Converting to natural gas

My youngest son (who is an accountant and is involved shall we say in an office that oversees taxpayer expenditures was talking to me on the phone last night.

Apparently the state is converting vehicles to CNG - at 13 grand a pop and for vehicles which actually see comparatively low miles accumulated each year.
When it comes to the taxpayers no amount of stupid enough. :frowning:

Can they also install a fixture so that I can fuel my car?

@Prof:
The answer to your question is absolutely yes. The catch is that the natural gas delivered to your home needs to be compressed for use in an automobile. The equipment for that is about $3000. It’s a wall mount unit, not so large that it impedes use of the garage, clean and well made.

I once knew a guy who was serious about alternative fuel vehicles and he had a CNG Honda (factory produced) and loved it. In his garage, he had the device which compressed the natural gas and connected - very safely - to his car for fueling. The fuel price was MUCH cheaper than gasoline, about half the price per mile. And he never had to go to a gas station. Other benefits of running a vehicle on natural gas are much better emissions, and virtually no contamination of the oil. The oil in his Honda with 10k miles looked like freshly changed. Downside of course is for long trips, but there ARE places to fuel up, though few and far between.

Apparently the state is converting vehicles to CNG - at 13 grand a pop and for vehicles

If it’s like any state I ever lived in…then they are probably paying twice the going rate. But I agree for low mileage vehicles it’s NOT a good idea.

Where I do like to see it…is city buses - which usually put on LOTS of miles every year. Many delivery vehicles like UPS/Fed-ex in cities. Taxicabs is another great place for them. NYC has over 13,000 taxi’s. Convert them over to CNG or all electric will do wonders for air quality in the city.

They may still be using normal engines, but the 2L 4cyl will go a long ways towards fuel savings

We need more propane power generators, outboards and other small machinery with the ethanol problems in gas storage. The first manufacturer that makes these goods as cheap as gas powered, will sell out of them. BTW, they should be as cheap…There are fewer parts. But retooling and restocking takes time and money

@dagosa–I did see in Consumer Reports test of lawnmowers that there was one lawnmower that did have a propane powered engine. It didn’t receive a very high rating and I think it was more expensive to run because of the price of propane cylinders.
Some 20 years ago, the state university where I was employed installed the equipment and equipped a some of the Ford Taurus cars in the fleet to run on CNG and installed the equipment to fuel the cars. As I remember, these cars could run on either CNG or gasoline and flipping a switch would allow the driver to select the fuel. The project was an experiment and was discontinued because at that time, running the cars on natural gas was more expensive than running them on gasoline. Since that time, the price of gasoline has risen dramatically while the price of natural gas has fallen. It might be more cost effective to use CNG today.

@triedaq. IMO, the savings in dealing with today’s gasoline in small motors by using propane is worth it. It’s the initial cost that drives me away. They even have a small propane outboard that looks very intriguing.
http://www.defender.com/categoryBoatsMotors.jsp?path=-1|215570|1794283&id=1964825

You can also get a propane powered string trimmer-Kevin

Fork lifts have been running on LP for as long as I can remember ever being in a plant. In Minneapolis some of the fleet vehicles have been running on gas for years but I thought LP instead of CNG. At current costs, might be a better alternative than electric.

I agree though the guy is a troll.