With summer in full swing and the price of oil hovering near $90-100 per barrel, everyone is feeling the pinch at the gas pump. High fuel costs affects us every summer, and this one is turning out to be no different.

Except this year, the high cost of filling up our gas tanks has been compounded by the economy’s continued slump, high unemployment, meager savings account rates, and other trouble spots in families’ finances.

Here are five ways to save some money this summer on your gas bill.

1. Keep your car moving. I know that it may seem like a counterproductive idea to keep driving to save money on fuel costs, but stop and go traffic can play havoc on your fuel gauge. Depending on the amount of congestion that you encounter, you could be adding a lot to your fuel bill. Studies have shown that stop and go traffic can reduce mileage at least 5% to 10%. While living in the traffic-riddled city of Atlanta, my brother-in-law used to have a theory that you could save a lot of time on your daily commute by only making right-hand turns. Who would have thought that something so simple could save you money, as well.
2. Tune up your car. Studies have shown that tuning up your car can save you money on gas by improving your fuel economy. In fact, simple tune ups can save you approximately 4% on your gas costs. If you can avoid major mechanical problems with your car, you could also save on car repairs.
3. Clean out your trunk. Studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy found that your fuel consumption will be up to 2% higher if you drive around with an extra 100 pounds in your car’s trunk. So, for example, if you have a 15 gallon gas tank in your car that you fill up once a week, that extra 2% in fuel costs can add $50 onto the roughly $2,500 that you spend on fuel per year (assuming $3.50 per gallon gasoline). Instead, you could save money this money if you’d just stop carrying around needless gear and added weight in your car’s trunk.
4. Use gas reward credit card. You can earn up to a 5% rebate at certain national gas station chains by using a credit card like the Chase Freedom Visa when you fill up. While many of these credit cards have high interest rates, the savings or rebates may be well worth your time and effort in gas savings if you pay your credit card bills off every month instead of letting your balances carry over and accrue interest. The best credit cards can help you earn a rebate on your gas costs.
5. Carefully pick the day you fill up. I used to work at a gas station, and one of the tips that I learned was to not fill up your car while the fuel truck is there replenishing the gas station’s fuel tanks. Pumping in the new gas stirs up any sediment in the station’s large tanks and can be transferred to your car while you are filling up. Timing can also save you money on changing gas prices. Many gas station owners change their prices on Thursday mornings by 10AM. Beat the deadline if you think prices are rising, as they often do heading into the weekend when more people are on the road.

While many of these fuel (or cost) saving measures may not seem like much when you look at them individually, they can add up to some serious savings when you combine them. Saving 10% or 20% on your fuel costs can put hundreds of dollars back in your savings account every year. This can make a huge difference in your family’s budget when times are tough.

What about your fuel savings? Do you fill up your tank every week? What are some things you do to save money on gas? Did I miss any good tips?

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Ouch, that electric bill is gonna hurt this month! With temperatures soaring across the United States, power consumption has been soaring right along with it. Of course you’ve already turned up your thermostat and screwed in the CFLs, so here are some slightly different tips to trim the power bill.

1. Get your hands wet. Wash your dishes by hand once or twice a week instead of using your dishwasher. (The dishwasher manufacturers will have you believe that this wastes water; that’s only true if you crazily run the water the whole time you’re washing.) If you wash the dishes by hand one day out of five, you’ll cut your electricity consumption for the dishwasher by 20 percent (a standard dishwasher burns 355 kilowatt/hours per year, so that’s some nice savings).
2. Use the solar dryer. Admit it, the main reason you don’t hang your laundry on the line is because you don’t want the neighbors to gawk. Suck up that pride and start using the sun to dry your laundry. Not only will you save electricity (it costs about 50 cents a load to use your dryer) but you’ll burn some calories along the way. If you seriously don’t want your neighbors checking out your skivvies, go ahead and use the dryer for that, but use the clothesline for your less modest laundry.
3. Use the microwave. Your microwave efficiently cooks food — it uses a lot less electricity than your normal electric stove or oven — and it doesn’t heat up your kitchen the way those appliances do, so you’ll save air conditioning power, too. And admit it, you like those tasty and easy microwave meals!
4. Keep the fridge full. Ironically, the more stuff you have in your fridge, the more efficient it is (unless you jam it so full that you block the air flow). Here’s the idea: If your refrigerator or freezer is nearly empty, each time you open the door much of the cold rushes out with the air. Keep the fridge and freezer full, and the cold stays. Simple. However, you shouldn’t put hot stuff into the fridge or freezer until it cools down to room temperature or you’ll use more power than needed to cool it down. For health reasons you don’t want to leave food sitting out longer than necessary though; sometimes you can cool down hot food quickly with those icy things you put in coolers.
5. Zone your house. You don’t need to cool your bedroom if you’re not in it, and you probably never need to cool your closets. Once your family is out of bed, turn off the AC upstairs. Similarly, when they’re in bed, turn off the AC downstairs. If you happen to wake up in the wee hours to go to the bathroom, try turning off the AC completely. If doors and windows are shut, the bedrooms may remain cool until the sun rises. Regarding the closets, there is little need to keep your suits cool, so keep the doors to closets closed so that the cool air isn’t wasted there.
6. Skip the screensaver. You guessed it — using a screen saver consumes more electricity than just letting your computer screen go blank. Speaking of computers, turn them off at night and whenever else you’re not going to use them for two hours or more. “Sleep” mode isn’t good enough — even in sleep mode, a typical PC burns 15 watts. After you shut down the computer, turn off the power strip. That makes sure no energy is slowly being consumed by LED lights or other little power suckers.
7. Share the wealth. This might be your single best power-saving move. If you have kids, tell them that if they participate in your power-saving schemes, you’ll share some of the savings with them. Tell them about a few ways they can help keep the bills down — turning off lights, keeping doors closed, playing fewer video games. Then show them your power bill from last August and tell them that if they follow your suggestions and the amount of electricity is less this August, they will get a percentage of the money saved.

Do you have any creative ways of saving energy? If so, please don’t hesitate to share them in the comments.

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Did you know that the EPA has approved E15 (gas with 15% ethanol) for use in 2007 model year and newer cars? In fact, they’re considering extending approval all the way back to the 2001 model year, depending on how their current round of testing turns out.

Apparently they took this action in response to a 2009 request by “ethanol backer” Growth Energy and 54 ethanol manufacturers. Keep in mind that this ruling simply allows E15, and does not require it. Still, this is something that you’ll probably run across at some point in the not-too-distant future.

In a subsequent article, USA Today tackled the question of exactly what this change means for you. In short, higher levels of ethanol could cause corrosion in engines not designed for it.

While proponents argue that ethanol is a great way to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, detractors have raised a number of concerns ranging from negative environmental effects to concerns over the impact of corn-based ethanol on food prices.

What do you think? Are you a fan of ethanol? Or would you prefer your gas straight?

Source: USA Today

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At the time, I suggested that these sorts of fees are a one-way street in that they get added when times are tough, and they never go away. Well…

Here we are, over 1.5 years later. Gas prices are still in the mid-$2 range and there are still tons of businesses charging fuel surcharges. For example, we recently had our septic tank pumped, and guess what? When the bill showed up, they had included a $15 fuel surcharge.

Don’t get me wrong… I’m more than happy to pay someone to pump our septic tank, but a $15 fuel surcharge? Come on. If you’re having trouble making ends meet, just be honest and raise your prices. Enough with the nickel and dime surcharges!

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Although my wife thought it was a great idea at the time, she grew skeptical a week later when it was time to throw the breakers. After some prodding, however, she agreed to participate. This article is a story about what we learned from our initial experience, and where it’s leading us…

Going off the grid

Going off the grid one day a week was easier than you might expect. Don’t get me wrong, it’s completely different and does take effort, but once you adopt the mindset, it’s not a big deal. We ended up leaving the breakers on, and just made a conscious effort to avoid using electricity. We watched zero television and kept the lights and furnace off, but did continue regular use of our water, gas stove, and sewer. As such, this first run was far from true off the grid living!

After the experience was over, we decided to continue this exercise each Saturday for the foreseeable future. We expect to save a bit of money (perhaps as much as $20/month) with our little experiment, and have already noticed growth in our relationship. We’ve also found that flirting with these concepts has motivated us to become more self-sufficient, and less reliant on grid living.

Before we go any further, I feel as though I should define what “off the grid” means to me. When I say “off the grid,” I’m referring to a simpler, more self-reliant lifestyle for my family. In no way do I mean to imply that our goal is to become recluses that completely shun modern conveniences and fail to contribute to society at large. What I really want to do is to practice preparedness and frugality by becoming less reliant on our existing infrastructure.

Five lifestyle goals

Here are five important lifestyle changes we are hoping to adopt and embrace as we become more comfortable moving “off the grid”:

• Self reliance. We’d like to reduce our dependence on societal systems such as sewer, water, power grids, gas, etc. If those utilities were ever to cease to function, we’d have alternative options at the ready.
• Cost control. If utilities prices were to skyrocket — as we’ve already witnessed over the past couple of years — we’d be less dependent on them and could reduce our costs.
• Simplified living. Less dependence on modern systems means we could return to a less stressful, more basic way of life. This is very attractive to us.
• Learning old-world skills. We’ll exercise our creativity, handiness, and ingenuity as we build our knowledge and competency in things like gardening, canning, building, etc.
• Focus on relationships. We’ll build and strengthen family relationships by tuning out or turning off outside technological influences and focusing on people instead.

