My Carbon Footprint for 2014

My Daily Impact for the Year 2014

I am over a month late in posting this; things just got a little busy.

2014 was a good year for my reduction efforts in my carbon footprint. There were no long driving trips or airline flights. I rode my scooters and motorcycle a lot, and drove my cars much less. I rode my bicycle a lot, and did quite a bit of walking. On the down side, I still eat meat, and still care for a large dog. I am doing more each day to reduce my meat consumption, and Astro is well worth the reduction in carbon emissions from other sources. The occasional release of Methane from both me and Astro cannot be quantified!

Power use this year was a total of 4601 KWh. This is an increase of 29% from 2013. This figure includes the use of power for two people, and having an extra person share my home actually reduces the total power consumption as compared to two people in separate dwellings. It is an increase of power use for two years in a row, and I intend to reverse this trend in 2015.

As mentioned earlier, there was a big reduction in gasoline use as compared to 2013. I drove my least efficient vehicle, my 1997 Plymouth Voyager, only 736 miles last year. Because this mileage was mostly flower delivery, the miles per gallon for the van this year was only 18.8. I do not consider this bad because it was almost all city driving with the A/C on. The EPA ratings for this van are 16 city, 22 highway, and 18 combined. I am satisfied that I drive this van as efficiently as possible.

My second least efficient vehicle is my 2000 Toyota Celica. I drove it 5318 miles using 153.2 gallons for an average MPG of 34.7. The average MPG fell this year because there was no big road trip, and I towed my 760 pound camping trailer quite a bit. This figure still is well above the published figure of only 27combined MPG as per the EPA. The highway rating for this car is only 31. I am really pleased with this number. I get better than 31 MPG towing my camper!

A new vehicle in my fleet is a 2005 Ninja 250 motorcycle. This bike is not known for its fuel efficiency, but mine does quite well. Most people who own this type of bike only report between 50 and 70 MPG. There are some other people like me who get mileage like the 81.7 that I average with mine. I did change the gear ratio shortly after I bought it to reduce the RPM at highway speeds, and that raised my average from 72 to the 81.7 that I get now. I also coast and sail (coasting with the engine off) as much as possible, and I almost always shut the engine off at red lights.

The most efficient group of vehicles I used in 2014 was my Honda Elite scooters. The least efficient, but most reliable is the 1988 CH-80. I rode it 2554 miles, and averaged 88.9 MPG. I have stopped riding this scooter because I find the Ninja to be much more fun.

I revived that 1988 Honda because my 2007 Honda CH-80 died on me, and I could not figure out why. I drove it a total of 1538 miles, and got 100.5 MPG. If this scooter was still running, I would have kept it, and used it for the fuel mileage advantage over the Ninja.

My most efficient scooter was one that I originally bought for parts. It was a 1985 Honda Elite with a 50cc two-stroke engine. I drove it only 348 miles before it too died, but it averaged 110.9 MPG. I would have kept it had it lasted.

My total carbon dioxide footprint for 2014 was:
                Gasoline:             280.50 gallons x 19.4=5441.7 pounds CO2
                Electricity             4601 KWH x 1.22=5613.2 pounds CO2
               Total                    11055 pounds or 5.53 tons
I used 1.22 lb/KWh for my house per Cotap.org, and I used 19.4 lb/gal for gas in my vehicles per the US Energy Information Administration.

The best transportation option I used this year is my trusty Raleigh Technium 12 speed racing bike. I often ride it to Ikea for breakfast, and run short errands with it too. I pledge to ride this bike even more this year for the two benefits it gives: no carbon output, and great exercise for me.

This year, 2015, I will do some things to improve my over-all impact. I will reduce my consumption of meat, further reduce the use of my cars, and increase the energy efficiency of my house. I recently took advantage of Ikea’s 50% off sale on LED light bulbs; I spent 50 dollars for 100 dollars worth of very efficient bulbs. I am to the point where there are no incandescent bulbs in my house, and fewer and fewer florescent ones. I will also re-whiten my roof with fresh coating this spring, and insulate the wood floor above the crawl space. I look forward to even better news next year.

My Carbon Footprint for 2013

This is the 45th post to this blog.

I have just completed the calculations for my carbon footprint for 2013. I now have a second person living in my home, so the numbers will not be directly comparable for the electricity use for the last several years. I am glad that the power use only went up by 32 percent.

I also did not use air travel at all this past year. That saved almost 1/2 ton from 2012. I did take a long road trip with Astro (my awesome dog) in the Celica. This added almost 9200 miles to my total for the year, but I do not know how I could be more efficient traveling with my dog.

There are only two small unknowns for this year. I used some propane for my camp stove, and I lit two campfires during my trip.

Here are my 2013 carbon calculations:
I used 1.22 lb/KWh for my house per Cotap.org, and I used 19.4 lb/gal for gas in my vehicles per the US Energy Information Administration.

My house:
3554 KWh = 4336 lb (this is an increase of 32% from 2012)

The 1997 Voyager van:
1252 mi, 58.33 gal (21.46 MPG) = 1131 lb (this is a decrease of 23% from 2012)

The 2000 Toyota Celica:
13731 mi, 362.3 gal (37.9 MPG) = 7028 lb (this is an increase of 62% from 2012)

The 2007 Honda Elite scooter:
4687 mi, 48.81 gal (96.0 MPG) = 947 lb (this is an increase of 90% from 2012)

The total:
13,442 pounds or 6.72 tons CO2.... an increase of 23% from 2012

I drove a lot in 2013, and this really increased my impact. My goal is to use my bike and public transportation much more in 2014.

