Diesel vs gasoline

Most people agree it is environmentally important to focus on non-fossil fuel car engines NOW. 
This aside, we will continue to buy fossil fuel burning automobiles as long as economically feasible.
How long can we (the planet) afford to continue to refine gasoline and diesel engines? 
I had always thought gasoline was less harmful to the environment than diesel.

I have always thought generation of biofuels was energy expensive. 

Here are two very interesting charts showing lifecycle GHG reduction from biofuels displacing fossil fuels and producers of CO2 in the USA. Biofuels (ethanol and biodiesel) are the way to go in the near future, as they produce much less CO2 and will become the fuel of choice (as fossil fuels are depleted).

However, HEVs (hybrid electric vehicle) and EVs (electric vehicle)  engines will produce significantly less emissions and are the longer short-term solution. Hydrogen fuel cell engines will be an even better solution as they produce NO emissions (but do cause emissions in their current production methods).CO2 is, by far, the greatest contributor to GHGs (approx 85%) in the USA.

While we continue to buy gas and diesel fuel, we should understand which is less harmful to the environment (generates less lifecycle greenhouse gas emission (GHG)).

Here is a list of the most environmentally friendly automobiles for 2009. Hybrids and FFVs (flex fuel vehicles using 85% ethanol) lead the chart at this time. Check here for your vehicle or next purchase.

A diesel engine doesn't appear until around number 42. Biodiesel automobiles don't appear in the list as they are not yet available in Canada. 

Here is the list of diesel cars available in Canada. These are clean diesel (see below) engines and their CO2 output is greater than FFVs, gas hytbrids and a few small gasoline engines ... but comparable to the larger gas engine vehicles. The diesel engines, prior to clean diesel technology, were much worse environmentally than gas engines. Previous diesel engines produced more CO2 and NOx than gas engines. Previous diesel engines produce more NOx than gasoline engines. 
Diesel engines have advanced in the last few years and now use clean diesel technology (the ones in the chart above). Mercedes-Benz BlueTec (car engine) and AdBlue (truck engine) are examples.

Clean diesel technology utilizes a catalytic converter to convert all NOx into nitrogen and water only. The clean diesel engine is now comparable to the larger non-hybrid and non-biofuel gasoline engine in lifecycle GHG reduction. 

What will happen in the future?

In my opinion, from a GHG perspective, fossil fuel HEVs with biofuels will overtake FFVs, if the price of fossil fuels doesn't increase too quickly. EVs will take over, if fossil fuel prices increase dramatically, more efficient batteries are developed, and the hydrogen fuel cell isn't ready. Eventually, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will become the clear winner.

British Car Meet in Oakville

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I have been looking at 1957-62 Triumph TR3As the last couple of weeks, as I had owned a 1960 in the late 60s. Unfortunately, what I am seeing are too expensive ... but they are very nice.

As well, I saw a few MGAs that really impressed me. These are really quite impressive and quite expensive to buy.


As well, I have been thinking of downsizing to something like a Mazda MX-5 or a year old hybrid (very hard to find at a reasonable price).

Here is a 2008 convertible I checked out in Oakville ... more reasonably priced. 

What are the best MFs to take a chance on right now?

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Back on June 30th, I wondered if it was time to get back in.

Here is the Star's analysis of the best Mutual Funds over 5 years. It appears precious metals, Latin America and some energy resources have sustained performance during the last 5 years.

Although past performance is no clear indication of future success, it may be the best we have (other than insider information) to go on.

Here is a list of some GlobeFund top performing MFs in late August. Some are getting back to where they were a year ago.  

Here is the Morningstar top performers YTD (in the Toronto Star Sept 18, 2009). 

Here is a Globe Fund top picks list I selected 09/21 (investment made January 2009). I have included a few ETFs (no MER and low mgmt fee). Non-ETF success (in the last 6 months) has been mainly precious metals and oil. Will these continue to climb? The Investors group seems to have done quite well this year. They have a MER of approx 2.75% and mgmt fee of approx 2% and their top two are no load (the others are back end). Might be worth some investment.


I am going to review them and then consider re-entry.


The V or U shaped recovery possibilities may have passed but is the W shape to come? 


Anyone have other thots?

Retractable Screen Door

A while ago, we installed a window and replaced the side glass panels in our front door and got rid of the standard screen door.

However, we always lamented the lack of breezes front-to-back on the main floor ... we missed the screening effect of a screen door.

After quite a bit of research, I located a retractable screen and installed it today.

The research took quite a while, as we wanted it to blend in (not noticeable) and easy to use.

