I looked into solar for my house, and I came up with 10 years to break even if I took out a loan, longer if I leased.
The biggest thing to note is that batteries are really expensive, so almost nobody does batteries, and instead pulls from the grid at night. But since most of us work during the day, and only use electricity at night, we don't really take advantage of all that free power, which is why the break even point is so long.
Edit - My long breakeven point includes "net metering", aka selling power back to the grid.
My wife and I right now Arnt up late at night much if any. How long ago did you look into this? Seems there are a good bit of tax breaks available and that's kinda why I wanted to look into it now before those expire.
It also makes a big difference if your local power company allows you to sell excess back to the grid. You'll have to ask them and find out what rate they'll pay you for it if at all.
I believe duke energy offers this and I'm sure the quote I'm going to get from the solar company will put this in the brightest light possible.
psn: PhasenWeeple
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
I hope I don't have to say this, but if you have things like appliances, old tires, etc. that you have to get rid of, please dispose of them in a responsible manner like a grown up instead of, say, dumping them in the wetlands around the nature center. Because I am still sore from having to dig out and carry abandoned tires from a wetland at the nature center on Saturday.
The single biggest thing that you can do to make a difference on the environment is to switch to a vegan diet. One pound of meat requires (estimates vary depending on the source) 450 gallons (from the Cattleman's Association) to 1800 gallons. The carbon emissions from shipping the meat, the clearcutting of the rain forests for additional grazing land/food production for the cattle, basically everything about it causes problems. Check out Diet for a New America by John Robbins for some more information on it.
Unless you're a vegan who eats nuts then you're using just as much water per pound or more.
Cabezone on
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lonelyahavaCall me Ahava ~~She/Her~~Move to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
One of the tiny things that we've done in the house is actually switching to using powdered milk.
I've got a glass jar in my fridge I mix up a liter of milk just about every week. It's at least one less plastic bottle going into the landfill. And you might think it's not that big of a deal since I'm still throwing away the bag of milk powder. But one 1kg bag of milk powder makes 8 liters of milk. So that's 8 plastic containers that are not going into the bin. And sure, you can recycle those plastic containers, but (and I'm sure this is just our recycling plants down here? but maybe not) if your plastic recycling is not perfectly cleaned out and dry, then it doesn't actually get recycled. It goes to the landfill anyway. Plastic, metal, and glass. They need to be completely washed out, cleaned, and dried before they can be recycled. If they're not, then they go to landfill anyway and you're better off just not recycling in the first place.
I'm also using cloth nappies on the baby and am looking into starting myself on mama cloth and maybe even a moon cup. maybe. Still not sure on that.
We hang our clothes up outside as much as we can and have bought the most energy start rated appliances we can find (our dryer is actually 5 stars. Which is kind of insane for a dryer). Every little bit helps!
But seriously, milk powder. You mix it up, let it sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, and you'd never know that you're not actually drinking milk from a carton. It really tastes just that good.
I don't think that is really economical here. I buy milk by the gallon (3.78 liters) and the largest canister of the stuff I can find locally (or shipped via Amazon) is 1.5 kg for $15.36 USD. That makes 3 1/3 gallons. For comparison, that much milk bought from the grocery store is only going to cost me $10.66 ($3.22/gal...I added the extra amount even though you can't buy 1/3rd of a gallon).
Rollers are red, chargers are blue....omae wa mou shindeiru
In the USA powdered milk is uncommon so theres no cost savings.
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
On clothing donation:
Nobody wants heavily soiled, disgusting, filthy clothing. If you can wash it, do so. If it's not washable, throw it away because any charity or other location it's donated to will have to do that themselves, but on their dime.
If it's going to a small charity like a single church's thrift shop or a battered woman's shelter, only donate usable/resellable things in good condition. If it's going to a very large organization though such as Goodwill, though, they can take donations of not as quality or un-resellable goods because they have the volume to be able to sell fabric to recyclers. The recyclers will be able to turn it into useful things like industrial rags and insulation instead of having it go to landfills, and the charity can get funds for their programs, so it's not a bad thing.
You may see bins around in parking lots for donating clothing. Often those are for-profit organizations that will sell directly to resellers (often in the third world) and recyclers. If there aren't any other options, it's still better to do that than add more waste to landfills, but try one of the bigger charitable organizations first. If you're in doubt if a non-profit would be able to handle your clothing donation, look them up online or give them a call.
Also in the future, it's better not to load up on disposable possessions, buying lots of clothes you didn't need because you wanted to go shopping and that sort of thing.
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ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
Nobody wants heavily soiled, disgusting, filthy clothing. If you can wash it, do so. If it's not washable, throw it away because any charity or other location it's donated to will have to do that themselves, but on their dime.