My Carbon Footprint for 2012

This is the 44th post to this blog.

I just did the calculations for my carbon footprint in 2012. There is good news, and there is bad news.

The good news is that my electricity use fell from 3039 KWh in 2011 to 2690 KWh in 2012. This number denotes an 11.5 percent decrease even though I had overnight guests through AirBNB for about 100 total days.

There is more good news. I only drove the van 1522 miles in 2012, and even though the average MPG dropped to 20.9, the overall footprint was smaller. I also purchased a 2000 Toyota Celica from my friend Rick. Even though it is a sporty car, it gets great mileage (see the calculations below). I sold the electric S-10 truck, and I hope the purchaser gets good use from it.

The bad news was posted in my 43rd posting. It was the air travel to Costa Rica. The flight was responsible for almost 1/2 ton of CO2. I also rented a car, and drove it 1059 km, but the car did very well on fuel, so that was not too much of an impact. I also rode the ferry to the Nicoya Peninsula with the car, and I do not know how to calculate that impact, so that will be an unknown.

Here are the final Carbon calculations:

My house:
2690 KWh @ 1.22 pounds/KWh (Cotap.org) = 3282 lb

The 1997 Voyager van
1522 mi, 71.73 gal (20.94 MPG) @ 19.4 pounds/gallon (US Energy Information Administration) = 1392 lb

The 2000 Celica
8473 mi, 230.79 gal (36.71 MPG) @ 19.4 lb/gal = 4478 lb

The 2004 Honda Elite scooter
3724 mi, 35.7 gal (101.4 MPG) @ 19.4 lb/gal = 499 lb

The rental car 2012 Toyota Yaris
1059 km (658 mi), 60.45 liters (15.97 gal) 41.2 MPG..... 15.97 @ 19.4 lb/gal = 310 lb

The flight from Orlando (MCO) to San Jose (SJO)
1266 total miles @ .7425 lb/air-mile (Carbonfund.org) = 940 lb

The grand total = 10890 pounds or 5.45 tons CO2

I am proud of this small number, but would like to improve it for 2013.

My daily impact: January 16 - January 29, 2012

This is the 43rd posting to this blog.

I have been traveling, so I have not updated this blog in a while. I went to Costa Rica, and it was beautiful.

There were large carbon costs to this trip, so let us get those out of the way. According to Carbonfund.org, my flights totaling 2566 miles round-trip contributed 940 pounds of CO2 to the atmosphere. There is also an effect from the condensation trail and the emission of the gas at such a high altitude which make the emission equal to 2540 pounds of CO2 at ground level. That is a lot! There was also the rental car. I used just over 15 gallons of gas for a total output of about 300 pounds of CO2 from that. That is the bad news.

The good news: I was able to turn the grid power completely off at the house while I was gone. It has actually been off since I got home Thursday night. Thanks new solar panels and Florida sunshine! While I was in Costa Rica, I ate only local food. It is easy to do there if you like fruit, and I do! I also had chicken (not so great for the environment) with locally produced beans, rice and plantains. This is referred to as "Comida Typica" meaning typical food.

The car was a mixed blessing. I rented the car because I wanted the extra security of having my own transportation in a place I had never been before. The car served me well, but now that I have been there, I would not rent a car again. It was expensive, and because of the good bus system, unnecessary. There is a bit of good news; the Yaris got 41 MPG, and proved to be a very comfortable and quiet car. It was a brand new 5-door model, and at least I was able to take two housemates on an excursion to Poas Volcano.

I will be returning to Costa Rica soon, and look forward to doing the adventure by bus.

Daily Impact: January 5 - 15, 2012

This is post number 42.

As you may see by the title, it has been 10 days since updating this blog. There is good news, and some old challenges to overcome.

The good news is that there is now 40 percent more solar power generation on my roof. The new panels came quickly, and I hooked them up in the front yard on the second day that I had them. I then got a frame together and welded, and put them up on the roof. I am excited at the prospect of more free power!

Each of the panels produce 195 watts of power, and I placed them to get the most sun possible. They were really a good deal too. There was no shipping charge, and each panel was only $ 220. This is less money per watt than I have spent on the used panels, and I had to drive to pick those up. There is the impact of manufacture and shipping from Germany. There is less impact because the panels came mostly by ship, and only between Georgia and Orlando by truck. These panels also have a good score for the manufacturing process.

There has been some use of my van lately for basic transportation. It has been too cold for me to ride the scooter too much, and I have put almost 100 miles on the van in the last three days. I have been driving it very gently, and hope to be getting about 24 MPG or more.

There has also been more consumption of meat and chicken. I have been trying to avoid this, but probably end up having meat 6 or 7 times per week. Darn that free bacon at Ikea!

I got my power bill for December 7 - January 9, and it was very low for this time of year. I used 93 KWh for a total bill of $21.60. I can not take all of the credit for this low bill; the weather has been very mild. The solar space heater has been doing pretty well, but on the second cold day it is not enough to warm the house to a reasonable temperature. Part of that is that my house looses heat like a sieve through the walls, floor, and ceiling. Don't worry though, this will be addressed soon enough.

My Daily Impact January 3 and 4, 2012

This is post number 41.

