Bozeman's First 400 mpg (diesel) Vehicle
20 mpg counting vegetable oil & diesel
CHOICE
ENERGY
aka
Renewable Energy & Consulting
Fuel Local - Drive Sustainable - Be A Solution
Blame for Gulf Coast
Spill Begins at the Pump
http://www.hybridcars.com/
If you're mad about the spill, think about what you're driving.
The devastating oil spill in the Gulf Coast will embolden green transportation advocates to push harder for change—from fuel-efficient cars to public transportation and bicycle use. But that change won’t happen until drivers make a fundamental connection between their oil use, oil spills, and other severe environmental and economic risks.
Electric-drive cars, especially those fueled by electricity instead of petroleum, could play a key role in reducing the need to drill. The good news is that electric cars and plug-in hybrids are finally coming to market, but they are trickling out while the spill in the Gulf gushes out. The current spill is not an isolated event. Between 2001 and 2007, there were 356 oil spills of varying degrees of seriousness on federal lands and waters alone.
We could get angry at Big Oil, or at negligent federal regulators, but consider this possibility: Nothing will change as long as the average driver—not just hybrid and EV owners—fails to connect the dots. That’s why author Lisa Margonelli’s clever idea is maybe about the best we can muster right now: “We should print the risks [of using oil] on every gasoline receipt, just as we label smoking’s risks on cigarette packs.”
Is your company or organization green? Prove
it!
Green Directory Montana offers proof of the sustainability efforts of listed businesses and organizations
Green Directory Montana brings
customers and businesses together to help make Montana sustainable for
future generations. Every purchase is a vote. A vote for a company that
either does or does not agree with your vision of the future.
Check out these bags made from BILLBOARDS, yes those 20m x 50m pieces of quality vinyl that get thrown away from each billboard you see each and every time they are changed. They also make wallets from inner tubes, messenger bags from #1 plastic bottles, and that's just the beginning of their business.
Choice Energy is currently running the following projects:
- Electric Bicycles & Lawnmowers
- Including the All Electric Lawn Mowing
Service
Lowest overhead possible for a mowing operation means cheaper rates, and 98%
less emissions!
More Info on Lawnmowing
We believe
Electric vehicles (EV) are a true solution and there is a page in this web site devoted to them.
Electric assisted bikes are the most efficient
means of moving yourself and quite a load, bar none. At $.003/mile,
the electricity used is negligible, and they are four times more useful than
a regular bike. Cars cannot keep up with these units, even in 35 mph
urban zones. They top out at 25-30 mph and go 15 miles between charges.
EVs go along well with large-scale wind and solar power, as they can be used to store off-peak power as well as for transportation. Having an EV is like having a backup power supply. If you haven't seen the documentary Who Killed The Electric Car then it's time you did so go to your nearest movie rental store and get it. It's one of the most entertaining documentaries we've seen, in addition to being extremely important.
If you think going electric is expensive, think about the $600/mo you're spending on each gas car..... More Info on Electric Vehicles
- Solar Air Heating
Southwest Montana is one of
many
perfect places for solar anything - heating or power production - with
excellent solar radiation and plenty of heating needs. Our
wall-mounted solar air heaters are the epitome of simple, with no expensive
materials and low embodied energy. Air is warmed inside the panel and flows naturally
into the top of the interior space, replaced by cool air from the floor
area.
We have completed three units and are now scheduling installations.
The 8'x12' panel shown above is sufficient to heat 300-400 sq ft of
insulated shop or living space, and costs between $1400-2000 installed
(depending on type of construction used in the existing building).
More Info
- Carbon Neutral demonstration home
and home energy
consulting including solar hot water, electrical usage reduction, and
weatherization
Demonstration home is a weekly rental
since 1998 and allows hundreds of people annually to experience a wide variety
of energy saving applications. Half of the electric bill was old light
bulbs and an old fridge. Kill-A-Watt
meters provided for energy analysis. Home was converted to hot water
baseboard heating supplied by SVO boiler (like a heating oil boiler only
much cleaner since heating oil is #1 diesel), uses solar hot water pre-heat
for tap water, on-demand gas boiler for backup, carbon credits for
electrical use. Even the hot tub is heated by the boiler running
straight vegetable oil. For
more info:
http://bozemancottage.com/Bohart_RE.htm
-
Used cooking oil
- collection, filtration and use as diesel fuel in
vehicles, generators, and home heating boilers (all 3 aspects
successfully demonstrated and used)
Generator is for sale
Local restaurants supplying used cooking oil using high
tech SVO fueled boiler providing process heat for filtration of used oil.
Generator project funded by Northwestern Energy, 15 kw stationary genset
running on SVO with utilization of waste heat (exhaust and engine) in
radiant heat system as well as electricity to power the shop's 48-volt
battery bank with inverter. Electricity generated by internal
combustion is not
allowed to be net-metered in Montana.