A little history, a loose plan, and a looming problem

In reading so far, you might have envisioned my wife and I living on acres of country land with chickens running around, cattle in a pasture, etc. In truth, none of these are part of our current lifestyle, though I’d very much like to make vision reality! Let me paint you a more accurate picture of me, my background, and my relevant situation.

While I didn’t grow up in the holler, my daddy wasn’t a coal miner, and I don’t fly a rebel flag or drive a monster truck, I’m a country boy at heart. As such, I have a strong desire to lead as independent and self-reliant a life as possible. As a child and young man, I:

• Grew up on 20 acres
• Was basically a lumberjack – we heated our home with a wood stove
• Raised chickens, cows, and horses
• Was first employed by the farmer down the street as a hay bailing grunt

As a young adult, I moved away from my country boy roots and sold my soul to the real estate devils when I moved into the suburbs where I now:

• Live on 0.17 acres
• Have an 80% efficiency furnace to heat my home
• Raise nothing but blood pressure, and maybe a few herbs
• Work as an IT Manager

Though my wife and I are currently suburban DINKs, we’re planing on getting back to basics and are counting the days until we find our “dream home” in which we’ll start a family. As of now, we envision a self-constructed dome home complete with a wood burning stove to provide heat during the cold Michigan winters. This dream of ours is not going to happen overnight, and it’s going to require a lot of patience and sacrifice. To make it happen, we’ll need to cut spending, reduce our debt, and save a lot of money.

The biggest problem we’re currently facing is that, like so many other Americans, we’re upside down on our house. We bought our house with no money down, and are now faced with the realization that we owe much more than it’s currently worth. Fortunately, when we purchased our current home two years ago, we limited our monthly payments (including taxes and insurance) to 23% of our net income. Thus, we’re not saddled with onerous mortgage payments.

To get started we’ve decided to wean ourselves off things slowly, and have likewise begun planning for the implementation of alternative ways of life while still living in our DINK laden suburbanite neighborhood.

Some interesting additions

Since I first mentioned the idea of going off the grid, we’ve committed to starting a garden and purchasing canning supplies. We’re planning on starting to grow a lot of the produce that we would otherwise purchase throughout the year, and we’ll be purchasing both a pressure canner and a hot-water-bath canner that will help us store our bounty. As an aside, here’s here’s a link to a great guide on when to use a water-bath vs. pressure canner.

Concluding thoughts

After everything was said and done, my wife and I were both quite happy with our little “off the grid” experiment. We’ve also been a bit surprised by the shockwaves that it’s created in our life. Not only will we be saving a bit of money and spending some nice time together, but we’ll also be learning a ton of great new skills, and growing more and more self-reliant as time goes by. We’re most excited about our vision for the new home and lifestyle that we have set our sights on. Now it’s just a matter of pushing forward and maintaining discipline.

Have you ever considered going “off the grid”, or otherwise changing your lifestyle to reduce your dependence on modern conveniences? Do you have any other ideas for simplifying life, improving your self-reliance, and/or saving money by “downshifting.”

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This past weekend we had some beautifully terrible thunderstorms that knocked out power for the better part of two days. Though the outage was a pain in the butt, the experience provided us the rare opportunity of being “unplugged” and turned out to be a real blessing in disguise.

Like so many other unexpected situations, involuntarily living without power caused us to think outside the box and to brainstorm ways to prepare in the event that something similar happens again. We were slapped in the face by the reality of our sheer dependence on grid living, and quickly began to revert to products and techniques employed by our ancestors in the pre-electricity era.

We thought about renting a generator but decided against it and chose to “tough it out” instead. Over the last 2 years, we’ve had to rent a generator three times, costing us around $50 each time. We considered purchasing a generator but due to the high debt repayment plan we’re following, we haven’t been able to delegate the $700 needed to purchase one. Instead, we’ve put a few great fundamental precautions in place to prepare ourselves for situations like these.

How to deal with a power outage

• Stay informed. Know your power company’s phone number and call them immediately to report the outage. They will also be able to give you an estimate of how long the outage will last. Another thing you’ll need to stay informed is a crank operated radio.
• Maintain a good first aid kit. Be sure to include a few days supply of any prescription medications.
• Ensure you have a good water source. If you have an electric well pump, you’ll lose water pressure, so be sure you have enough drinking water ready.
• Create an old time refrigerator. Keep ten or more two liter bottles or half gallon milk containers filled with water in your freezer. When the power goes out, place five or six of the frozen bottles in your refrigerator to keep things cool. This is actually how the original refrigerators worked.
• Pack a cooler of food. Take a few essential food items out of your fridge and place them in a camping cooler with two or three more frozen containers, or with some of the ice cubes from your freezer.
• Tape off your fridge and freezer. Put painters or masking tape over your fridge and freezer doors so you don’t absent-mindedly open them. This will help keep all the precious cool air inside where it belongs. You can also put heavy blankets over them for added insulation.
• Candles, lighters, flashlights, and batteries. Stockpile twenty or more large, cheap candles for use as light sources. Keep several candles in each room and give each person (but not your kids!) a lighter. When anyone enters or leaves a room they can light or blow out the candle accordingly. You’ll also want to stockpile batteries and give each person in your house a personal flashlight. I suggest investing in a good flashlight such as a Surefire. There’s a high initial cost, but these lights are virtually indestructible and will last forever as long as you don’t lose them.
• Have a camp stove ready. If you have an electric stove, invest in a propane powered camp stove and a few portable propane bottles so you’ll have a way to cook if needed. Just be sure to read the instructions for your stove and cook outside if necessary.
• Prepare your pantry with a few quick emergency meals. An example of a meal that you can whip up quickly and with minimal effort is black bean spaghetti. Mix together a can of black beans & a can of spaghetti sauce, boil up some noodles and voíla, you have yourself a healthy and cheap emergency meal. Some other quick & easy options are soup, crackers, beans, and peanut butter & honey sandwiches (my wife’s favorite).
• Have a collection of non-electric games. These will give you something fun while the power is it. Consider things such as Yahtzee, playing cards, dice, trivia, charades, Monopoly, etc. My wife and I played Yahtzee by candlelight. Very fun and actually quite romantic.
• Make sure you have “car chargers” for cell phones. This will ensure that you can keep your battery charged even when the power is out. Just be sure to plug your phone in during any car trips during the power outage, no matter how short they might be.
• Disconnect garage door opener. Make sure you know how to disconnect your garage door opener so you can get the car out of the garage.
• Go outside. If it is still light and the weather is nice, go for a walk or a bike ride, or any other activity to get you out of the house. Sometimes my wife and I go for a nice relaxing drive in the country. Just be careful with gas usage if your local gas stations are also affected by the outage.
• Internet access. If you need internet access and have a laptop, take it to your local coffee shop. If you don’t have a laptop, go to your local library. Of course, if the outage is widespread, you might be out of luck.
• Maintain a positive attitude. This is crucial for keeping spirits high… Especially if you’re the head of the house.

These tips, when employed as directed above, will help you wait out a two or three day power outage without losing all the food in your fridge to spoilage. If you are out of power much longer than this, you will likely need a generator.

Life without power

During our recent outage, my wife and I realized that we actually enjoyed our “time in the dark.” The time we spent without electricity was some of the best we have spent together in months. We talked for hours, went for a long bike ride in the rain, and played Yahtzee by candlelight. We had so much fun together, and were able to truly pay our full attention to one another, that we enjoyed each other’s company on a deep and unusual level without all the interruptions of modern life.

Because of this, and as an additional way to lower our monthly expenses, we’re considering going “Off The Grid” one day a week. We’re actually going to turn off all the breakers in our electric panel and live as though we have no electricity (with the exception of our refrigerator and freezer of course). But that’s another post for another time!

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While it remains to be seen whether or not such an idea would gain traction given the recent (and dramatic) drop in energy prices, it’s still listed on Obama’s website. It was also listed as one of the energy-related agenda items on Change.gov as recently as last Friday, though all of the agenda items (not just energy-related) have since been removed.

What do you think of this idea?

I have to admit that it’s not entirely clear to me how this is an energy issue. Sure, it would be done in the name of high energy costs, but it really wouldn’t be any different than a second stimulus check. And besides, wouldn’t you expect the oil companies to simply pass the added cost of the windfall tax on to the consumers?

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What follows is a list of eight industries where fuel savings haven’t thus far been passed onto consumers (at least not entirely):

1. Airlines
2. Cruise lines
3. Shipping companies
4. Waste management companies
5. Taxis
6. Water delivery
7. Independent contractors
8. Florists

While some companies have adjusted their surcharges downward, these changes haven’t kept pace with decreases in fuel costs. For example, FedEx and UPS have decreased their ground surcharge by just 1%, and they’ve actually increased their express shipping surcharge by 1.5%. To be fair, it’s possible that some of these industries are still dealing with fuel prices that they locked in at a higher level in an attempt to combat further increases.

Source: SmartMoney.com

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This sudden drop in fuel prices got me to wondering about what will happen to all of those pesky additional fees popped up when fuel prices skyrocketed. You know, things like additional delivery fees, fuel surcharges, excess baggage fees for air travel, etc. These things were all introduced in the name of high fuel prices, but I haven’t seen anyone rushing to do away with them as fuel prices have slipped.

Call me a cynic, but I suspect fees of this sort are a one-way street. They get added when times are tough, and they never go away. Of course, it’s possible that fuel prices just haven’t fallen far enough for long enough… I hope I’m wrong.

