pointing out the obvious

My ZipCar application (single driver) was approved on May 16th at 4:02pm, having applied on May 8th at 1:15pm according to the confirmation emails sent. This is about 7 business days… or 6 business days, 4 hours and 47 minutes to be exact (who’s counting). I was a little worried that I was going to be rejected given the website suggested an approval generally takes 2-3 business days, but the approval came through.

A day or two after applying, I dropped by the ZipCar office at Spadina and Richmond during my lunch break, picked up my card and information package from a friendly, young woman. The office was nice, bright and open. After returning to my desk I proceeded to simulate a denial of service attack on the application status page until I was approved - every 5 minutes or so for a week.

The very next day, a co-worker in the office told me that he applied to AutoShare and was approved within 48hrs. Hmm.. I figure I got lucky with the ZipCar promotion and owe the system some money so I filled out a joint application (which included my partner), using the “Smart Living St. Lawrence” promotion at 11:45am this morning. To my surprise I received a confirmation email at 5:25pm, TODAY. This is about 5 hours and 40 minutes according to my watch. Wow. That was fast.

So, I check the website for office hours and I have time to pickup my welcome package, keys and related information on my way home. Perfect. I get there about 15 minutes later, am greeted at the door by a nice young lady who confirms that I am in fact a fast walker - she just sent me the email! Awesome, they do the processing right in this office and know exactly who I am. I take my time looking around the office because it’s an old one on Mercer St, just across the street from the old Andrew Mercer Reformatory for Women - which is now Rain (fire your web designer) and Schmooze. If I ever start a company, I’m getting an office like this - it’s nice and cozy. Anyways, she explains the welcome package, asks if I have a gold card (which I do) and asks me to fill out the $0 deductible form. I am out of there in 10 minutes.

The fact that AutoShare uses BullFrog Power does not go unnoticed. For those who are choosing car sharing for green reasons, it seems AutoShare is serious about it. AutoShare +1.

Points not mentioned so far: ZipCar +1 for the free application and credit on my account. AutoShare +1 for being so damn fast and organized.

Oh, and when I got home, the nice woman at AutoShare who processed my welcome package informed me that they overcharged my card by $27, but promptly reversed the transaction so I shouldn’t be alarmed if I see it on my statement. -2 for incorrectly charging my card, but +2 for identifying, correcting the situation and informing me immediately, so it’s even.

While we’re talking about incorrect charges, ZipCar forgot to credit my account with the full promotional amount. I emailed them and they corrected it right away. -2 for missing it, +1 for correcting it as soon as I pointed it out - sorry, only 1 point because I had to ask about it.

I had some trouble logging into the AutoShare website - it wasn’t clear for what my username or password was. Through some bumbling around, I figured out the username is my autoshare member number, and forced a reset of my password by attempting to login incorrectly. Either I missed something in the information package, or it was just missing. -1 for Autoshare.. the ZipCar site was far more usable.

So, if did the math right, it’s fairly even out of the gate: ZipCar 1, AutoShare 2.

Don’t worry, ZipCar will catch up in the ‘coolness’ factor with their fancy technology. I’ll keep you posted.

When I moved into my home about 4 years ago, I noticed that the eavestrough (aka gutter or rain gutter) drained directly into a pipe next to my house. I had never seen this before, but it seemed very common for the homes in my neighborhood, and downtown in general. I later learned this pipe fed directly into the sewer system, or if I was unlucky, directly into my basement.

Fortunately, most (not all) of the water avoided my basement, but it seemed odd that it would go directly into the sewer rather than feed my lawn. Redirecting this flow of water means a drier basement and avoids unnecessary load on the sewage system, which seems like a win-win. But, with a new old-house, we were quickly overwhelmed with other projects and quickly forgot about it.

A year or so later, my better half learned of the City of Toronto Downspout Disconnection Program - which provides free disconnection of the downspout and reworking of the existing eavestroughs to divert the runoff to your lawn. Sweet. Sounds like an even better idea now that I don’t have to do the work myself! So we called and registered for the program.