The new year is starting off cold. It is the perfect time to try out the solar space heater, and the results are good. I can run the fan on high between 10 AM and Noon, and at reduced speeds at other times, and it keeps the house nice during the day. The high yesterday was about 50, and the house got up to about 70, and stayed there until evening. This is a great result from a box that cost less than $ 100.00 to build.

There was a good, steady wind Monday night and most of the day yesterday, and I got confirmation that the wind generator works. By 11:00 the batteries were completely full, and I had to find ways to use the excess power for an hour or so. A grid-tied system does not have this issue, but I like the thought of having power even if the grid is down.

Food wise, I am doing better to eat local food. I had some nice Florida squash and onions last night, but then had packaged bar-b-q chicken with it. Progress, not perfection! I was treated to a nice mushroom and onion omelet yesterday courtesy of my neighbor Peggy. She also made fried sweet potatoes, and it was all yummy.

Today it is off to Ikea for breakfast with my friend Michael. I will still have the bacon, but will ride the e-scooter over there to try to offset that a little.

Stay warm!

My Daily Impact, December 20 2011 Through January 2, 2012

This is the 40th posting to this blog.

I must confess again to letting a lot of time pass between postings to this blog. I fully intended to keep track of all of the little things which make an impact on our planet. I will endeavor to do better at this during 2012, and will start by a recap of 2011.

I completed my carbon footprint calculations, and I did pretty well keeping that to a minimum last year. The biggest single contributor to my footprint this past year was a flight to Chicago last May. That was a trip to the National Restaurant Show with the student group at Valencia College. I really enjoyed the trip, but there was a definite carbon cost to flying. According to Sightline Institute, the 2320 mile round trip is responsible for 2250 pounds. I am glad I only flew once!

Better news from the transportation side of my footprint comes from the van and the scooters. I only drove the van 5941 miles last year and used 252 gallons of gas. The miles per gallon average was 23.5 which was lower than previous years. There was an issue with the starter that made the computer reset too often, and that problem was resolved. I will be replacing the spark plugs soon, and hope to get the average MPG back up above 25. I still can not complain about a 14 year-old van with 156,000 miles on it getting such good mileage while having so much interior room.

My van in Nevada in 2009. A full-sized mattress fits easily in the back.
This is my mini camper.

The two Honda scooters did very well. The 1988 Honda averaged 95 MPG for 2595 miles and only 27.3 gallons of gas. The 2007 Honda averaged 108 MPG for 3372 miles and only 31.2 gallons of gas. All the gas total was 310.6 gallons for 6057 pounds of CO2 at 19.5 pounds per gallon of gas. I am happy with this number.

The best news this past year was the decrease in grid power use from 2010. In 2010, power consumption was a total of 4908 KWh. That was a decrease from 6887 in 2009 and 10126 in 2008. For 2011, my total KWh use from the grid was only 2832. This is a 42 percent decrease from 2010, and I am really proud of that number. One of the biggest reasons for this decrease was driving the truck only 1378 miles last year. I also shut power off to the whole house quite often.

The carbon dioxide release from power use is hard to estimate. It fully depends on the type of fuel used to generate the power in the first place. I use power from Progress Energy, and the percentage of power generated from various sources changes monthly. I may go through my bills, and perform the long calculations, and then again, I may not! I am just glad that the overall power and fuel use is down from last year.

What is ahead for 2012? I have some new weapons against power use in use and coming soon. My solar space heater is working well. I still have to see how effective it will be in really cold weather, but early results are good. The interior of the box gets above 160 degrees even when it is only 55 degrees outside. It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow when 49 will be the high!

There is also more solar power on the way. I ordered 380 watts of new panels and a second charge controller, and the extra generating power will be added to my system shortly. This extra power should allow more days of zero grid use, and more use of the solar powered window A/C in the summer.

I thank you for reading this blog, and hope that it does not bore you too much with all of the numbers; I tend to be a numbers kind of guy.

My Daily Impact, December 8 - 19 2011

This is the 39th posting to this blog.

Again, I have let quite a bit of time pass between blog postings. It is that time of year when there a lot of things going on, and I must say that I have been blessed to be invited to some nice social events. One of these events was a birthday party for one of my close friends. It was a great party, and we all had a lot of fun, but there was a lot of garbage generated. Plastic plates, utensils and cups are really convenient, but they leave a nasty environmental mess. Since it was not my duty to host the party, I kept my mouth shut.

I also enjoyed a small dinner party with three friends. There were on plastic plates or utensils there, but there was a very tasty roast. I have been doing well to avoid most meat products lately, but it is hard to pass on a well-cooked prime rib.

A party that I attended last night was fairly environmentally responsible. Stoneware plates, stainless steel utensils, and real glasses were used even though there were about 35 people there. I must commend Jeffery and Todd for not succumbing to the ease of disposable party ware.

On the transportation front, I have put some mileage on the van the past two weeks. I drove to St. Cloud to pick up some angle iron, and I drove Kenny and myself to that birthday party in Altamonte Springs. By coincidence, both trips were 55 miles each. With the van running so well, I figure that the total CO2 output for both trips to be about 85 pounds. I have been riding the Honda scooter a lot also, and probably put out about 25 or 30 pounds per week of CO2 from that. I have been also using the e-scooter for short trips, and have been using up the old batteries.

We have been very lucky with the mild, sunny weather lately, and power use is very low. My last power bill was $ 16.11 for a record low use of 53 KWh for the month. I only drove the truck eight miles last month, and that accounts for some of the savings of power. Since the meter was last read, use continues to be quite low. In 11 days, there has only been 19 KWh taken from the grid. Gotta love this nice weather!