What do you think? Are these nickel and dime surcharges here to stay? Or will they disappear if/when fuel prices drop further?

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This time, I had to make a 350 mile roundtrip on the interstate. As such, I decided to drive “normally” on the way out, and to go out of my way to keep my speed in check on the way back. I filled my tank at the beginning, at the turnaround point, and at the end. Thus, I was able to calculate my mileage for each leg. For background, I have a 2005 Honda CR-V that’s supposed to get 23 city mpg and 29 highway mpg.

The impact of slowing down

As noted above, I drove “normally” on the way out of town. For me, this meant running at roughly 75 mph. In order to keep things as accurate as possible, I decided to use the cruise control to hold my speed steady. While I realize that I could’ve done a good bit better mileage-wise if I had controlled my speed manually (especially on hills), I wanted this to be an apples-to-apples comparison. Upon arriving at my destination, I learned that my outbound mileage was 25 mpg.

On the way back, I decided to ratchetthe cruise control down to 65 mph and hang out in the slow lane with the trucks. At the end of the trip, I was surprised to learn that I had achieved 32 mpg – that’s a 28% improvement! To be fair, I was driving into a bit of a headwind on the way out, and had the wind at my back on my return. Then again, it was considerably warmer on my return trip, so I had to turn on the A/C to stay cool.

While I fully expected to see an improvement, I was a bit surprised by how much of an impact slowing down had on my mileage. Of course, that 28% improvement was based on a relatively small amount of data (i.e., one roundtrip of 175 miles each way), so it might not be entirely accurate. Nonetheless, speed obviously has a pretty major impact on highway mileage.

Is slowing down worth the trouble?

Sure, slowing down saves gas. But in an economic sense, was it worth it? Let’s take a look at the numbers… For simplicity, I’ll base my calculations on a 100 mile trip and $4/gallon gas — you can easily extrapolate from there.

At 75 mph… 100 miles would take 1:20, and would consume 4 gallons of gas.

At 65 mph… 100 miles would take 1:32, and would consume 3.125 gallons of gas.

So… I’d spend an extra 12 minutes on the road, but would save 0.875 gallons of gas at an estimated cost of $3.50. Extrapolating this out to an hourly rate, I could “earn” $17.50 per hour (tax free!) of extra driving, not to mention the environmental benefits of burning less fuel. Not bad considering I was relaxing and listening to podcasts the entire time.

While your mileage may (quite literally!) vary depending on your vehicle of choice, driving style, etc., the bottom line here is that you can definitely save a few bucks (and be a bit greener) by slowing down.

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The price/mpg ratio is an interesting approach in that it’s more or less equivalent to the quick-and-dirty method of valuing stocks based on their price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio. They also filtered their list to remove cars that have high ownership costs after purchase to protect against the whole penny-wise, pound-foolish thing. Here’s what they came up with:

1. Honda Fit Sport ($464/mpg)
2. Honda Fit ($476/mpg)
3. Toyota Prius ($540/mpg)
4. Mazda3 i ($576/mpg)
5. Toyota Prius Touring ($591/mpg)
6. Nissan Versa 1.8 SL ($596/mpg)
7. Honda Civic Hybrid ($605/mpg)
8. Honda Civic EX ($607/mpg)
9. Hyundai Elantra GLS ($650/mpg)
10. Toyota Scion tC ($658/mpg)

Despite their high overall mileage, it’s interesting to note that hybrids stumbled a bit on this list to their higher price. Nonetheless, the Prius did quite well, especially considering that it’s a good bit larger than the Fit. It’s also worth noting that the Toyota Yaris ($370/mpg) and the Hyundai Accent ($425/mpg) beat out the Honda Fit, but they scored too low in other tests to be included.

Source: ConsumerReports.org

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If you’re at all competitive or motivated by numbers, then I can virtually guarantee you that your mileage will improve, and thus you’ll save money, if you simply keep track your mileage at every fill up. Not only does this make you more cognizant of your driving habits, but it helps make a game out of improving your gas mileage.

The old school way of doing this is to simply keep a small notepad or ledger in the glove compartment and then record your miles driven and amount of gas purchased at each fill up. But guess what? If you have a web-enabled smartphone, it’s even easier. You can now track your mileage online using a web-based service.

The two such services that I’ve heard the most about are FuelFrog and Fuelly. Both of these sites allow you to update your information on the go. FuelFrog relies on Twitter, whereas Fuelly has a mobile version of their website.

After looking at the two, I’ve decided to create an account with Fuelly. To me, the mobile web interface is a more elegant solution than Twitter, and I also like that fact that I can easily compare my performance against that of other users.

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With all the recent talk about how to improve your gas mileage, I thought I’d highlight some of the “coming attractions” in the automotive world. I’m talking here about plug-in hybrids (a.k.a., plug-in electric hybrid vehicles, or PHEVs), which are hybrid vehicles that can be recharged by plugging them into an electrical outlet, thereby reduces their reliance on gasoline.

Here’s a quick look at what’s on the horizon from the major carmakers…

Chevrolet Volt

GM claims that the Chevy Volt will be production ready in 2010, though I recently read that they are only planning on producing 10k units in the first year with an additional 60k coming in the second year. The Volt isn’t a true hybrid, in that it will run entirely on electricity. The on-board battery is projected to give the Volt a 40 mile range on a full charge. If the battery runs down, a small gas-powered motor will kick in to recharge the battery. GM’s goal is to keep the cost of the Volt under $40k.

Saturn Vue Plug-in Hybrid

GM plans to bring the Vue Plug-in hybrid to market in 2010. The Vue Plug-in will be an enhancement to the Vue Two-mode Hybrid that’s expected to hit the market in 2009. This vehicle will have a more typical gas-electric hybrid drive-train, but will also have an electric-only range of 10 miles.

Ford Escape Hybrid Plug-in

The Escape Hybrid Plug-in will combine a hybrid drive-train with lithium ion batteries that are expected to allow the escape to achieve 120 mpg during the first 30 miles of driving at “moderate speed” following a full recharge.

Ford Edge with HySeries Drive

The Ford Edge HySeries is similar to the Chevy Volt, though it use a hydrogen fuel cell as opposed to a gas engine as a backup generator. Like the Volt, the wheels are powered solely by electricity. Ford is projecting a 25 mile range on a full charge with the HySeries being able to go another 200 miles on a full tank of compressed hydrogen.

Toyota Prius Plug-in

There are a number of companies that already specialize in converting the Toyota Prius into a PHEV. On a full charge, these cars can go up to 7 miles at highway speeds using electricity alone. Unlike other plug-in hybrids, which use lithium ion batteries, the modified Prius uses an oversized nickel metal hydride battery. Toyota has since announced that, come 2010, you should be able to buy a lithium ion-based PHEV of some sort direct from them. As an aside, I just read that Toyota will be outfitting the 2009 Prius with solar panels to power the air conditioning. Not a huge step forward, but still… It’s something.

Toyota 1/X

The Toyota 1/X concept car, which was unveiled in 2007, is powered by lithium ion batteries and a small 0.5 liter flex-fuel engine. This car, which sports four seats and weighs in at just 926 pounds (compared to 2,890 pounds for a Prius) is capable of covering 600 miles on a four gallon tank of gasoline. The car is also partly made of bio-plastics produced from plants.

Dodge Sprinter Plug-in

The Dodge Sprinter is essentially a delivery van, and the plug-in version combines PHEV technology and an efficient diesel engine. The NY Times has added Sprinter plug-ins to their fleet and, after an overnight charge, they can go 20 miles on electricity alone.

Jeep Renegade Concept

The Jeep Renegade concept car, unveiled this past winter at the Detroit auto show, features all-wheel drive, two electric motors (one for each axle), and a 1.5 liter, 115 horsepower, 3 cylinder engine. On a full charge, it can go 40 miles on electricity alone, and it supposedly has a 400 mile cruising range.

*The CNN/Money slideshow lists the wrong mileage for the Toyota 1/X.

Source: CNN/Money*, Photo Credit: abeall

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Drive a smaller car: While it might not be realistic to replace your gas hog or add another, more fuel efficient car to your fleet, most families have more than one car. If that’s the case for you, simply choosing to drive the more fuel efficient model whenever possible can dramatically decrease the amount of gas that you burn. If your family needs to use both cars at once, try to prioritize the more efficient vehicle for longer trips. The less time your gas hog spends on the road, the less fuel you’ll use.

Log and plan your driving: By keep a driving log for a week, she was able to spot patterns in her driving, learn how to effectively combine trips, and cut out unnecessary trips. She also started calling stores before she drove to them to make sure that they had her desired item(s) in stock. This has allowed her to delete at least one “random round trip” each day. Beyond the fuel savings, it sounds like she’s saving time, too.

Use public transportation: She’s switched to taking the train to work almost exclusively. For her, it’s a financial wash, but there’s a environmental (and conservation) benefit in that she’s burning far less gas. Also check with your employer. Some offer transportation savings account that let you pay your public transport fares out of pre-tax dollars. This could turn a financial wash into a clear gain if it’s available to you.

Make your gas go further: You can dramatically improve your mileage by accelerating smoothly, obeying speed limits, and minimizing unnecessary braking. This is perfectly in line with my recent driving experiment — recall that I was able to improve my mileage by 15%.

