Good Tire Gauge - Save $500.00+ Per Year!

Posted on August 18, 2008
Filed Under Camera & Photo, Kitchen, Solar Living | 2 Comments

When tires are not inflated to the recommended PSI (pounds per square inch) as recommended by tire manufacturers, the flat part in contact with the ground is greater and the tires require more energy to flex as they roll. This phenomenon is known as rolling resistance. Rolling resistance goes up as pressure goes down. Low tire pressure reduces the efficiency of your car and shortens the life of your tires - a double penalty.

Tire inflation has become a smoldering issue this election season. Let’s look past the smoke to see if inflating your tires can really save a measurable amount of energy.

From About.com, “Keeping Your Tires Inflated” (with a few edits)

An informal study by students at Carnegie Mellon University found that the majority of cars on U.S. roads are operating on tires inflated to only 80 percent of capacity. (One Dept. of Transportation study has it at 80% of all vehicles have under-inflated tires, 27% have tires under-inflated by 25% or more) According to the website, fueleconomy.gov, inflating tires to their proper pressure can improve mileage by about 3.3 percent, whereas leaving them under-inflated can lower mileage by 0.4 percent for every one PSI drop in pressure of all four tires.

That may not sound like much, but it means that the average person who drives 12,000 miles yearly on under-inflated tires uses about 144 extra gallons of gas, at a cost of $300-$500 $576.00 a year. And each time one of those gallons of gas is burned, 20 pounds of carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere as the carbons in the gas are released and combine with the oxygen in the air. As such, any vehicle running on soft tires is contributing as much as 1.5 extra tons (2,880 pounds) of greenhouse gases to the environment annually.

Lets Check The Math:

There are about 250 million vehicles on the road in the U.S. Some are trucks, but trucks need to keep their tires inflated too. The average distance driven in a year is 12,000 miles. With 80% needing to inflate their tires - that makes 200 million of us driving on low tires, each adding an extra 1.5 tons of CO2 to the atmosphere.

200 million cars with under inflated tires x 144 gallons of gas per car per year = 28,800,000,000 gallons of gas.

28,800,000,000 gallons of gas divided by 19.6 gallons of gas per barrel of oil (U.S. Energy Information Agency) = 1,469,387,755 barrels of oil per year.

According to estimates from the Interior Dept.’s Minerals Management Service (MMS), the U.S. has roughly 18 billion undiscovered and technically recoverable bbl. of oil offshore. Total. It would take a decade to get the first barrel to flow and we could recover maybe 1 billion barrels per year.

In other words, if we inflate our tires to the proper pressure we would save just about the entire amount of oil available offshore before the first barrel was pumped. Furthermore we save more oil per year than offshore drilling will product. Period. Offshore oil will flow at a rate less than what we can save by inflating our tires, and we have the additional benefit of not emitting 1.5 tons x 200 million cars x 10 years - 3 billion tons of CO2 in the interim.

Looks like inflating our tires is a smarter policy.

Make it easy to check your tires, this Accutire Gauge has big numbers and is easy to read in bright daylight. This gauge is heavy duty, easy to grip and it beeps when it has a correct reading. Pretty foolproof.

Solar Emergency Power

Posted on August 8, 2008
Filed Under Real Tools, Solar Living | Leave a Comment

CDT-10w 12V crystalline PV module

I’m working on a solar / LED lighting project for people who live off the grid in Guatemala and Nicaragua.

Listening to people who live way off the grid in very rural parts of Guatemala has given us insight into what people really need for their lighting. Some non profits advocate 1 watt of LED light to replace kerosene lamps. And they have a point, one watt of LED light is a lot better than kerosene or candles. However, our entire solar power system + lights costs less than what people spend in a year on Kerosene and candles, and it provides what people really want - which is a little more than a fancy LED lamp. People want a power supply that can charge a cell phone, and possibly run a small transistor radio for a few hours a day.

(In Guatemala they practically give away cell phones. I purchased mine for $15.00 with $15.00 worth of time already programmed in. The phone was essentially free. You can purchase air time in chunks as small as 5 minutes. The cell phone companies know how to work with the incomes of very poor people)

It turns out our design, a 10 watt solar panel and a couple of 7 amp hour 12 volt batteries can provide enough power to keep a cell phone charged, run a couple of 2 watt lights and have a bit extra power to spare for longer times without sunlight.