Although I only generate a small bit of trash for the landfill at home, I do still have some issues with disposable napkins and utensils at restaurants. Today, for example, I am sitting at Panera, and drinking coffee while writing this blog. There is a napkin on my table with two (soon to be more) empty sugar packets and a plastic stir stick on it. This may not seem like much, but it can really add up over time, and I am only one person.

Daily Impact November 25 - December 7, 2011

This is the 38th posting to this blog.

I have not been very good with keeping up with this blog lately. I have been keeping pretty busy doing a lot of miscellaneous stuff. I have been doing pretty well keeping the use of gasoline to a minimum. I do ride the Honda a lot, but because it is so efficient, my total fuel use is very low. The average miles per gallon for the scooter for the last three months is 107. I am very pleased with this number, and that is why I don't mind riding it so much. I have been very lucky to have good weather for riding, and I have not had to use the rain suit for about a month.

The e-scooter is in need of new batteries. The ones which are in the scooter now only last for about 8 miles. This is not enough for me to ride downtown anymore, and I have only been using it for local trips. I have more batteries to put in the scooter, but I want to use the existing ones for a little longer. I am not sure what I will do with the old batteries once I make the change, but they may be good enough to add to my solar power system.

Speaking of the solar power system, shading has really become a factor. Because the sun is so low in the sky this time of year, the oak tree in my front yard now shades the panels from 12:30 until dusk. Power production has been quite low, and I have had to plug the fridge into the grid on most evenings. There is a better spot on the roof which has more sun, and a move of the panels is forthcoming.

The wind generator has been a disappointment. Even when it is spinning well, it does not seem to charge the batteries well. I was hoping that a decent wind at night would at least produce enough power to run the fridge, but that does not seem to be the case. I have also had trouble with the company from whom I bought the generator, and a separate blog deals with that issue. That blog is under construction, and will premiere shortly.

I have been a little better at eating local food. Publix has been selling nice Florida produce, and I have been buying it. They have even been putting the squash, green beans, and navel oranges on sale. Yummy! I have still been eating more meat than I probably should, but that intake is also decreasing slowly. That free Ikea bacon is still my downfall. Maybe I can ask them to substitute grits for those two slices of bacon. Maybe I can open up my wallet, and buy some grits and leave the bacon. I will ponder that one for a while, because this guy can really be cheap sometimes!

There is good news on grid power side of my energy use. I am on track to meet my goal of a total of 60 kilowatt-hours for the month. I am not sure when Progress Energy will be reading my meter next, but it should be next Monday or earlier. I am proud of this accomplishment, and this will be the lowest monthly total ever for me in this house. I am also happy to report that my total energy use for the year will be significantly less than last year. This will be the third year in a row with a big drop in power use. From 2008 to 2009, I cut my use by 28%. This was also true from 2009 to 2010. I think that the percentage drop will actually be higher, but I have not calculated the exact percentage yet.

My Daily Impact, November 16-24, 2011

This is post number 37.

Happy Thanksgiving. It has been over a week again since posting. I am sitting at a McDonnalds having coffee and writing this. I had to convince the guy at the counter to serve my coffee in my cup instead of using one of their disposable ones. He was nice enough to comply; he will not be assimilated yet!

I drove my van down here with the Honda scooter inside. Astro did not have quite as much room to wander around, but he did not seem to mind. The temperature was cool enough to use only the windows, and the gas mileage seems to be good. I will have to wait until I fill the tank before I know for sure.

I took a long ride on the scooter last night. I wanted to park in South Miami, and walk around for a while. There was no parking available, and even if there was, there was no two-wheeled vehicle parking. I will make sure that I just did not see any before I write a letter to city hall. The same was true of Coconut Grove. I would be happy to pay a reasonable rate to park my scooter; four or five can fit in a regular parking space, so the price should be about one-third or one-quarter of regular car rates.

I have had mixed results with my quest to stop eating so much meat. There is still that Ikea bacon, and my friend Kenny and I went to Golden Coral for the buffet. I had about a half of pound of Steak, some chicken and some fish. I did do well on other days by having veggie curry at the Thai restaurant, and salad at Sweet Tomatoes.

The amount of garbage which I generate continues to be small. There were only two small plastic grocery bags in the can for the past week. Most of that was yogurt cups, snack wrappers, and other packaging from my food. I try to limit the purchase of over=packaged food, but I do not buy enough fresh stuff to do that yet. Maybe I can start a garden co-op with my neighbors. It can't hurt to try.

Grid power use is very low this month, and I hope to keep the total below 60 kilowatt-hours. I still owe the truck a good, full charge. I drove to Ikea with my neighbor, Peggy on Tuesday. At least I kept her from using her truck and her gas. I need to find the truck a new owner. I do not use it enough to keep the batteries in good working condition. It really likes to be driven and charged daily.

There are 20 batteries to try to keep fresh. It seems that the older that they get, the easier it is for them to loose charge when sitting. I may need to drive it a couple of days in a row to refresh them.

Each battery weighs about 75 pounds. That means about 1500 pounds of extra weight to push around. There is some savings from a lighter motor and no gas tank, but it still will not win any races!

My Daily Impact, November 12-15 2011

This is the 36th posting to this blog.