If it's going to a small charity like a single church's thrift shop or a battered woman's shelter, only donate usable/resellable things in good condition. If it's going to a very large organization though such as Goodwill, though, they can take donations of not as quality or un-resellable goods because they have the volume to be able to sell fabric to recyclers. The recyclers will be able to turn it into useful things like industrial rags and insulation instead of having it go to landfills, and the charity can get funds for their programs, so it's not a bad thing.
This is not actually always true, at least in my area. Always launder what you donate, but where I live there are places that will still take things that are stained or frayed because while goodwill and those places are looking to resell, there are organizations who will take anything a person can still wear because there are people out there who just. need. clothes. When a person who is completely homeless and without irreparably tears or loses their shirt, they aren't feeling fucking fussy about some pizza stains. By the same token, something super nice like a suit or something interview-suitable might be more charitably donated than to goodwill. I have a place where I can donate clothing in whatever condition, and they send the clothing you give them to different places depending on their state of repair. They say just give it to them and if they know it is way too far gone they can just throw it away themselves, but people waste so much clothing because of pit stains or whatever that is STILL worth more as a shirt to someone than it is as garbage. Places like that know where to send stuff with stains or small tears. They may also send interview-suitable clothing to other places in return for vouchers they can hand out to people who are in immediate need of that kind of thing - the recipient of the voucher can turn it in for something that will look nice enough to wear while job-hunting, and they might not be able to afford a thrift shop. Goodwill will often just resell without the voucher part.
I think the better advice here would be that whatever you're looking to donate, it's best to make some calls and see if there is somewhere that can use it before throwing it away. Maybe don't toss all your clothes in one bag and send it to goodwill, but throwing away anything that isn't perfect (or donating something that is directly to a reseller) is a different kind of waste that can limit homeless access to things like clothing. There are even shelters that will take open food like cereal (there were a couple where I used to live, none here afaik); come Passover we'd take everything to one of them so it didn't get thrown away.
If you need to get rid of some things and you are looking to minimize waste instead of offloading all of it as quickly as possible, do your homework and you'll be surprised what someone out there can use.
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
Bringing things back to gardening for a moment, an open source project I've followed for a bit is finally far enough into development to begin offering kits: FarmBot
It's a gantry system that runs on rails up to 3 meters long and 1.5 meters wide (though if you supply your own rails and cables you could conceivably scale it to any size that the motors will accommodate), and can perform automated gardening functions including seeding, watering (depending on soil moisture measurements and crop requirements), weeding, and growth monitoring. While it comes out of the box set to run off of a wall socket, there is already a documented mod to run the system entirely off-grid with solar power and collected rainwater.
Bringing things back to gardening for a moment, an open source project I've followed for a bit is finally far enough into development to begin offering kits: FarmBot
It's a gantry system that runs on rails up to 3 meters long and 1.5 meters wide (though if you supply your own rails and cables you could conceivably scale it to any size that the motors will accommodate), and can perform automated gardening functions including seeding, watering (depending on soil moisture measurements and crop requirements), weeding, and growth monitoring. While it comes out of the box set to run off of a wall socket, there is already a documented mod to run the system entirely off-grid with solar power and collected rainwater.
How did I miss this? This is so amazing.
i live in a country with a batshit crazy president and no, english is not my first language
So next year I'll be moving out of my condo and buying a house. I have been thinking of ways I can help make my future home be environmentally friendly.
While I personally try to make environmentally friendly choices everyday (I don't eat a lot of beef, I don't buy things very often, I turn off my lights/electronics, etc), when it comes to setting up a "green-home" I don't really know much. Any thoughts/comments/ideas would be greatly appreciated. I'm in British Columbia, Canada for reference.
Some things I have thought about doing:
1. I have looked into installing solar panels. However, because of the lack of sun during most of the year up here, it'll take ~20 years to break-even (I can't actually remember the time frame, but it was long). This also assumes I'll be able to have south-facing panels with a large enough surface area. Hopefully Elon Musk's Solar Roof is actually as economically viable as his presentation suggests.
2. Replacing my grass with clover. This idea seems very doable.
3. Buying rainwater tanks to store rain run-off. It makes sense to me to store rainwater from the Spring to use during the Summer to water any gardens and trees (and my clover). To be honest, I'm surprised these aren't more common. Is there a reason they're not? Are they just not common where I am because cheap, clean water isn't an issue in B.C.?
Are there any other things I could be looking into?
So next year I'll be moving out of my condo and buying a house. I have been thinking of ways I can help make my future home be environmentally friendly.
