WVO (waste vegetable oil) burner

Experimenting with the same principles as used in the truck (getting the oil hot so it vaporizes, combusts, and flows easily). There are biodiesel stoves out there, notably the kuma stove that is being sold across the State border in Hayden, Idaho. But again, I don't like the idea of putting more effort/resources into making bio diesel, when surely something can be done with just straight veggie.



It works very simple, get a fire going hot, then turn on the valve, and let it drip on something that is hot as well, and it will sustain itself, well not consistently with a 1/4 inch copper tube. This is where others start adding compression and fans etc to make it consistent.... For me it is just experimenting, not getting too technical. The oil gets stuck sometimes in the needle valve, presumably because at that point the oil is only room temperature, I'm using a lot of hydrogenated stuff that I don't really want to put into the truck. Continue to experiment. The nice thing is that I can use the really bottom of the barrel oil for this purpose.

Couple of observations:

- When it is a good fire, it is really hot, I have never seen our stove get this hot with wood, there are several metal layers in the top of the stove to get a clean burn, and the top can still get red-hot, even with a fan blowing air over it, to get the hot air out of the insert. One has to be cautious with this stuff, if there is anything flamable near that stove. There is about 2 feet of copper tubing in the stove, so when it is hot, and the drip is not very fast, it will come out vaporized, like a torch. It also helps to have the oil warmed coming in. (which you pretty much have to do when it is hydrogenated anyway)

- The black light fluffy stuff is I assume soot, or unburned fuel. If not very hot, you get a coat on the metal in the stove, so I crank it up periodically and put some more wood in as well, this burns it off in the stove. Will have to examine the chimney at some point to see how that looks. Probably bigger issue with smaller flue. When looking at what comes out of the chimney, during a good hot burn, there is just heat, hardly any smoke, so clean burn. When just a small burn, you see the fluffy stuff fly out, as well as a little black smoke, not more than a wood fire though.

- Putting some grease in a metal bucket and letting it boil in the fire, will also create a really fast hot burning fire, once it starts boiling, but the dripping allows much more control.

Both our stove dealer and a fire fighter didn't think this is a good idea, (this is to be expected, since this is an unpredictable fuel) so I'm not advocating it, nor doing it at this point, as our dogs ran off with a grease rag and leaked it on the nice couch...

Harvesting and crushing Black Walnuts

Some folks don't really care about the fruit on their trees, but are nice enough to share them with others, such as through graigslist, so I went in and got some of these difficult nuts, perhaps 150 lbs or so. This is the fun part driving over them, powered by vegetable oil of course.



Got some strawbales as well, not enough to insulate the house though, but perhaps enough to make a cold frame to grow salad in the winter.

Gardeners can find plenty of leaves for free in bags during the fall

Brown's edition and the South Hill are good places to get your free mulch for your organic garden. I like to mow them up some more, then spread them on my vegetable beds, they also discourage weeds that way. Folks have already put the leaves in bags for you and they are on the curb. Why not grab some...

Shift Happens - All Things Change - Ceaseless Transformation is the sign of the times

The "Shift Happens" video creates a space for reflection on the exponential fast paced times we live in where adapting to change will be highly valued. But sometimes "no change" or keeping the status quo is subsidized as in for example the meat and ethanol industry, creating an artificial market place. Will these subsidies, obstructions, or lack thereof improve the welfare in the world or not, it is not black and white. As H.L. Mencken once pointed out, it is difficult to get a man (or congressman in this case) to understand something when his income (big campaign contributions) depends on his not understanding it.



Another quote relating to environmental changes that business will have to go through, "The winners will be the folks that don't resist change, but look at ways to apply innovation and ingenuity to capitalize on the migration toward a lower carbon economy." Ken Ostrowski.

Growing bio-fuel from algea on a vertical closed loop set-up

View a video here
http://www.globalgreensolutionsinc.com/i/misc/Vertigro/

Sequesters carbon dioxide while producing useful liquids.

You can grow per Acre:
18 gallons of oil per year from corn
700-800 gallons of oil per year from palm
20.000 gallons of oil per year with open algea system

1/10 of the state of New Mexico could produce enough energy for the US when growing algea.

Bioneers Satellite Conference first time in Spokane

Would have loved to attend most of it, but could only attend a few sessions by local folks. It is great to have this event in Spokane. Here is their site http://www.sustainspokane.org/ and the main Bioneers web site

Saranac First Platinum Certified Green Building in Spokane



Some of the Saranac's features,

- Rooftop garden (reduces urban heat island effect, plants convert CO2 back into oxygen, and natural cooling for the summer, insolation for the winter)

- Reused insolation (denim)

- Ground source heat pump (50 degree ground temperature gets pumped up in the summer for cooling and heating in winter) They also reuse waste heat generated in the restaurant.

