Gathering data for science report (carbon intensity)

[melspippin]

Hello!



I'm doing some LCA modeling (life cycle assessment) about the carbon intensity of school bus conversions. If you have any information on:


Number of people in your bus?



How far do you drive/year in your school bus?



Do you have a solar panel or not?



How much electricity you use on a daily basis? (w/without solar)



How much water you use on a daily basis?


How much propane do you use for heating on a daily basis?


Any other consumption information you know of


If this post belongs somewhere else, please let me know, just joined the website!

[dzl_]

Sounds like a very cool project!


I'd be interested to know your findings when you get to that point. Good luck in the data collection.

[CHEESE_WAGON]

You might contact the owners of The Broccoli Bus. They're on YouTube.

[mmoore6856]

a lot of variance among schoolies. you need a lot more specifics such as engine, tranny, and a lot more, if everything is not included this could be used against us

[cadillackid]

ill be the one who throws the numbers in your project off center...


I drive my school busses around as my daily drivers.. and i use one of them as a mobile office / dining room..


I dont live in my bus
I dont camp in my bus (except for occasional naps along the road)
I sleep in hotels at night...



Number of people in your bus?



1 person (me)


How far do you drive/year in your school bus?

15k-20k miles combined in 2 busses

Do you have a solar panel or not?

No - I have a battery bank charged by the engine

How much electricity you use on a daily basis? (w/without solar)

less than 500 watt-hours

How much water you use on a daily basis?



None - no water on board except bottled drinking water

How much propane do you use for heating on a daily basis?

No propane - I have a diesel coolant heater

Any other consumption information you know of



diesel coolant heater in colder weather that is rated at .3 - .5 gallons per hour. if mobile officing it might run a few hours..


If this post belongs somewhere else, please let me know, just joined the website!

[ol trunt]

A WORD OF CAUTION FELLOW SKOOLIES!

We are being asked to supply a lot of information about ourselves and our skoolies. While this request may indeed be nothing more than a science project it has the potential to have more far reaching goals.

Without a clear understanding of just who is asking the question (8th grader, S&S builder. ecoactivist, government fishing trip?) I'd be careful about providing information.

We all are proud of what we accomplish with our skoolies and therefore are anxious to share our information with other like minded folks. Unfortunately, there are people who find our ways not to their liking and I for one am reluctant to provide them with info--which might well be used against us.

I may be completely wrong in my concern but without a clear understanding of what or who is actually behind this query I will not be providing information.

Just my two cents worth but please consider what I have said before you divulge your personal specifics.
Jack

[melspippin]

Hey everyone,


Sorry for the misunderstanding. I am a graduate student (Ph.D.) and was recommended to use this site by a friend who owns the school bus I'm doing the study on. My actual focus for my PhD is battery research, but I have a general interest in renewables/ sustainable practices. Being a Ph.D student, I like digging into my projects a little more, even if it just for class.



I'm using the Traci 2.0 method to assess whether building a tiny home from wood is more environmentally friendly than building one from a bus. This is a class project, and this data would never be published (however I would be sharing the final report with this friend/others who express interest). I won't be reporting usernames or anything. If you feel uncomfortable writing this on a public forum you can pm me!



It is detailed information, but if you feel uncomfortable providing exact data, its totally fine to round or give approximations. I'm trying to do a sensitivity analysis, and I'd like to use real data. Its hard to know what normal operations are from one point of data (ie my friends) which is why I'm trying to crowd source.

[melspippin]

To the person who suggested I ask about engine/transmission, this is actually information I don't need. Ecoinvent (the database I'm using) can calculate the approximate carbon intensity of a bus, while the USCLI database has information on bus emissions based on pkm (passenger kilometers). However, in most LCAs reclaimed materials are discounted. The LCA process is broken down in the general steps of raw material acquisition, construction, use, and disposal. I have used Ecoinvent to catalogue the environmental impacts of the wood used for construction and the metal used for the bus.



This is why I specifically asked for information on the use phase (aka water usage, solar, distance, and propane (whatever you use for heating).



The reason I asked how many people are in the bus is because I need to normalize all the values by occupant for the study.

[peteg59]

Your "study" will likely be skewed if you get info from those who part time vs live full time in their busses.

There are variables that will make it hard if not impossible to get accurate enough data to determine if a wood tiny house is better than a metal bodied skoolie for the environment.

I would assume, bias aside, a skoolie would be more environmentally friendly, especially if it was to remain in one parked spot after converting it to living quarters. Less building materials needed to weathertight the structure.

Good luck in your study...

[BeNimble]

If your report is on how Skoolies are used, you are not going to get a lot or certainly complete data, but ultimately what would be interesting is publishing an analysis of how these factors effective 'carbon footprint' of alternative housing.

Hauling around a 25,000 lb house everywhere you go is about as bad as it gets in terms of carbon footprint..

[BarnYardCamp]

Will your calculations include the fact that the original bus is being re-purposed which has to be better than just "throwing it away"? That's several tons of steel and of course all the energy consumed in the construction of the bus. By converting these buses, the original inputs continue to have value....