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Of course, in addition to the airfares (six of ‘em!), we also have to rent a car at our destination, so this definitely isn’t the cheapest way to go. That being said, it’s about 1100 miles each way, so flying instead of driving (which we’ve always done in the past) buys us a few extra days of actual vacation. Well worth it in my book.

The fact that we’re flying also creates an odd sort of silver lining inside the cloud of rising gas prices… The higher the price at the pump, the less of a premium we’re paying to fly. But I digress. Bringing it back to the topic at hand…

Have you modified your summer travel plans in response to high energy prices?

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1. Drive at a moderate speed. Keeping a lid on your speed is the #1 thing you can do to improve mileage. In their test car (a Toyota Camry), CR estimated that mileage dropped from 40 mpg to 35 mpg when they increased cruising speed from 55 mph to 65 mph. Speeding up to 75 mph dropped mileage another 5 mpg. While the extent of the drop will vary across makes and models, keeping an eye on the speedometer, especially when driving on the highway, will save gas.

2. Drive smoothly. Avoid rapid acceleration and hard braking. Once up to speed, try to maintain a steady pace. Jackrabbit starts burn excess gas, and unnecessary braking just converts energy gained from burning gas into heat (and it wears out your brakes).

3. Reduce unnecessary drag. Even empty roof racks can reduce mileage. Try to keep your luggage inside your vehicle, and if you’re not using your roof rack, remove it.

4. Don’t use premium fuel if you don’t need to. If your car is designed to run on regular unleaded, putting in premium won’t help. Using premium won’t hurt, but you’ll be spending an extra $0.20 per gallon for no reason.

5. Minimize driving with a cold engine. Engines run most efficiently when warm. Try to group errands together. This not only minimizes back and forth trips, but also maximizes efficiency by not letting the engine cool off too much.a

6. Keep tires properly inflated. Underinflated tires can cause a number of problems, not the least of which is reduced gas mileage.

7. Buy tires with lower rolling resistance. Less friction = less wasted energy, which translates into more miles per gallon. Believe it or not, this can account for a 1-2 mpg difference.

8. Avoid idling for long periods. If you’re burning gas, but not going anywhere, you’re getting zero mpg.

And here are three gas myths that don’t help at all:

1. Morning fill-ups. I’ve heard on more than one occasion that you should buy gas in the morning because it’s cooler, and the gas will be denser. The argument goes that this will result in more gas for your money. Problem is, it’s not true. Gas is stored underground, and the temperature barely changes at all over the course of the day.

2. Air conditioning vs. opening windows. While air conditioning can reduce your mileage, so does opening the windows. But in their tests, CR concluded that both effect were negligible. Note, however, that this testing was done at highway cruising speeds. I suspect that air condition might have a larger effect in stop and go traffic.

3. A dirty air filter. A popular recommendation at oil change places is to replace your air filter since a dirty filter supposedly reduces mileage. That being said, CR’s results indicated that, unlike the case with older cars, the mileage of newer models is unaffected by a dirty filter. The reason for this is that modern engines can compensate for a dirty filter and keep the air/fuel ratio constant.

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As for the changes that I made, I didn’t do anything too extreme. Rather, I simply focused on accelerating gradually, anticipating stops and coasting where possible to minimize braking, and minimizing air conditioning usage whenever the outside temps permitted (though this didn’t happen very often during the period in question).

I started this experiment with a full tank of gas and tracked my mileage for two weeks, at which time I refilled the tank and ran the numbers. As I noted when I first talked about this, I’ve been getting very consistent mileage, so I have a solid baseline from which to work. For background, I drive a 2005 Honda CR-V 2WD, and I typically get right at 21.8 mpg for in-town driving.

During the course of the experiment, I covered a total of 265.2 miles, all of which was most definitely “in-town” driving.

What about gas usage? As you can see below, I burned through 10.455 gallons.

This works out to 25.4 mpg. Just to be conservative, let’s round my base mileage up to 22 mpg… That works out to an increase of just over 15% in return for a few relatively minor driving adjustments. Not bad.

Given that I paid $4.019 per gallon, that’s an effective savings of just over $0.52 per gallon. But wait… I paid for the gas with my AmEx Blue Cash Rewards card, which offers 5% off on gas purchases. Thus, my base price was really $4.019 – 5% = $3.82. The 15% mileage boost then takes that down to the equivalent of $3.32/gallon.

(Not an AmEx user? There are plenty of other gas credit cards available that pay you a little something back every time you fill up. Compare credit card offers to find the one that’s best for you.)

A few notes:

Like I said above, I didn’t go to any heroic lengths to achieve this improvement. I just drove a bit more carefully. I should also note that I’m normally a pretty reasonable driver, so it’s not like my baseline mileage was horrible due to lead foot. While I would imagine that the results would vary pretty widely across makes/models, it seems that pretty much any “typical” driver should be able to achieve a pretty nice gain.

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73% – Crude oil
11% – Federal and state taxes
10% – Refining costs and profits
6% – Distribution and marketing

Not surprisingly, the cost of crude oil accounts for the majority of the cost of gas. For what it’s worth, the distribution and marketing category includes the cost of getting the gas to market plus and gas stations profits. These are pretty thin margins for gas station owners, though they’ve grown percentage-wise a bit over recent years.

Given the recent run up in oil prices, I though it would also be interesting to take a look at how things have changed in the past two years. For historical context, I’ve put together a graph of gas prices (right axis) along with a breakdown of the percentage contribution of the four different categories (left axis) for 2001-2008. All data are from the month of April during the year in question:

Note that the components are expressed in percentages, so a small percentage decrease could actually be an absolute increase (in terms of dollars) given the huge overall increase in price.

Source: DOE Gasoline Components History

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CFLs produce low quality light.

A common criticism is that CFLs produce “low quality” or “off color” light. While I recognize that this is largely a matter of personal preference, I also want to point out that light quality varies widely across brands/models. While I myself have run across a number of bulbs that produce crappy light, others are perfectly acceptable. Before dismissing them entirely, I would recommend investigating this for yourself. Here is a good place to start.

CFLs contain mercury.

While it’s true that CFLs contain a small amount of mercury, it’s also important to keep in mind that roughly half of all electricity in the US comes from coal. And guess what? Coal-fired power generation releases mercury into the atmosphere. In fact, it’s been estimated that CFLs, when mercury emissions due to power generation are accounted for, CFLs are actually “cleaner” than incandescent bulbs.

There’s also a lot of concern over what might happen if one breaks in your house, though it’s been argued that these sorts of concerns are overblown. Nonetheless, you should exercise care in disposing of CFLs.

CFLs don’t work for all of my needs.

While it’s true that many CFLs aren’t compatible with things like dimmer switches and fixtures with three-way switches, technology in this area is continually advancing, and bulbs are available that are appropriate for virtually all applications, including dimmable and three-way bulbs. The main places where CFLs lose a bit of luster is for cold-weather applications.

CFLs use more energy when powering up.

While this is technically true, the difference between CFLs and incandescent lights in miniscule. The additional energy draw is so brief that it amounts to the equivalent of a few additional seconds of bulb operation. From an energy usage perspective, it thus makes sense to turns off CFLs every time you leave the room. However, flipping a CFL on and off too frequently can reduce it’s lifespan. Thus, experts typically suggest turning off your CFLs whenever you’re leaving the room for five or more minutes.

Closing thoughts

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t view CFLs as the perfect solution. In fact, I’m really looking forward to the day when LED lighting hits mainstream. But in the mean time, CFLs are the best solution out there when you consider both bulb cost and energy efficiency.

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Could you please tell me how much it costs to run a 100 watt incandescent lightbulb for 8 hours/day over the course of a year? Could you then compare the cost for a year with a compact fluorescent lightbulb? Which wattage CFL would to replace a 100 watt incandescent bulb? I’m new at this. Thanks for your response.

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of CFLs, so I think that this is a great question.

Here’s the answer…

For starters, a 26 watt CFL is the approximate equivalent of a 100 watt lightbulb, so right there we can see that the CFL will consume 26% as much energy. If you’re curious about other wattage equivalents, check the chart below.

Now let’s work through the math so we can come up with some hard numbers.

Incandescent assumptions:
100 watt incandescent bulb
8 hours/day
365 days/year

100 watts corresponds to 0.1 kilowatts. At 10 hours/day that works out to:

0.1 kW * 8 hours/day * 365 days = 292 kWh

I just checked our latest power bill, and we are currently paying $0.108/kWh for electricity, so that one incandescent bulb would consume $31.54 worth of electricity per year.

Compact fluorescent assumptions:
26 watt compact fluorescent bulb
8 hours/day
365 days/year

Doing the same math as above, we have:

0.026 kW * 8 hours/day * 365 days = 75.9 kWh

At the rate for electricity, that works out to $8.20 per year — a savings of $23.34 per year just for switching out one light bulb. And that’s considering just the cost of electricity.

Given that most CFLs are rated to last an estimated 10x longer than incandescent lights, you’ll come out even further ahead if you can get them for less than 10x the price of an incandescent bulb. Since CFL pricing has come down dramatically in recent years, you’ll actually come out way ahead.

Other considerations

Another thing to consider is that CFLs run much cooler, so they don’t add as much to your A/C burden during the summer. It’s hard for me to put an exact number on this, so let’s just consider it to be icing on the cake.

The flipside, of course, is that heat produced by incandescent bulbs can (at least in theory) help when it comes to heating your home in the winter. But as far as I’m concerned, you should use your lights for light and your heating system for heat. In reality, an incandescent bulb has a somewhat negligible effect on overall comfort in a cold home as there is no way of effectively circulating that heat throughout the house.