- 230K solar PV array (will pay for itself in 12 years) installed by Eco Depot

- Daylighting (sensors adjust the indoor lighting depending on ambient day light coming in)

- Roof rainwater collection (used as gray water for toilets and irrigation)

- Dual flush toilets and no-flush urinals

This deserves extra attention (it has already been featured in the local media), as it is indicative of a trend with consumers becoming more and more conscious of their harm and resource footprint which hopefully, is an infectious and unstoppable trend, regardless of whether the gas prises fall again to comfortable lows. It is easy for folks to think only the rich and powerful, or "leaders" can do things like this, but each one of us has a specialty, a unique contribution to make, maybe it is not related to spending money to make green buildings, perhaps it is to make a difference towards beauty in other ways. It does not matter what occupation or environment one works and lives in, you can directly affect those around you. Just by becoming a more conscious human being, one starts changing the world around oneself, automatically. To say one can't make a difference is deep down a way to avoid taking responsibility. As the african proverb says, "One small mosquito can make a difference in your night's sleep." So it is with each one of us, by doing what we know best, we can make a big difference in the world. So who are you?


See Community Building

Kettle Crest Trail Labor Day Weekend

Start at the bottom of this page, as I've not figured out how to load the images chronologically. (click on images to enlarge)




A big fire on the way back north was burning west of Chewelah, they had already dispatched a bunch of air tankers.

Somewhere near profanity peak.

Ryan Creek cabin was our last camp site, it took a while to find any water. The book says 100 yards beyond (it doesn't say follow the trail for another 100 yards, the spring is under the growth to the left of the trail), however, this site is barely used, so the place is overgrown, and it took us about half an hour to find the small water hole. According to what we read this would be the last place with water, since we only had a few quarts left, this was important, since the walk out to Deer Creek summit was another 9 plus miles, excluding the half a mile or so steep trail back up to the main trail.

On the west side of Lambert Mt.

Most springs wer protected from cow trampling by putting fencing around it, with a pipe emptying out in a trough.

Midnight Mt, we passed the old stage coach trail that went through the pass.
Lots of burned area, with fireweed. No huckleberries on the whole trail, must be too dry near the crest.

No problem finding springs (see above), even though the ranger station at Kettle Falls said there everything was dried up on the 30 plus mile trial. (The Republic ranger station had better info on this trail)This was not the case, while we were prudent to have at least 3 Liters with us at most times, the only point after which there was no more water was about a mile and a half past the Ryan Creek cabin, old trail 30 junction. There were two trickles after this junction, the third trickle in the next valley filled up our pan within about a minute, so pretty good. After that there was nothing for the next 6-7 miles to Deer Creek Summit.

Wapaloosi in the background.

Copper Butte above.

Click above to view a large version of the panorama

Above, Jungle hill in the foreground, Columbia Mt in the background, taken from Wapaloosi Mt



Above, Sunrise
First campsite above, with sunset

Mike is a great hiking partner.
White Mountain behind Sherman Peak.

Starting up from Sherman Pass, up the north side of Columbia Mountain, you can see above the view towards Sherman Peak.

The hail was bigger than I have ever seen.

This image above is the night before about 30 minutes after the thunderstorm passed over our house in southwest Spokane.

We had good luck with the weather, as we had hail and lightening the night before departing from Sherman Pass

Hybrid bicycle using a bike engine for longer commutes.
(that would otherwise have been made with a car)

This was a project for a friend of ours, who wants to commute to work by bike for health and lower carbon footprint reasons, but just can't do that big hill, so a bit of internet searching later we came up with the bike engine. We would have wanted to go electric, but the weight is an issue. This engine is only about 14 Lbs, so you can still jump curbes with it. Since this is a gasser, we wanted the quitest and least polluting one.



Not an easy install for this particular new Mt bike, the spokes were wrong, needed 36, bike store gave the wrong wheel. Next challenge, a quick release axle, those things look weenie and are weenie since the engine fork won't fit over that, so we replaced that with the axle that came with the kit. Next challenge, protruding things above the axle, so the fork that holds the engine wouldn't fit, sawed and filed those off.

Above: The engine drives the kevlar belt that is connected to the grey plastic drive ring that fits on all the spokes facing it's side. Note the handle or lever with the black ball that tensions the belt for when you turn on the engine. There is very little drag when you untension it for just bicycling.

Note the extra muffler piece below. This only adds about 12 dollars. The sound on idle is very low, you can speak normally standing next to it and still hear others comfortably. Full throttle it is a bit more noise, but not bothersome at all.

