Light plumbing, electrical, drywall repair, appliance/electronics
troubleshooting, fixture replacement... nearly any sort of repair
or replacement (for certain new installations it's best to use a
contractor), or anything where function is more important than appearance, I can
help you. I have picked up my skills through experience, first taking a
lot of things apart as a child, to fixing things for myself, family, friends,
employers, and now customers, over the years. If it involves wrenches,
screwdrivers, drills, voltmeters, or the like, I enjoy working with it. My
specialty is in improvising $10 solutions to problems which the factory dealer
said would require a specialized $500 part. My solution might not look pretty,
but it will probably work.
Bio-Diesel Hauling is a little over 1&1/2 years old now. I
have run the truck on bio since I first purchased it, around 3 years ago, when
it was solely for personal use. I now use the truck almost exclusively for
work. For personal transport, I walk, bicycle, or when I need to go fast, my
motorcycle (which cost $3000 new) gets 55-65 MPG. Learn more about the
EX250, the most fuel- and cost-effective mass-produced freeway-capable motor
vehicle in the US (which also happens to go 0-60 in under 6 seconds!)
http://ninja250.com/
I eat a 100% vegetarian diet - eating low on the food chain
means less waste, energy, water, and land used to feed me. Many people do
not realize that our eating habits often are our most significant environmental
impacts.
I live a generally low impact life style. I live in an RV
which is inherently super energy and water efficient, because it is designed to
allow living totally "off the grid" for weeks at a time. I pay $5 a month
in electricity (much of which is minimum fees and taxes). I use around 80-120 gallons of water a week (the average American uses 100-400
gallons in a day!). Half of my light fixtures use ultra efficient 1 watt
LED bulbs.
When I am not working as a hauler, I work part time for the
non-profit advocacy group Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Coalition,
parking bikes (free to the public) in the downtown Berkeley BART station,
and fixing bicycles at the Saturday Berkeley Farmer's Market. In our
society it is good to know how many people use a bicycle as their primary
everyday means of transportation. If you do not own a car, ask me about a
special discounted rate on moving services. Also, check out the
BFBC and
East Bay Bicycle Coalition websites, and consider
becoming a member!
FAQ
Did you do the conversion yourself / what did it entail?
There is no conversion.
Biodiesel is different from pure straight vegetable oil in that it has been
modified through a chemical process to remove the glycerin and make it thinner.
It will run in any diesel engine with no modification.
Some vehicles have cheap rubber fuel
lines, and after a while those may need to be replaced, because biodiesel is a
better solvent than petrol (this also means it keeps the fuel system cleaner) On
my truck, I had to do this after 2 years. It cost about $40, and took
about 30 minuets.
Where do you get your biodiesel?
The
BioFuel Oasis in Berkeley, currently
at 4th and Dwight. It is a woman owned co-op, which retails a high quality
fuel from recycled vegetable oil. It is currently just under $4 per
gallon.
While it is possible to acquire
unmodified vegetable oil from restaurants, that method would require, it
addition to more extensive truck modifications, and a system to pump, store and
filter the oil. Purchasing bio-fuel costs more, but anyone with a diesel
vehicle can simply pull up to the pump, fill and go, just like with a gas
station.
I heard biofuels weren't really
much better for the environment than petroleum...
Not all "bio-fuels" are the same.
The most talked about bio-fuel is
ethanol.
Ethanol is an alcohol produced by
food crops such as corn and sugar, which can be run in gasoline engines in up to
80% blends. There is no excess or waste ethanol, so its use as a fuel
necessitates crops be grown specifically to produce it, which can be an energy,
water, and land intensive process.
Vegetable oil, on the other hand, is
used extensively by the food preparation industry, but is not used up.
Vast quantities of used vegetable oil would be disposed of if not used for fuel.
As no new production is used to create biodiesel fuel, the production steps are
irrelevant when determining the environmental aspect.
There would not be nearly enough
waste oil for all of America's driving habits, however this is more an issue of
conservation and efficency than it is of bio-diesels emmissions.
Another claim is that biodiesel
releases almost as much pollutants as petrol. This is simply factually
inaccurate. In most categories, including particulate matter, long-chain
hydro-carbons, ozone, and carbon monoxide, biodiesel has consistently been shown
to range from lower to much lower in emissions. In many tests (but not
all), it has been shown to be higher in nitrous oxides. This is a bad
thing. While biodiesel is much better than petrol overall, it is not
perfect.
Lastly, some claim it releases
equally a much CO2 (considered a major greenhouse gas). This does not take into
account the original source: the CO2 released by petrol has been buried
deep under ground for hundreds of thousands of years and would likely never have
been returned to the atmosphere if not for our driving. The CO2 released
by burning vegetable oil on the other hand was absorbed within the last year or
two by the plants which produced it. For every molecule of CO2 released,
one was absorbed, and one will be re-absorbed by the plants growing in this
years crop. This means the net contribution to total atmospheric
CO2 by burning recycled bio-fuels is approximately zero.
Do you have a partner
/ can you
move (some moderately heavy thing-a-ma-jig)?
Its just me. I have a couple
types of dolly, a detachable lift-gate for the really heavy stuff, and most of
the time the customer is able to help. I recently moved a 600-700lb safe. I can move all but the heaviest or
most awkwardly shaped furniture and appliances up a flight of stairs on my own
if need be.
If you have an especially hard job,
or the customer is unable to help, I can arrange for a sub-contractor. However, I pay
my subs the same rate as myself, so this means the rates the customer pays will
double.
Please let me know in advance if
you expect to need a 2nd person!
You were talking about some
interesting / wacky theories of yours when you helped me last week. What
did you say the address of your personal blog was again?
http://apps.biodieselhauling.org/blog/ and/or
http://blog.myspace.com/pyrococcus_furiosus
Can I ask you some questions for
my school project?
Absolutely. However, send me an
email, not a call. I tend to put off returning calls that aren't from
customers until I forget about them. I am much better at returning emails.
If I didn't return your call, don't take it as a deliberate snub, it just got
lost among my voicemails.
Why is your website a .org?
I thought only non-profits could use .org.
Actually, anyone can use .org, (or
.com, .net, .info, .us, etc). It originally was meant to stand for
organization (com for commercial, etc) but it doesn't really mean anything.
I have a .org address simply because
someone else has already claimed "biodieselhauling.com", and set a placeholder
there. I asked if he would release the domain, and he refused, saying he
was planning to start a biodiesel based hauling service next year (this was over
a year ago). What
can I do? He got to it first.
Besides, I'm not exactly "for
profit". BioDiesel Hauling has no shareholders. I charge just enough to make a
living, not the most I could get away with. Despite my independent green
certification and loyal customer base, I charge less than half what most in
similar fields charge. This is because I do not believe in the standard
American economic model of market based pricing (I believe it exsists and all,
in fact I have an associates degree in economics, I just don't believe its
appropriate).