Of course, the numbers above will vary based on the number and wattage of bulbs that you are replacing, how heavily they’re used, and how much you pay for electricity. But this should give you a good idea of to work things out for yourself.

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While my goal is to do this monthly, I typically forget to do it until I here the wind whistling through the clogged filters in our air returns. So…

This reminder is as much for me as it is for you.

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If you want to make a difference, the answer is simple: drive less.

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In case you’re not aware (as I wasn’t), a CMO is a measure of energy consumption. Apparently the world consumes slightly more than one CMO worth of energy from oil per year, and the equivalent of three CMOs from all energy sources. Over 80% of this total energy usage comes from fossil fuels, including oil, coal, and natural gas (see graph, below).

So… What would it require to replace just one CMO of fossil energy per year?

Solar panels

Assuming annual electricity capture of 2.1 megawatts per solar panel, we’d have to place them on 4.2 billion rooftops. In other words, we’d have to install on them on 250,000 roofs per day for the next 50 years to have enough solar panels to offset our current annual oil usage (and this ignores things like coal; see below).

Wind power

What about wind power generators? You’d need 3 million to equal one CMO. That would require the installation of 1,200 per week for the next 50 years.

Hydroelectric power

A large hydroelectric dam can generate roughly 18 gigawatts of power per year. Thus, to offset one CMO of energy, we’d have to build 200 major hydroelectric dams. The problem? There aren’t enough rivers left in the world to dam up.

Solar thermal power

It would require 7,700 solar thermal plants to offset one CMO. That would require the construction of 150 plants per year for 50 years. Unfortunately, just one has been built in the past 15 years.

Nuclear power plants

It would take 2,500 nuclear power plants producing 900 megawatts to produce the equivalent of one CMO worth of energy. In other words, we’d have to build one a week for 50 years. It’s also worth noting that nuclear power isn’t exactly renewable.

The future of demand

Even if we decided to pursue one of the above options, it’s important to keep in mind that energy demand is continually increasing. According to Ripudaman Malhotra, a fossil fuels researcher at SRI International, world energy demand is expected to double to six CMOs within the next 30 years.

The good news here is that we still have time. Current estimates show oil reserves of roughly 46 CMOs, natural gas reserves totalling 42 CMOs, and coal reserves of 121 CMOs. These numbers increase further when you add in difficult to extract sources such as tar sands.

The bad news is that, beyond being non-renewable, these sources of energy also have a number of adverse environmental impacts, and burning more of them at a faster rate is just going to create more problems.

The way forward

Clearly, if we’re ever going to come anywhere near freeing ourselves from fossil fuels — an eventual necessity, as we’ll ultimately run out — it will require a tremendous investment, a variety of different technologies (likely including some that haven’t been invented yet), and an awful lot of conservation.

Unfortunately, we’re dealing with a problem on such a massive scale that minor changes won’t be enough. Consider, for example, that replacing 1 billion incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs only saves 0.01 CMOs per year. Yes, it’s important to cut back wherever we can. In this case, however, baby steps won’t be enough.

It’s also important to keep in mind that all of the technologies listed above result in electricity production. Given that a large fraction of our energy consumption is currently non-electric, we’ll need a lot of other infrastructure changes to go along with this.

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I’ve written about simple ways to save money and the planet in the past, and this article is a great followup. So what do they recommend?

1. Skip a trip. Did you know that forgoing a single international trip just might offset all of the carbon emmissions produced by running your car and your home over the course of a year? On top of that, you’ll save a decent chunk of money by sitting tight (unless, of course, it’s a business trip that you’re skipping).

2. Hire someone to seal up your house. Simply sealing leaks around windows and dooers and insulating ducts could save you upwards of $100/year and reduce your carbon emmissions by at least 1,000 pounds per year. If you’re too lazy to do this yourself, hire someone.

3. Work from home. Instead of carpooling or taking mass transit, a much easier and more effective way of reducing your time in transit (and the resulting cost and environmental impact) is to telecommute. While this isn’t always possible (consider blue collar jobs, or those in the service industry) doing this just once a week cuts you commuting costs by 20% straightaway. Moreover, companies like American Express have apparently found that telecommuting actually increases worker productivity.

4. Drive a fuel-efficient car. Spend a bit of extra time picking out a fuel-efficient car and you’ll automatically save a decent chunk of gas money, and pollute considerably less, over the life of your car.

5. Use cruise control. With the possible exception of driving in hilly terrain, cruise control is a great way to save gas. Indeed, tests have found that using cruise control can improve mileage by as much as 7%. I’ve seen this myself in real life, as I’m a big fan of cruise control and my wife isn’t. Guess who gets better mileage on long roadtrips? Me. By a long shot. Even better: adaptive cruise control, which automatically adjust speed to keep you at a safe distance from cars around you.

6. Cool your water heating bills. Check the temperature on your water heater and, if necessary, lower it to 120 degrees. Beyond this, whenever possible you should wash your clothes in cold instead of hot water.

7. Don’t wash the dishes. While it’s possible to wash your dishes by hand using a relatively small amount of water, most people keep the faucet running while they do this chore. Instead, load up the dishwasher and run it. Assuming that it’s full, you’ll save about 30% of the water that you would’ve otherwise used. Moreover, you should skip the pre-rinse (take that, Mom!) and just let the dishwasher do its thing.

8. Use a laptop, and let it nap. Repalcing a desktop computer and display with an energy-efficient laptop, and setting it to go to sleep when not in use, can save a substantial chunk of money — and reduce carbon emmissions by as much as 500 pounds per year.

9. Drink tap water. Why lug bottles of what is essentially tap water home from the store with you when you can just open the spigot and pour a glass? You’ll not only save a ton of money, but you’ll also save the carbon emissions associated with bottling that water and hauling it to its ultimate destination.

10. Stay married. Converting one household into two means bigger utility bill and more greenhouse gases. Not to mention mountains of legal bills. A recent study out of Michigan State University estimated that divorced families consumed and extra 73 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, corresponding to an extra 6,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per household.

11. Consider carbon offsets, but be careful. If you’re too lazy to do any of these things yourself, you can always pay someone to offset your emissions for you. Just be sure to work with an entity that actually does what it says. Here’s a nice summary.

12. Support carbon taxes. A variety of experts on both sides of the aisle have argued that imposing a carbon tax on gasoline, coal, and other fuel sources would be the simplest and most efficient way to reduce carbon emissions. In essence, this would be a surcharge that’s based on the amount of carbon dioxide produced by a given amount of fuel. Because this will place yet another burden on businesses and consumers, some have argued that the revenue should then be used to fund income tax cuts or direct rebates.

So there you have it… Twelve ways to reduce your environmental impact, most of which will also help to pad your wallet.

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I still remember filling my old Honda Accord to the brim for under $10 in the mid- to late-90s. In fact, I once paid as little as $0.699/gallon. But on this particular fill-up, I was paying $3.399/gallon. On top of that, we now drive a Honda Odyssey and I had let the tank run down pretty far, such that I needed 17 gallons of the good stuff.

The only silver lining here is that I received $0.17/gallon in rebates from my Amex Blue Cash Rewards card. But even with the 5% discount, I ended up paying well over $50 to fill my tank.

Which brings me to my question…

What’s the most you’ve ever paid for a tank of gas?

Please limit your response to personal vehicles — any dump truck drivers out there might skew the results — and record your response in the following poll. As always, I also encourage you to leave any comments that might come to mind.

Note: If the poll doesn’t work properly in the RSS feed, you’ll have to click through.

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With that said, let’s take a look at some of the changes that are in store. Again, I haven’t read the bill myself, so these bits are captured from various media reports that I’ve run across.

More efficient light bulbs. Under the terms of this bill, all light bulbs have to use 25-30% less energy by 2012 to 2014. This measure is being phased in, starting with 100W incandescent bulbs in 2012, ending with 40W bulbs in 2014. And by 2020, all bulbs have to be 70% more efficient. The funny thing is, compact fluorescent bulbs that use 25% as much energy (i.e., that use 75% less energy) as compared to their incandescent brethren are already available. If you’re looking for a soundbite in support of this move, consider the following comment from Lynn Clement of Focus on Energy:

“If every American household replaces light bulbs in their five most frequently used fixtures with Energy Star compact fluorescent bulbs, we could save more than $8 billion in annual energy costs and prevent greenhouse gasses equal to the emissions of more than 10 million cars.”

Obviously, there are improvement that can be made in this area and, in the long run, it would be great if affordable, high-quality LED lighting eventually replaced CF bulbs. But in the mean time, there’s no reason for consumers to wait 13 years to make this one a reality. And it’s become increasingly cheap to do so. The claims that CF bulbs cost $8-$10 apiece are utter B.S.

More fuel-efficient cars. The bill requires a 40% increase in fuel efficiency by 2020 for a fleet-wide average of 35 MPG. I’m not a carmaker, but it doesn’t seem like this should be too hard to achieve, especially given the available timeline. In terms of real impact, this change is predicted to save the nation 1.1 million barrels of oil per day, which is about half of what we currently import from the Persian Gulf. On the downside (for the government) will be reduced federal excise taxes on gasoline.