Quick list of reasons to get this for this particular application:

• 250 Miles/Gallon if you ran it continuously (bicycling is very easy with it, so that should stretch your mileage and lower your carbon footprint per purchased gallon by a lot more, plus you can easily kill and start the engine while biking, so on downhills and flats you can just keep the thing off and just use it for assist going up a steep hill)
• No need to replace costly batteries every other year
• Emission wise very efficient, will post more data when I get a chance
• relatively quiet, nothing like a lawn mower

Bike purists most likely won't approve of this, and they have some good arguments, however, the thing to keep in mind is reducing our addiction to fossil fuel, carbon/resource and harm footprint, the size of a bike engine footprint versus a big 2-3 thousand pound car should be enough reason to encourage this commute alternative. Secondly, there is still pedaling needed, to get started, going up hills, it is hybrid, no moped.

Here is a nice electric bike with regenerative braking, at a steep price of 5K
http://www.metaefficient.com/archives/electric-bikes/the_mantra_ms1_electric_bike.html#more

The Big Green Bus Stops in Spokane




Yesterday at around 6:45 the Big Green Bus stopped in front of the almost finished Leed-Certified Saranac Community Building. There was a punk band inside who invited us over for Vegan cup cakes, after we finished transferring 45 gallons of waste vegetable oil over to their bus. Lucas and Merritt liked the filtered stuff and mentioned the only places with good oil so far they encountered were Taco Bell and Wendy's, they didn't like the stuff they found in McD.


They have a pretty good on-board filtering setup that allows them to just dip off the top of the grease bins, and filter through these in the rear.

Lucas shows the custom gauges and modifications, they have not needed to wire the Vegthems yet, as they maintain a nice and hot 180 degrees for the oil.

Esther shows off the floors inside, really nicely done by one of the sponsors, EcoTimber.

There were several bunk beds inside the bus. These 3 students were happy with the break from having to all be in this bus, there is not much room for 11 students. They enjoyed the quiet of Spokane, no big fanfare. Tomorrow they head off to Glacier, it was neat to visit with them and hopefully they will make lots of people think about energy and sustainability and then act upon this increased awareness. After all, like Edward Abbey said, "sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul".

Most recent posts have been about the Grease car project, now grease is similar to Greece, so the next posts are from a vacation in Greece, where the cars are very small, and the mopeds smoky. Smart cars are very common in Greece, and so are solar water heaters.

The greasecar manual turns out to be incorrect with regards to installation for an F250 6.9L. On one trip I noticed the power decreasing dramatically to where we couldn't get up hills over 35 miles an hour. Initially it looked like it might be the injection pump going bad, luckily I had it checked by some folks familiar with this, and they determined that the veg was being pulled solely by the IP, which is not good. So it was replumbed through the lift pump. Also, the temp sender apparently is causing blockage, so they put that back into the Veg filter housing.

I also insulated the tank, so it can keep warmer, not sure how much difference it makes, but every little thing helps.

Nuclear Power – One of Humankind’s Biggest Mistakes
By Jim Bell
www.jimbell.com, 619 758 9020

Nuclear Power was a mistake and remains a mistake. If the human family survives it, our descendants will wonder what we were thinking to justify leaving them nuclear power’s toxic legacy -- a legacy they will be dealing with for hundreds if not thousands of generations.

And why did we do it? To power our lights, TVs, radios, stereos, air conditioners, etc. and the tools we used to make them.

Our creation of nuclear power will be especially difficult for our descendants to understand because they will know that in the nuclear era, we already had all the technologies and know-how needed to power everything in ways that are perpetually recyclable, powered by free solar energy and which leave zero harmful residues in their wake.

On its own, nuclear power’s toxic radioactive legacy should be enough to give any thinking person sufficient reason to want to eliminate it as quickly as possible and do everything to protect our descendants from the radioactive wastes already created.

The human family has been at war with itself for the majority of its history. Human history is full of successful, advanced and sophisticated civilizations that utterly collapsed. To the informed, even our current civilization(s) don’t feel very solid. Plus there are earthquakes, tsunami’s volcanoes, severe weather, terrorism, and just plain human error. This given, who can guarantee that anything as dangerous and long-lived as nuclear waste can be kept safe for even 100 years much less the hundreds to hundreds of thousands of years it will take before some of these wastes are safe to be around.

And even if an insurance company did guarantee its safety, what is their guarantee worth? What could they do to protect us and future generations if San Onofre’s spent fuel storage pond lost its coolant water. If this happened an almost unquenchable radioactive fire would spontaneously erupt, spewing radioactive materials wherever the wind blew for weeks if not months -- rendering Southern California a dangerous place to live for thousands if not hundreds of thousands of years.

