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This site will be a growing collection of 'green' project information intended to help the average person make a difference... One household at a time. Topics include: For those of us lucky enough to live in New Mexico... The weather is good enough to bike and walk to work and school almost year 'round. The trick of course is to live close enough to make that practicable, or be willing to combine biking and walking with some other form of mass transit like bus or (if you happen to live handy) the train. For additional information, encouragement, and resources on how and where to ride safely I encourage people to visit the website for The Bike Coalition of New Mexico 
Beginning May 2008 - I have all my parts, the 1997 Suzuki Swift (Geo Metro) donor car, 
and finally cleared enough room in the garage to begin! I will document some introductory information you will need to learn more, a collection of good links, and you can follow my progress while I create a photo gallery along the way.
I will attempt to to illustrate some of the trickier parts to make it easier for those that follow. The conversion will cost about $8000 for all the parts and batteries, plus a 'Donor' car, and about 100-200 hours of labor... I'll end up with a vehicle that will cost about $1 per 40 miles to operate. As long as gas is over $3 per gallon, its a great deal! [click] to see more!
If you have lots of sun.... install PV! It can be hard rounding up the cash to invest, but it pays off moderately well, and feels REALLY good to watch that meter spin backward as you reduce you carbon footprint! In NM, there is a tax credit, and combined with the Federal tax credit, 30% of the the initial expense can be recovered the first year (with a cap of $11k). Currently, PNM will buy REC credits for $.13/kWhr, AND your meter spins backward if you are producing more than you use at the current rate of about $.09/kWhr. What it boils down to is similar to about a 4% yeild on a 'safe' investment like a CD. Click to [see more...]  I have a couple simple things I do to conserve or re-use water. I don't go to any big efforts to collect water from my roof because the trees around my house need it! Rather than capture and store it, I have created rock-filled trenches from downspouts and Cannales to act as mini-arroyos directing roof water to trees, and shallow basins around trees to hold the water long enough to soak in. Another form of water I 'redirect' is the drainwater from my laundry in the summer. My house is on a slab, and retrofitting gray water capture would not be easy; what IS easy is to get a brass fitting and hose clamp from the hardware store that has a hose thread on one end and fits into the drain hose. Then I just run a hose out the door. Soaker hoses do not let the water drain fast enough, but drilling holes in the last 10 or 20 feet of a cheap hose and capping the end works pretty well.
Please pardon the 'ugly' website... even though I do design and maintain websites for a living, I literally do not have time to put a lot of time into aesthetic appeal for this site. Perhaps down the road I'll be able to come back and make it pretty, but for now; I hope you find useful information and some degree of inspiration to continue your own effort to 'be green'. - Dan Baker |