1250 Kms on a single 50 litre tank of Diesel! - Reducing Carbon Impact

One of the largest carbon outputs we create as individuals, is due to our need for transportation. The graphic below from eoearth.org identifies that personal transportation is the largest contributor to personal carbon output next to recreation and leisure and represents 10% of our overall total carbon output.

My wife and I do not do a lot of air travel and we also do not drive long distances. Her work is only 10 km away and the majority of my work is also close by. My vehicle is 22 years old and my wife’s is 9 year old, so we probably buck the trend there as well (would lower the carbon in car manufacturing percentage). We also are home bodies, so I would estimate that our recreation and leisure is a lower percentage. In fact, I would imagine that our total output is much lower than the North American average due to the lifestyle we live and the efforts already in place in our household to reduce our impact.

Breakdown of a typical individual's carbon footprint. (Source: Carbon Footprint)
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Carbon_footprint

My vehicle, a 1991 Toyota Hilux Diesel Right-Hand Drive, used to produce 22.2 pounds of carbon per gallon of diesel burned (Ref 1). As I typically travel approximately 7000 miles per year and was only getting 15 MPG(USG), I was contributing a whopping 5.2 tons (10,400 lbs) of carbon to the atmosphere every year.

Well, I am pleased to advise that I have made a major shift in my output and am driving a vehicle I could almost consider carbon free.

You see, I have converted the Hilux to a duel fuel system that allows me to burn vegetable oil. But not just any vegetable oil, I am able to burn USED vegetable oil (Waste Vegetable Oil – WVO). I converted the vehicle last summer, but for technical reasons and oil supply, I have just finished my first session where I was able to fully utilize the WVO system. In typical urban driving (limited highway and no long trips), I was able to travel 1250 km before having to refill the diesel tank.

Some may ask why I don’t just burn the WVO. Well the reason is because the WVO must be heated to achieve the right viscosity before it can be burned in the engine. I have elected to heat the oil using the engine coolant system as I have a weak alternator that would not have stood up to electric resistance heating of the oil flow. Using the coolant at the heat source requires me to start the vehicle on diesel and drive until the coolant temperature is high enough (I wait till the thermostat opens and I see the temp on the dash go to normal operating temps) before switching to the WVO tank. (I have the stock diesel tank and an auxiliary WVO tank) and start burning only WVO. I can leave it on the WVO setting throughout the day as long as the vehicle will not sit for more than 2 hours. If I will be stationary for more than 2 hours or am back home for the day, I then need to switch back to Diesel to purge the WVO out of the engines injector system so that when it is cold the next day, I will not have thick congealed WVO in the engine. I usually start this purge about 2-3 km from home.

Engine compartment contains the heated WVO filter, a 30 plate heat exchanger, and two solenoid valves.

The system has worked well over the last 3 months and is well proven in the industry. In Europe, countries like Germany have formalized the ‘fuel’ and tax it like any other. All of the research I did, showed that the buring of WVO is safe as long as the fuel is properly processed to remove water and particulates and is adequately heated before burning.

For the interim, I am buying my WVO from a local ‘producer’ who collects the oil from local restaurants on the Sunshine Coast and then processes it. This involves letting the oil settle (removes most of the particulate), running the oil through a centrifuge (removes any moisture), and then running the oil through a series of filters down to 10 microns. Once the new house is completed, I will start producing the oil myself. At 50¢ per litre, I am saving 80-90¢ per litre or around $1500 per year. The system only cost $1000 in parts, so I am ahead of the game within about 8 months of typical driving.

So, what does this all mean to my personal output?

Based on 777 miles (1250 km) per 14 gals of diesel burned, my carbon output for just the diesel per year would be reduced down to 2800 lbs or a 73% reduction from my preconversion contributions.

But wait, we are not finished. Vegetable oil as a plant material is often considered carbon neutral as it is just releasing the carbon it already sequestered from the atmosphere. I question this statement, as the growing and harvesting of the seed crop that creates the oil is still a very carbon heavy activity. I would agree that vegetable oil as a food item has the lowest carbon output by a very significant margin when used as a fuel in comparison with all other fuel forms including electricity from the North American Grid. So if I was burning new, unused, vegetable oil, I would need to calculate some contribution to my carbon output.