Ethanol as a motor fuel. The bill calls for a 5-6 fold increase in the use of ethanol as a motor fuel by 2022. This one worries me — if it’s going to become reality, I certainly hope we can move beyond turning food into fuel, and switch over to cellulosic biomass in a hurry. The other side of the issue is that many drivers are reporting mileage decreases commensurate with the amount of ethanol blended into their fuel (e.g., a 15% decrease in mileage when driving with gas containing 15% ethanol). This seems odd to me, as there’s a good bit of energy packed into ethanol. While I’d expect some drop off with ethanol, I wouldn’t expect it to effectively behave as an inert ingredient.

More efficient water use. The bill also requires new dishwashers to use 28% less water, and for clothes washers to use 40% less water (note that many front loading washing machines already do this). This will not only help with energy usage (less hot water = less water to heat) but will also help to conserve water, which is becoming an increasingly scarce resource in many parts of the country).

Labelling. There are also a number of labeling requirements designed to make consumers more aware of how much energy various items use. This sounds good in principle, and it certainly can’t hurt, but I’m skeptical as to how much it will help in the long run.

Closing thoughts… While I’m not crazy about the idea of government intervention into free market processes, I also don’t really trust the markets (or individuals in general) to come up with a solution for our current energy problems that truly serves the common good. As Garrett Hardin pointed out, the tragedy of the commons (i.e., the exploitation of finite natural resources for personal gain) is a social problem that cannot be solved by technical means alone. In that light, perhaps the proper question here is not whether this legislation goes too far, but rather if it goes far (and fast) enough.

As always, please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section, below.

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Are you in the market for compact fluorescent lightbulbs?

If so, then check this out…

During a recent trip to Lowe’s, I discovered that they’re running a 2-for-1 deal on 4-packs of 13W compact fluorescent bulbs (Item #146558). This brings the price down to $7.98 for 8 bulbs, or a buck apiece. These bulbs are equivalent to 60W incandescent bulbs in terms of brightness, and this particular make performs quite well — they come on instantly, require minimal warmup to achieve full intensity, and the light quality is pretty darn good. According to the sign, the offer runs through January 1st.

All of this being said… It might be a “your mileage may vary” sort of thing, as the other store in town wasn’t aware of the special (though they honored it when I brought it to their attention). Nonetheless it can’t hurt to check.

For reference, these bulbs come in two different package types…

The first is a blister pack:

And the second is a box:

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Did you know that, according to the Earth Policy Institute, if the United States shifted entirely from incandescent to compact fluorescent light bulbs, we could shut down 80 coal-fired (500 MW) power plants? And that if these changes were adopted worldwide, we’d be able to shut down 270 coal-fired power plants?

Here’s another interesting statistic: Over the life of the bulb, the gasoline equivalent of the energy saved by replacing a 100W incandescent bulb with a 24W CFL is enough to drive a Toyota Prius from New York to San Francisco. Replace two bulbs and you can get back home again.

We did our part last year when we completely changed over to compact fluorescent lightbulbs in our new house (we had previously made the switch in our old house, as well), and I encourage to do the same thing. Not only does swapping your bulbs save a lot of energy, but it can save you a ton of money, as well.

(This post was inspired in part by Blog Action Day’s focus on the environment.)

Photo Credit: gehat

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In terms of historical usage (see graph below, keeping in mind that we’ve only been in our house for a little over a year), we actually used more electricity last February when we went through a cold spell and wound up burning 4,317 kWh. At the time, however, our bill was “only” $329.06, or $0.076/kWh. This past month, we used 25% less electricity than during February (3,223 kWh) yet our bill was roughly 15% higher ($376.73). This disparity was driven by a per unit increase of more than 50%, resulting in us paying $0.117/kWh in August. Ouch.

When we moved into this house, one of my goals was to reduce our electrical usage relative to that of the previous owners. Unfortunately, I didn’t have their actual usage data. Rather, I knew what their average bill was over the previous 12 months. As I reported earlier this summer, we actually managed to hold even relative to the prior owners in terms of our electric bills, even in the face of rising energy prices. While this almost certainly translates into lower overall electrical usage, I’m always looking for ways to do better.

One of our major limitations when it comes to reducing our electrical usage is the size of our family. We have four young boys, which translates into lots of laundry, lots of dishes, and lots of bathing. All of these things use hot water, which comes straight out of our electric water heater. Moreover, my wife is a stay-at-home mom. Thus, we can’t really back off on our heating or A/C during the day without creating an uncomfortable environment. Finally, we’re planning on a housing addition. While it’s not going to be a huge addition (roughly 300 square feet), it certainly won’t help when it comes to reduce our heating and cooling costs.

On the upside, we’re planning on replacing our current washer and dryer with high efficiency front-loaders when our new laundry room is done. We’re also working on teaching the boys to be more efficient when it comes to bathing — as it stands, they often get lost in their thoughts in the shower and we have to prompt them to finish up and get out. Hopefully our plan for instituting shower timers will work out. I’m also planning on replacing their shower head with a low-flow version. These changes will actually be doubly-beneficial, as they’ll not only reduce the amount of work that our hot water heater has to do, but they’ll also reduce our overall water usage.

In the long run, we’ll probably end up changing out our heating and air for a more efficient system, as that’s our largest energy drain. That, however, is a relatively large expense, so we’ll need to make sure that it makes sense before we take the plunge.

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[Source: Switched.com]

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For background, our house is roughly 3,000 square feet, fully electric (including the hot water heater and furnace), and located relatively deep in the southeastern United States. Anyway, we now have a year of electrical bills to look back on, and guess what? We’re dead even with the previous owners at $165/month. A few thoughts on this…

First of all, we also have a larger family (four vs. two kids) which makes cutting our usage relative to the previous owners somewhat of an uphill battle. Second, I don’t have good data on average temperatures over the periods under consideration, but the majority of our winter and summer electric usage is heating and cooling. Thus, a particularly hot summer or cold winter during one year or the other would make this a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison. We’d really need to have data over a longer time period to make a truly accurate comparison. Finally, while we’ve done a lot in the way of cutting corners, including bumping up the thermostat in the summer and installing compact fluorescent bulbs throughout the house, we’ve also increased our electrical usage in two notable areas. First, we got a bearded dragon last fall and have thus been running a 100W basking bulb plus a UV bulb for roughly 13 hours per day. We also installed a dehumidifier in our crawl space last fall, and it runs pretty steadily during the warmer months.

All in all, I’m reasonably pleased with our performance so far — holding even with the previous owners in the face of increased energy costs constitutes a small moral victory if nothing else. We’ve made a couple of additional changes recently that will hopefully help with energy efficiency in the coming months/years. First, I finally got around to insulating our garage door (more on this in the future). We also recently replaced our front door with one that not only looks much better, but is also far more energy efficient (by which I mean it doesn’t have huge gaps for air intrusion all the way around it). And now that I have a year’s worth of data on actual usage as opposed to cost, I’ll be better able to keep track of things going forward.

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While other brands are boasting 50-80% gains for their largest SUVs, GM doesn’t want to sacrifice towing capacity or off-road performance. Thus, they’re using a conventional four wheel drive system with low-range gears that will give soccer moms across the country the ability to tow up to 6200 pounds as well as the freedom to drive in mud or sand.

The downside for GM is that they’re projecting a lost on the sale of each hybrid, with the hybrid hardware adding $10,000 to the cost of each vehicle produced. While they’ll almost certainly add some of that back to the sticker price, they won’t be able to tack it all on and still sell vehicles. If these new hybrids catch on, however, GM will be able to push down the component costs and (hopefully) turn a profit.

My take: While I’m a huge fan of energy conservation, I hardly think that hybrid mega-SUVs are the way to do it. It’s better than nothing, but simply buying a smaller car would do way more to reduce your fuel consumption. Yes, I realize that there are circumstances in which such vehicles are necessary, but the vast majority of people don’t really need a monstrous vehicle. Okay, I’ll get of my soapbox now.

[Source: USA Today]

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1. Get a home energy audit. We’ve actually never had one of these done at our house, but if I could get one done for free, then it might be worth the trouble. In our case, I definitely wouldn’t pay to have an audit done, as we’re already very conscientious about our energy usage, and are constantly coming up with new tricks improve.

2. Seal up air leaks. This is a great tip. One way I like to illustrate the importance of seemingly small air gaps is to consider the effects of a 1/4 inch gap along the bottom of your front door (typically 36 inches wide). This works out to 9 square inches of air space! Consider a 3 x 3 inch hole in your wall. You’d seal that up, wouldn’t you? So why not do the same with the gap beneath your door (or wherever else you might have leaks).

3. Tune up your air conditioning. We’re in a reasonably new house, so our A/C is pretty efficient. However, it recently stopped cooling the house due to low refrigerant. After having it recharged, I’ve noticed that it runs a good bit less because it can get the house down to the desired temperature more quickly. Less running = less electricity, which is all good in my book. Now we just need to find the leak that caused the problem in the first place…

4. Supplement air conditioning with an attic fan. This just isn’t do-able in our climate, as we live in the fairly deep in the southeast, and the humidity precludes the comfortable use of an attic fan for most of the year (at least during the hotter months).

5. Unplug appliances before you go on vacation. I often unplug or TVs, computers, and other electronics before travelling, but it’s more to protect against power surges in case of any wicked storms that might pass through in our absence. The energy savings is just an added bonus.

6. Save with smart landscaping. This is a huge one for me. Planting trees in smart locations around your house is a great investment, as it not only improves your curb appeal and overall property value, but as the trees grow their shade will translate into major savings when it comes to keeping your house cool.

