How much does it cost to drive your car?

The cost of filling up the tank forms a significant portion of our impression of the cost of driving a car. There are several other less-visible out-of-pocket expenses such as maintenance, insurance, and the car payment itself, but there are also various hidden costs of driving. The site "What does Driving Really Cost" shows us some of the hidden costs and contains some startling facts:

• Driving a car is one of the most dangerous things we do. For people 2-24 years old, it is the most likely way you'll die.
  
• $50B of our defense budget is protecting shipping lanes and oil fields in the Middle East, Nigeria and Venezuela. This doesn't come from road use tolls or fuel taxes but from income and payroll taxes.
  
• Baby-boomers will have consumed 2/3 of all the petroleum there ever was in the US.
  
• 60% of our trade deficit comes from either oil or cars.
  
• One-third of expenses paid out under federal medical assistance programs are for injuries sustained in car crashes.
  

Cars are suicide, either financially and slowly or in 80 MPH collisions. Why doesn't this get the same attention as lowering cholesterol, the "War on Cancer", or even Viagra?

This site also calculates the average US citizen's expenditures per year for the priviledge of driving. The average is high enough that most people can buy a home for what is being spent on a car.

Dollar Voting

When I bought compact flourescent light-bulbs the other day, I placed a vote for the development a more fuel efficient technology. Yes, I'll screw in the bulbs and start saving money. What is less obvious is I'm shifting resources away from the production of fossil-based energy and toward the development of new technologies that save energy.

I ride a bike to work. I spend money on tubes and tires for my bike and give much less to the oil companies. It's clear that we spend less money overall, but it's less clear that jobs are being shifted from producing gasoline to the production of more efficient transportation.

We're looking at Tankless Water Heaters (see this post for details). Instead of putting resources into the manufacture of older less efficient technology, we're putting our resources into the development of newer more efficient technology.

Everytime we buy something, we place a vote supporting the supplier of that product or service. For better or worse, our purchases help the supplier of that product or service to continue providing that same product or service. The is encouragement for existing technologies. For older more wasteful technologies, we may be leaving money on the table.

The marketplace provides choices. It is up to us to make the well-informed choice.

Tankless Water Heaters

We're considering Tankless Water Heaters now that we've got several years on our traditional tank storage water heater. The model we had was efficient for it's time, but the improvements in technology over the past ten years allows us to look at new technology.

We spend more to heat water than we do to air condition, so we stand to save a good bit of money with a more efficient system. Tankless systems only heat water when it is needed, so no energy is wasted keeping the water warm when it isn't being used.

In researching this, I came across three different sources of information:

1. Advertising from Manufacturers (Rinnai has an informative site).
   
2. More neutral information on the web such as Wikipedia.
   
3. Personal friends with experience (such as the friend who built this house).
   

What I found interesting is because of the limited amount of time available to heat the water, you need more energy at the time the water is being used. This means installing a tankless water heater may require larger gas main and venting.

Will keep you posted as our search continues. We've got a few retailers and contractors we'll be talking to about our needs.