6 months after applying, I got a call from the city for a ‘consultation’. I spoke to the consultant about our disconnection needs, we walked through the options, signed the paperwork and was told a local professional would complete the job when a few more jobs were queued up on the street. A month or so later, I was told that it was my disconnection day and by the time I got home from work, the job was done. It was a quality job, and exactly what I discussed with the city employee. No complaints… other than the 60+ year old neighbors thinking I’m nuts… but I’m getting used to that.

If your home’s eavestroughs are still connected to the sewage system, have them disconnected. You won’t have to water your lawn or garden as often, and it will help reduce the load on our sewage system (thus save energy, and reduce water pollution).

I was convinced to try ZipCar over AutoShare (at least initially) by way of a promotion that eliminated the application fees and gave me a small credit to try out the service. While I still feel as though I’m a better fit for AutoShare because it’s Canadian and has existed in the city for a while, I’m itching to give any car sharing service a spin.

So, I applied to ZipCar on Tuesday, picked up my ZipCard on Thursday and am waiting for the insurance approval step. The website suggests a typical approval takes 2-3 days, and it’s Friday, day 3.5.

I feel like a kid in a candy store. I just can’t deal with this.

I got my first bullfrog bill a few weeks ago, and can now properly compare the charges. To compare apples with apples, I found a recent Toronto Hyrdo bill with EXACTLY the same kWh’s used. Here are the details…

Bullfrog Power: 873kWh’s used in the current bill, with the mystery adjustment (adjusted loss factor) the overall usage is 905.825kWh’s. The total bill is $152.96.

Toronto Hydro: 873kWh’s used, with the adjusted loss factor the overall usage is 905.825kWh’s. The total bill? $123.32.

Remember, much of your hyrdo bill is made up of delivery and administration charges, so let me identify these charges. The Bullfrog admin charges are $62.25. The Toronto Hydro admin charges are $66.21. I’m assuming bullfrog passes the admin charges back to Toronto Hydro to pay for poles and maintenance, so why would bullfrog’s be cheaper? Weird.

Anyways, this leaves us with $49.03 in actual electricity charges for Toronto Hydro, and $82.05 in electricity charges for Bullfrog Power. The power is clearly more expensive, but I don’t see it in my overall bill because the other charges make up half the bill.

So, the power costs 67% more with bullfrog. However, because almost half the bill is made up of infrastructure charges, the actual bill is only 24% more. Not bad eh? A 24% increase (~$29 dollars) in my electricity bill for green power. Awesome. Totally worth it, and completely affordable. Who would miss $29 dollars over a 2-3 month period?

What I love about my bill is that it details the pollutants I pumped into the atmosphere as a result of the power I used. It reminds me that although it’s green power, there is always a price. Cool.

While contemplating a green car recently, it struck me that I am doing exactly what auto makers want me to do - purchase a new car. I want to support green cars, and show that there is interest in producing more sustainable vehicles, however, I also want to curb the consumerism, which is just as much a problem as non-sustainable products.

A comment left by Aleem Kanji got me thinking more about consumerism and how it affects my life. The comment was a little misleading, but it brought thoughts of consumerism front and centre in this discussion. Somehow, I’ve reached a point in my life where purchasing things gives me this small rush of happiness, and I’m not sure how I got here. Case in point - I purchased an Airport Express last week because I thought I needed it. After opening the box, setting it up and playing with it for a few hours, I haven’t touched it. I need to break the connection between purchasing things and gratification, it’s a vicious circle that isn’t helping my bank account or the values that I’m carving out.

With this in mind, I took a different angle to the green car research - car coops. The idea behind car sharing is simple - there is a pool of cars that the car sharing company has at your disposal any time of day or night. Of course the ’share’ part of this idea means this same set of cars is also available to anyone else subscribing to the service, but ultimately, it means there are less cars sitting in driveways, thus less cars produced, and a smaller overall ecological footprint for all of us.

I struggled with the idea for a little while, trying to determine the difference between an auto share and car rental company. The main differences of an auto share are hourly rates, included insurance, included gas, and local availability. The two auto shares that I’ve seen in Toronto are AutoShare and ZipCar. Both offer very similar cars, which are mostly low impact vehicles, a few hybrids and a few vans, both have decent pricing, and both have cars parked in areas close to my house. There is a great article comparing AutoShare with ZipCar written by Torontoist - if you’re serious about the service, you should give it a read.

