Why Emissions Standards need to be Milage Weighted

Current vehicle emissions standards measure "parts per million" of tailgate exhaust.  That makes sense when you first think about it.  But then when you consider that something like 60% of the rest of the world's automobile sales are in small diesel engines, while in the US it is much less than 10% the response often is - "thats because we have tougher emissions standards" that keep very many of these engines from being approved in the U.S by the EPA, including cars like the 50mpg Subaru Legacy diesel...

The reality is that we have "dumber" emissions standards, and this is why.

The measurement ultimately is based on the "rate of burn".  So, if the "rate of burn" is extended..  meaning 1 gallon's rate of burn, rather than giving you 20 miles of passage, gives you 40 miles of passage, the actual "emissions per mile" is reduced by half.  In the case of small diesels, they may put out 20% more Parts per million, so 120% total emissions, but yield, on average nearly twice the milage per gallon.  So this would mean that the emissions per mile would still be reduced by, approximately, 40% per mile.

Despite this, the 20% increase in "PPM-volumetric measures" rather than "work measured"  emissions keeps Americans burning twice the volume of fuel per mile travelled and actually keeping our "emissions" in both green house gases, and overall particulate volumes 40% higher than the rest of the world per mile travelled in our automobiles.

I will update this with more "specifics" of these equations soon.

2 Mpg on a Dually for $12...

This week I decided that I did not need the "dual" in my dodge Dually unless I am pulling a trailer so I asked that the inner rear wheels (left and right) be pulled off during a tire rotation.

Right out of the box I am getting 2mpg better and it might get to 3mpg.  This is 60-90 miles extra on a tank of Gas!  Way cool!

The Circle of Energy - What Heats this Place, What Keeps it Warm

It's was a snowy day, perhaps 6 inches fell that night. I was thinking about warmth and insulation, about houses and the Atmosphere.

There's a boiler in crawlspace, and I can hear the pump circulating its somewhat warmed water. There is natural gas coming into the building burning in a boiler. We have a utility bill, monthly accounts for that, let. Unfortunately, through the great West we have decimated the landscape with literally thousands of natural gas and oil permits. I understand their new systems where salt brine is pumped thousands of feet deep into the Earth's crust. Explosions are set off somehow miraculously, gas contract in the rocks is left free to come up to the capture heads and be distributed to our great network of burning heat producing unnatural systems we've created over the last century or two. I wonder how much we will regret pulverizing so much of that great rock we must stand upon. Are we simply recycling it and expecting the earth will harden it again. I am not so optimistic.

We talk about greenhouse gases, the buildup of CO2 in our atmosphere, which has a temerity to trap the lovely heat in. With CO2 our other problem is simple warming. We are doing this everywhere. If you run it vehicle tremendous amount of heat is radiated and then unused in any system. It is simply emanated into the air, or perhaps used to defrost a windshield. Ultimately, as in this house that is what warms the place. And if there's good insulation that heat stays in place. Our "problem" is that we've developed a good insulation blanket, and we have a very effective boiler, but by keeping it to warm the ice in our freezers is melting and our food is going to go bad. But it's on a global scale, and we need to deal with it before it's too late.

Exploring the brave New World

This blog is not connected to my business. For all I know it's never been read. But some of the taglines to which I have written I do feel to be extremely important - not only for now, but for the future.

The time between posts is not without activity. Much time is spent in the day-to-day of processing work and trying to find new ways of getting business done. That part of "trying to find" We might think of as "Exploring" but perhaps it's just hunting and gathering.

These are, to be sure, difficult times, but the underlying structure of this time is the same as any other. We need to run our businesses, we need to achieve sales goals and restrict expenses. We need to make plans for the path forward, including product developments, marketing plans, financial contingencies.

But these are also different times. Not just that we are trying to spend less money. Everyone is trying to spend less money. In our lives the essentials of one's mortgage (or shall I call it shelter) food and general living expenses are central to our concerns. and as we go to work and school and market.

These days we also have these phones in our pockets, computers on some desks (most desks). We have this new layer of cyberspace that has entered our domain, creating a fourth dimension through which we must also navigate. This is not so new but it is indeed evolving. Perhaps I am through with Email. I would like to be.