We weren't concerned about the cost (within reason) but wanted something durable, simple and unobtrusive (inset rather than outside).

You would be surprised what is out there (including slow clutch retraction and automation) ...

and how poor the products are ... and how many "require" professional installation.

What it looks like installed with screen closed and door opened (reduces opening width by about 3 inches)

The selected product ($189 at Lowes)

There are various methods of installation and alternate approaches to how the screen works.

Some products try to sell you on ease of installation, ease of use, and controlled release of the screen.

They range from $160 (do-it-yourself) to well over $500 (professional installation).

In the do-it-yourself category, there are versions that don't consider mosquitoes and flies and some that look like cheap screen doors.

I wanted one that didn't allow insects and also appeared to be integrated ... as well as working easily and appeared to be resilient enough over time.

Time will tell but we are pleased today with how it looks and works. Check the Renovation section of our home site for more enlarged pics of this renovation.

If you have any questions, let me know.

cordless lawn mower

So much for trying the light-weight Gardena cordless reel mower. It doesn't cut evenly.

I tried a second one and it didn't cut any better.

It took 1.5 hours last time and still not a uniform cut.

I replaced it today for the Black & Decker 19" cordless mulching mower with rear bag (on sale at Lowe's and Home Depot $299 ... $549 a month ago). It is heavier but cuts much more evenly and quickly and only took half an hour this time. I'll update this post, if things change.

My cord lawn mower finally bit the dust (after 10 years).

I was wishing it would have happened sooner ... but then I might not have found the Gardena Cordless 12V Accu reel mower ... for $279 at Home Depot.

I always wanted to get a push mower but remembered how it jumps up (the back) when going thru thick grass.

Well, this Gardena is a push mower with a lithium (very light) battery. Some of the other cordless mowers have lead batteries (heavy) that take 24 hours to charge...and are quite hard to push.

I did some research and found that Mark Cullen was fed up with his Earthwise cordless mower and purchased a gas mower (within the last month) from Home Hardware. Perhaps the Gardena is a better product. I then thought cordless may NOT be ready for mainstream lawn care ... but I have always felt Gardena had good products.

Rona has the Accu Reel Mower for $350 but Home Depot had it on sale today for $279.

I couldn't resist.

It is very light and very quiet. I'll update this post, if my enthusiasm wanes.

if we turn off latent power sources

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Apparently, if we all pulled the plugs, rather than turn off the electronic devices, we would save phenomenal amounts of electric power.

Standby power is the culprit.

$11B could be saved in north america each year.

This article, from the National Post about a week ago, cites a few rather startling statistics:

1. Standby power uses approx 10% of electricity in north america

2. 4B power supplies are sold each year in north america

3. in 1999, residential phantom power consumed more electricity in California than all refrigeration.

4. California then decreed all new power sources must draw less than .5W in standby mode.

5. Most new devices in California only draw .1W in standby mode ... and the cost to change devices was absorbed by manufacturing without increasing prices!

6. All except California have not moved to enable similar laws...in ten years in north america.

7. if these changes were made in Ontario, the two new nuclear plants ($26B to taxpayers) may not be required.

8. World-wide, standby power consumes more than 480 TWh a year - equal to all the nuclear power plants in France, China and India (87).

Wouldn't it be something if we (world-wide) could reduce standby in all devices to .1W?

We could start by asking store what the standby power is and not buying anything with more than .1W.

Market Performance - June 30th

In the Star, for end of June. There have been a few that have done well this year and I wish I had a crystal ball (or insider information). Looking carefully at the attached, some of the best funds appear to be:

- MacKenzie Alternate Strategies

- Fidelity China Series B and A

- CI Global Science & Tech Corporate Class

- TD Science & Technology I and A

Except for Fidelity China A & B, their 3-yr records are very poor.

Here are a few I checked stats on since the first of 2009. They are looking quite attractive and I will research further before getting back in some of these finds ... in the next month.

Do you know of any others that are looking good for the remainder of 2009?

Tour de France 2009

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Tour de France in July. The most popular road bike racing of the year.

It began July 4th and finishes July 26th ... 3,500 KMs.

Stage 7 (Fri July 10th) has been completed and Lance Armstrong is now third but very close. His Astana team-mate Alberto Contador, is two seconds ahead of Lance. The difficulty will be to find a way to beat his team-mate ... doesn't often happen ... without alienating or discouraging their American team. It is an unusual situation, a team with two leaders. But Astana is a highly respected team with, arguably, the best riders of any team.