I’m still in the ‘thinking’ stage of the game, but I’m thinking this might be a great overall solution. I can always try it out for a few months, see how it works, and comment from there.

Is electric heating better for the environment than gas heating? I’m thinking electricity is better, but I’m open to discussion. Here’s why I think it’s better…

• Gas is a non-renewable fossil fuel right now. Electricity is not, provided it’s generated by low-impact means.

• Both have a delivery infrastructure within the city, so they are relatively equal in that respect.

• Unless there is a pipe from here to Alberta, gas is shipped here by something that burns fossil fuels. Electricity is generated locally.

• I believe electricity is a more efficient method of heating water than natural gas is, so it makes sense to have an electric hot water heater, specifically a tankless hot water heater, which are more efficient than the tank type, and provide unlimited hot water.

• At the moment, gas is a more efficient (or at least cheaper) method of heating air than electricity is, according to this source (pdf).

So, if I wanted to heat water in my house using electricity, I can invest in a tankless hot water heater, which is becoming more reasonably priced each year. I looked into one a few years back when Home Depot first started carrying them, and it was a little pricey ($1500 or so), but it’s getting better. I will have to re-investigate.

If I wanted to heat my house with electricity, it would reduce CO2 emissions by 30% (compared to gas using conventional hydro), but cost me twice as much. Unfortunately, that money tree I planted in the backyard has yet to bloom, so this might not be an option (yet).

Awesome.

I took the leap a few months back and discontinued my account with Toronto Hydro and signed up for Bullfrog Power. Bullfrog is a green electricity provider in the GTA, who sources their electricity from low-impact sources including wind and water.

While I have yet to receive my first bill, the difference in cost should be around $40/bill, which works out to be about a 33% increase. Not so bad considering the net effect - no nuclear, no fossil fuels, much less CO2, and a whole sheet of little bullfrog stickers for my water bottle. awesome.

Now here’s where I come clean - my involvement in most of these social/environmental initiatives are directly attributed to my spouse - think Bill and Belinda (minus all the money and ideas). There, I said it.

You can also thank my friend Juan at global-culture.org for encouraging this.

I received a copy of the ‘early morning manic’ album as an xmas gift last year, and can’t stop listening to it. Paul is probably one of the nicest guys I know, and has an incredible musical talent. If you get a chance, check out some of the music on his myspace page.

As you can tell from my last.fm music profile, I’m a fan of a wide variety of music. What I love about Paul’s music is the feeling you get through his raw acoustic guitar, a good example of this for me is “i don’t dream“. While not profiled on his page, he’s also an incredible piano player and has a great short piano track over a funky bass groove that works amazingly well. Overall, even if I didn’t grab brunch with him every so often, I’d pickup a copy of “early morning manic” if it were for sale. It’s one of those albums you are always looking for, but can never find.

Best of luck buddy. You’re awesome.

snow.

I don’t remember ever experiencing snow, lightning and thunder together, but it happened this morning around 8am on my way to work. I was also ridiculously covered in snow on my short walk to the subway.

it was surprisingly warm.

it was awesome.

Toronto has traffic problems and I hear if it isn’t solved soon, we’ll be in a Boston situation in the next 10 years. One of the proposed solutions is to charge a fee to each car that drives into the city - thus reducing the traffic. However, there is never any specific discussion of transit in that idea. If you increase the cost of driving into the city, and part of that money goes to the TTC, it would make sense to make transit more affordable - $2.75 a trip is on the edge of crazy.

Think about the $2.75 cost for a second. If there are 2 people traveling somewhere, that’s $11 in transit fees. Parking generally costs less than that for a few hours, and in some cases less than that for an entire day! The cost of transit is too close to the cost of parking to have people choose transit over driving.

Back to the point… if a fee is charged to drive your car into the core, it would make sense to have some TTC fee relief as a result of increased ridership. No?

Increasing parking fees would have a similar result, but that assumes government workers are treated like the rest of us. I know gov’t workers get cheap parking in Manhattan, I’m sure they get cheap (if not free) parking in Toronto which means they all drive to work (who wouldn’t?). Government workers should be leading the pack - if they get free parking, why not switch it up, charge for parking and subsidize a metro pass?  Shouldn’t they lead by example?