A combination...My F250 Diesel, Oil Heat, My father's F250, and some for the neighbor's house. I suppose the 500 Gallons is a winter number - maybe 300 gallons in the summer to support the lot of us. I go through about 250 gallons a month myself (in the winter). That's only 1 tank per week in the truck (26 gal). Plus I have a few friends asking for any surplus I have. Currently, I'm only acquiring about 100 gallons a month, which is more hassle than I imagined. Between driving up to 30 minutes away and then trying to get the sludge from the good stuff, it doesn't seem worth it compared to over $5 a gal for diesel and heating oil is right behind at $4.69.
Keith Addison wrote: >> Keith Addison wrote: >> >>>> I'm having a hard time finding WVO. I need 500 Gallons per month and >>>> I'm tired of driving around and fighting for oil at every restaurant >>>> within 10 miles. I've found other companies in other states that sell >>>> and deliver larger quantities but nothing close to home. I'm just >>>> outside of Philadelphia - has anyone heard or run into such an animal. >>>> Thanks, >>>> Roger >>>> >>> Why do you need so much oil? That should be enough for 12 people. >>> >> This is the US Keith :) >> > > Yes, Chip, I know. :-) > > But it just doesn't wash. > > I also come from a big country, not that big, but big enough, so I > know something about it. I quite often used to drive 1,000 miles each > way for the weekend, or 400 each way for a different weekend. In an > 850cc Mini, foot flat all the way at 80 mph, and not very much gas > used. (I'm not small, 6ft 2in.) > > Japan's a big country too, in its way, narrow but long. Where you > guys need a 6.8 litre F250 truck the Japanese use little 660cc > K-trucks, for just about everything, very economical, tough and > capable. Good 4x4 too, not easy to get stuck in a K-truck. They're > real trucks, but miniaturised, not made-over cars. I don't think > Japan would work very well without its K-trucks, I can see it sort of > slowly grinding to a halt. There are K-cars too, all the K-vehicles > have low taxes to encourage people to buy them. I wonder if your > F250s accomplish that much more work than Japan's K-trucks do (let > alone 10 times as much work, since they're 10 times as big), and what > the real costs might be per unit of work accomplished in each case, > or some such efficiency comparison. I've no idea where to find such > data, if anywhere, but it might be a surprise. > > Anyway, the cases you describe don't seem to be typical for the US, > according to these stats, source U.S. Department of Transportation: > Average annual fuel consumed per vehicle (gallons) - Passenger car - 2005: 541 > Average miles traveled per vehicle (thousands) - Passenger car: 12.4 > http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004727.html > > That's about what I thought, 12,000 miles a year, 500 gallons. So > yes, Roger's 500 gallons a month should be enough for 12 people. > > I don't know, but I don't think he's in the same situation as you. He > says he's just outside Philadelphia, he said before he works for a > laboratory surplus equipment company, in Philadelphia I guess, though > maybe not. So why does he need so much fuel? > > Interesting numbers at that infoplease page. > > Number of passenger cars registered > 1960: 61,671,000 > 2005: 135,568,000 > > Did the US get twice as big in the meantime? No: > > Vehicle-miles traveled - Passenger car > 1960: 587,000,000 > 2005: 1,689,965,000 > > It got three times as big! LOL! > > Sorry. > > <snip> > > >> But still I see no real changes, just individual disasters. >> > > That's the problem eh? Ordinary people, the real ones, get hurt > first, and the toy people don't feel a thing. > > I suppose long-haul will go by train, or not at all, trucks will be > for local. Hm. The Japanese don't export the K-vehicles, but I think > you can get second-hand K-trucks in the US now. Maybe some of your > trucker friends might be interested in this: > > >> http://www.best-used-tractors.com/mini_truck.html >> Used Japanese 4X4 K-class Mini Trucks, Micro Trucks - US and Canada >> >> "The Japanese have been making right hand drive light duty trucks >> for decades which Best Used Tractors can now import used in >> containers to the US, to Canada, and to many other countries around >> the globe." >> > > Bit of money to be made there, I think. Could even be trendy, sort of > an anti-Hummer. > > Best > > Keith > > > >> Lemme see, 500 gal of svo, could yield 500 gals of bd, for >> a 30 day month, that's ~17 gallons a day, in my F-250, >> that get's 16-20mpg,if I drive it really gently, that's 300 miles >> a day, but that's every day. Since I live 127 miles from where >> I work, I could *almost* burn that much. However, I don't commute, >> I only go home on the weekends, and I don't drive the truck :) >> >> Some folks will boggle at that. But around here, it's not as >> far-fetched as one might -at first blush- think. >> >> Of the 80-some-odd folks that I work with, more than half of them >> commute more than 50 miles a day, some more than 75. A few >> well over 100. >> >> I personally drive just a bit over 70 miles a day on average. >> On the road, I see vehicles coming in from much farther out >> that are gigantic fuel burners. These are daily commuters, >> 2.5 to 5ton class diesel trucks close to fully loaded with >> welders, etc. that probably log well over 200 miles a day, >> and I'm sure they don't get anything like 15-20 mpg. >> >> So, yeah, I can see how some folks, trades people esp, who >> would go through 500 gals a month. >> >> An interesting trend that I've been paying attention to >> over the years are the 3/4 to 1 ton short bed crew cab >> turbo diesel pickups, that are 'dressed' up, making >> them essentially SUVs that haul up and down from much >> futher out than i normally drive (which is already an >> insane amount) who have no regard for anything resembling >> speed limits. As the prices have climbed over the last >> year, I've started seeing more and more of them in used >> car lots, but there are plenty of them still on the road. >> And they haven't even slowed down. >> >> So, though diesel has gone up nearly 2x in a year, seems >> these folks are just fine with that. Lot of complaining, >> but very little change in behavior. >> >> I also know, as in know personally, over the road truck >> operators, who have been completely buried. done in >> by this fuel increase. Sitting home, going through their >> savings, hoping for a reversal of fortune, and looking >> for different work. Some completely wiped out already. >> >> But still I see no real changes, just individual disasters. >> >> >>> Best >>> >>> >> > Keith >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Biofuel mailing list > Biofuel@sustainablelists.org > http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): > http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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