More natural gas vehicles in the future?

[H4MM3R]

Dave how many Amps will the compressor use?

[Big Dave]

I'm away from my office so I don't know what the current draw will be for a 15 HP 480 volt 3 phase motor. It will easily draw more power than a three ton residential air conditioning system.

The Phill has a lower electrical load but takes quite a while to "Phill" up the CNG tanks on a car.

The automotive standard for energy storage remains the same. 300 mile minimum range. Complete refill inless than 10 minutes. CNG takes up roughly double the space of a standard gasoline tank to meet those standards.

[dremd]

All depends on price on NG where you live. Where I live it is approximately 3x as high as in neighboring Tx. "Intrastate Vs Interstate" I have been told by a great uncle who was a vise president at Texaco for many years. May or may not be the case, he once told me that if they shut down NASA they could give healthcare to every man woman and child in america . . . . .

In the right situation a CNG Civic could be a perfect vehicle, in many others it would not be.

At LAX they rent CNG Civics, Crown Vics and F-150's may be worth a look see if interested.

[wonderworm]

If you shut down the Iraq war, you could give everyone healthcare, free college scholarships, and provide a $10,000 credit for everyone to buy an electric car. Plus oil would plummet about $30-$40/barrel too.

That said, NG costs the equivalent of about $1.30/gal but in order to free it up for transportation we need to support a presidential candidate who will make BIG changes in supporting solar, wind and other renewable energy projects. If we did that, then the NG used for heating would be available for NG cars without the price spiking. Easy solution except when the government is controlled by oilmen.

[MetroMPG]

People... exercising the proactive signal to noise filter, let's let that Iraq comment slide please.

wonderworm's new (welcome) and may not know that we make a point of bypassing politics here.

Thanks.

[Peter7307]

Here 99% of all taxis run on LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas) and many cars as well.
Current prices are:
LPG: $0.63 / litre.
Unleaded: $1.47 / litre
Diesel: $1.63 / litre.
AUS $ = US $0.92 at the moment.

Cheers , Pete.

PS A Welcome from me to Wonderworm as well.
Thanks Metro MPG. I was so engrossed it writing I didn't see the new poster.

Pete.

[ke7en]

Hi there. I live in Las Vegas and bought a Civic GX last October. The local dealers do not carry them but they were able to have one transported here, and they can service them should it be necessary. It is also possible to have a Phill installed (I did).

My impression of it so far:

The GX drives and performs like a regular Civic as far as I can tell. Supposedly it has about 10% less horsepower than other Civics but as I am coming down from a 400 hp Cadillac (it was nice, but 12 mpg was unacceptable) I can't tell. I get around 32-37 mpg depending on how vigilant I am with my driving habits. It has about a 200 - 220 mile range. Half the trunk is taken up by the tank, but I use it for commuting so that is no big deal, I could probably fit one set of golf clubs in the space, max.

As far as refueling in Las Vegas:

There are local stations where you can fill up around town (about 4 or 5) for $1.60 to 1.70 per gallon equivalent. With the Phill unit at home it costs about 1.30 to 1.50 from what I can calculate. Southwest Gas will charge you a lower rate for the gas used for your car. The local stations will fill up your tank in a few minutes, the Phill takes about 12-14 hours for an empty tank.

You can get a $4000 tax credit for the car and $1000 credit for the Phill, this money comes directly off what you owe in taxes but will not take you above 0 (so if you owe $500 it will knock that out, but they won't then give you $3500 on your refund).

As far as I can tell I am probably the first in Vegas with a Phill unit (given the amount of confusion on the part of people I dealt with trying to get it installed), so if you are interested in getting a GX &/or the Phill drop me a line and I can give you the right phone numbers to call and hopefully help smooth out the process (I don't have any financial incentive for this, just hopefully can help others avoid the headaches I had with this process).

[RH77]

Originally Posted by ke7en

Hi there. I live in Las Vegas and bought a Civic GX last October. The local dealers do not carry them but they were able to have one transported here, and they can service them should it be necessary. It is also possible to have a Phill installed (I did).

Welcome to EM

Glad to hear the GX/Phill combo is working well for you. I really wish it was available in more states.

I looked into getting a GX and fill it locally, but the station are out the way, and the Phill isn't approved here (apparently). If it is and they're not saying why, feel free to shoot me a PM.

Last question: our garage is right below the bedroom. Does the device make a lot of noise when "Philling"?

Best FE to ya...

RH77

[dremd]

Anybody Listen to Click and Clack this week?

Someguy called in about a CNG F-150 that he purchased without knowing that it was Dual Fuel. They said that they would post about it on their website, we should put a link up to this thread there . . ..

[dremd]

http://action.publicbroadcasting.net...st/981210.page