posted on February 11, 2007 08:15:55 PM new
Thinking of buying a Gas (Natural OR Propane operated gas appliance on ebay) Would you believe that in only 15 days, a pilot lite the size of a candle WILL eat 5 gallons of fuel whether you USE the appliance or NOT....just the pilot lite alone WILL consume that much fuel....electronic ignition!!!!!!!!! savings,,,,based on Propane prices around here that's $40.00!!!!!!!!! for just ONE month,,in just PILOT lite usage....(natural gas prices MAY vary) hahahaha you'd think i live out in the sticks... Nope Metropolitan Los Angeles,,All my stuff burns PROPANE.....easy to guage my usage,,,,,5 gallon bottles.....cheap FULL at the swapmeets......I JUST got a BOSCH tankless hotwater heater....$900.00 at Lowes!!!!!!! NOPE not me....$125.00 at the SWAPMEET......go to BOSCH.com or google bosch. Saving are there to the MAX......GET RID of that ELECTRIC ($$$$$$$$$$) hotwater heater and that pilot lite GAS heater....(hey, there are OTHER makers too, I just happened to score on a BOSCH).
posted on February 12, 2007 06:26:41 AM new
Sounds good Jack. I do have a vacation place out in the sticks and it sounds like switching to propane without a pilot light will save a lot of money. I really want to put in one of those water furnaces, have the land to allow for it, just don't have the bucks right now. I plan on retiring there so I better make some more money so I can get that done.
posted on February 12, 2007 02:38:41 PM new
Hi Jack!
Actually I was thinking of you this weekend
We bought a Holland Legacy Grill for $20.00 at a yard sale (it's AMAZING what rich people sell!) and some how gas+food+cooking = jack
I thought...you know Jack would probably appreciate one of these! We used to have one and it fell apart but this one is stainless steel! Most people wouldn't recognize what this grill is (my DH didn't) when they saw it unless they were familiar with how they cook. NO GOOD for steaks but fabulous for chicken and ribs etc.
posted on February 12, 2007 06:06:39 PM new
You got THAT for $20.00!!!!!!! Unreal.....sell it!!!!!!!! Quick on Craigslist.org. Those are MIN $900.00!!!!!!!!! stainless steel!!!!!
Goood luck....$20.00???? Some people are just NUTS! hahahahahha......
posted on February 12, 2007 06:20:50 PM new
NOT selling! going to enjoy it for many years to come
I've missed our other rather ordinary cheaper version of our Holland Grill...the Heritage...which we also bought at a yard sale for $20.00 a few years ago until it rusted through.
posted on February 20, 2007 01:04:07 PM new
I have a new (less than a year old)GE Profile Gas stove. It is electronic ignition. I was wondering if it wastes 5 gallons of fuel too? I was a little confused by the post; is electronic ignition good or bad?
posted on February 20, 2007 01:30:46 PM new
We don't grill, and I know nothing about grills. Why wouldn't an expensive grill, like the Holland, do well with steaks???
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posted on February 20, 2007 02:44:27 PM new
You must mean me roadie
A Holland grill cooks with indirect heat. There is actually a plate between the grill burner and the cooking surface. There is no flare up so hence no searing of the steaks.
posted on February 20, 2007 03:04:15 PM new
Thanks, Glassgrl. So. . . if they owned an expensive Holland grill, they'd still need another one to grill steaks, huh.
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People who want to share their religious views with you almost
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posted on February 20, 2007 03:18:00 PM new
well some people like steaks on the Holland Grill. I don't. My favorite thing to eat is burned fat on a steak. Don't even go there, I've already heard it all from my DH. He cringes every time we eat steak.
And yes we actually have 3 grills. 1 charcoal, 1 gas grill and the Holland.
posted on February 21, 2007 10:20:13 AM new
I needed a car, and I decided on the Honda Civic GX. This car runs on Compressed Natural Gas. They sell it at stations around Los Angeles for $1.99 to $2.25 (about $.50 to $.75 a gallon less than Gasoline). It is sold in Gallon Equivilants. Right now, the Air Quality Management District is offering $2000 if you put in a Phill station to fill your car at home. Add to that $1000 as a federal Tax Credit. Once the Phill Unit is installed, my overall Gas bill goes down to the Legal Minimum (I pay the same as the power companies who use gas to make electricity). Right now, that would be about $1.24 a gallon. In Oklahoma, the CNG stations are charging less than $1 a gallon!
I also get to ride alone in the car pool lane, I get to park at parking meters for free, and I produce something like 80% less pollution than Hybrid cars
Best of all, since Natural gas is so much cleaner than Gasoline, Engine wear is reduced by about 80%, so if I take care of this car, it should have very little problem going 500,000 miles. Many of the CNG powered taxis go over 1,000,000!
posted on February 22, 2007 05:20:00 PM new
Jack: Do you read Dan Neil's Pulitzer-prize-winning columns about cars? I thought of you this afternoon when I read this one--although it's about diesel fuel, not propane. (Love his comment about Anna Nicole baby-daddies.)
RUMBLE SEAT / DAN NEIL
Wait your turn
Great mileage, big power, cleaned-up emissions. Only problem with Mercedes' E320 Bluetec diesel is you can't get it in California. Yet.