I'm writing this post, somewhat to put off the work that I will do next at the house today (it is Sunday of course). And here I am fiddling with this interface on my laptop which is a mysterious Bluetooth connection that goes between my telephone headset and this computer. If I speak deliberately (not too liberally as it transcribed) and watch -- it happens to actually go into the text box. Well, not just a "text box" but this thing called a "blog post input box", and I'm staring at now. And I realize too, that I am not talking about the original subject of this was to detail the difficulties of this time, but I am rambling.

So I guess in the style of most posts. I should keep this short (which I have not done) so that next time someone might return and read about some other subject. If tht is you, you may read about how newspapers are in trouble or our infrastructure will be rebuilt by the printed whims of Washington, the Federal Reserve. Or you will hear of some media whitewashing of the "real situation." You might read about the importance of "coats for kids" programs, and how to house the "homeless"population. And I hope you won't read from me about a domino like series of bankruptcies - ones not just in the business world, but in municipalities and states and ultimately our federal government.

I hope you won't be reading that. But I don't know too much of hope.

Test Posting - remote

This is a test posting from e-mail remotely. Lets see whether this goes through smoothly and whether paragraphs get formatted properly. One of the tests might be to see if even any bold a format will work. Maybe we'll select the word bold, and say "bold that". (Nope, it doesn't seem to work).

This is a new paragraph written remotely through Dragon NaturallySpeaking. It's important to turn off the radio in the background because of the noise issues won't seem to pick pick up a the correct words.

Many things to do, let's see if we can now make this work, signing off for now.

Gas at $3.69 for Regular

We better be adapting at this rate.... I would not blame this on the Arabs. It is a problem with the US Dollar. It isn't worth what it was worth. Starting to remind me of Yugoslavia in the late 8o's when prices for a meal, or ferry journey were being updated by the week if not day.

If a dollar is not worth as much, Oil, priced in dollars, will cost more dollars on a sliding scale. Euro prices (or Euro equivalent prices) are probably pretty level... but that said, a gallon equivalent is still pushing $6.00 a gallon in Germany these days... A big part here is "gas taxes".. In Europe fuel is taxed pretty rationally, which encourages mass transportation (which they kick ass at) as well as higher fuel efficiency vehicles which, again, they kick ass at.

Here in the US, Ford and Chrysler claim they are can't react fast enough to the demand for higher efficiency vehicles, but if you look at their fleets in Europe they already have it dialed. Small displacement Turbo Diesels, and CDI equivalvents probably offer twice the efficiencies of what they are offering in the US/Canada markets. What this really means is that they pay $6.00 a Gallon and we pay $8.00 in real terms.

We are getting SCREWED by the Auto/Oil industrial complex that our EPA and related entities (US Customs and DOT) are all to willing cooperators in.

Bye Bye American ingenuity. We are hostages to our own Macro security complex. We better start adapting, and start adapting soon.

I will follow w/ info about some of the x's and i's in this equation.

Happy fueling.

Throttled between Big Box, Custom Pricing, and China Supply

Trying to get some lighting for our remodel. Pretty much an impossible undertaking if we don't take what is in stock, made in China, and generally what the Lowes or the Local lighting store decides is best for all of us.

The local store will bring stuff in and they are nice to speak with. Unfortunately the price goes from ($90-$150) to $450 for a comprable item when it is special ordered there. They have beautiful things... but the prices are crazy.

Lowes stocks a nickel version of "Tiella" lighting -which is basically what we want, but we want one in bronze finish. They stock a full kit with a 100 watt transformer ... but we we want the 150 watt Transformere so we can put a few more lights on it.

From here it is simply impossible to find it. It is also not offered for sale directly off their web site. .

This will take you to the item we are looking for.
http://www.tiella.com/

I am sure there is a way... just fishing through all the posts under a "Tiella Rail Bronze 150W"..

OK, now I found it somewhere for $240 online - the nickel version for the Rail Kit at Lowes is still $89, but I will now have to get in and order the Bronze one... and who knows if they will even let me order it. No "choices" are offered on their web site that I can find.

Now, I need to mess with that light that our local dealer told me was made in Indiana... Clearly I see now it is from China. The threaded stansions don't fit to each other. Styrofoam everywhere with the packing.

Our systems are breaking... I need to find some folks who make Rail Lighting here and work with their customers directly. This program of how customers and suppliers work together is becoming more and more exasperating every day.