Carbon Footprint

RyanThomas asked:


Green cars are the current trend in the auto industry. The upward surge of gas prices and the increasing awareness of the global warming threat among consumers have prompted them to look for environmentally friendly and wallet friendly vehicles.

For decades, American motorists have favored larger cars like sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks. Currently though, the demand for smaller and fuel efficient cars is increasing steadily. Going for green cars like the Toyota Prius not only protects the environment but also the consumer’s wallet. These green cars are known for their fuel efficiency thus reducing the amount of money spent on gasoline.

Aside from that, hybrid vehicles come with a tax incentive from IRS. Consumers are advised to consult their dealers about tax incentives they may avail of when purchasing a hybrid vehicle. Recently, a new money-saving issue has cropped up.

Insurance companies are now offering incentives for hybrid car owners. In fact, some insurance companies will automatically replace a hybrid car’s battery pack if the vehicle has been involved in an accident that damaged the stock battery pack. Currently, battery packs for hybrid vehicles are priced at about $3,000. Some insurance companies also offer premium discounts for hybrid car owners of up to five percent.

Hybrid vehicles are already numerous in the United States with domestic and international brands offering different hybrid cars. Ford is already leading the field for domestic car manufacturers in developing and producing hybrid vehicles. Asian brands like Nissan also offers hybrid version of their popular vehicles like the Altima sedan for the mentioned company. The Altima hybrid is essentially the common Altima except that it employs hybrid technology to complement its high performance parts such as Nissan strut bellow.

Toyota and Honda lead the pack with their host of hybrid vehicles. The Toyota Prius still remains as the most sought after gas hybrid vehicle in the United States and this is evident in increasing year over year sales of the model. Honda also offers a hybrid version of the Accord and the Civic.

Aside from going green on vehicles, Americans are also exploring new ways to save on their energy consumption. In California, almost 4,700 residents are using solar energy on their homes. In connection with that, insurance companies are also providing incentives for homeowners using solar energy on their homes. Candysse Miller, the executive director of the Insurance Information Network of California, has this to say: “Environmental awareness and action is more than just good for the planet - it can be good for your wallet. Not only can you save with reduced energy bills, but some insurers are offering insurance packages to address this growing market segment.”

Steven De Gracia asked:


ou could decrease your emissions to zero and at the same time save money on gasoline. Sounds too good to be true, right? The fact of the matter is that with proper modification, almost any engine can become more efficient at extracting the most work out of a given amount of fuel. The key to great fuel efficiency and decreased emissions is by augmenting a more complete burn of the gasoline when it enters your engine. How can you do this? Simple, with a modification that derives oxygen and hydrogen from water that is then fed into your engine via the air intake. This is precisely how you can help power your car on water constituents and at the same time help save the environment.

So, how can you use water to increase fuel efficiency and reduce emissions on your vehicle? First you must understand that water is built of hydrogen and oxygen, two highly flammable gases that are stuck together in stable harmony. When you pass an electrical current through water, water disassociates into hydrogen and oxygen gas. What is the benefit of this in terms of an internal combustion engine? If you know anything about a typical vehicle engine, you will realize that it is powered by a mixture of gasoline and compressed air. If you increased the oxygen content of that air, what do you think would happen? If you guessed the burn rate of the fuel would increase, you would be correct. Interestingly, when you feed oxygen and hydrogen into a gasoline engine, more of the gasoline injected into the chamber is burned, and therefore less gasoline is required to power the vehicle. This translates into fuel savings.

Even better than the increased efficiency is the fact that your car will no longer dump environment destroying pollutants into the atmosphere. This is true simply because usually when gasoline is utilized by an internal combustion engine, much of the gas leaves the combustion chamber unburned simply because there was not enough oxygen to complete the reaction. This residual gasoline is then pumped out of the engine into a catalytic converter and then into the atmosphere. When you have a more efficient burn of the fuel, less fuel is left unburnt leading to increased power per unit fuel and less emissions. A win-win situation!

If you are interested in helping protect the environment, it is important you become well informed about what your vehicle does to the world around you simply because of its inefficiency. This can all change by learning to run your vehicle with the help of water.

Robert Holland asked:


Would you like to change your vehicle oil only once a year or 25,000 miles whichever comes first, better protect your engine, save substantial money, get up to 8% better gas mileage, and help the environment by reducing waste oil by a factor of eight. All this can be done by a simple switch to the best synthetic oils and filters available today while enhancing your engine’s performance and protection.