But I am using used oil, so I am reusing a very low carbon product for the second time. I am reusing something that would otherwise be thrown away. This means that I am receiving a carbon credit in some fashion. I have been unable to find a logical resource that identifies how to calculate this credit. You would need to reduce the credit by the energy it takes to collect and process the waste oil into WVO, but what should the initial credit be? 100% of the carbon output of burning diesel, as this is the fuel being offset? 100% of the carbon created by growing, harvesting, and processing the vegetable oil?

What ever credit is used, you can see that it would quickly take my 73% reduction and increase it quickly to a point approaching 100% or Carbon Neutral.

Even at a 73% reduction however, assuming the WVO comes out neutral (no credit or contribution), this is still a feat I am very proud of. This has been an action that has significantly lowered my personal contribution to this planet and will probably represent the single largest action and carbon reduction I will ever make.

Filling Up Auxiliary WVO Tank in Cargo bay of vehicle

WVO Storage Tank – Can hold up to 1000 liters of Waste Vegetable Oil

 

 

Time for a fill-up - My supplier is delivering another 400 liters

Note: I can provide specifics of conversion for any interested parties. Just leave a comment below with your email address.

References: (1) http://www.epa.gov/oms/climate/documents/420f11041.pdf & http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/faqs/answer.cfm?id=3460

Deadlines, Roadblocks, & Reality

We missed a major deadline last Friday, which in reality had no chance of ever being met.

In order to meet my prescribed schedule (get dry before Sept 30), I had identified Friday the 8th of March as the day I needed to apply for permits.  I had allowed 4 weeks for the permit process and anticipated starting to dismantle the existing dwelling in mid April.

A visit to the District Hall on Friday identified that this schedule was unrealistic on many fronts and will need to be completely rethought. Up until this point, I have had this naive assumption that everything would just fall into place as I progressed through the planning and build process. I was counting on good karma to be by my side and pave all the paths through the myriad of steps leading up to and through the build.

Well, it seems I have been optimistic on a laughable scale.

Things turned south the first time back in September of 2011 when I found out the District was not adopting similar measures, as surrounding municipalities have,  to promote energy-efficient building envelopes (more on this in a separate post).   I should have clued in then, that this would not be ‘easy’.  This led to a 1-year hiatus from active design while I pondered the way forward and advanced my knowledge in the science of building enclosures.  In September of 2012, I restarted the design with a goal to reduce footprint and harvest as much solar energy as practical for my region and lot.  I have put considerable effort into finalizing this design over the last 6 months ramping up over the last two months to 'full time' in order to complete the 3D model and 2D plans in time for this week’s permit application (something I was generally successful in doing).

But then a string of current setbacks made this timeframe impossible to meet, starting with the structural engineering which I had assumed would be straightforward and quick.  Earlier last week I had to part ways with the initial structural engineer I had chosen for the project.  Within the course of our first real day of activity on the design, it became clear that he was not the right person for the job.  I needed someone familiar with Insulated Concrete Foundations (ICF) and someone who was proficient with Part 9 construction of the building code and could think outside the box, because this is a fairly innovative design that will not have been seen by many people.  It became clear pretty quickly that neither of these needs was going to be filled by my original selection, and we both agreed that this was not the right project for him.  I had learned long ago to go with my gut when working with people, and was relieved at how quickly this situation came to a resolution.  Recently, I had witnessed a friend's build, where a gut feeling was put aside by them in selecting an architect, and that decision plagued the entire build, which further reinforced my conviction.   I vowed that I would not repeat this experience.

This left me with under a week to find an engineer and complete the structural design so that I could still submit for permits 'on time'. This turned into the second major roadblock as I was unable  to find any engineers familiar with ICF that were available on short notice.  This has been compounded by a lawsuit currently in the works (to the tune of $1M) involving an ICF project in the Lower Mainland where the dwelling had to be torn down after construction due to a faulty ICF foundation installation.  News of this lawsuit is spreading across the engineering community and I spoke with two engineers this last week who no longer design in ICF construction. In speaking with the engineer who is acting as the expert witness for the plaintiff in this case, it appeared that there were concerns with one of the major brands of foam ICF, and how the structural rebar is held in place (or not), and also a concern on the ability of the concrete to fully encase the rebar in this ICF design.  I am not proposing to use this foam ICF, or any foam ICF for that matter, and will try to pry an assessment of the system I would like to use from this individual over lunch sometime soon.

With any hope of engineering completion at least a month or more away, I went to the District Hall yesterday to enquire about the permit application process.  An engineer had mentioned I could apply for the permits without the calculations being completed and just submit the calc’s when needed during the plans review process.  This was not a strategy recommended by the District.  They advised that checking would not proceed without all required documents.  So I really need a complete package before submitting my application.  Realistically this would set the start back a month or more.