Thinking about switching to used cooking oil? The
local supply has less pressure on it with lower fuel prices so there is
again an opportunity for others to start using the fuel.
More Info on Primer Page
- Oak firewood
- processing and delivery
Collected from local hardwood furniture manufacturers,
processed into stove lengths, small dimension wood best for efficient
soapstone fireplaces like the Tulikivi, stored and delivered with SVO
company truck in 55-gal drums, easy to handle and easy to light fires; cleanest
burning wood on earth.
More Info
I am
Paul House, an individual lacking the patients to wait for commercially
available solutions. I bought the first project vehicle in 2004
when diesel was $1.75/gal, a '94 Chevy truck,
and converted it to run on straight
vegetable oil in April 05. This truck is used to harvest local
biofuel - used vegetable oil and oak furniture leftovers - using a bed-mounted crane and drum handling equipment. In December 05 the conversion of
my 95 Suburban was
finished. Other conversions have been done in tandem with the vehicles'
owners. The list includes a 1991 Mercedes 350SD and an 87 Mercedes
300D
which LOVE the oil, an 88 Toyota 4x4 truck, a 91 F250, an 89 Suburban, and
an 88 GMC Ice Cream Truck. The fleet is fueled
with my SVO for which I pay the road tax.
With these systems up and running, I used them to my advantage to delve into solar hot water, solar air heating, and [electrifying] electric bikes and lawnmowers. The simplicity of the electric motor is quite refreshing after working with diesel engines! Since the volume of used vegetable oil is never going to solve our problems (it works great for the people who pioneered it) I am highly encouraged by electric applications to transportation and small engines like lawnmowers and snowblowers. Click the links above to learn more about each category of appropriate technology.
What You Can Do Today
-
Conserve - using less is always the best first move. For electrical
usage, get yourself one of these:
Kill-a-Watt Meter This handy little meter tells the truth about energy
use by anything that plugs into the wall outlet. Reads real time usage
in watts, amps and volts, and accumulates total usage. A new model
even calculates savings in $.
- Go solar! Liquid fuels are great but solar fuels itself. Solar
air heating is the most affordable, followed by solar hot water, then solar
electric.
- Hire Choice Energy to consult you on your alternative energy projects
so you can get started faster! See Consulting page.
New construction or remodels.
- Take the ski rack off your car in summer (2 mpg savings)
- Consolidate your hot water usage; learn how much hot water is wasted each
time you use the hot tap
- Control you junk mail catalog flow
https://www.catalogchoice.org/environmental-facts
- Ride a bike! It can even be electric assist (see EV page on this
site)
- Turn off lights; add motion sensor wall switches that turn lights off for you
-
Clean your refrigerator's cooling coils
-
Weatherize your home
-
Purchase carbon credits thru Northwestern Energy (link on Consulting Page)
-
Take your own towel to the gym and when traveling
- Don't waste anything
- Don't buy bottled water or stupid sugar drinks
-
Use a clothes line
-
Wear clothes in winter, even indoors
-
Coast up to stop lights & stop signs. Stopping a 3500 lb car from
60 mph wastes enough energy to light a 40 watt bulb for 4 hours.
-
Install a 20-cent flow restrictor in each shower head to save hot water
- Use newspapers for paper towels - doubles as fire starter
- Learn about human overpopulation
- Compost your organic waste
-
Drive half as much and pretend your car gets twice the mileage!
- Grow food, not grass
- Enroll in the
Half
Plan and cut your energy use, energy cost, and CO2 emissions in half
- Buy local food in season; build a root cellar in your basement
Along with driving sustainably (and less) here are my other favorite things to keep in touch with:
Real News
- Subscribe to
www.montanagreenpower.com monthly
newsletter
- Join Rocky Mountain Institute
www.rmi.org
-
Link TV (satellite 9410) and Free Speech TV (9415). Email our
PBS station
to request programming.
-
Amy Goodman's Democracynow.org,
the War & Peace Report (stream from web site, PBS should also add)
-
Bill Maher, HBO weekly report
-
Clean Energy Bulletin
- Check out the long list of renewable energy projects and news in the
NW. You can sign up to receive the bulletin or log on. This is an
impressive list revealing our 'on-the-brink' status of exploding biodiesel
production, ethanol, wind, wood/biomass, hydro, etc..
Books
- Natural Capitalism, Amory Lovins,
www.naturalcapital.org
(downloadable book)
- The Oil Endgame, Amory Lovins w/ forward by George Shultz,
www.oilendgame.com (also
downloadable)
-
Lee Iocaca, excerpt from Where Have The Leaders
Gone
This page last updated on: Thursday June 03, 2010