Lance may have to out-muscle his team-mate on a hill climb (Monday or Tuesday) or do it in the last time trial (stage 18, July 23rd) ... or wait for the last (and toughest) hill climb in last competitive stage, July 25th.

It may be a very exciting finish!

It is available on OLN (Bell's 211) but you can watch it live (early in the AM) on various Internet live video feeds. Here is the one I have been using.

Harper is at it again

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As reported in the Star today, it is very important to have government auditors, to ensure mistruths and exaggerations (we would call them 'lies' ... but MPs are not allowed to use the word) are corrected.

The problem is Kevin Page (parliamentary budget officer) will probably not have the job much longer.

Here is another example of miscommunication by the Conservatives.

For 2009, the Conservatives indicated 7.5% unemployment (approx 160,000 jobs lost). Page says 8.7% (approx 530,000 jobs lost).

For 2010, the Conservatives indicated 7.7% unemployment (converts to about 200,000 jobs lost) and Page says 8.7% and could go as high as 9.4% (8.7% is approx 700,000 jobs lost). This is a significant difference in lost jobs!

As you can see in the attached, there is significant difference between Page's budget projections and those of Flaherty.

A short while ago, the Conservatives (the name is a misnomer) predicted a $33B deficit for 2009-10. which would improve to a $700M surplus by 2013-14.

Page is indicating a $49B deficit for 2009-10 and a $17B DEFICIT by 2013-14 !

The Conservatives site indicates Harper is a leader of competence and vision! If he is, he should consider using Page's figures from now on ... or change the name of their party and drop the competence and vision reference from their site.

The near future doesn't appear to be a good time for market investments.

Bell TV - better than Rogers

09.7.5: Two years ago, I moved everything from Bell to Rogers (poor Bell service and better Rogers pricing).

We just moved our TV from Rogers back to Bell, as the Rogers promo (free PVR for 24 months finished) and Bell had the same and better pricing. I now have one PVR and two std receivers vs one PVR and one std receiver. However, I must remain a customer for two years.

The only problem is getting used to remote control changes and finding channel preferences. Once you build your favourites, it is much easier.

After long chat sessions and searching of the bell.ca website, I located:
. the alphabetic list of channels that includes the associated channel number
. the numeric listing
. the channel what's on when site

You can search and check more easily than on the remote control. You can also check just your channels.
BTW, Rogers doesn't have a search function on their remote control.

I am very pleased with the HD quality (better than what I saw on Rogers) and the Personal Video Recorder (PVR) works almost as easily as Rogers.

Like Rogers, you can set up your account on the Bell website and easily make programming changes. I did find it quite easy and quick to call Bell for programming changes.

Pls share your comments on Rogers vs Bell.

Not a nice place to be

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Dead last in the G8 group. How ignominious!

The real problem is we are now worse than the USA ... and I thought only India and China would EVER be worse than the USA.

We should be leader in CO2 reductions. Once again, Canada is a

follower. "Canada's emissions are continuing to sky-rocket, now 26% above 1990 levels.".

I can hardly wait for the next election!

Either the Liberals or the lowly NDP will jump on this and use it as a platform.

Some people may be a little confused and associate green with Dion but I hope that has passed. A few days ago, I noticed in the Star how the Liberals are gaining a lot of new members (and funding) after Dion left. Amazing how a party can decide on a leader (who is very logical and has excellent ideas) that doesn't fit ... and then decide on a leader with NO experience ... and attract new members!

Some of you may remember this: "if there is hope it lies in the proles".

China and India - a comparison and impacts

Our children should be getting a little nervous.

These two countries will only increase their influence on world economics in the future.

An additional fact is Chindia's dependency on coal. If coal ran out, the world would not be able to support Chindia's need for oil (increased by 7% from 2000 to 2008). Due to this dependency, Chindia will significantly increase CO2 emissions by 2025.

Here are ten 2007 details from several sources, including the U.S. Census Department, the CIA Factbook, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the Economist Intelligence Unit and others:

1. China produces 3 times the electricity of India; more than 4 times the oil; and more than 1.5 times the natural gas.

2. On the consumption side, China consumes more than twice the oil of India and almost 1.5 times the natural gas.

3. China’s share of global oil consumption was 9% versus 3% by India.

4. The Chinese GDP expressed in US dollars is three times the Indian GDP ($2.5 trillion versus $0.8 trillion).

5. China has received more than 10 times the total foreign direct investment as India ($700 billion versus $68 billion). China has made direct investments abroad that are more than 3 times that of India ($67 billion versus $21 billion).