A little power is a lot more than no power at all.

Now that we have the system designed for Guatemala, I realize it also can work as an emergency back up power system for our frequent black outs here in the midwest. A 10 watt solar panel, a controller and a 15 amp or so battery ( we can actually charge a much larger battery here because we don’t plan on using the system except in an emergency)

What this gives us is enough power to run a couple of 2 watt LED lights (we could go for 4), and a radio for a few days. Eventually we will drain the battery because our daily use is larger than the design for Guatemala but we can also design our system for a lot more storage capacity to start out. With the pattern of black outs here in Ann Arbor, we can expect once or twice a year to have a few days without power. The rest of the time our system is charging and then keeping the batteries topped off. I will have to run the numbers on this, but I expect we can keep somewhere around 500 - 1,000 amp hours topped off with our little 10 watt solar panel, which would give us enough power to run an energy efficient refrigerator on an inverter for a day or two while we wait for power to return.

A little electricity is a lot more than no electricity at all.

We purchased our solar panels at Amazon, they are cheaper than ordering direct from the manufacturer!

The Amazon link for the panels will be added as soon as Amazon sends us a new password for the account.

Till then, if you want to order a good emergency back up power system, consider the

10 Watt Solar Panel - CDT-10w 12V crystalline PV module, plus the Sunforce 60012 7 Amp Charge Controller.

We will cover how to make your own inexpensive LED lights in a future post.

Cheers,

Dr. Bronner’s - Perfect Travel Soap

Posted on July 13, 2008
Filed Under Travel | Leave a Comment

I’ve been a big fan of Dr. Bronner’s soaps for decades.

Right now I’m traveling, working on some renewable energy and water related projects in Guatemala. My travel kit includes a small bottle of Dr. Bronners Peppermint soap. A good all around soap for showers, cleaning clothes and it even makes a passable shaving soap in a pinch.

Dr. Bronner, and now his son, make all natural, organic and Fair Trade soaps. The peppermint tingles a bit when you bathe with it, a plus in my book.

You don’t need to use much so my small bottle will last me for the three weeks of my trip.

From Bronner’s Website-

Marking the 60th Anniversary of the company, Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps is pleased to announce that all classic liquid & bar soaps are now not only certified under the USDA National Organic Program, but also certified Fair Trade! In addition, we are pleased to introduce a revolutionary new range of high-quality organic products, from hair rinses to shaving gels – all certified under the same USDA program that certifies organic foods.

Treehugger has an interesting post about Dr. Bronner’s lawsuit against cosmetics manufacturers that use the term “organic” when they have very little organic material in their products. Check out - Treehugger

Check out Dr. Bronner’s Soaps

Leatherman Skeletool

Posted on June 19, 2008
Filed Under Craft, Real Tools, Travel | Leave a Comment

I travel a lot. I conduct workshops in developing countries on Appropriate Technology. While I wish I could bring my toolbox with me on every trip, I have to depend on locally available tools in the countries I work in.

The Leatherman Skeletool helps me through many a workshop. It is unusually lightweight, it functions just like a pocket knife when you need to and it has a bit driver that works for screws, phillips screws, torx and hex key.

Don’t let the Terminator look put you off, this is a valuable tool that is lightweight enough to be in your backpack or emergency toolkit, but it belongs in the top drawer of your toolbox.

Leatherman Skeletool

-jsb

Gorilla Tape

Posted on May 28, 2008
Filed Under Real Tools | Leave a Comment

Gorilla Tape is duct tape on steroids. It bonds to just about anything including brick, stucco, wood and more. Gorilla Tape is made with a double thick layer of adhesive on a strong reinforced backing, and a weather proof shell. The thick adhesive provides a stronger bond to almost any surface as it fills the gaps, especially in porous surfaces. The reinforced backing is a lot like regular duct tape so it can still be ripped by hand. It can even be used in place of electrical tape.

Like duct tape, Gorilla Tape is not recommended for use on warm or hot surfaces. So don’t use Gorilla Tape to seal your ductwork!!! Also like duct tape this stuff will pull the paint off of drywall so be careful where you choose to use it.