Notwithstanding the above, the nuclear industry is lobbying the public and the government to continue supporting them politically and economically so the industry can expand.

Its latest rational is that nuclear power will produce fewer greenhouse gases than what would be produced using fossil fuels to make electricity. This is true if one only looks at what happens inside a reactor. It’s not true when accounting for all the fossil fuel energy consumed during nuclear power’s fuel cycle, and what it takes to build, operate and dismantle plants when they wear out. Additionally, even if nuclear power was ended today, fossil fuel energy must be consumed for millennia in order to protect the public from the radioactive residues that nuclear power has already generated.

An increasing number of former industry and non-industry experts are saying that at best nuclear power releases slightly fewer greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than if the fossil fuels embodied in it had been burned to make electricity directly.

In his 2002 book, Asleep at the Geiger Counter, p. 107-118, Sidney Goodman, (giving the industry the benefit of the doubt on a number of fronts and assuming no serious accidents or terrorism), concludes that the net output of the typical nuclear power plant would be only 4% more than if the fossil fuels embodied in it had been uses directly to produce electricity. This means, best-case scenario, replacing direct fossil fuel generated electricity with nuclear generated electricity will only reduce the carbon dioxide released per unit of electricity produced by 4%. Goodman is a long practicing licensed Professional Engineer with a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Other experts believe that nuclear power will produce about the same amount of energy as was, is, and will be consumed to create, operate and deal with its aftermath. This case was made in an article published in Pergamon Journals Ltd. Vol.13, No. 1, 1988, P. 139, titled “The Net Energy Yield of Nuclear Power.” In their article the authors concluded that even without including the energy that has or would be consumed to mitigate past or future serious radioactive releases, nuclear power is only “the re-embodiment of the energy that went into creating it.”

In its July/August 2006 edition, The Ecologist Magazine, a respected British publication, featured an16-page analysis of nuclear power. One of the conclusions was that nuclear power does not even produce enough electricity to make up for the fossil fuels consumed just to mine, mill and otherwise process uranium ore into nuclear fuel, much less all the other energy imputes required This is not surprising given that at typical U-235 ore concentrations of 01% to 02%, requires mining, crushing and processing a ton of ore to end up with 1/2 oz to 1 oz of nuclear reactor fuel.

To put this in perspective, the typical 1,000 MW nuclear power plants uses around 33 tons or over 1 million oz of nuclear fuel each year.

As a teenager I saw a TV program that showed a man holding a piece of metal in the palm of his hand. He was saying that if what he held was pure uranium it would contain as much energy as the train full of coal that was passing by him on the screen. I became an instant “true believer” in nuclear power. I thought if something that small can produce the same amount of energy as all that coal, there will be plenty of energy and therefore plenty of money to address any dangers that using it might pose.

Unfortunately, to get that level of energy from a small amount of pure or near pure uranium it would require that it be exploded as an atomic bomb. Of the uranium used in a reactor, only a fraction of the energy in pure uranium gets used. That’s why we have depleted uranium and other long-lived wastes.

The nuclear industry says that nuclear power is safe, a big net energy producer, and that it will be cheap and easy to keep its wastes out of the environment and out of the hands of terrorists.

But if these claims are true, why has an industry that supplies only 8% of our country’s total energy and 20% of its electricity consumed hundreds of billions of tax dollar subsidies since its inception? The 2005 Federal Energy Bill continues this trend. According to U.S. PIRG, Taxpayers for Common Sense, Public Citizen and the Congressional Research Service the recently passed 2005 Federal Energy Bill includes “a taxpayer liability of $14 to $16 billion” in support of nuclear power.

If nuclear power is so safe and wonderful, why does it require the Price Anderson Act? The Price Anderson Act puts taxpayers on the hook if the cost of a major radioactive release exceeds $10.5 billion. According to a Sandia National Laboratory analysis, this puts taxpayers on the hook for over $600 billion to cover the damage that a serious radioactive release would cause. Another Sandia Laboratory study focusing just on the Indian Point nuclear power plant in New York, concluded the damage caused by a serious release from that plant could cost up to a trillion dollars. Needless to say, any serious radioactive release from any U. S. plant would wipe out any net energy gain by nuclear power if -- there ever was one.