While I personally try to make environmentally friendly choices everyday (I don't eat a lot of beef, I don't buy things very often, I turn off my lights/electronics, etc), when it comes to setting up a "green-home" I don't really know much. Any thoughts/comments/ideas would be greatly appreciated. I'm in British Columbia, Canada for reference.
Some things I have thought about doing:
1. I have looked into installing solar panels. However, because of the lack of sun during most of the year up here, it'll take ~20 years to break-even (I can't actually remember the time frame, but it was long). This also assumes I'll be able to have south-facing panels with a large enough surface area. Hopefully Elon Musk's Solar Roof is actually as economically viable as his presentation suggests.
2. Replacing my grass with clover. This idea seems very doable.
3. Buying rainwater tanks to store rain run-off. It makes sense to me to store rainwater from the Spring to use during the Summer to water any gardens and trees (and my clover). To be honest, I'm surprised these aren't more common. Is there a reason they're not? Are they just not common where I am because cheap, clean water isn't an issue in B.C.?
Are there any other things I could be looking into?
Congrats on your home purchase!
About solar panels, commercial ones are expensive and I am not sure if Musk will be able to deliver as viable as he promises but in the mean time, if you have the tools and are a bit handy, you can try to build your own solar panel. You cannot power the entire place with them but it's a fun project and at least you can reduce your dependence on grid. Also you don't need sunshine for solar energy.
i live in a country with a batshit crazy president and no, english is not my first language
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Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
The first step is reducing your energy usage. Regardless of whether you stay on town power or end up going solar (and wind, you can buy wind power generators suitable for one house), replacing appliances with energy-efficient units is an excellent idea. Swap out lightglobes for CFL or LED units, use reticulated gas for cooking, hot water, and home heating. Rainwater tanks are a great idea, under-eaves models will store more than enough water for drinking and kitchen use. For total rainfall reliance you will need a much bigger tank though, even with water efficient laundry appliances and toilet cisterns and low-flow faucets and shower heads a 500 gallon tank won't last a day. My partners parents are total hippies (grow their own vegan food, use only solar power for everything, grey water reclamation system, composting toilet et. al.) and while they might have gone a little too far, they have something like 15,000 gallons total rainwater storage across three or four tanks.
The first step is reducing your energy usage. Regardless of whether you stay on town power or end up going solar (and wind, you can buy wind power generators suitable for one house), replacing appliances with energy-efficient units is an excellent idea. Swap out lightglobes for CFL or LED units, use reticulated gas for cooking, hot water, and home heating. Rainwater tanks are a great idea, under-eaves models will store more than enough water for drinking and kitchen use. For total rainfall reliance you will need a much bigger tank though, even with water efficient laundry appliances and toilet cisterns and low-flow faucets and shower heads a 500 gallon tank won't last a day. My partners parents are total hippies (grow their own vegan food, use only solar power for everything, grey water reclamation system, composting toilet et. al.) and while they might have gone a little too far, they have something like 15,000 gallons total rainwater storage across three or four tanks.
Another great addition there: Insulation, Insulation, Insulation. Hunt down every single draft and gap in doorways and windows, fill those in with urethane weather stripping, and you will see huge drops in heating and cooling costs. While I am still living in apartments, when I first moved into my current place it was difficult to keep the interior temperature at a steady 65F in winter in Atlanta with both the central heating and a space heater. After installing weather stripping, I can maintain the entire 840 square feet at 72F+ with naught but periodic use of a 1500 watt space heater during the same time of year, and my electrical bill is 10-20% lower too.
One of the tiny things that we've done in the house is actually switching to using powdered milk.
I've got a glass jar in my fridge I mix up a liter of milk just about every week. It's at least one less plastic bottle going into the landfill. And you might think it's not that big of a deal since I'm still throwing away the bag of milk powder. But one 1kg bag of milk powder makes 8 liters of milk. So that's 8 plastic containers that are not going into the bin. And sure, you can recycle those plastic containers, but (and I'm sure this is just our recycling plants down here? but maybe not) if your plastic recycling is not perfectly cleaned out and dry, then it doesn't actually get recycled. It goes to the landfill anyway. Plastic, metal, and glass. They need to be completely washed out, cleaned, and dried before they can be recycled. If they're not, then they go to landfill anyway and you're better off just not recycling in the first place.
I'm also using cloth nappies on the baby and am looking into starting myself on mama cloth and maybe even a moon cup. maybe. Still not sure on that.
We hang our clothes up outside as much as we can and have bought the most energy start rated appliances we can find (our dryer is actually 5 stars. Which is kind of insane for a dryer). Every little bit helps!
But seriously, milk powder. You mix it up, let it sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, and you'd never know that you're not actually drinking milk from a carton. It really tastes just that good.
