[Greenbuilding] [BULK] Re: I gotcher donor car right here

[Lawrence Lile]

> I think one of our folks in the Northeast was complaining there are  
> no good used vehicles in their area because of salt and rust.

    >That was me.

-Speireag.

Thot so, Speireag.  So it looks like your conversion timetable is similar to mine.  i.e. Not now.  

Almost once a month there is an electric vehicle of some stripe on Ebay motors.  It is quite entertaining to look them up. 

My buddy Jim says I should wait for Lithium Titanate nano-batteries to really hit the market, he thinks that within 5 years they will replace lead-acid in electric vehicles.  So far, they look totally out of reach, i.e. I don't even know where to buy one, and if you need less than a traincarload, you are on the wait list.  A chat with an electric converter fellow showed that I definitely need to look at an electric truck if I am using lead-acid battteries, my commute is out of reach for a unibody frame car - too much weight. He says the welds start snapping after a while.  

When I check my CO2 contributions on one of those carbon calculators (they all give different results) I note that car travel is now 3/4 of my carbon contribution.  Even using coal fired electricity for an electric auto, I have calculated, is a net gain over gasoline as far as carbon is concerned, however not by much, and it depends a lot on how old your utility's power plants are.  BUt if you buy wind power off the grid (many utilities including mine are doing this now) and charge up your car, you're way ahead.  Of course you could always bike, but if you've checked the news lately Central Missouri isn't too conducive to biking right now.  I stay off the bike when there is ice on the ground and a blizzard going. 

I read that a recent round of international climate change talks was recommending something like a 25% reduction in greenhouse gases by some far off date like 2020.  I've done that much in two years, I can smugly report, and am definitely feeling no pain about it.  I hope to be producing a net reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020, to make up for all that hot air.  

I've got warming climate problems of my own today.  After a month of clouds and ice storms, it is finally sunny, and with a little extra sunlight glinting off the ice, my house is riding up to 81F right now.  I am enjoying every bit of it too.  



--Lawrence

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