Or at least that’s the rumour. I’ve read that Prius in 2009 will have the option to upgrade to solar powered A/C.
Toyota has not confirmed or denied these plans, but given the state of the economy, fuel prices and overall green thinking thanks to global warming, you can only assume this will be a home-run.
I have compiled a few sites and tools I have found to be invaluable during my research online. Hopefully you get some use out of them also.
These are just 4 of thousands of sites and tools out there to help you get going. Next I am going to catalogue a bunch of very small changes you can make in your life to make a MAJOR impact. I want to share my day to day ideas on recycling, saving money on gas and electricity and much more.
“Yea, so what if I am accelerating way too slow? Don’t bother me, I am hypermiling.”
This is my tone recently, as I begin to notice the gas crunch on myself. My father always said “Fuel and food is part of life, I just put it in and deal with it.” but even he is frustrated with prices not matching inflation.
As a result of the recent spikes in everything in life, I find myself on a diet and hypermiling. This is simply a fuel economy maximizing behavior that people have been doing for years, but only recently has it hit the mainstream media. So what exactly is it?
Using inertia as your ally. Slowly reach optimum cruising speed by shifting at the low end of your gear spectrum and not braking. Braking causes you to need more energy (fuel) to bring you back up to speed. At cruising speed you maximize MPG. This means you need to be more aware of your surroundings. Don’t tailgate. Don’t accelerate too fast. Don’t stop and go.
This behavior leads to better gas milage and in my opinion a better driving experience. Anyone with common sense knows racing to the next light doesn’t get you anywhere any faster and is stressful. For one tank, try hypermiling and ignore the angry drivers around you. See how many more miles you can stretch that tank. You probably will never want to brake again.
This blog was started as a way to help vent how easy it is to make a small difference. Many green or eco websites these days are trying to make you feel too guilty. Some of the people who run the sites are vegans, don’t walk on grass and have 0 carbon footprint.
That’s nice and all, but for the average person who just wants to do a small part and feel good about helping reduce our impact on the world - where do they turn? I am hoping that GoEasyEco.com will be your website of choice and you will enjoy reading a daily RSS feed from it.
Since I was a kid, my mom was always about recycling. She insisted on turning off power drains whenever we were not using them. We never had lights on in the house in rooms we were not in. We never used heat or AC if we didn’t need it. I didn’t really think anything of it and neither did she. She did these things because they benefitted US. Turning off idle power sources and lights meant 20-50% in power savings. Being from the great white north of Canada, that could be the difference between a $80 bill and a $150 bill which is a major difference. Little did she know she was actually helping the environment at the same time.
I kept this attitude as I grew up and moved to the USA. It was here in California that I noticed why our world is being abused and decided to help do my part to change that. The sheer amount of waste that is produced on a daily basis is staggering. It’s not only staggering but depressing at the same time.
As I researched ways to conserve, save and help do my part I ran into biodiesel, composting and many other topics that I hope I can share my passion for with you. I will scour the net finding news worthy of posting and I hope you find it as interesting as I do.
Enjoy, and remember that going green can be easy and in some cases fun!