This (bold) is not true. Clean the containers yes, but they do not need to be spotless. Cleaner is better but the plant will clean the containers and recycle them over dumping them in a landfill in most cases. When you are cleaning your dishes often just rinsing it with a little water and knocking off any easily removed debris is enough. For milk containers I just put in a little water, put the cap back on and shake it, then pour it out.
One of the tiny things that we've done in the house is actually switching to using powdered milk.
I've got a glass jar in my fridge I mix up a liter of milk just about every week. It's at least one less plastic bottle going into the landfill. And you might think it's not that big of a deal since I'm still throwing away the bag of milk powder. But one 1kg bag of milk powder makes 8 liters of milk. So that's 8 plastic containers that are not going into the bin. And sure, you can recycle those plastic containers, but (and I'm sure this is just our recycling plants down here? but maybe not) if your plastic recycling is not perfectly cleaned out and dry, then it doesn't actually get recycled. It goes to the landfill anyway. Plastic, metal, and glass. They need to be completely washed out, cleaned, and dried before they can be recycled. If they're not, then they go to landfill anyway and you're better off just not recycling in the first place.
I'm also using cloth nappies on the baby and am looking into starting myself on mama cloth and maybe even a moon cup. maybe. Still not sure on that.
We hang our clothes up outside as much as we can and have bought the most energy start rated appliances we can find (our dryer is actually 5 stars. Which is kind of insane for a dryer). Every little bit helps!
But seriously, milk powder. You mix it up, let it sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, and you'd never know that you're not actually drinking milk from a carton. It really tastes just that good.
This (bold) is not true. Clean the containers yes, but they do not need to be spotless. Cleaner is better but the plant will clean the containers and recycle them over dumping them in a landfill in most cases. When you are cleaning your dishes often just rinsing it with a little water and knocking off any easily removed debris is enough. For milk containers I just put in a little water, put the cap back on and shake it, then pour it out.
You don't even need to be particularly careful about what kind of plastic you put in a bin in most places, unless they say specifically not to recycle it. Recycling plants have methods that sort the different chipped materials out (usually by buoyancy) into each family of polymers for further processing.
I don't know if it's been mentioned but some power companies allow you to opt in to a plan where you pay a little bit more per kwh ($0.0025 for Westar for example, $2.50 per month for average users) and that money goes to generating renewable energy.
Is now a good time to go solar? I've gotten a quote and am about to move forward on the plans, but I want to know if industry experts recommend holding off for now because of any imminent game-changing technologies, or if this is an industry where that's constantly the case and you just have to jump in. I know Elon Musk has less panel-looking tiles, but the aesthetics don't really bother me. I'd heard about improvements in storage batteries, though, and was wondering if that was something that I should wait on.
Is now a good time to go solar? I've gotten a quote and am about to move forward on the plans, but I want to know if industry experts recommend holding off for now because of any imminent game-changing technologies, or if this is an industry where that's constantly the case and you just have to jump in. I know Elon Musk has less panel-looking tiles, but the aesthetics don't really bother me. I'd heard about improvements in storage batteries, though, and was wondering if that was something that I should wait on.
I'm not sure about disruptive tech, but there's always articles about some new perovskite crystal or whatever that gets better efficiencies in the lab, but consumer panels seem to be pretty much good enough right now.
That and i think there are federal subsidies that are about to expire? Or maybe that was for electric cars.
You may want to hold off on large battery installations for now, if only because in a couple years when Tesla's Gigafactory is running at full tilt the cost for current cells will drop considerably.
ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
I believe Tesla is having some problems making deadlines for those batteries, materials-related. Their new facility is on track for 2018 though, last I heard; it's going to be not too far from where I live. I am always rooting for them to do well.
The challenge I've set myself is to reduce plastic waste. I've looked at myplasticfreelife and gotten some ideas but I get the feeling the author does not have kids; it is really hard to avoid plastic when you have kids. We rent so we can't change much about our place, but I've decided I'm just going to take on small things one at a time and hope it's worth at least something.
I have 8 million plastic shopping bags that I could never bear to throw away because of the waste; I use them for kitty litter and diaper trash and the smaller bins around the house. I like doing that because it's thinner plastic, free, and it means we buy and use a lot fewer of those heavy trash bags. I could never catch up though, so I've finally made the push to carry around in my bag some cloth bags in case I find myself grabbing something from the store. I'm hoping to finally start to catch up with the teetering mountains of plastic bags we have lying around.
I've also started packing my son's lunches in reusable containers instead of sandwich bags. I've completely stopped buying stupid snack packs and started buying more in larger packages that I can divide up. No more disposable water bottles either.