Things are going along in a nice green way. The van remains parked in the carport, and the truck in the garage. It has been all Honda with the nice cool, dry weather. I did finally repair the front tire on the e-scooter, and drove it to Panera today where I write this entry. I like to have some coffee, and watch the various people come through here while I write; it is much more interesting than sitting at home.

I have done better with my food lately too. There was some bacon at Ikea yesterday, and half of a chicken from Publix on Sunday night (the other half is for tonight), but other than that no meat. We went to the Siam Garden Restaurant on Friday night, and I had a nice red curry with tofu and veggies. It was yummy, and the tofu absorbed the delicious sauce nicely. Saturday was cheese pizza, and last night was a veggie plate at Cecil's Bar B Q. There are a lot of good vegetarian choices available, and I am trying to take advantage of them.

Power production from my solar and wind system has not been what I would hope it would be. I have been plugging the fridge into the grid at night because of lack of power. The batteries in my system are getting a bit older, and I will be testing each one today to see if there is a problem there. There is also some additional shade from the oak tree in the front yard. I had trimmed it way back about two years ago in an effort to save it, and it is doing very well. The added growth now present shades my solar panels for about 2 hours during the day. I may re-locate the panels to a more sun-drenched part of the roof, but that will be quite the project. The panels produce DC power, and the power must travel through large (6 gauge) wire to reach the batteries. If I move the panels, I will have to move the batteries to keep the wires short.

The big box on the roof which makes hot air seems to be doing fine. The temperature sensor in it often reads over 140 degrees even if there is not too much sun. It has been too warm to run the fan to heat the living room, and the internal temperatures in the box have been over 160 degrees. Maybe I can rig it to heat up my dinner!

This is where the cool air comes from the back of the box to be heated

There will be plenty of time to see how effective this box is over the coming few months. I will keep this blog posted with the results.

Grid power use for the past few days has been low. Since the meter was read, there have been six days. The number of KWh for those six days totals 7. This number includes two wash loads with one of those loads going into the dryer for about 20 minutes. I am trying to beat the records set last month and last April with a total number of kilowatt-hours under 60. So far, I am well on track to do this. As these records keep getting broken, it gets harder to improve from month to month and year to year. I am considering adding about 400 watts to my solar generating capacity, but this will cost some money. I will need two panels each costing $ 430.00, and I will need a second charge controller which is about $ 200.00. Should my quest for employment be successful, those improvements will be coming soon. Wish me luck!

My Daily Impact, November 10 and 11 2011

This is the 35th posting to this blog.

There has been some good news this week; the power bill came! Those two thoughts usually do not go well together, but for me, they did. The total cost for my grid power last month was $ 18.48. That is the lowest bill I have ever had for power in that house, and I have lived there for 25 years! This bill also indicates a total KWh use of 73 for the month which equals my usage for April, and both reflect the lowest monthly totals ever. I am really happy with this result. Can I beat it this next month?

I also have good news about my latest mad scientist project. The outdoor temperature this morning was just below 50 degrees with a strong breeze. By 8:30 AM, the temperature inside the solar space heater box was over 120 degrees. I switched on the fan, and got a nice flow of hot air into my living room. Success! The total cost of the system was about $95.00. This cost includes the 50 feet of drain hose left over from the first incarnation of this device. To be able to heat the living room of my house for the cost of running a 60 watt fan is awesome. The success of this device relies on a good sunny day, so I will have to keep track of how many days it can really be used.

In my other efforts to reduce my impact, I have mixed results. It seems that meat always comes onto my plate. It sneaks on there somehow. Today, I went to a CFHLA luncheon (the local lodging association), and there was a big chunk of pot roast on the plate. It did not stay there too long, and is now working its way through my body. Last night, I went to Chipotle with a friend, and again had beef. Ikea also put some bacon on my breakfast plate, and it went away as well. The up side of all this is that I have some job leads to work on, and that I will do.

The Honda at rest. It averages 110 MPG!

Transportation has been all Honda this week. I have not yet fixed the tire on the electric scooter, and I may not ride it too much when I do. As I mentioned before, the side of the road is a nasty, dirty, sharp-object-filled place. The e-scooter's lack of speed requires me to ride there, and that makes for flat tires. The Honda can reach speeds of 50 MPH, and that means that I can ride it in the much clearer traffic lanes. I have logged about 7000 miles on the two Honda scooters without a tire problem (knock wood); I have repaired tires on my various e-scooters and bikes many times with much less mileage to show for it. A "real" electric scooter would be the answer, but they are really expensive now. Maybe that will be my next mad scientist endeavor!

The E-scooter: too slow for the center of the lane.

Daily Impact November 8 and 9, 2011

This is the 34th posting to this blog.

I have mixed results to share about my impacts on the planet these past two days. Food continues to be one of the largest problems for me. Last night, I ate at Wendy's. I had a coupon for a free single with the purchase of a fries and a drink. In addition to the beef in the burger, there was all of that paper packaging. There is also the transportation of all of that stuff from Wendy's warehouses. I also had those two bacon slices at Ikea, but at least there was no paper involved (I washed my hands after breakfast, and used the awesome jet dryer).

Monday evening, I had dinner at home. I had packaged bar-b-q chicken and frozen veggies. Both of these have packaging and transportation issues which come with them. Today (Wednesday), I had cereal at home, and now I sit at Panera with my coffee writing this. I had to ask specifically for a "real" knife, but the napkin was already on the plate under my bagel. I understand the convenience and hygiene of using a napkin (not to mention the manners), but if I am careful, there is really no need for a napkin most of the time.