While at the District, I was also informed that the approval process was currently taking 6 weeks or more and that because I would need to apply for a variance, I could probably expect double that time.  So all together I was looking at around a 3-4 month delay in the commencement of the build. This would prevent me from getting the roof on and the place generally water-proof until Dec/Jan which is a build condition I am unwilling to accept.  It has been my intention from day one that I would not be doing exterior construction during the wettest and coldest months of the year in order to protect sensitive building materials like the TGI's from becoming saturated and because it just is not any fun building in the cold or torrential rains (I remember my first winter job site experience where we had to build a fire each morning to thaw out the pneumatic lines).

The final stumbling block presented by the District Friday, was an initial refusal to allow a holiday trailer to be parked on site, which I propose to live in during the build.  This is key to our budget, as rent in my neighbourhood is around $1600 for basement suites and $4000+ for upper floors of a house.  With the anticipated build time of 18 months, this would result in a $30K - $75K reduction in our available budget (10% - 20%), and a serious challenge to our cash flow. The District is concerned about site safety and the safety of their services which I totally understand, but I am confident that solutions exist for all of the concerns if we just think a little bit out of the box.

This all lead to a decision on Friday to delay the project start date by a year.  I will still work on completing the design, getting material pricing, solving the living on site issue, putting some much needed attention into the onside Building Lab project, and just generally getting better prepared for the build.  But I will hold off applying for permits until probably September.  This would give the approval process six months before we would anticipate breaking ground.

I am significantly relieved by this decision, as although I was ready for the building permit, I had not finished the electrical and plumbing design and would have had to work those out during the evenings as I was building.  This way I can thoroughly prepare all aspects of the build and be in much better shape next March.  This will also allow me to concentrate on some landscaping in the back yard this year, which will make neighbours very happy.  This also gives more time to get the project’s website up and running.  

On some levels I feel like I have failed, and I have.  But in a larger regard, I have succeeded to make the right decision to ensure the desired successful outcome, and for that I am proud.

I will continue to document my journey over the next year as there will be many decisions I can now research before making.  Does ICF make sense?  Why do I want to buy floor trusses from Quebec? Rain Water and Grey Water Heat Recovery, do they make sense?  How much of an existing structure can be diverted from a landfill?

I hope you will continue to visit, and I look forward to any comments or questions you might have.

Structural Engineer Needed

Just a quick shout out.  I need a Structural Engineer experienced in ICF construction.  I had to part ways with my first selection, as they were adamant in designing a standard 8" foundation wall 'inside' the ICF even though 5.5" is what is stated in code.  As I am trying to use Durisol, this would have equated to probably $3K - $4K more in freight and a similar cost for additional concrete.

So, I any of you know a good structural engineer, I would love to hear from you in the very near future.

The Power of Solar - Yes it works even in Vancouver!

I am sitting here in my home office getting some drawings completed.  The sun is out and recently peaked out from hiding behind a cedar tree (which I will limb to a height of 35ft to get all of the winter sun in the future..  I keep the house pretty cold during the day and have an auxiliary electric cube heater in the office when needed.  The house air temp is around 64ºF.  Surfaces are between 50-65ºF (windows are 56ºF).

In my office that faces south and has the same single pane aluminum frame windows and un-insulated walls.  I have not had the heat on since 9:30 this morning (4 hours ago).  The air temp is 68ºF air temp (started out at the same 64ºF but within 30 minutes of direct sunlight spiked up), but the real difference are the surfaces.  The window is 72ºF!  All the other surfaces are between 66ºF and 75ºF depending on how much direct solar energy they are absorbing.

Pretty phenomenal really, if I can build a house that captures as much of this solar gain through the south side as possible why still significantly reducing the thermal loss through the envelope, I will be laughing all the way to the bank.

At the last BCBEC AGM, the first presenter was from RDH where they had studied the effects of solar gain on energy use in dwellings.  The end result was that solar heat capture, even in Vancouver!, made sense and resulted in lower energy demands. The sweet spot utilized overhangs to prevent overheating in summer and windows with a 50% SHGC and a thermal resistance of U 0.16.  This resulted in 22500 kWh of annual heating cooling energy.  This was a significant reduction (10%) over the baseline 24500 kWh that utilized only 20% SHGC and U 0.35 windows.

This all of course is only practical if you have south exposure sun available.  I am blessed with unobstructed full sun from around 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM with a couple of sporadic additional hours in the afternoon during the winter months.