I donate everything I part with that might still be useful for someone to a small local pantry where they deal directly with people without homes, or who otherwise have very little, and many of the donations I make get handed out directly. I donated our baby walker a few days ago, and it's already gone to a mom who needed it. The baby clothes are given to moms who need them.
I feel like I'm making progress, but I'm pretty far off.
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
Are there local grocery stores that do plastic bag recycling? The ones around here have huge bins for collecting bags.
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ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
There are, I do feel like it's better to use them as trash bags though, unless they break down to be particularly poisonous. Trash bags are really thick plastic in comparison. I could dump them all off at Target, but somehow this feels like a better use. Correct me if I'm wrong. It's also a LOT cheaper because we can get them for free any time we decide to. The main kitchen trash is still in a trash bag, but it lasts a few days longer doing it this way.
I do plan to use Target because apparently they recycle batteries, and lord knows this place is full of dead batteries I haven't been able to throw away. Now to figure out which ones they are...
Yeah, only just starting to get my shit together over here.
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
Oh yeah, use 'em if you got 'em, but if it's way too much to handle, just recycle some of them to get some space back.
I have horde-ing tendencies myself so I understand the feeling, but usually it's been better for me to clear our clutter.
I believe Tesla is having some problems making deadlines for those batteries, materials-related. Their new facility is on track for 2018 though, last I heard; it's going to be not too far from where I live. I am always rooting for them to do well.
It's already up and running, they built it in a modular fashion so they can bring each sub-factory/factory line online before the whole thing was complete. 2018 is the right date for the end of construction though.
ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
I really want an electric car (next time we get to buy a car which will probably be in a few years), and I want to date the new Tesla model coming out, but they tend to be a bit out of our price range. My husband thinks the batteries themselves tend to be so toxic a lot of the time that they could be a wash, especially with fuel efficiency getting better. It's something that does concern me, but those are calculations I'm not sure how to approach.
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
I really want an electric car (next time we get to buy a car which will probably be in a few years), and I want to date the new Tesla model coming out, but they tend to be a bit out of our price range. My husband thinks the batteries themselves tend to be so toxic a lot of the time that they could be a wash, especially with fuel efficiency getting better. It's something that does concern me, but those are calculations I'm not sure how to approach.
Bolded: in what way? (Also interested in thoughts on comparing them to ICE vehicles.)
ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
I don't actually know about fully electric cars.. the batteries we've talked about are for hybrids and I meant to say that in there.
Apparently a lot of the hybrids out there use Ni-cad batteries, of which every part of the sourcing, production, and product are horribly poisonous and exploitative, and most of the rest use Lithium ion which are.. also not great, but it's hard to beat nickel-cadmium in an awful-contest.
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
I don't actually know about fully electric cars.. the batteries we've talked about are for hybrids and I meant to say that in there.
Apparently a lot of the hybrids out there use Ni-cad batteries, of which every part of the sourcing, production, and product are horribly poisonous and exploitative, and most of the rest use Lithium ion which are.. also not great, but it's hard to beat nickel-cadmium in an awful-contest.
Yeah, I can definitely understand the concern about nickel-cadmium cells. They're very toxic, though they have an incredible operating lifespan for their simplicity. I have good news though: most modern hybrids are NiMH driven, which is far less toxic and is readily recyclable. The earlier generation hybrids used nicad cells, but I doubt many use them today.
ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
That's really good to hear, some research on which cars use it might be in order. It'll be a while before we can buy something, but I should be doing a better job keeping up with battery tech. I really want a good high-output solar cell with a large battery that doesn't cost an entire month of our income each, but I don't even know if anything like that exists yet. We get so much sun that it seems like it should be good for something other than killing all my plants.
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
That's really good to hear, some research on which cars use it might be in order. It'll be a while before we can buy something, but I should be doing a better job keeping up with battery tech. I really want a good high-output solar cell with a large battery that doesn't cost an entire month of our income each, but I don't even know if anything like that exists yet. We get so much sun that it seems like it should be good for something other than killing all my plants.
It seems that an even more recent development is the adoption of lithium cells for hybrids, it's still a mix depending on the model and model year. Some that can be confirmed as using lithium cells:
Toyota Prius Prime
Honda Clarity Plug-In
Ford Fusion Energi SE
Chevy Volt
Audi A3 E-Tron Sportback
Hyundai Ioniq Plug-In
Hyundai Sonata Plug-In
Chrysler Pacifica Plug-In
Volvo V60 Plug-In
Volvo XC90 T8 Twin-Engine
BMW 330e
BMW X5 xDrive40e
Mercedes C350e
Mercedes GLE550e 4Matic
Dodge Sprinter Plug-In
As for solar cells and battery systems, I would personally let that mature a little while longer for both the panels and batteries, especially the batteries. A lot of less-involved technologies and home improvements can add a huge improvement to your own energy consumption, especially focused around HVAC. One of the more clever ideas I've seen recently was a misting appliance that is mounted to the exterior of an outdoor AC unit to add some evaporative cooling to the coils (which it seems adds about 20-35% to your unit's EER/SEER rating depending on local humidity). And of course my perennial cheap favorite: adhesive-backed weatherstrip insulation.
ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
We have a Sonata, the non-hybrid kind. I'd be interested to look at a Plug-In and compare, because it seems we're a Sonata household.. at least until Teslas become affordable to us. The problem is that we have no space and can't mount anything because we live in an apartment.
Is there a significant difference in fuel efficiency between a Plug-In and a normal hybrid, or are they the same thing and I'm out of the loop on names?
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
We have a Sonata, the non-hybrid kind. I'd be interested to look at a Plug-In and compare, because it seems we're a Sonata household.. at least until Teslas become affordable to us. The problem is that we have no space and can't mount anything because we live in an apartment.
Is there a significant difference in fuel efficiency between a Plug-In and a normal hybrid, or are they the same thing and I'm out of the loop on names?
Plug-ins are just hybrids that can charge their batteries aside from braking. As the default operating mode (based on the description from the Hyundai site) the car (if fully charged) will drive for 27 miles on nothing but the battery before turning on the gas engine (I would bet you can tell it to use gas with a performance setting on the dash). If you can't plug it in while parked, it will work in gas-only mode, though I'd ask a dealer if there's a significant difference in battery lifespan if you charge it regularly or not. I know a common feature in a lot of mid to upscale apartments that's being added are EV parking spots too, though they're usually not for free. Some workplaces may offer charging options as well. Fuel economy in standard hybrid mode for the Sonata is 39 mpg, with a fuel economy of 99 mpge if you can plug it in.
ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
That's pretty good. The only thing that worries me about going full electric is that about once every two years or so I end up driving across the country and back. I think most of 40 has charging stations along the way? But the Middleofnowheresville, New Mexico, is not someplace I want to be stuck.
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
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My wife and I right now Arnt up late at night much if any. How long ago did you look into this? Seems there are a good bit of tax breaks available and that's kinda why I wanted to look into it now before those expire.
I believe duke energy offers this and I'm sure the quote I'm going to get from the solar company will put this in the brightest light possible.
I've got a glass jar in my fridge I mix up a liter of milk just about every week. It's at least one less plastic bottle going into the landfill. And you might think it's not that big of a deal since I'm still throwing away the bag of milk powder. But one 1kg bag of milk powder makes 8 liters of milk. So that's 8 plastic containers that are not going into the bin. And sure, you can recycle those plastic containers, but (and I'm sure this is just our recycling plants down here? but maybe not) if your plastic recycling is not perfectly cleaned out and dry, then it doesn't actually get recycled. It goes to the landfill anyway. Plastic, metal, and glass. They need to be completely washed out, cleaned, and dried before they can be recycled. If they're not, then they go to landfill anyway and you're better off just not recycling in the first place.
I'm also using cloth nappies on the baby and am looking into starting myself on mama cloth and maybe even a moon cup. maybe. Still not sure on that.
We hang our clothes up outside as much as we can and have bought the most energy start rated appliances we can find (our dryer is actually 5 stars. Which is kind of insane for a dryer). Every little bit helps!
But seriously, milk powder. You mix it up, let it sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, and you'd never know that you're not actually drinking milk from a carton. It really tastes just that good.
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Nobody wants heavily soiled, disgusting, filthy clothing. If you can wash it, do so. If it's not washable, throw it away because any charity or other location it's donated to will have to do that themselves, but on their dime.
If it's going to a small charity like a single church's thrift shop or a battered woman's shelter, only donate usable/resellable things in good condition. If it's going to a very large organization though such as Goodwill, though, they can take donations of not as quality or un-resellable goods because they have the volume to be able to sell fabric to recyclers. The recyclers will be able to turn it into useful things like industrial rags and insulation instead of having it go to landfills, and the charity can get funds for their programs, so it's not a bad thing.
You may see bins around in parking lots for donating clothing. Often those are for-profit organizations that will sell directly to resellers (often in the third world) and recyclers. If there aren't any other options, it's still better to do that than add more waste to landfills, but try one of the bigger charitable organizations first. If you're in doubt if a non-profit would be able to handle your clothing donation, look them up online or give them a call.
Also in the future, it's better not to load up on disposable possessions, buying lots of clothes you didn't need because you wanted to go shopping and that sort of thing.
