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

[zeroenergy at cox.net]

Of all the energy forms; ie; gasoline, diesel, heating oil, coal, hydro electric, wind, solar pv and geothermal, we use, the primary usage is for heating and cooling our homes, business and civic structures. Manufacturing and Industrial use is second. Transportation is third. 

Clearly the most effective improvement would be to reduce the energy wastefulness of our living and working structures. 

It is expensive to achieve a significant improvement in an existing structure. 
Improvement possibilities include:
1. Better doors and windows, such as multipane, coated low "e" casement windows and insulated fiberglass doors with "b" flanged bulb seals.
2.  A new interior ceiling using two or three inches of extruded high density foam. 
3. There is the possibility of adding a geothermal energy system. It must be deep enough in the ground to get to a constant 65 degrees, but that may be cost prohibitive in some areas because of rock and/or the frost depth....and some structures/lots do not have adequate front/side/back yard area for that to be feasible. There is the possibility of digging under the building, but that could be structurally dangerous and very expensive. 
4. There are "conditioning" systems that are more efficient, such as radiant heat instead of a forced air system. But if the structure has high heat loss, then the results of more efficient conditioning systems are only going to be incremental, not significant.  Which is not financially economic or viable.

It is not reasonable to expect we could tear down the existing infrastructure to replace it with more efficient technology. Clearly the main possibility is to come up with some economically viable alternatives to reduce the heat loss/gain. 

Many older structures are masonry/concrete or brick exteriors. This high density material absorbs heat during the day in summer, radiating it into the interior. And it becomes a "radiator" drawing heat from the inside in winter and giving it off to the outside. These structures could perhaps be recovered on their exterior with spray on foam as an adhesive and then add 2" thick foam sheeting with a synthetic external coating for water and UV protection. But there is an issue with water condensation and freeze-thaw cycles deteriorating the coating.  A workable "system" might require a complex multi-coating with a vapor barrier, a "breather" like a roof felt, and then a permeable "elastomeric" final coating. Thus internal condensation would occur in/on the felt and "evaporate" back out through the permeable layer. Freezing would be tolerated by the elasticity. 

We are working to build Zero Energy Lifestyle Homes in Arizona, where the climate is a significant advantage. We have a good geothermal opportunity comparing above ground temperature with sub-surface temperature year round. Also the 300+ days of sunshine is excellent for solar water and air heating systems, as well as Photo Voltaic panel system incorporation. Then the obvious benefits of a zero emission electric car can be added to that.
  
The batteries are available, A123 systems is one supplier of lithium batteries; the most desirable system today. Personally I advocate to put the battery pack cost into the house mortgage. The gain in equity over the five year minimum life will offset the cost. The owners only have to put up 10% or 20% of the battery pack cost....if any. The gasoline cost savings will offset the additional mortgage cost. The advanced battery pack will give a "compact" car a 200 mile range. Some days they may need 200 miles, but most days they will probably fall within the national average of 50 miles or less. On those days, when they come home in the relatively early afternoon, say 3:30 to 4:30, it will be during the peak time when power is around $.17 per KW.  Once the car is plugged in,  expect the house to run completely off the solar pv and the battery pack, regardless of the surges from appliances or other occupant demands. Often times the solar pv system will be making excess power, so even then durring max peak cost, the car will recharge directly from the solar panels. Other days when they're perhaps running power tools and games and four TV's simultaneously, when the family goes to sleep, the grid connection will recharge the battery pack, at $0.04 per KW for at least five or six hours, and it will be like having  full tank of gas in the morning. To me it just doesn't make sense not to go with this Zero Energy Lifestyle concept.

I attend the electric car association meeting at the APS power company solar test facility in Tempe, AZ. Their representatives say that there is a 440,000KW per hour excess capacity at night, off peak, at four cents a KW. 

Battery technology is evolving. They have batteries that can recharge 80% in ten minutes and can take 5,000 recharges. Plug-in hybrids in fleet testing are achieving 75mpg. I think that is an excellent near future possibility, even if I had to use lead acid batteries like so many of those cars for sale on ebay and other places.....but we can do better than that right now.

There is a company that has developed a process to use a specialized fluidic coating applied to thin metal strips (like thick foil) and "print" solar panels instead of the current microchip silicon on glass process. The cost of the current panels is about $4.00 a watt and the "printed" panels are forecast at $0.30 per watt. That will revolutionize solar panels acceptance and use. 

It isn't "Perfect" but improvements are achievable today. I prefer to do some not quite perfect systemic improvements now rather than waiting for New York to be flooded from glacier and polar shelf melting. There really already is a crack in the polar ice cap. Those remarkable pictures of the ice cliffs falling into the sea that the travel agencies show on national t.v. promoting Alaskan cruise trips really are the evidence of the continual melting of those glaciers. Some of which have receded over a hundred miles and some parts of the world are gone completely.  I think it is folly and foolishness to do little or nothing.

The wright brothers started selling the imperfect 1905 flyer having no inkling that there would be Spads, Sophwith Camels or Fokker triplanes (Red Barron) in less than ten years, that 1923 would see the Douglas Cruisers circumnavigate the earth by air in 175 days, or Lindbergh cross the Atlantic solo in 1927. That the imperfect Messerschmitts, Zeros, Spitfires, Flying Tigers P40's, Mustangs, P38 Lightnings and other propeller driven aircraft would be the deciding factor in WWII. And they certainly had no concept of the jet age and Space Shuttle or the Moon rockets and satellites to all the planets in the solar system....and even departing the solar system. So I believe electric cars are going to see an incredible improvement in the next few years....now that gasoline is not so plentiful ("Peak Oil" is a reality) and "Necessity is always the mother of Invention".

Don Eyermann  

---- Lawrence Lile <LLile at projsolco.com> wrote: 
> > 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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