Fuel and Energy Alternatives » Gasoline

Is it time to trade in for a hybrid?

admin — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:02:16 +0000

More fuel efficient cars are coming in all shapes and sizes now. Hybrid is a catch phrase that many dealers are pushing. Is it time to buy a hybrid though? The last time I did the math on the difference in cost (taking into account tax rebates for the hybrid). It didn’t make sense to spend the extra money unless gas went up to 8 dollars a gallon or I drove twice as much a year. (Or I kept it for 10-15 years.)

So, when does it make sense to buy a hybrid?

And what’s more how should you figure out. It’s funny, everybody says you save money with a hybrid, but until you sit down and do a comparison, you won’t know. i.e. it depends on your usage.

Start by tallying up your mileage for the year. Divide that by your miles per gallon to see how many gallons of fuel you bought over the year and do a rough cost estimate with the current gas prices. That’s how much you’re spending in a year on gasoline. Now compare the hybrids sticker price with a comparable car. Subtract any tax credits from the difference. Now compare this “premium” for the hybrid with your yearly fuel costs. Will it take a year to make up the difference? Three? My opinion is that if it’s four years or less, then it’s probably a worthwhile ROI. More than that and I think I’d hesitate.

You might revisit your gas price estimate and ask yourself how much you expect that to change in the next couple of years (as that will effect your return on investment.) Also, consider if your driving patterns will be changing – will you be driving more, less or about the same in coming years.

After all of this, you should be able to answer the question if it’s really time for YOU to trade in your car for a hybrid car.

Gas Under $2 in the Asheville Area

admin — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:08:20 +0000

I haven’t looked around too much, but saw a price of $1.98 at the Woodland Hills (19/23 New Stock Road Exit) Ingles. (The other gas station there has it cheaper with a car wash.)

This is the first time I’ve seen the price under $2 in I don’t know when.

Here’s hoping we see $1.50 gas by Christmas. (Of course, I’d take it if it were lower too.)

We can’t let the lower prices though make us lax with our gas saving habits and the true need for more domestic production and development of alternatives! So, keep using gasoline carefully and let’s keep looking at alternatives and domestic production so we can stop sending so much money to the parts of the world that don’t have our best interests at heart.

Get 100 MPG out of your CURRENT car – Plug In Hybrids are here now

admin — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:55:05 +0000

While the Chevrolet Volt is a hybrid that is still not available for purchase, there are ways of converting existing cars to be VERY high mileage hybrids. Some can get as much as 100 miles per gallon. Essentially, there are companies selling a retrofit kit for existing hybrids like the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape. The kits can run from $5000 up to $35,000 but mileage can average around $100 per gallon. Depending on your vehicle usage this could be a fantastic upgrade!

Update on Gas Shortage in the Southeast

admin — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 03:26:21 +0000

In the wake of Hurricane’s Ike and Gustav, fuel (gas or gasoline) supplies have been interrupted in the Southeast United States. Southern states such as North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee have seen some of the more severe shortages of fuel. Long gas lines have been reported in places such as Asheville, North Carolina, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia.

I’ve prepared several pages to hopefully lend a bit of help to those searching for gasoline:

First off, the main Gasoline Shortage page, Asheville, North Carolina Gas Shortage page, Gas Shortage in Atlanta, Georgia, Southeast Gas Shortage page and some tips for Dealing with a gas or fuel shortage.

Today I’ve added two more pages:

Charlotte, North Carolina Gas Shortage and Nashville, Tennessee gas shortage.

Also – there is news that the Colonial Pipeline is now up to pre-hurricane levels of supply. (The only problem is that it only travels about 4 MPH up from the gulf, so you can still expect some days for that amount to be reaching the Spartanburg Terminal.)

Southeast Gasoline shortage could last two more weeks

admin — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:26:29 +0000

That is the headline that we see from this USA today story. In Asheville, NC things seem to have regulated somewhat from where we were the tail end of last week (2 hour long gas lines in some places, cars abandoned on highways out of fuel, city and county offices closing as well as local community colleges.) Things are better this week, but hopefully people will not take the opportunity to hoard, just get as much as you need to get a bit further through the week. (Many places are rationing, but there’s nothing to stop someone from turning around and going to two or three stations to “fill up” other than their own self-control. (hint hint)) There is more information on the situation in and around Asheville, NC on my Asheville NC Gas shortage page.

This is affecting a large part of the southeast including metro centers such as Charlotte, Atlanta, Chattanooga.

Asheville North Carolina Gas Shortage Page Updated

admin — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:48:30 +0000

I’ve put together a page to hold all of the links and information I’ve been gathering on the Asheville North Carolina Gas shortage. Of course it’s more than just Asheville, but we seem to be one of the areas hardest hit by the current tight supply of fuel. I’ve got several breakdowns of where to find gas in the Asheville/Hendersonville/Mars Hill region as well as a place where you can report prices and availability. There’s a link to the Citizen-Times page on the current availability in case there’s something missing in my feeds and some news feeds on the Asheville gas shortage.

Sorry in advance for the slight disorganization to the site, I’ve been planning development here for a while and haven’t got all my ideas organized when the current shortage occurred, so I’ve just been trying to post information as I can around my work schedule to make this as usable as possible.

Started a new tips for better gas mileage page

admin — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 01:20:24 +0000

Page link should be here. It’s a bit lean now, but there are some good mileage and biodiesel links. More to be added as time allows.

Our Best Solution is a Highly Diversified Energy Plan

admin — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:33:23 +0000

In the last several decades there has been an argument over the energy policy in the United States. On the one side there are efforts to allow for more oil discovery and drilling, greater refinery capacity, etc. The other side says NO drilling that fossil fuels are bad and we need to invest in their replacements. The problem is that in all of this there has been little real progress. Yes, our technologies are improving, but the reality is that we need to develop a broad, comprehensive and DIVERSE energy security plan. Drilling for more oil alone will not answer our energy problems, neither will investing in ONLY wind and solar. I’m not saying this to

take sides, I’m saying this because I’m right in the middle here. I see great potential for solar, microhydro power and wind power. I’ve made use of solar extensively in certain projects. I’ve planned and considered microhydro power as a supplemental power source. I see it’s potential as very good. Biofuels have potential. The problem is we really need diverse energy supplies because we have diverse energy needs.

Yes it’s possible to have battery powered cars. However, batteries can be expensive to replace, heavy and contain potentially hazardous materials. There are still downsides. Biofuels would make a great substitute for petroluem fuels, but…. the demand for more soybean and corn to make them puts pressure on food prices (slightly more crucial in many parts of the world.)

So, this is why I say we need a DIVERSIFIED plan.

I’m sure there are some that say – well the government just needs to invest in research to perfect these technologies. That’s certainly possible, but the development time for the kinds of improvements take several years. Fortunately with the recent years pressures on oil prices there has been private research for several years already on many alternative energy fronts. Hopefully things are such that we may start seeing an easement in our energy problems in the next five years.

What’s really nice is that as new energy solutions come online they will take pressure off of existing sources of energy.

Gasoline Shortage in the Southeast

admin — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:50:53 +0000

In the wake of Hurricane Ike, the southeast United States is still facing severe cash shortages. From what we hear the pipelines are not at full capacity yet. (Refineries aren’t completely back up from the shutdown.) Anyway, our area here in the mountains of Western North Carolina we have seen some fairly severe shortages, long lines at gas stations, etc. The local school systems seem to be canceling events after school due to the shortage. It’s affecting businesses as well. There are hopes that by the middle of next week things will be back to normal, but at the moment many of us are running on empty…..