Have you ever wondered whether you could track how efficient your driving style is? Well now you can! It was my birthday today and my beautiful wife bought me a Garmin 1350 GPS system, and I love it, partly because I always get lost here in Texas but also because it features Garmin Eco Route which calculates how “green” my driving is for each trip.

The idea behind the technology is that the Garmin GPS unit can track how fast you accelerate / decelerate and how fast you are driving, how much fuel you have used based on your vehicle MPG rating and then it can give you feedback on how efficient your driving style is…

Garmin Eco Route

The whole idea behind the Garmin Eco Route is to promote a greener driving style and actually give the driver constant feedback on how efficiently they are driving…

(more…)

As I was sat at yet another red light on my way home last night I noticed that the annoying red light was alot brighter than usual, and it seemed to be made of lots of tiny lights instead of the usual single bulb… I remembered seeing some stories about new traffic lights which use light emitting diodes (LEDs) instead of power hungry incandescent bulbs and the one I saw looked liked a group of LEDs.

Once I realized that the red light stopping me from getting home was in fact a new super efficient traffic LED light system I suddenly didn’t mind staring at a red light!

I Love Traffic LED Lights - Red but Green!

This new breed traffic lights is made from groups of LEDs which are literally electric diodes that produce light! They are extremely energy efficient and have a very long life. LEDs are very small (smaller than your little finger tip) so in order to get the required brightness for a street light there have to be lots of them grouped closely together. The old incandescent traffic lights were typically 50 – 150 Watts which means they consumed alot of electricity! There are numerous advantages to using LED traffic lights including;
(more…)

Have you ever wanted to know how long it would take to walk somewhere, or better yet, wanted a detailed walking map to your destination? We always use Google Maps to plan out our journeys but now there are Google walking maps available! How is this green you ask? Well surely the greenest way to get somewhere is to simply walk, so we wanted to show you our guide to Google walking maps;

Step 1: Fill in your destination and use the “Get Directions” option to add your start address, for example, my wife and I recently went to Fredericksburg (which is a great little town) and here are our directions by car;

Google Walking Maps - Step 1

Step 2: Pick the “Walking” option from the drop down list and click “Get Directions” again;

Selecting the Google Walking Maps Directions

There are a few things to note, the first thing is that this is still in development and there is a note to use caution as the route may be missing some sidewalks or pedestrian paths. The second thing to note is that it would have taken us about 3 days and 1 hour to get to Fredericksburg if we had walked, but we would have saved all our gas money and been the greenest visitors around!

The month of July has been a fight against my own conscience. My old truck had reached the point where I could buy a new truck that was much more affordable, lower monthly payments and have a new truck warranty. I started researching what type or car, truck or SUV I might want and my new green inner voice was shouting at me to buy a hybrid.

I looked at the new Ford Fusion hybrid and was really impressed with its design, features and most of all great fuel economy… But my practical side just kept on fighting back, we have five dogs at home and will soon have kids too, the Ford Fusion is just too small for one dog, let alone five dogs and a few kiddos! So what were my other options? I found several larger hybrids such as the Ford Escape hybrid but the starting prices for the Escape range were out of my league, even further out of reach were SUVs like the GMC Yukon hybrid. After weeks of inner turmoil I just couldn’t find a car, truck or SUV that was green, affordable and practical. It was clear that I would have to compromise somewhere.

image by Jety

(more…)

E85 Flex Fuel Gas Station Locations in Texas, USA

My wife and I recently bought a GM Flex Fuel vehicle and are proud of the fact that we can now drive using a ethanol derived alternative fuel.  The biggest challenge once we had purchased the vehicle was finding a gas station which sells E85 Ethanol fuel, this inspired me to research all of the local gas stations in Texas which sell E85 and I have collected this information into a Google Map, check it out at the following link;

Texas E85 Flex Fuel Gas Stations Map

The map is currently only for Texas but I plan to expand it over the next few months.

image by blogumentary

More E85 Information:
E85 ethanol fuel is a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline which can be made from biodegradable wastes and several plants, such as switchgrass, willow, and corn. E85 ethanol is an alternative fuel to gasoline and is a high-octane, cleaner-burning fuel. In the U.S., there are already over 7 million E85-capable vehicles on the road.

GM is the leader in E85 Flex Fuel vehicles, with over 3 million Flex Fuel vehicles on the road in the U.S. Their goal is to have half of their annual vehicle production be E85 or biodiesel capable by 2012.
How E85 Ethanol Fuel is made:

Ethanol is domestically produced and mostly renewable. Ethanol can be produced from a variety of organic plant materials. Processes are in the works to produce ethanol from waste agricultural residue or from purposefully grown crops such as switchgrass or trees. This type of ethanol is known as “cellulosic ethanol”. Creating this type of ethanol does have some added environmental benefits: It creates fewer greenhouse gas emissions than when ethanol is made from corn.

Image by phlora

The Benefits:
There are several important benefits to using E85 ethanol, including:

• Ethanol, the major component of E85 ethanol, is a renewable fuel
• Using E85 ethanol helps reduce dependence on petroleum
• Using E85 ethanol helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions
• Using E85 ethanol can help improve your vehicle’s performance. How? E85 ethanol has a higher octane rating than gasoline, which allows for more horsepower and torque
• Using E85 ethanol can help reduce smog-forming emissions
• Using E85 ethanol can help support the domestic agriculture industry in the U.S.

There are over 1,500 stations in the U.S. that offer E85 ethanol, and that number is growing rapidly. These numbers are expected to continue to grow thanks to the new Energy Security Act of 2005, which includes incentives like a 30% federal income tax credit to station owners who install E85 ethanol fueling sites.