The roll is 1.88 inches x 35 yards long and features a 17 mils thick adhesive.

Check Out: Gorilla Tape

Nomadic Travel

Posted on May 7, 2008
Filed Under Travel | Leave a Comment

Chicken Bus - San Pedro Guatemala

With rising oil prices and the dollar at new lows, travel might seem out of reach for many of us. However if you have the desire and you are willing to “rough it” a bit, you may find that travel to exotic locations is still possible.

First, you can control costs by choosing where and when to travel. If you want to see Paris, Rome and Barcelona in summer, you will probably spend double what it will cost to see Budapest, Bucharest and Sofia. Better yet, see Guatemala. Antigua was a Spanish Capital for a large part of Latin America so you have Cathedrals and ruins plus active volcanoes.

We took a family trip to Ecuador a few years ago, we stayed at hostels and we ate at inexpensive restaurants and had a few DIY meals purchased at the local grocery store. I figured the cost to be less than taking the family to Disney World, and that is including airfare.

True adventure costs less. It is cheaper to take the local mass transit than it is to take a cab, and you get to interact with the locals, which is why we are traveling to begin with. (isn’t it?)

If you are planning a long road trip the book to get is First-Time Around the World. The book is loaded with up to date travel information, including air fares and the costs of other modes of transportation. The book includes what to bring, when to go, how much it will cost and which vaccinations are required. The short but informative individual country profiles highlight good places to visit plus informative websites and budget information.

TechShop - Tool Heaven

Posted on May 2, 2008
Filed Under Camera & Photo, Real Tools | Leave a Comment

Xeni at BoingBoing TV has a great short video on the San Francisco area TechShop. Video Link

From the TechShop Website:

TechShop is a fully-equipped open-access workshop and creative environment that lets you drop in any time and work on your own projects at your own pace. It is like a health club with tools and equipment instead of exercise equipment…or a Kinko’s for geeks.

TechShop was founded in 2006 by Jim Newton, a lifetime maker, veteran BattleBots builder and former MythBuster. TechShop is located in Menlo Park, California, on the San Francisco peninsula 25 miles south of San Francisco.

Anyone can come in and build and make all kinds of things themselves using the TechShop tools, machines and equipment, and draw on the TechShop instructors and experts to help them with their projects.

TechShop is designed for everyone, regardless of their skill level. TechShop is perfect for inventors, “makers”, hackers, tinkerers, artists, roboteers, families, entrepreneurs, youth groups, FIRST robotic teams, arts and crafts enthusiasts, and anyone else who wants to be able to make things that they dream up but don’t have the tools, space or skills.

The TechShop workshop provides a wide variety of machinery and tools for the open and unlimited use of its members, including milling machines and lathes, welding stations and plasma cutters, sheet metal working equipment, drill presses and band saws, industrial sewing machines, hand tools, plastic working equipment, electronics design and fabrication facilities, tubing and metal bending machines, electrical supplies and tools, and pretty much everything you’d ever need to make just about anything all by yourself.

The community of DIY makers at the TechShop looks pretty fantastic to me. I have several projects that are waiting for tools and some pointers on how to use them. A TechShop in my neighborhood would be a great asset.

Check out: TechShop

Home Otoscope

Posted on April 25, 2008
Filed Under Real Tools | Leave a Comment

I’d give out a home otoscope with every baby if I could. Parents should make informed decisions about their children’s health starting at birth. From our experinece the most common early childhood health problems were ear infections - or not ear infections but kids teething and having soreness that mimics an ear infection. You can either take your baby in to the doctor every time it seems like you may have an infection or you can learn to use a good quality otoscope to see the condition of your kids ear drums.

You can find photos of what different ear conditions look like: here. With a little practice you can tell the condition of your child’s ears and potentially save unnecessary antibiotics.

When we did take our kids in to the doctor I compared my impressions with theirs, even taking turns looking at the ear drums in question.

Our first otoscope was a cheap plastic model which was not worth much. The otoscope above comes highly recommended (note, I have not tested this model) and the ones made by Welch Allyn are superb, but possibly overkill for occasional use.

Check Out: Dr. Mom Otoscope