Realizing the potential cost of a serious radioactive release, manufacturers, insurers and utilities, were unwilling to build, insure or order plants. They only got seriously involved after the Congress assigned these cost to the taxpaying public.
On page 7, a report by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research titled The Nuclear Power Deception, they included the follow 1996 quote from then NRC Commissioner James Asselstine, “given the present level of safety being achieved by the operating nuclear power plants in this country, we can expect a meltdown within the next 20 years, and it is possible that such as accident could result in off-site releases of radiation which are as large as, or larger than the released estimates to have occurred at Chernobyl.” Bare in mind, a meltdown is only one of several things that could happen with nuclear power to cause a serious radioactive release.

As I said in the beginning, nuclear power is a mistake. Especially considering we already have all the technologies and know-how needed to make us completely and abundantly renewable energy self-sufficient. Solar energy leaves no radioactive residues for our children or future generations. Additionally, although not completely environmentally benign yet, solar energy collection systems can be designed to last generations, be perpetually recyclable and leave zero toxic residues behind.

If San Diego County covered 24% of its roofs and parking lots with PV panels, it would produce more electricity than the county consumes. This assumes that 3 million resident use, on average, 10 kWh per capita per day after installing cost-effective electricity use efficiency improvements. For details read my free books at www.jimbell.com. They are also available in most local libraries.
For ourselves, our children and future generations, let’s move into the solar age.

"What Makes a Livable Community?"

Interdisciplinary Design Institute Hosts Third Annual Design Research ConferenceOctober 5 – 7. The Design Institute's third annual Design Research Conference will be held October 5 through 7 on the Riverpoint Campus. This year's theme is "What Makes a Livable Community?"

Among the activities organized for the event are a number of lectures, which are free and open to the public:

Thursday, October 5, 3:00 p.m. Human Nature and the Built Environment Joanne Savage, PhD American University, Department of Criminal Justice Thursday, October 5, 4:00 p.m.

Health and the Homeless Carol Allen, PhD Washington State University, Intercollegiate College of Nursing Friday, October 6, 9:00 a.m.

Sustainable Cave and Rammed-Earth Dwellings in China Liu Jiaping, PhD Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Green Architecture Research Center (Xi'an, China) Friday, October 6, 4:00 p.m.

Scandinavian Livable Communities Jerry Finrow, FAIA University of Washington, School of Architecture and Urban Planning Saturday, October 7, 9:00 a.m.

Straw Bale Housing in China Kelly Lerner, AIA One World Design All lectures will take place in the auditorium of the Phase I Classroom Building. For more information on the conference, visit the conference Web site. You may also contact Pam Medley at 509-358-7920 or pmedley@wsu.edu.

Apples, Agriculture, and the New American Farmer. A documentary by Jamie Howell and Guy Evans, September 30, 7pm. Met Theater, 901 W. Sprague
Apple tasting and discussion with the filmmakers to follow.
www.brokenlimbs.org

This Green Electronics Guide ranks leading mobile and PC manufacturers on their global policies and practice on eliminating harmful chemicals and on taking responsibility for their products once they are discarded by consumers. Companies are ranked solely on information that is publicly available.

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/toxics/electronics/how-the-companies-line-up

ECO DEPOT IS MOVING TO A NEW LOCATION!1326 E. SPRAGUE AVETHIS IS YOUR INVITATION TO THEIR OPEN HOUSESEPTEMEBER 15, 2006, 4 – 7 PM.Come see their new place and their expansion plans. Their inventory is growing!Meet Kelly Lerner, architect and author of a new book "Natural Remodeling for the Not So Green House".Bring your copy or buy one and have her sign it.

Waste Vegetable Oil, what it looks like

This is what one particular restaurant's creamy frying shortening looks like after being used one week in the fryers, then settled in the garage for another two weeks. The bottom is the crud and the hydrogenated stuff, and the top is colored and not hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated. I will pour this through the sock filters when enough oil has accumulated for a new batch.

State offers incentive for home solar-power units
Pumping electricity into grid pays 15 cents a kilowatt-hour

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/277105_solar11.html

Downtown Recycling Club!

The Lands Council has a new project: The Downtown Spokane Recycling Club. This project, which consisted of surveying local restaurants, pubs, and bars to assess rates of recycling and business reasons for lack of recycling, was conceived to increase the rate of recycling among local businesses. If you go to their website, you'll find a link to the project, and then a link to cards that they have created. These cards ask businesses to start recycling. You can bring these cards with you to restaurants, and ask them if they recycle, and if so what they recycle. If they don't, or have limited recycling, leave a card with your bill to encourage them to start recycling. If they do, make sure you thank them. Consumer pressure for recycling is the best way to make businesses listen. With your help, we can begin to increase the rate of recycling among businesses here in Spokane. Thank you! Here is a link to the recycling page:http://www.landscouncil.org/Downtown%20Spokane%20Recycling%20Club/Downtown_Spokane_Recycling_club.html