This is not actually always true, at least in my area. Always launder what you donate, but where I live there are places that will still take things that are stained or frayed because while goodwill and those places are looking to resell, there are organizations who will take anything a person can still wear because there are people out there who just. need. clothes. When a person who is completely homeless and without irreparably tears or loses their shirt, they aren't feeling fucking fussy about some pizza stains. By the same token, something super nice like a suit or something interview-suitable might be more charitably donated than to goodwill. I have a place where I can donate clothing in whatever condition, and they send the clothing you give them to different places depending on their state of repair. They say just give it to them and if they know it is way too far gone they can just throw it away themselves, but people waste so much clothing because of pit stains or whatever that is STILL worth more as a shirt to someone than it is as garbage. Places like that know where to send stuff with stains or small tears. They may also send interview-suitable clothing to other places in return for vouchers they can hand out to people who are in immediate need of that kind of thing - the recipient of the voucher can turn it in for something that will look nice enough to wear while job-hunting, and they might not be able to afford a thrift shop. Goodwill will often just resell without the voucher part.
I think the better advice here would be that whatever you're looking to donate, it's best to make some calls and see if there is somewhere that can use it before throwing it away. Maybe don't toss all your clothes in one bag and send it to goodwill, but throwing away anything that isn't perfect (or donating something that is directly to a reseller) is a different kind of waste that can limit homeless access to things like clothing. There are even shelters that will take open food like cereal (there were a couple where I used to live, none here afaik); come Passover we'd take everything to one of them so it didn't get thrown away.
If you need to get rid of some things and you are looking to minimize waste instead of offloading all of it as quickly as possible, do your homework and you'll be surprised what someone out there can use.
It's a gantry system that runs on rails up to 3 meters long and 1.5 meters wide (though if you supply your own rails and cables you could conceivably scale it to any size that the motors will accommodate), and can perform automated gardening functions including seeding, watering (depending on soil moisture measurements and crop requirements), weeding, and growth monitoring. While it comes out of the box set to run off of a wall socket, there is already a documented mod to run the system entirely off-grid with solar power and collected rainwater.
humans, so smart, invented robots to grow food to feed ourselves
And soon, robots will invent robots to feed themselves.
How did I miss this? This is so amazing.
And holy crap, it costs about $4100.
While I personally try to make environmentally friendly choices everyday (I don't eat a lot of beef, I don't buy things very often, I turn off my lights/electronics, etc), when it comes to setting up a "green-home" I don't really know much. Any thoughts/comments/ideas would be greatly appreciated. I'm in British Columbia, Canada for reference.
Some things I have thought about doing:
1. I have looked into installing solar panels. However, because of the lack of sun during most of the year up here, it'll take ~20 years to break-even (I can't actually remember the time frame, but it was long). This also assumes I'll be able to have south-facing panels with a large enough surface area. Hopefully Elon Musk's Solar Roof is actually as economically viable as his presentation suggests.
2. Replacing my grass with clover. This idea seems very doable.
3. Buying rainwater tanks to store rain run-off. It makes sense to me to store rainwater from the Spring to use during the Summer to water any gardens and trees (and my clover). To be honest, I'm surprised these aren't more common. Is there a reason they're not? Are they just not common where I am because cheap, clean water isn't an issue in B.C.?
Are there any other things I could be looking into?
Congrats on your home purchase!
About solar panels, commercial ones are expensive and I am not sure if Musk will be able to deliver as viable as he promises but in the mean time, if you have the tools and are a bit handy, you can try to build your own solar panel. You cannot power the entire place with them but it's a fun project and at least you can reduce your dependence on grid. Also you don't need sunshine for solar energy.
Another great addition there: Insulation, Insulation, Insulation. Hunt down every single draft and gap in doorways and windows, fill those in with urethane weather stripping, and you will see huge drops in heating and cooling costs. While I am still living in apartments, when I first moved into my current place it was difficult to keep the interior temperature at a steady 65F in winter in Atlanta with both the central heating and a space heater. After installing weather stripping, I can maintain the entire 840 square feet at 72F+ with naught but periodic use of a 1500 watt space heater during the same time of year, and my electrical bill is 10-20% lower too.
This (bold) is not true. Clean the containers yes, but they do not need to be spotless. Cleaner is better but the plant will clean the containers and recycle them over dumping them in a landfill in most cases. When you are cleaning your dishes often just rinsing it with a little water and knocking off any easily removed debris is enough. For milk containers I just put in a little water, put the cap back on and shake it, then pour it out.
Please, recycle it, even if it is a little dirty.
More info: http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/02/clean-food-containers-recycling
You don't even need to be particularly careful about what kind of plastic you put in a bin in most places, unless they say specifically not to recycle it. Recycling plants have methods that sort the different chipped materials out (usually by buoyancy) into each family of polymers for further processing.