Winter Sun will unfortunately be blocked from 2:00 PM til around 3:30 PM

Silence

Hi All,

I just wanted to provide a short update, as I have been a bit delinquent in my postings.  It is crunch time as I come down to and pass deadlines.  I had hoped to apply for permits by the end of January but that has come and gone.  My current plans are for submission by mid March.

Tasks still outstanding:

• Get site survey (in progress)
• Get structural engineering to design beams for point loads (hope to send initial drawings by Monday)
• Design roof trusses and find vendor
• Get structural engineer to sign off on ICF vendor drawings (if I can get rail freight quote in check, otherwise will probably go with formed foundation)
• Get structural engineer to design elevated concrete floor slab
• Design plumbing system (supply and waste)
• Design electrical system
• Design fire sprinkler system (will compare cost of installation against operable windows in all bedrooms)
• Design Upper Master Bedroom Deck
• Design Low Voltage and Home Automation system (I wanted a fully 'automated' home with relays controlling all lighting circuits, but time is ticking)
• Design rain water recovery system
• Design Grey Water Heat Recover System
• Design Heating and AC system (no small feat as I want to look at solar capture, air source heat pump, and solid fuel boiler)
• Design Mechanical Ventilation System
• Finish 3D design (90% complete)
• Create general materials BOM and get quotes (15% complete).
• Create schedule (90% complete).
• Create layouts required by permit app (40% complete)
• Secure a construction mortgage
• Bring in 40ft Shipping Container for construction storage
• Buy a 5^th wheel trailer to live in (as long as I can secure permission from District as needs to be in front yard as I have no lane access to back yard)
• Pack and Move
• Volunteer at a build site for a day with Alfie in return for building and landscape material I will salvage out of a house before it is torn down.
• Create a website for the build that will have three live web-cam feeds and hourly time lapse photos along with a wealth of information on sponsored products.
• Setup project team for the building ‘science lab’ and secure final funding.
• Oh Ya – Build a house!

My schedule shows that as long as I start the excavation by late May, that I will be able to get the roof on and the building generally waterproof by the October rains. The problem is how much work has to be done prior to this milestone. 

To divert as much material as possible away from the land fill, I will not just bring a tractor in to demolish the house and put in a few large trucks off to the dump.  This is the easy way (takes a day) and the standard way construction is handled in pretty much all of North America.  My plan is to deconstruct the existing dwelling and re-use, sell, free-cycle, and re-cycle as much of the material as possible.  Why is this not done more often?  Labour Costs!  I predict that this task will take 24 man days to complete.  While this only represents $5000 or so of labourer time, there most likely is not $5000 of savings from the reduced dump fees and sale of usable products and scrap metal. 

But I believe that this extra 'effort' will go further in reducing my carbon output from the project than all of the typical 'green-building' program's selections of flooring, cabinets, counters, and paints combined. I will of course still make 'greener' decisions on some internal components, but in general I will be concentrating on the large fruit starting with ensuring a rock solid and efficient building enclosure.

So, this month of deconstruction, packing and moving, and all permit documentation has to be completed before the end of May which is putting me under the vice big time.  I set April 8, 2013 as a theoretical start date back when I first started this blog.  This date was plucked out of the air because it was exactly 500 days from the first blog entry (which had a nice ring to it and seemed like a lot of time).  As I have been completing my schedule, I have been working backwards from Sept 30 (the point I want to have the dwelling generally water tight). 

Last night I finished most of the schedule including most of the prebuild tasks.  I was astonished to see that the beginning of the schedule (start of deconstruction) lands on April 8! 

Is this an omen that everything is falling into place?  I sure hope so!

With schedule close to complete - start date is April 8!

Product Testing Continues at SENWiEco

SENWiEco continues testing products that we hope to incorporate into our upcoming build.

The R-Guard products from Prosoco are standing up well to our accelerated temperature torture testing.

After 7 days of extreme testing, the Durisol ICF block shows no sign of capillary action horizontally through the product.

We have now started testing the waterproof capacity of Fab-Form's FastFoot fabric footing forms.

Peak Oil 'Solved' - But Climate WIll Fry

It is scary when even the oil producers admits we are in trouble and that burning all of that oil may not be in our best interests.

http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/climatesnapshot/peak-oil-solved-climate-will-fry-bp-report

When will we as a society wake up and start forcing our politicians to make a difference?  When will we  start making a difference in our own lives?