7. Use water wisely. This is a tough one for us, as we have four kids… Thus, our family does a lot of bathing, dish washing, and laundry. But we do cut back where we can. We water the lawn relatively infrequently (and fairly deeply) to improve drought tolerance — if you water frequently for short periods of time, your lawn may look nice, but you’re encourage shallow root growth. We’ve also been working to create some ‘green spaces’ on our property with drought-tolerant groundcover.

To read a dozen of my own tips (only some of which overlap with this list) be sure to check out “12 Simple Ways to Save Money on Utilities (and the Planet).”

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While at least part of this difference has been ascribed to the fact that the mileage advantage of a hybrid is most pronounced in a smaller car, such as the Prius or Civic, Toyota still offers a hybrid Camry as well as hybrid Lexus models.

[Source: MSN/Money]

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Obviously, this sort of energy consumption isn’t just expensive… It’s also bad from an environmental perspective. Interestingly, companies ranging from niche players such as Dreamhost to behemoths like Yahoo! are going carbon neutral. As an aside, Yahoo! did the math and discovered that going carbon neutral is, in their case, the equivalent to “shutting off the electricity in all San Francisco homes for a month. Or, pulling nearly 25,000 cars off the road for a year.” Wow. That’s a lot of energy!

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Hoping for a reprieve as consumers scale back on their driving and opt for more efficient cars? Don’t hold your breath. According to David Pursell of Pickering Energy Partners, “Last year, we had pump prices well over $3 for the summer and gasoline demand was up. Would $4 gasoline cause demand contraction? I think it will, but I also thought $3 gasoline would.”

The real problem here (in my opinion) is that we’ve created a society in which driving isn’t optional. And unfortunately, fuel economy standards in the U.S. have lagged behind the rest of the world, meaning that we’re driving an inefficient fleet of gas hogs. The end result is that, no matter how high prices go, people will be forced to simply suck it up and pay them unless we make some major changes. Of course, money is a huge motivator, so maybe some good will come of this. Okay, end of rant. Back to your regularly scheduled programming…

It’s not just increased demand that’s causing the runup. It also seems that the supply side has been struggling as of late:

Gasoline inventories, measured by the days of demand they will cover, are at the lowest level in two decades for this time of year because of refinery fires, power failures and maintenance work oil companies failed to complete in 2006. No new U.S. refinery has been built in three decades, increasing the strain on existing plants.

Peter Beutel, an analyst at Cameron Hanover, Inc. thinks prices could threaten the $4/gallon mark if we have an active hurricane season. And we’re talking about a legitimate $4/gallon this time around, not a scam like they were running in Orlando.

[Source: Telegram.com]

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[Source: Orlando News-Press]

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- insulation systems that reduce heat loss/gain
- exterior windows (including skylights)
- exterior doors
- metal roofs (meeting applicable Energy Star requirements)

The maximum lifetime credit for these items is $500, and no more than $200 can come from windows.

There is also a credit for adding qualified solar panels, solar water heating equipment, or a fuel cell power plant to your home. Taxpayers are entitled to a credit of 20% of their investment in solar panels, up to a maximum credit of $2,000 and another, equivalent credit for a water heating system. However, neither of these can be used to heat a pool or hot tub. The credit for fuel cell power plants is 30%, and cannot exceed $500 per 0.5 kilowatts of capacity.

And keep in mind that we’re talking about tax credits here, and not tax deductions. So these amounts come straight off the top of your tax bill, as opposed to reducing it fractionally.

To qualify, these improvement have to have been placed in service sometime during 2006 or 2007.

[Source: IRS.gov]

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Anyway, all of this got me to thinking about simple things that people can do to cut their utility expenditures without impacting their comfort level. I’m talking here about ’set-and-forget’ modifications that you put in place once, and then reap the benefits forevermore. What follows is a list of simple suggestions. Some of these are common sense, others are perhaps less obvious. And looking beyond the financial savings, a number of these tricks will improve the comfort of your home, and nearly all of them are also good for the environment.

(1) Replace your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. Admittedly, some of these bulbs really suck (weird colored light, dim until they warm up, etc.) but there are some good ones out there. In fact, we’ve had great success with the el cheapo multi-packs from Lowes and Home Depot. The added bonus is that CF bulbs put out less heat, so they also reduce your AC load in the summer.

(2) Get a programmable thremostat. This is especially useful if you live alone, or if you and your significant other both work a common schedule. In that case, you can dial back your heating/cooling while you’re at work, but have it back at a comfortable level when you arrive home at the end of the day. Similarly, you can automagically control the temperature at… For me, this is most useful in the winter, as I don’t mind bundling up and sleeping in the cold. But in the summer, forget about it! I can’t stand sleeping hot.

(3) Put a brick sealed jar or jug of water in your toilet tank. Doing so displaces water in the tank and causes you to use less. Of course, too little water when you flush can cause problems, so you’ll have to experiment with this one. But be careful… Displacing so much water that you have to flush twice is generally more wasteful than flushing a larger volumne once.

(4) Install low-flow shower heads. Actually, I only put this in for the sake of completeness, because I hate weak showers. I’d much rather cut my shower short than deal with wimpy water flow.

(5) Install aerator screens on all of your faucets. Any reasonably modern house will have aerators on their kitchen and bathroom sinks, but many don’t have them when it comes to laundry or utility sinks. The magic of aerator screens is that they increase the apparent ‘power’ of the stream of water as it comes out of the faucet. Thus, you don’t need to turn the faucet up as high to get the same effect.

(6) Get a separate water meter for your exterior hose bibbs and/or irrigation system. In most locales, your sewer bill is tied to your water usage. Why pay more for sewer service in the summer when much of the water isn’t going down the drain? Many water utilities allow you to have dual meters, only one of which gets billed for sewer service (the one that feeds your house). Of course, you could also xeriscape, which obviates the need for irrigation and is far more environmentally friendly.

(7) Insulate your attic access. When we moved into our new house, we were having trouble balancing the upstairs and downstairs temperature. As it turns out, one of the problems was attic heat leaking into our upstairs through two attic access doors. The doors were about 3/8 of an inch thick (wood) and had no insulation on their backside. Insulating them greatly diminished the problem, and allowed us to bump up the thermostat considerably during the summer while still maintaining a comfortable temperature throughout the house.

(8) Balance your vents to achieve an even, comfortable temperature throughout your house. The other problem that we had in regulating the temperature between our upstairs and downstairs was that all of the vents were wide open when we moved into our house. After a bit of experimentation (mainly involving closing some of the downstairs vents) we were able to balance the upstairs/downstairs temps. Again, this allowed us to bump the thermostat up a good bit. And in the winter we reversed the procedure. Works like a charm.

(9) Weather strip your doors and windows. Just think, a 1/4 inch gap along the bottom of a 3 foot wide door is 9 square inches of open space. If you had a 3 inch x 3 inch hole in one of your exterior walls you’d fix it, wouldn’t you?

(10) Insulate your garage door. I did this at our old house, but haven’t gotten around to doing it at our new house. But it works wonders for controlling the temperature in a room above the garage.

(11) Plant trees in strategic locations around your house. This is a longer term solution, but deciduous shade trees can keep your house much cooler in the summer without blocking the sun in the winter. Planting trees also helps offset our high-carbon lifestyles.

(12) This is where you guys come in. Instead of capping this list at twelve, I’d love to hear your ’set-and-forget’ utility saving tips. Please leave a comment below.

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[Source: Financial Times]

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60W ‘Regular’ Bulbs (74 Total)
Before: 4440 combined watts
After: 962 combined watts (using 13W CF bulbs)
Savings: 3478 watts (78.3% reduction)

60W ‘Chandelier’ Bulbs (9 Total)
Before: 540 combined watts
After: 63 combined watts (using 7W CF bulbs)
Savings: 477 watts (88.3% reduction)

65W Recessed ‘Spotlight’ Bulbs (16 Total)
Before: 1040 combined watts
After: 256 combined watts (using 16W CF bulbs)
Savings: 784 watts (75.4% reduction)

150W Exterior ‘Floodlight’ Bulbs (8 Total)
Before: 1200 combined watts
After: 184 combined watts (using 23W CF bulbs)
Savings: 1016 watts (84.7% reduction)

The only place that we traded down in terms of intensity were the ‘chandelier’ bulbs and the exterior floodlights. We replaced the 60W ‘chandelier’ bulbs, which light our front porch and the garage service door with 30W equivalent bulbs. However, when bunched in threes (as they are in our fixtures) they cast more than enough light to get the job done. As far as the floodlights go, we have two on every corner of the house, and we replaced the 150W bulbs with 90W equivalent bulbs. Again, these are more than enough to get the job done.

From a financial perspective, it’ll take us quite awhile to break even — after all, these bulbs aren’t cheap. However, they last far longer than incandescent bulbs, meaning reduced replacement costs, and the power savings will really start to add up over time. Hopefully all of this will make a dent in our recent high electric bills. Yes, air conditioning is our main summer expense, but lighting isn’t trivial, and the two are completely unrelated… After all, incandescent bulbs generate an awful lot of heat which makes your AC work even harder.

Setting aside the financial considerations for a moment, we’re also doing the right thing with regard to scaling back our energy usage, so we’re getting a bit of return in terms of warm fuzzy feelings.

For more information on moving, check out my Roadmap for a Successful Relocation.