Let’s first look at the economics of the oil change business. In some cases the auto repair and quick lube businesses use the oil change as a lost leader to be able to sell you the higher margin products they carry, such as; fan belts, air filters, PVC valves, windshield wipers, fuel filters, transmission oil changes, etc. They want you to come back every 3,000 miles to give your contributions to their cash flow. They take advantage of women, in particular, by selling them items that they could probably do without. The following will give you an idea of the direct savings by using premium synthetic oils. Conventional petroleum based oil with a 3,000-mile drain interval for 25,000 miles per year will cost you $148.00 (8 changes per year). Premium Synthetic Oil with a 25,000 mile drain interval (1 change per year) will cost you only $51.55.

Right away your saving, $96.45 per year on your oil change, 7 trips to the quick lube (your time and inconvenience), improved gas mileage, and reduced vehicle maintenance. 25000milemotoroil.com has further information on the synthetic oil products.

Most people do not want to change because they have been thoroughly indoctrinated to the 3,000-mile oil change interval. Let’s change this falsehood because it is not good for our pocketbooks, the environment, or our dependence on foreign oil. The lubricating oil consumption in the US is estimated to be approximately 2.7 billion gallons by 2008. If everyone used premium synthetic oil, the US could save 2.315 billion gallons or 42 million 55 gallon drums of lubricating oil per year. If the 42 million drums were stacked end to end they would go for 23,863 miles or almost completely around the earth.

There is still another used and proven technology available to us today where we can eliminate oil changes altogether. This technology is the By-Pass Oil Filtration System that can be installed in all vehicles. This system uses two filters, a full flow filter and a by-pass filter. These are high quality nano-fiber filters that can eliminate particles below one micron in diameter and water from your engine’s oil. Standard filters only remove particles down to 25 microns in size, but studies have shown that over 60% of all engine wear is caused by particles in the 5 to 20 micron range. This system is set up so the full flow filter provides the unrestricted flow that the engines needs, while 10% of the flow goes through the by-pass filter that removes the fine particles down to the one micron range. The oil capacity of the engine flows through the by-pass filter every five minutes while driving at approximately 45 miles per hour. Your engine oil is thoroughly and continuously cleaned every five minutes. A Mack truck with an E7-400 engine was driven over 400,000 miles without an oil change (only the oil filters were changed every 25,000 to 60,000 miles), the engine was torn down for inspection, and the engine wear was moderate and equivalent to the wear of an engine that had it’s oil changed every 15,000 miles with conventional oil. This is some testimony to the performance of premium synthetic oil.

The environmental impact of reducing our country’s lubricating oil consumption by 2.315 billion gallons is beyond our imagination and this environmental abatement can begin today if every one becomes aware of their ability to contribute by using premium synthetic oil and filtration products. The EPA estimates that 200,000,000 gallons of used oil are not disposed of properly each year. The cost of reclaiming and processing used oil is significant and affects all of us by higher prices and increased taxes. One gallon of improperly disposed of oil can render one million gallons of fresh water undrinkable.

The United States accounts for 26% of the world’s consumption of lubricating oils. The economic growth in China and other parts of the world will spike the requirement for lubricating oils which will greatly contribute to the contamination of the earth’s environment unless we make strides in using the most effective and efficient ways to keep our wheels in motion.

The United States uses an average of 385,000,000 gallons of gasoline each day. This amounts to 140,525,000,000 gallons of gasoline per year. If we can increase our gas mileage 4% by using premium synthetic oils we can save 5,621,000,000 gallons of gasoline a year. These are steps we can take now before we need to take bigger steps, such as going to a hydrogen infrastructure. Even with hydrogen replacing the gasoline, we will still need the lubricating oils to keep all the parts of our cars, trucks and equipment in motion without abrasion.

We can also do a better job of recycling our used oil. Do you know where our used oil goes now? Look at the following data.

40% is dumped on the ground or poured down the sewer.

21% is disposed of in our trash and goes to the landfills.

19% is reused for other purposes.

14% is recycled.

6% is burned.

With only 14% of our waste oil being recycled, there is a big opportunity to do more. It’s a total neglect to have 61% of our used and contaminated oil seeping back into our water ways and aquifers. You can help by using premium synthetic lubricating oils and having them properly disposed of when they are replenished. Reducing your oil consumption by a factor of 8 times is a tremendous help to the environment, your vehicle, and your wallet.