I'm not sure about disruptive tech, but there's always articles about some new perovskite crystal or whatever that gets better efficiencies in the lab, but consumer panels seem to be pretty much good enough right now.
That and i think there are federal subsidies that are about to expire? Or maybe that was for electric cars.
The challenge I've set myself is to reduce plastic waste. I've looked at myplasticfreelife and gotten some ideas but I get the feeling the author does not have kids; it is really hard to avoid plastic when you have kids. We rent so we can't change much about our place, but I've decided I'm just going to take on small things one at a time and hope it's worth at least something.
I have 8 million plastic shopping bags that I could never bear to throw away because of the waste; I use them for kitty litter and diaper trash and the smaller bins around the house. I like doing that because it's thinner plastic, free, and it means we buy and use a lot fewer of those heavy trash bags. I could never catch up though, so I've finally made the push to carry around in my bag some cloth bags in case I find myself grabbing something from the store. I'm hoping to finally start to catch up with the teetering mountains of plastic bags we have lying around.
I've also started packing my son's lunches in reusable containers instead of sandwich bags. I've completely stopped buying stupid snack packs and started buying more in larger packages that I can divide up. No more disposable water bottles either.
I donate everything I part with that might still be useful for someone to a small local pantry where they deal directly with people without homes, or who otherwise have very little, and many of the donations I make get handed out directly. I donated our baby walker a few days ago, and it's already gone to a mom who needed it. The baby clothes are given to moms who need them.
I feel like I'm making progress, but I'm pretty far off.
I do plan to use Target because apparently they recycle batteries, and lord knows this place is full of dead batteries I haven't been able to throw away. Now to figure out which ones they are...
Yeah, only just starting to get my shit together over here.
I have horde-ing tendencies myself so I understand the feeling, but usually it's been better for me to clear our clutter.
It's already up and running, they built it in a modular fashion so they can bring each sub-factory/factory line online before the whole thing was complete. 2018 is the right date for the end of construction though.
Bolded: in what way? (Also interested in thoughts on comparing them to ICE vehicles.)
Apparently a lot of the hybrids out there use Ni-cad batteries, of which every part of the sourcing, production, and product are horribly poisonous and exploitative, and most of the rest use Lithium ion which are.. also not great, but it's hard to beat nickel-cadmium in an awful-contest.
Yeah, I can definitely understand the concern about nickel-cadmium cells. They're very toxic, though they have an incredible operating lifespan for their simplicity. I have good news though: most modern hybrids are NiMH driven, which is far less toxic and is readily recyclable. The earlier generation hybrids used nicad cells, but I doubt many use them today.
It seems that an even more recent development is the adoption of lithium cells for hybrids, it's still a mix depending on the model and model year. Some that can be confirmed as using lithium cells:
- Toyota Prius Prime
- Honda Clarity Plug-In
- Ford Fusion Energi SE
- Chevy Volt
- Audi A3 E-Tron Sportback
- Hyundai Ioniq Plug-In
- Hyundai Sonata Plug-In
- Chrysler Pacifica Plug-In
- Volvo V60 Plug-In
- Volvo XC90 T8 Twin-Engine
- BMW 330e
- BMW X5 xDrive40e
- Mercedes C350e
- Mercedes GLE550e 4Matic
- Dodge Sprinter Plug-In
As for solar cells and battery systems, I would personally let that mature a little while longer for both the panels and batteries, especially the batteries. A lot of less-involved technologies and home improvements can add a huge improvement to your own energy consumption, especially focused around HVAC. One of the more clever ideas I've seen recently was a misting appliance that is mounted to the exterior of an outdoor AC unit to add some evaporative cooling to the coils (which it seems adds about 20-35% to your unit's EER/SEER rating depending on local humidity). And of course my perennial cheap favorite: adhesive-backed weatherstrip insulation.Is there a significant difference in fuel efficiency between a Plug-In and a normal hybrid, or are they the same thing and I'm out of the loop on names?
Plug-ins are just hybrids that can charge their batteries aside from braking. As the default operating mode (based on the description from the Hyundai site) the car (if fully charged) will drive for 27 miles on nothing but the battery before turning on the gas engine (I would bet you can tell it to use gas with a performance setting on the dash). If you can't plug it in while parked, it will work in gas-only mode, though I'd ask a dealer if there's a significant difference in battery lifespan if you charge it regularly or not. I know a common feature in a lot of mid to upscale apartments that's being added are EV parking spots too, though they're usually not for free. Some workplaces may offer charging options as well. Fuel economy in standard hybrid mode for the Sonata is 39 mpg, with a fuel economy of 99 mpge if you can plug it in.