas price finally eclipsed the $3.00 barrier here. It went from $2.96 on Monday to $3.09 Tuesday. Sensing a price increase I filled up on Monday, drove home and it has been parked ever since. If I keep riding, except on rainy days, I might not have to fill up until the end of the month.
Speaking of home heating, we did some major work to the house about a year ago that made a significant improvement to the insulation factor. I just received my latest natural gas bill of $274 for the month. I can't imagine what it would have been without the home improvements but I thought this price was ridiculous enough. The house is a little over 3,000 sq ft.
Oil demand is reaching a point where either little more can be pumped, found, or refined, while electricity being based on more plentiful natural gas and coal can be more easily expanded.
Which just brings this back around to my and many other people being more concerned about home-heating than gasoline.
But since oil prices are affecting peoples' budgets, and that is affecting their ability to pay their mortgage and credit cards, and that is driving the economy down in general, the issue of higher gasoline/heating prices has a huge effect. Many trillions of $ of wealth have been wiped out in the housing and stock markets; far beyond the 10 or 20 billion extra $'s we're paying at the pumps.
Andre - I believe the price of propane is very close to the heating oil price. But I think heating oil has slightly high energy/unit. Propane is a 3-carbon chain molecule, and I know the trend is that larger hydrocarbons have higher combustion energies.
Also in the oil/propane vs. electric heating analysis, one must consider that the electric system is relatively simple and low maintenance (no burner or chimney cleaning, no ignition switches, and no air-intake and blower fans).
If I built a new home right now it would have a wood pellet stove, supplemented by electric. I'd save the $ on installing a furnace and oil-tank. I'd also do an "instant water-heater" rather than a tank.
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2015 Kia Soul, 2021 Subaru Forester (kirstie_h), 2024 GMC Sierra 1500 (mr. kirstie_h)
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