Can a BUS really become GREEN? (NOT an Irish thread!!!)

[Singing Land Cruiser]

Can a BUS really become GREEN? I've been looking around and hearing some busnuts stating that they have turned their big road monsters into planet loving GREEN gentle giants. I would like to hear about some of the convertions you have done and the cost.
A Bus? Green? Hmmm. All the Best M&C

[BG6]

Can a BUS really become GREEN?

Oh, sure.

Just take 47 tourists on a twisty, bumpy road right after the all-you-can-eat buffet.  That bus will become green, yellow, grey . . .

[zubzub]

My bus sat in a field for a few years...some moss began growing in the window channels...if  I had left it there it would have turned green.  Now it spews out black exhaust if I am heavy on the throttle, and does it's part warming the planet up.

[Utahclaimjumper]

 With enough PAINT anything is possible.>>>Dan

[Chopper Scott]

I was afraid this would be an Irish thread!!!

[Lin]

Yes, it can.  It depends how you use it.  Obviously, if you use biofuels, you have a good start.  But consider that if you are fulltiming in a bus, you probably have less of an environmental footprint than most houses.  Consider further that you would also follow the weather, so you would not be wasting vast amounts of energy for heat or cooling.  If you were to boondock a bit, then you would also be watching your energy usage carefully; you would be using a tiny fraction of the energy a house uses.  Your water usage is also going to be far below the national average. 

One could go on in this fashion, but you get the point.  The only environmental downside is when to start driving, but even then you are probably polluting less than the hordes that commute to work an hour each way daily.

[pickpaul]

When I get my bus I plan on converting the engine and generator to veggie oil for zero net Co2 emissions and add solar to the roof too. That's about as green as a bus gets I think.

[zubzub]

Veggie oil is not that green.  In general it takes as much fuel to produce as it produces (tractors, shipping etc..)  as well as the chemicals used in the fields (unless you use organic veggie oil)  some waste oil is out there but certainly not enough to power any significant amount of the population.  Notice the general trend to promoting bio fuels has cooled in the last few months as all involved realize the math does not add up, the last person I saw selling it hard was G W Bush, and we know he doesn't do his homework.

[Chopper Scott]

Actually I live out in the middle of corn country. What constantly amazes me about propaganda against ethanol derived from corn is how untrue their facts are. When fuel prices went to the $4 a gallon price and corn hit over $7 a bushel our soaring food prices were blamed on the high costs of corn and some were predicting world wide famine because of producing ethanol from corn. Have you noticed any drop in the price of your food as corn and fuel prices have dropped? Three cents of corn in a box of Wheaties, double the price and you have 6 cents of corn. Wheaties goes up a buck! Figure it out for yourself. What they fail to tell you is the byproduct of the corn that is made into ethanol is fed to livestock that it was originally intended for anyway. The byproduct is actually more digestable and more efficient for producing the meat that we eat. So in effect it is almost a free renewable energy source barring the transportation and manufacturing costs. And they will tell you how many of gallons of water it takes to produce a gallon of ethanol. It's called rain people. It goes on and on. Propaganda. Take it for what it's worth. Those wind generators are killing all our birds now!!  Later

[Hartley]

It is physically and mentally impossible for a bus to go green....

You can and WILL part with a lot of GREEN.. But that's about all.

A 300 sq ft living space that needs to be heated and cooled all within
the confines of a roofline 8 feet X 39 feet doesn't provide enough square footage for enough solar to handle it all.

If you live in Florida your bus will turn green soon enough ( algae & mold )..
or anywhere it's moist. Been there...

Veggie isn't the answer as it turns out. The supplies are being locked up so many places that it's getting tough to find enough to run with. It comes with it's own problems as most of us have already discovered. Icky-Sticky Mess mostly....
Making Biodiesel.. Well that's going in the crapper because of the druggies makeing the alcohol and lye unavailable (by supply or law.) You can't win no matter what new and improved idea seems good...

Dave...

[Sean]

You might find these two write-ups that I did on this topic moderately interesting:

http://ourodyssey.blogspot.com/2007/10/blog-action-day.html
http://ourodyssey.blogspot.com/2008/04/happy-earth-day.html

-Sean
http://OurOdyssey.BlogSpot.com

[Hartley]

Sean,

I liked what you wrote... My sentiments exactly...

But, You gotta lot more bus than I have or probably ever will have.

At this point if I had enough life left in me to do another conversion
or even straighten out the mess I made in a panic I would probably
look for a 53 foot furniture van and start there. I might get 1/2 of my
stuff arranged in a livable fashion.

Sure I complain, But I went from living in an RTS for 6 years, Back to a house
and then into an unfinished MC9 ... So far it's cheaper than any house and far larger than the RTS I had. My energy footprint is somewhere near "nuclear bomb crater" sized. But the heating and A/C costs are 1/3 that of an empty house.

My collected junk has overflowed my 40X40 barn ( the bus is in there too. ) a 10X20 portable building and a 40 foot shipping container. I haven't been able to find a thing either. Tools keep wandering around here and I spend 2 days trying to find that wrench I had yesterday...

The minimalist approach works very well in a bus if you take the time and apply the effort to make things as simple, functional and efficient as possible. But try to not let the old brain slip you up when you aren't looking... Stuff Happens...

Dave....