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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Ethanol's Dirty Little Secrets ---

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  • From: "Greg and April" <gregandapril@earthlink.net>
  • To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Ethanol's Dirty Little Secrets ---
  • Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 19:13:10 -0600

Assume that the local houses use the equivalent of a ground source heat pump, to recover heat from the water pumped under the ground from the power plant, as long as the water is over 40*, heat can be recovered from it - this means that even as the water is cooled, heat from the soil will keep the water warm enough to supply heat. In theory, all the power plant does is act as a reservoir of warmth. In theory houses even 10 miles could benefit, as it would take allot of heat pumping ( for along time ) to lower the ground temperature far enough to where it wouldn't be worth it - the power plant just keeps the ground warm.

Heat pumps are an expensive one time cost, but, depending on local energy costs, savings of hundreds or thousands of dollars each year might be possible. Using the Citrus farmer in Nebraska as an example, he was running $400 a month in the winter, but, now runs $200 for the entire winter. Assuming a four month winter season, that's a savings of over $1200 a year.


Do you have friends that drive, and change their oil? Any local Jiffy Lube, or service stations that change oil? Transmition fluid burns hotter than fuel oil - I bet that local transmition repair places have allot that is removed from trannies while they are being worked on ( use trannie fluid in a waste oil heater, don't try and burn it in a vehicle ).

Any local McDonalds, Burger King, that cooks french fries in vegetable oil? Any local oriental restraunt that cooks with oil? It doesn't matter if it isn't produced locally, the customers buying the french fries are the ones buying the transportation cost of the vegtable oil to your location - many fast food restraunts have to pay someone to take it away. I know people that are paying $ .50 ( fifty cents ) a gallon for waste veggie oil ( WVO ), then they filter it and use it in there diesel vehicles, after slight modification to the engine. The modifications are not hard, and anyone that knows their way around engines can do them.
http://www.greasel.com/FAQ.html

Burn WVO in diesel engine to generate electricity, then use the cooling liquid to heat your house / greenhouse in the winter.



Ok, so you spend all of your time in the garden, what about trading some fresh veggies for a waste product that you can use for fuel?

If you have a fireplace, I bet, that you could trade fresh veggies for split wood.

Don't forget, barter is not taxable.


Look and see where they waste is, and then ask yourself, how can I use the waste?

It's just like feeding a cow to make milk. If you only use the milk, your wasting manure that can be used in your gardens, and the meat that comes from the calf every year.

In the case of feeding the engine to make electricity, if you then use the heat to warn the house/greenhouse, you improve you over all efficiency of the system.


Greg H.


----- Original Message ----- From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 11:42
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Ethanol's Dirty Little Secrets ---



The vast majority of business and homes aren't anywhere near power plants.
And how far can you pump heat without losing all of it? Now Ken described
more liveable communities in his post, and maybe that's the way of the
future.

We will need local or home heat/electricity generation as a fallback, I
agree. But it means cutting our power and heating needs to the bone anyway,
right? If I'm putting all I can into food growing, where do I produce
biofuels? The wind here blows in the spring. Not a breath of air today, or
all month. PV costs too much for me to install. Waste motor oil? How much
will I have if my driving is reduced to almost nothing for lack of
gasoline? We don't throw away any vegetable oil because we don't use any.
And it's not produced locally either. Hydro? I'm an hour from the Rio
Grande but nobody dams that up for hydro. I'm afraid NONE of these
alternatives have a place here. They say they're funding a big wind farm in
eastern NM, so maybe we'll get some of that. Or not.

paul, tradingpost@riseup.net





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