My latest "mad scientist" project went through its redesign yesterday. I removed the 60 feet of black hose from inside of the heat box, and replaced it with a sheet of galvanized metal. I had the metal in my garage from the dismantling of a big box years ago, and it finally got its chance to be of use again. I painted the metal black (after etching it with vinegar, a very important step), and mounted it inside the box about 2 inches from the back. Air flows into the box behind the metal sheet, runs down to the bottom corners of the box, runs along the hot area between the metal and the glass, and exits the box at the top through one of those black hoses. This design meant that the box had to be air-tight, and that the metal plate had to isolate the cool and hot portions of the back and front of the box.

The result of the redesign is significantly improved air flow. With the squirrel-cage fan that I bought at Skycraft pulling air from the hot side, there is a strong flow of hot air coming from my creation. Now I just need to mount this fan in a nice box, add a speed controller, and wait for a cold day for the real test. This heater only will work if the sun is shining, so we shall see how often it becomes useful. 

My Daily Impact, November 1-7 2011

This is the 33rd posting to this blog.

Well it has been a busy week. There have been good things happening, and a couple of bad events as well. November 1st was a day of mixed weather. There was some sun, some wind, and some clouds. The clouds really make for low power production because my solar panels produce much more electricity than the wind generator.

The main event of the day was taking the e-scooter over to Target to get some dog food. I got almost there when I heard a clicking sound coming from the front wheel. The front tire found a roofing nail. The tires of my various two-wheeled vehicles seem to find a lot of junk on the side of the road. It is the side of the road that is really the problem; it is full of sharp crap! Well, after inspecting the tire at Target, I determined that it would probably make it home OK if I left the nail in the tire. I went inside, and bought Astro some food.

When I got back to the scooter with the 44 pound bag of Dog Chow, the scooter tire still had plenty of air, and was not hissing at all. That lasted about half way home, and the tire went flat. A flat tire on a scooter or motorcycle is no fun. The bike feels like it is riding on ice mixed with mud; it gets really squirley. I walked the scooter to a parking lot for a condominium, and parked it. I had to stash the dog food, or carry it the mile plus home. I decided to knock on a door to see if some kind soul would help me.

The first door I knocked on was answered with a gracious " come on in ". The man continued with " Hello, I am Bill Traenor ". Bill is a very friendly, older gentleman, and he agreed to let me store the dog food in his condo while I walked home to get the truck. Meeting him completely negated any bad feelings I had about the flat tire. I feel honored to have met him, and talked with him.

The scooter, the ramp, and the 44 pounds of dog food made it home.

Wednesday, November 2nd was a nice enough day; it was windy and not quite as cloudy. I washed my sheets, and dried them on the line. They dried quickly with the strong breeze and the sunshine. I was also able to get my latest mad scientist project ready for the installation on Thursday.

Thursday, November 3rd was the big day on the roof. My friend Dean cam by, and after breakfast at Ikea, we got to work. I had procured two sliding glass doors a while back, and now it was time to put one to use. I also had purchased some 4" plastic hose a while back, and the two would meet for my big project. The idea is to heat the black hose inside of a wood box with the sun that shines through the sliding glass door on top. Installation went very well, and the box gets really hot when the sun shines on it.

There is one problem. If you look at the picture, you may be able to tell that the hose runs back and forth across the box in one continuous circuit. This makes plenty of heat, but that 60 feet plus of 4" hose is very restrictive to any air being pushed through it. The fan can only manage a slight current through the pipes, and the warm air blows out with the speed of an exhale. OOPS! I have a plan for fixing this, and I will report on the results when they are available. Sometimes a mad scientist has to go back to the drawing board.

The rest of the week went well enough, and grid power use was a mere 8 KWh, with one of those going into the truck. The van sat still in its parking spot in my carport, and the Honda got quite a bit of use. I approximate that there was about 22 pounds of CO2 produced from the week's riding.

Progress Energy probably read my meter today, and there should be a nice result for the month's power use. The total should be 70 KWh total, and this would be my second lowest usage for a month since April. I will update that on the next posting.

My Daily Impact, October 27 - 31, 2011

This is the 32nd posting in this blog.

We have had mixed weather the last few days. There have been some sunny times, some windy times, and some rainy times. Some days like today have been a little bit of each. The rain and clouds really did a number on my solar energy production lately, and I am glad that I have grid power to use when this happens. I have used 5 KWh of grid energy over the last five days, and three of those were on Friday night and Saturday morning. I am still on track to beat my last years' October energy use if all goes well. It is my goal to constantly improve from one year to the next, and for the last two years, that has been the case every month. I must admit that it gets harder every year because the low-hanging fruit of easy energy savings has been picked.

I have been driving the Honda scooter much more lately. I put about 120 miles on it last week. That is only about 1.1 gallons of gas, but I like to use less if possible. I also drove the van to a party in Altamonte Springs with my friend Kenny. This 40 mile trip was respondible for about 36 pounds of CO2, and the Honda made about 22 pounds. I also car pooled with my friend Michael to Christmas for a group hike at the wetlands park there. That trip in his jeep probably made about 50 pounds of CO2.

The emissions from those three tailpipes are not the only things that made impacts this week. My food intake did some damage too. On Thursday evening, we went to O'boy's Bar-B-Que, and I had the pulled pork dinner. There was probably over a pound of the stuff on my plate, and I ate every bit. Sometimes, I just lack discipline! At least the food was served on reusable dished with real utensils. Only the 2 napkins went into the trash.