DAN NEIL
February 21, 2007
GENERALLY speaking, Californians are pretty lucky. We have Yosemite, we have Big Sur. Our state leads the nation in Anna Nicole baby-daddies.
And we have the California Air Resources Board, a bunch of bureaucratic do-gooders who actually do good when they're not screwing up royally. Thanks to the air board, California (and four Northeastern states that just have to copy the cool kids, shuh) have adopted the EPA's super-strict Tier II, Bin 5 emission standard two years before the rest of the country, which just adopted the less strict though still formidable Bin 8 standard. California has Bin there, done that.
Consequently, Californians will not be able to buy our test car, the 2007 Mercedes-Benz E320 Bluetec, the only legal diesel passenger car sold in the United States this model year, despite the fact that:
A) A Bin-8 compliant diesel is clean enough to eat (check out my bagel-in-the-tailpipe video on latimes.com/lawheels);
B) The Bluetec E-class gets 26 miles per gallon city/37 mpg highway, an astonishing 45% better fuel economy than the gas-powered E350, with commensurate reduction in greenhouse-gas emission; and
C) Affluent SoCal liberals would love to buy a fine German automobile that didn't make them feel like a fine German war criminal.
For the moment, the E320 Bluetec clears only the 45-state standard, which is no small speed bump, to be sure. "Bluetec" actually refers to a suite of technologies that copes with inherent downsides of compression-ignition engines: that marbles-in-a-can clatter; the logy throttle response; the oily-sweet smell; the soot (particulates) and, most intractable, the emissions of NOx (nitrides of oxygen) generated by the hellish temperatures inside a diesel engine. . . .
If you're old enough to remember the cantankerous, sooty exertions of a diesel engine of a decade or two ago, well, forget it. Squeeze the throttle of the E320 Bluetec and things start to happen sehr schnell: The turbo spools up, a rutting-warthog snarl fills the cabin and the car delivers a kick to your keister with crisp Prussian precision. . . .
Obviously, the Bluetec system comprises some major-league chemistry and, in fact, the introduction of the system had to wait until ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel became widely available (sulfur plays havoc with diesel catalysts).
Not many NOx molecules make it past the Bluetec gantlet, but some do. To meet the higher standard, '09 Bluetec-equipped cars will have an additional system: a reservoir of ammonia-rich urea, to be injected into the exhaust stream. The ammonia converts the NOx into nitrogen and water (4NO + 4NH3 + O2 reacts to become 4N2 + 6H2O, for the mad chemists among you). The AdBlue tank will get refilled during normal vehicle maintenance and those who ignore it will find that, eventually, their cars won't start.
It's all good news for pain-averse environmentalists. Some of Mercedes' grossest grosserwagens — like the R-class, GL-class and M-class cars — will get vastly better fuel economy than their gas-powered siblings with no appreciable loss in performance as well as sparkling clean emissions. And not just Mercedes. In an unusual alliance among German carmakers, VW and Audi announced in November that they will also offer Bluetec-branded diesels.
I know what you're thinking. Wow, if diesel can help this 2-ton luxury sedan to get 37 mpg on the highway (my results were more like 40 mpg on a single long trip), how about a diesel hybrid? Good question.
First, because electric motors and diesel engines both make torque at low rpm, combining them in a "parallel hybrid" architecture amounts to a duplication of effort. Second, both systems add price premiums over their gas-powered equivalent; however, the diesel "premium" on the E320 Bluetec is only about $1,400, as compared to the hybrid premium of over $8,000 on a Lexus GS450h (relative to the conventional GS350).
Then there are issues of packaging. However, in a "series hybrid" architecture, where the engine drives a generator (like the upcoming Chevy Volt), a diesel engine makes all grades of sense.
There's one other problem with these big-displacement, high-tech diesels, and that is simply they are not as efficient as smaller diesels. I'm afraid that the availability of these thrifty powertrains will tempt consumers to continue to buy enormous vehicles, thereby negating some of the big-picture benefits.
A diesel-powered tank is not a step in the right direction, and people should weigh their transportation needs accordingly. Even if all the promises of biodiesel advocates come true — and there's reason to be skeptical — diesels don't solve the problem of energy consumption and greenhouse emissions. They only forestall the reckoning.
2007 Mercedes-Benz E320 Bluetec
Price, as tested: $59,375
EPA fuel economy: 26 miles per gallon city/37 mpg highway
Final thoughts: Dieselicious
_____________________
People who want to share their religious views with you almost
never want you to share yours with them.
posted on February 22, 2007 05:30:55 PM new
Thanks Road, ONLY 60 Grand????? how can they sell it soooooo cheap? , a drop in the bucket. I'll put in my order for mine ASAP....
posted on February 22, 2007 05:37:59 PM new
Yup! Jack--get TWO--one for me, one for you. Neil is a fabulous writer, a regular with--I think--the LA Times. My husband looks at several national papers every day online and sends me Neil's columns, so I'm not positive which CA paper they appear in.
_____________________
People who want to share their religious views with you almost
never want you to share yours with them.