6. The market capitalization of the 10 largest companies today in China is $1.8 trillion, whereas the market capitalization of the 10 largest companies in India is only $0.5 trillion.

7. India’s population is smaller than China’s, but is growing more rapidly. In 1995, China had nearly 33% more people. By 2005, China had less than 20% more people. By 2025, their populations will be about equal. After that, India will have a larger population.

8. China has a 40% lower infant mortality rate than India, and a longer life expectancy.

9. Literacy is dramatically different. Only 61% of Indians over the age of 15 can read and write, while nearly 91% of Chinese over 15 can read and write. The development and therefore economic value of women is higher in China where 86.5% are literate, whereas in India only 47.8% of women are literate.

10. India has the fourth largest coal reserves in the world, while China has the world’s largest hydropower potential.

From another source -

Through the first 8 years of the 21st century, Chinese and Indian oil import demand (according to the IEA) increased at an annual average close to 400 000 barrels per day each year, raising their 'call on world exports' from near zero to about 7% of total. We can compare this with the approx. 26% of world export supply taken by the USA, and another 26% taken by the EU-27 countries, or the 11% of world oil exports taken by Japan.

Chindia oil import demand is modest not only because of poverty, but also due to King Coal. Combined coal and lignite burning of China and India was about 2.6 Bn tons in 2008, near 40% of world coal and lignite output, and growing fast. Without this massive, and massively polluting coal burn Chindia 'call' on world oil exports would, of course, be much higher - and would also be completely impossible to service and supply.

The impact of China is increasing

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We all knew China would increase their demands for oil.

As the USA is doing, so now is China - stockpiling (hoarding?) oil at lower prices ... which helps drive up the price.

If you check my May 30th item, it indicated $77/barrel in one year. This has now increased to $81 and it won't stop there.

Get ready for increased gas and air flight prices ... coming soon!

p.s. It may be time for a hybrid, if considering a new car.

Time to get back into selected stocks and RRSPs?

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For us more cautious investors, it may be time ot get back into RRSPs and stocks.

As this article (today's Star June 30th) indicates, investors are tired of holding back and want to get in before prices climb higher.

Energy and financial stocks appear to be the magnets at this time. See my other item added today on oil demand in China.

All indicators support this as a blip in the markets and much more time will be required to come out of the recession. It is a time to be very cautious and, if buying into energy high investments, be sure to watch carefully. Having said this, it does appear unlikely that major energy stocks (oil and natural gas) will decrease in value in the future ... demand will only increase (see China oil item in this blog).

yellow headlights?

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Canadian Tire has the solution, if your headlight covers are starting to fade.

I tried it and it works very well.

Saves quite a bit of money in replacement cost.

Trust Google to come up with something like this for free.

It is very simple and all you do is dial 1-800-466-4411.

I entered it as a speed-dial number in my cell phone.

Just respond to the prompts: say where you are, and what you are looking for.

I have used it and it is very easy and quick ... and free.

December Climate Change Conference

Just wanted you to be aware of the worldwide upcoming mtg in December ... to be 'actively' attended by Canada.

10 energy myths.

Understand climate change basics.

Understand which gases are greenhouse gases.

China is doing some good - what about Canada?

Read what Climate Action Network Canada (CAN) has to say.

Read the CAN International position paper.

all building should have white roofs

I have always wondered why our roofs used black shingles, as they significantly increased the heat within our homes in summer. White shingles always seemed better.

It won't help reduce CO2 in the atmosphere but will reduce heat build-up in the atmosphere.

Our earth is a closed system with only sunlight able to enter and leave. If we find ways to reflect the sun's energy rather than absorb it, it might help provide time to "figure out ways to limit greenhouse-gas emissions or remove the gases from the atmosphere".

The USA Energy Star site has more details and a roofing calculator which i used to see the difference between black shingles and white shingles with reflective coating. There are real savings each year (as well as, I suspect, longer shingle life).

There appears to be good development underway by Dow Chemical to develop a solar panel roofing tile. If these tiles do not cause home heat retention, we might turn a negative into a real positive!

"Necessity is the mother of invention" used to be a standard saying.

Now, it may be more appropriate to say "people will force beneficial innovation", as hybrid cars would not be here if the public hadn't demanded, Kyoto wouldn't be in place if people hadn't demanded (or if Harper had his way), plastic shopping bags and water bottles wouldn't be on the way out, etc.

We always must remain cognizant that big business will only develop reasonably priced environmentally friendly consumables if buyers demand them.