 Friday night, I had a roast beef sub from subway. It was not a huge amount of meat, but there was the was paper wrapper, the napkin, and the plastic bag. Saturday was the Halloween party. There was a foam plate, a plastic cup, 2 napkins, and plastic utensils. I held back on any protest of this waste because my friends were gracious enough to invite me to an awesome party.

Last night, seven of us went to Pollo Tropical for dinner. The chicken and side items were all good, but the trash was ridiculous. Foam plates, plastic containers, plastic utensils, and plastic cups all over that table which all went into the trash. It is a shame that good, inexpensive food comes at such a cost to our environment.

Today, I sit here writing this blog entry at Panera Bread. So far, I have poured myself two cups of coffer, and used four sugar packets and a plastic knife. The real knives had not come back from the dishwasher, and a plastic one was already on my plate before I could stop it. I will rinse it off, wipe it down, and put it into my computer bag for a second use later.

I want to share my inspirations for writing this blog. I have previously mentioned my friends at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage who live the most sustainable lives of anyone I know. Click here to go to their website. They are not just trying to save our planet, but they also are some very nice people. I also have to credit a book titled "No Impact Man" by Colin Beavan. This is an interesting and humorous account of a New York City man who tries to make the smallest footprint possible. He also takes his wife and child along for the ride. This book taught me a lot about how the choices I make can influence the footprint I make.

I recommend taking this book for a read. I really recommend the audio book because the author's enthusiasm really comes through.

My Daily Impact, October 20 - 26, 2011

This is the 31st posting to this blog.

I did it again. I let a week go by between postings. This is not nescesarily a bad thing, but small things that I do on a daily basis slip through the cracks. There are the paper towels in the wash rooms, the broken plastic utensils, the napkins, the sugar packets, the meat, and all of the frozen food that I find so convenient.

Let's start with frozen food. I use frozen, concentrated orange juice, and drink a glass full every morning. I eat frozen veggies about 4 times per week, and I ate frozen fish three times over the past week. All of this food must be transported and stored frozen, and this uses a lot of electricity and fuel. I do not know what the difference is in transporting frozen over dry or canned goods is, but I know that there is a difference. At least the frozen OJ reduces the transport of cold water in regular OJ, and it reduces the packaging as well.

I have mentioned meat before in this blog. Besides the fact that the cow, pig, lamb, or chicken must die, there is the feeding, grazing land ( hopefully ), and the poop. There is also the cold storage energy, and all of this adds up to a lot of impact. One of the most environmentally friendly things to do is to become a vegitarian. I attempt to be at least a part-time vegitarian, but I still have that carnivore side. Meat intake this past week involved some of those bacon-wrapped fillets, which I served at a small dinner party, two Wendy's singles, 6 slices of Ikea bacon, that frozen fish, and small ammounts of chicken from Sweet Tomatoes' salad and soup bar.

There have been some improvements lately. I went to Clemmon's produce, and bought some locally-grown oranges and tomatoes. They clearly label all of their produce with the place of origin. I would really like Publix to do the same thing. I know that Publix does label some things, but it would be nice to highlight local produce.

Power use from the grid continues to be low this month. There were several overcast days until the 21st when I had to use more from the power company than usual. Since then, the only grid use was to cook, and to do two loads of laundry. I was able to line dry most of the wash, and therefore only used 9 KWh for the whole week. Just using the dryer for those two loads would have accounted for most of those nine.

I started construction of my next solar project yesterday. The mad scientist is back at work, and details with pictures will follow on new postings. Until then, be as green as possible!

My Daily Impact for the week of October 11 - 19, 2011

This is the 30th posting to this blog.

Well, I did it again, I let this blog go for a week. I have been busy, but really not that busy. I will start by saying that there were a lot of daily impacts of mine that will go unsaid. There are the sugar packets, the napkins, the bananas, the meat, the Ikea bacon, and probably many more. I do my best every day to keep these small things to an absolute minimum.

I do keep good records of my electricity and gasoline use, and I will report that now. The week's total power use for my house was 30 KWh. This total actually includes eight days of power, and 16 miles in the truck. Two of those days the meter sat still ( no grid power use ). There was some cloud cover on a few of those days, and I had to plug the fridge back into the grid. Why do I bother watching my power use? Well, beside caring for the planet, my last power bill was $ 35.00.

Most of my travel was with the electric scooter, but there were several trips on the Honda as well. The Honda trips added up to about 60 miles for about 10 pounds of CO2. Yesterday and today, I drove the van. The 51 mile total is responsible for about 40 pounds of CO2.

There were two things that I did this week which helped lower my impact on the planet. I had the starter fopr the van repaired at a local shop. This not only saved me $ 20.00 over a rebuilt one, it keeps the local economy going, saves the transportation of a starter from who-knows-where and back, and keeps the high-quality original equipment starter motor in my van. It is too bad that the local repair shops for electronics struggle because of our disposable society.

Along the lines of electonic repair, I was able to successfully repair a portable DVD player which was malfunctioning. The removal of a stray piece of plastic, and a little solder did the trick. I must admit that it took me about 2 1/2 hours to get this done, but it kept that little player working.

I have been doing pretty well staying away from red meat. I have eaten some chicken and fish, but have mostly been eating veggies. There is always that free Ikea bacon, but it is free, and it tastes so good!