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More specifically, the switch will reduce your air conditioner’s typical run time by 65%, meaning that if it normally runs for 20 minutes when it comes on, it will run for only 7 minutes when the power company needs to reduce usage. So what’s in it for the customer? First off, they’re offering a $20 credit for allowing the device to be installed. After that, they’re offering a $2 credit for every day that the system is activated. While this looks like a solid way to save a few bucks, there is little other financial incentive here. In fact, they readily admit that this program is unlikely to reduce overall electrical usage… That’s a bummer, as we’re always looking for tricks to reduce our electrical usage. Rather, load cycling programs such as this typically shift energy usage from peak periods to non-peak periods, thereby allowing a fixed amount of generation capacity to serve a greater number of customers.

As I recall, my parents took part in this sort of a program when I was a kid. However, I think they received a percentage off their bill for taking part, rather than a small credit each time the system is invoked. While I’d like to be a good citizen and help the power company out, we’re most likely going to skip this program. After all, my lovely and talented wife stays home all day with our boys, and I’m guessing that she won’t be crazy about having the temperature creep up during the heat of the day.

Anyone have any experience with programs like this?

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» High Electric Bills and the Battle Against Increasing Energy Costs

We’ve done quite a bit thus far in terms of insulating a few nooks and crannies, switching over to compact fluorescent bulbs, playing with the air vents to balance the upstairs/downstairs heat load, and raising our thermostat from 70 (which is what the previous owners had it set at) to 77, which is still quite comfortable. But I also knew that we were in for a (relative) whopper of a bill after the unseasonably hot July that we just experienced.

Well, I just got on e-mail from our online billpay service, and guess what? Our electric bill jumped from $129 in June to $220 in July. Ouch! I still haven’t seen the bill itself, so I’m unsure how much of this is due to increased usage, and how much is due to fluctuating energy prices. Either way, I’m hoping that it heads back down sometime soon…

For more information on moving, check out my Roadmap for a Successful Relocation.

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In the time since I set that goal, we’ve done a bit of insulating, swapped out most of our incandescent lightbulbs for compact fluorescent bulbs, and also worked on finding the sweetspot with our thermostat (i.e., the highest we can go and still maintain a comfortable home environment).

Well, we just received the bill for our first full month of service (our initial bill covered just part of a month) and we owe just a shade under $130 — $129.68 to be exact. While I’m pleased that we’re well below the target, I must admit that I’ve never lived in a house with electric heat before, so I’m not sure how summer and winter bills will compare. That being said, it’s been hotter than hell over the past few weeks, so I think we’re doing pretty well.

That being said, there are still some areas where we could improve — for example, we leave the computer and laser printer on (albeit asleep) round the clock for convenience. One thing that we could do here would be to set the computer up to automatically shutdown at night and restart in the morning. That way it would be ready when we need it, but it wouldn’t waste juice when we don’t. I could also throw the laser printer (and a variety of other electronic devices) on timers such that they wouldn’t draw power during the night, but I haven’t gotten around to that. If I really wanted to go hog wild, I’d invest in a Kill-a-Watt and track down all the ‘phantom’ electrical use in our house.

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With the recent rise in gas prices there have been many blog posts about ways to save on gas. I decided to test how well one of these tips would actually work.

Many posts suggested that keeping your car tuned up would help your gas mileage. Since my car needed a tune-up, I decided to see what the difference in my miles per gallon actually was.

Before the tune-up I was getting about 25.5 MPG. After the tune-up I managed 34.5 MPG, 9 more miles per gallon. That is 90 extra miles per 10 gallon fill-up. With a gas price of $3 a gallon it would have cost me $10.59 more to drive those 90 extra miles before the tune-up. The cost of the tune-up was $60 so I will more than make up for its cost in 6 fill-ups. Of course your vehicle might not need a tune-up as badly as mine needed one so your savings will vary. It is clear though that getting a tune-up when your vehicle needs one is maintenance that pays for itself.

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(1) Switch to compact fluorescent (CF) light bulbs. Been there and done that – I’ve been swapping out the bulbs in our new house to reduce both electrical consumption and the attendant heat load that incandescent bulbs produce. It’s a win-win proposition.

(2) Before buying an appliance, consult the FTC’s Appliance Energy Database. Buying smart (i.e., selecting an energy efficient appliance) can save you a good bit of money, and your decision will pay dividends for years to come.

(3) Fix the fridge. If you can close the refrigerator door on a dollar bill and then easily pull it out, you need a tighter seal. The economics of this one are actually somewhat questionable, as the estimated cost savings is only around $15/year.

(4) Drive nicer. Jackrabbit starts and jamming on your brakes can reduce your gas mileage by 5 percent around town and 33 percent at highway speeds. Also keep an eye on the speed limit, as speeding can reduce you gas mileage.

(5) Buy a Human Power Generator MkIII. This one is only for the hard-core energy savers amongst you… It’s a stationary bike/generator. Not only can it save money off your electric bill, but it can also save money on a gym membership. To be honest, this sort of thing might be one of the best motivators out there for me when it comes to exercise… It’s like a game — see how low of an electric bill you can get by generating your own power.

[Source: CNN/Money]

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In fact, we’ve been able to bump the thermostat up by six degrees. The other thing that I’ve been working on has been switching over to compact fluorescent lightbulbs. I went out and bought contractor packs of the 60W equivalent bulbs at Home Depot, and have been working my way through the 74 bulbs distributed throughout the house (plus 16 more 65W spotlight bulbs in our recessed lights). The advantage here is twofold. First, these bulbs use less energy, which is a direct help to our electric bill. Second, they throw off far less heat, which helps maintain the upstairs/downstairs temperature balance, which results in the indirect benefit of letting us keep the AC set higher.

Update: I totally forgot to mention one of the biggest factors in our temperature control… I went through the house and adjusted the vents to keep the living room (where the thermostate resides) comparatively warmer, and to push more cool air upstairs. To be more specific about the temperature swing, the AC was running at 70° when we moved in, and the bonus room was basically a sweat box. We’ve now creeped up to 76° and the house is pretty comfortable throughout.

Update #2: I’m not sure what’s up with me today, but I also forgot to mention that our changes have been so effective that I went up into the bonus room to check on the boys the other day and it was really hot. I couldn’t figure out why, until our six year old spilled the beans. He had gotten cold and closed the air vent. That’s when we decided to bump the thermostat up from 74° to 76°.

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The biggest problem so far seems to be the bonus room, which we’ll be using as the kids’ playroom. As it turns out, you have to keep the thermostat set pretty low in order to maintain a comfortable temperature up there. But a bit of investigation revealed a few problems right off the bat.

First of all, the attic access door didn’t close very tight, and was completely uninsulated. Second, the garage (which is directly below) has a couple of windows that are totally exposed to morning sun, and the garage door has a row of windows and no insulation. Third, all of the vents in the house were wide open.

My first move was to begin closing some of the vents on the lower level to drive more cool air upstairs. My second move was to replace the doorknob on the attic access door to make it close more securely, weatherstrip it, and then cover the backside with insulation. My third move was to hang blinds over the garage windows to help keep the garage temperature down. Those simple steps, combined with asking the kids to keep the bonus room door closed to stop the cool air from tumbling down the steps, have allowed us to raise the thermostat by four degress while still maintaining a comfortable temperature in the bonus room.

Next I have to figure out a good way of insulating the garage door. As was the case in our previous house, it’s a crappy metal door with no insulation. While I’ve insulated a garage door previously with great success, I’ve never had to deal with a door that has windows. We don’t want the house to look trashy, so simply insulating over the windows won’t work. While we could swap those panels out for a windowless equivalent, doing so isn’t cheap.

Instead of replacing the garage door (or at least parts of it), I was thinking of painting over the backside of those windows with a nice even coat of black or (preferably) white spray paint. The former would retain the look of a garage door with windows, but would allow me to insulate over the backside however I please, and would also block out visual access to the garage. The latter would make the door appear windowless (at least from a distance), and would similarly block out visual access to the garage. The main differences here would be: (1) appearance (windowed vs. windowless), (2) heat transfer (black windows would heat up more than white), and (3) durability (black might fade to a sickly grey over time). With these things in mind, I’d appreciate any suggestions as to how best to tackle this problem.

Regardless of how I go after the garage door problem, there are a number of other things that I’ll be doing to improve energy efficiency. Here’s a quick rundown off the top of my head:

(1) Replace incandescent lights with compact fluorescent (we did this at our old house with good results).

(2) Insulate the water heater (it’s in the crawl space — this will mainly help in the winter, if at all).

(3) Insulate the water pipes — they’re largely exposed in the crawl space (this is mainly a winter fix, and will have the added benefit of preventing frozen pipes).

(4) Check for missing/inadequate insulation in accessible locations (i.e., crawl space and attic). I already know that I have to insulate and weatherstrip the other attic access door.

(5) Replace the front door — it’s a double door that doesn’t seal particularly well. While we could redo the weather stripping, double doors are not at all energy efficient (they have >50% more in the way of edges, so there’s a lot more opportunity for air infiltration as compared to a single door). The problem here is that new doors are surprisingly expensive, especially if you need sidelights to fill in a double opening — more on this in a future post.

I’ll do my best to post updates as to how we’re progressing vs. the previous owners’ average monthly bill. Of course, another thing that we’re up against is family size — we have six and they had four. Given the impact that this has on hot water usage in particular (laundry, bathing, dishes, etc.) we’re fighting an uphill battle.

For more information on moving, check out my Roadmap for a Successful Relocation.

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