I attended the #occupy Orlando rally on Saturday. It was encouraging to see people speaking out to try to improve things in this country. I think that the best thing for me to do is to buy from local businesses when ever possible. I am lucky that Publix is a local business, but I will need to make sure that more food which I buy from them is actually locally grown.

A scene from Occupy Orlando. ( I'm in the green on the left )

My Daily Impact, October 8, 9, and 10, 2011

This is the 29th posting to this blog.

Saturday, October 8th was a day full of rain. There was not much sun on Friday, and there was little wind either. I had to shut off the solar power because the batteries were very low. I also had to use 1 KWh of power to heat the water to a temperature comfortable enough for a nice shower. I have become quite reliant on nice sunny Florida weather.

I stayed home all day, watched the boob tube, and did some small things around the house. I rarely spend all day at home, and I got a little stir crazy!

Total grid power use for the house was 4 KWh. Not too bad considering the lack of sun.

Sunday, October 9th brought some relief from the constant rain of the day before, but there was little sun. I kept the solar feed to the house turned off to give the batteries some much-needed charge. I did manage to get out in the late afternoon to my Thai Chi group, but I took the van. I had not filled it with gas from my return from DC, and I did not want to leave it empty for any longer. I also went to pick up my friend Kenny because he was stranded at his house because he could not drive. He had problems with his teeth, and was on pain medication. Kenny has given me rides more times than I can count, and it was my turn to return the favor.

The traffic lights were not kind to me on Sunday, and the 31 miles driven probably meant about 33 pounds of CO2 put into the atmosphere. There is also a problem with the starter on the van. It has been acting up for a while. It often only clicks when the key is turned, and requires several turns of the key before the starter engages. The problem with this is that the repeated clicking resets the computer, and the van does not run as efficiently as it could. Repair of the starter is now on my to-do list.

Total grid power use for the house was 3 KWh. This figure probably represents the power generated by my system of solar panels on a sunny day.

This is where the solar panels and wind generator store power.
I am waiting for better battery technology, but this works for now.

Monday, October 10th was a fairly sunny day. I decided to give the batteries more opportunity to charge, and used grid power only. I did some work on the sliding door for my guest bathroom, and mostly stayed around the house. I did go to the library and to Publix in the evening, and used the e-scooter for this trip. Because the solar was resting, there was probably about 300 watt-hours of grid power used for this trip. This is quite a bargain for 10 miles.

I have neglected to mention my impact due to food for the last few days. There was one breakfast at Ikea with the two strips of bacon, there was a good day on Saturday when I consumed no meat, and there was a good day on Sunday when I ate at Jason's salad bar for dinner. Monday was a frozen chicken dinner. Each day there were bananas, frozen OJ, and several snacks of cereal bars and yogurt. Any packaging from these snacks went into the garbage. Yogurt comes in a type of plastic which Orange County does not recycle. I wonder why this is?

Total grid power use for the house on Monday was 4 KWh. It was almost too hot to sleep with no A/C, but a fan managed to do the trick.

My Daily Impact, October 6 and 7, 2011

This is the 28th posting to this blog.

Thursday, October 6th was a slower day than Wednesday. I hung up the sliding doors, and one worked perfectly. The other one needed a different hole drilled for the roller, but ended up just fine. I am pleased with the results, and will add a third door to the second bathroom.

Food wise, I did well until dinner with friends. I had a BBQ beef sandwich with greens and sweet potatoes. The guy at Cecil's really piled on the beef, and that made the major impact for the day. Travel to dinner was with the e-scooter, and that was charged mostly with solar power. About 200 watt-hours was from our meeting house.

The grid power was off at the house for a ZERO KWh day. Yippee!

Friday, October 7th meant a trip to Home Depot in the truck. This was for the new bathroom door. I ate at Ikea on the way there, so bacon was ingested. I did not do too much work with the new door, and went out on the Honda to meet friends. The 24 mile round trip put out about 4 pounds of CO2. Dinner was one of those bacon-wrapped fillets and the remainder of that broccoli from Target. The other impact came from charging the truck for the 15 miles run for the week. That was 8 KWh. The truck is much less efficient when it sits without charging for a while. Batteries leak power quite a bit unfortunately

Total grid power for the house was 1 KWh, and the truck's 8 makes a total of 9. The presence of rain and overcast skies forced me to use grid power for the fridge. I am lucky that there was still enough solar hot water for a nice shower. I do not know if that will be true if the rain sticks around too long..

My Daily Impact, October 5, 2011

This is the 27th posting to my blog.

Wednesday was a very productive day. I met my friend Michael for breakfast at Ikea, and had the usual eggs, potatoes, and bacon. Maybe I should pass on the bacon to make less of an impact, but it tastes so good!

From Ikea, I went to Home Depot to get a few things to finish installing the sliding doors. One of the things I got was primer. I should have purchased latex primer, but got oil-based instead. It has been a long time since I used oill-based paint, and it is nasty. It does go on thick, and covers well, but I had to toss the brush when I was through. Nasty stuff. I am also not sure what kinds of gasses come from that stuff, but at one point I felt a little high. A little fresh air, and it passed though.

I worked all afternoon on the doors and painting, and wanted a quick dinner. I had a coupon for buy one, get one free chicken sandwiches at Burger King, and I wolfed both of them down. Not much of a ballanced meal, but it was good.

I charged the e-scooter using grid power, and used power tools and lights all afternoon. The result was 1 KWh of grid power for the day.