[ol trunt]

What university are you at? What Department in that university? Who is your major professor and what publications has he or she written and where were they published? What hypothesis are you trying to prove or disprove? Why would it be in our best interest to provide you with information?
Jack

[dzl_]

Originally Posted by ol trunt

What university are you at? What Department in that university? Who is your major professor and what publications has he or she written and where were they published? What hypothesis are you trying to prove or disprove? Why would it be in our best interest to provide you with information?

Jack, maybe I'm misinterpreting your tone and if so, I apologize, but to me your comments in this thread are coming across as suspicious to the point of near hostility. And this comment in particular is asking a lot of personally identifying information of someone that is asking no personally identifiable questions of you. If you are not comfortable answering the questions, you are not obligated to.

I'm a naturally skeptical fellow, but I see no reason to assume or suspect ill intent (and I see no great risk if there were ill intent). Have you had a negative personal experience with something like this in the past? Whatever your worries, the topic seems pretty benign (comparison of the environmental impact of Tiny Homes and Skoolies).

Though I am curious to know what OP's hypothesis is, I think it is irrelevant as a factor in deciding whether to share information, a hypothesis is meant to be tested and must survive scrutiny and be supported by data to move from just a hypothesis to something with more weight

Beyond this, In my opinion we shouldn't feel the need to try to ascertain whether we might like the conclusions or whether we would personally benefit before providing data or input. For one, this might skew the data, and skew it in exactly the opposite way you might hope to. Second, we shouldn't hide from or ignore data we might not like or that conflicts with our worldview.

If you think skoolie living has a low environmental impact relative to other modes of living, be confident in that and don't fear scrutiny. If you are worried it is not low impact, hiding or ignoring the data won't solve anything. And worst case scenario OP finds Skoolie living is less green than traditional tiny homes, I don't see the negative impact that would have. Personally my hypothesis is that both tiny homes and buses can be substantially more environmentally friendly than single family homes (and maybe apartments).

But in all cases (most of all with skoolies) the differences within a certain dwelling type will be at least as impactful as differences between dwelling types. How you build and how and where you live as well as how conscious you are about the impact of your decisions will have a huge impact on how large your negative environmental impact is, regardless of your living situation.

Personally I think the question is fascinating the more I think about it. Unfortunately for OP, that doesn't count for much since I've yet to buy a skoolie so can't contribute any worthwhile data (unless two years of vandwelling is useful data).

[joeblack5]

Our data,


Just used on one 5 month trip out west. mostly sunny weather

2 adults
2 kids
1 dog


9000 miles, pulling toad 9miles /gallon



20 gallon water / week for washing / cleaning
20 gallons / week for drinking
recirculating shower... 1-1/2 gallon / shower



900 watt solar, for induction cooking,microwave, 12 V refrigeration, 12 V freezer, hot shower water...no electric hookup, no generator

1/4 cooking done one campfire depending on weather / location
2x 8D battery bank at 24 Volt.. 50% DOD

Solar panels deliver enough but battery bank needs to be larger.



No propane.


Heat , floorheat with webasto hydronic webasto 5 KW

For cold nights.. hot rocks out of campfire.


PM me if you need more info.
Good luck

[ol trunt]

Thanks for your opinion DZL. We can't all always agree. I stand by my suspicion.
Jack

[JackE]

Originally Posted by ol trunt

Thanks for your opinion DZL. We can't all always agree. I stand by my suspicion.
Jack

I think I'm in the same camp as Jack on this one. Although I don't feel like the original intent to collect this information is malicious, after watching and talking with my brother who has spent the last 3 years working on his PHD, I believe this information collected has the potential to be used in the future by someone, or organization, to put into effect restrictions on the nomadic way of life that so many of us want to be at least a small part of. I don't think there will be any individual repercussions, but they will come to light collectively on the whole bus conversion community. There are so many other influencers that can take this information and use it against us, ie. RV manufacturers, insurance companies, Rv sales/dealership companies. Those three industries alone have enough big money to shut us down completely if they really wanted to. I don't think there is such a thing as a Bus Conversion Lobbyist in Washington working on our behalf.

[joeblack5]

I am sure that is possible but then that would be more likely if he was asking ..show me your roof raises without approval stamp of a PE .
Or that battery box under your bus that is hanging from 4 pieces threaded 3/8 rod.

If you take a look at expedition forum and see that the guys in new Zealand are required to have a PE sign of on modifying a seatbelt attachment location then you can see what is waiting to happen to the diy skoolie world with roof decks ...solar panels hanging on flimsy brackets...and so on...enjoy while can. I doubt that the ecological footprint will be a big issue.

[melspippin]

Hello everyone,


I know there has been a lot of speculation about my intention, so I'll just make this my last post. I doubt anything I'll say will relieve that. I could talk about my professor and school, but honestly he has no idea I'm doing this project because its for a class/not part of my thesis or research and I don't want him to be contacted by anyone being hostile in this group.



I know that will make me sound even more suspicious, but I honestly wish I could delete this. I simply wanted to have fun by engaging more in depth with a project, but have only caused myself and others stress. Thanks to everyone who has been kind.


Please no one else comment their information, I don't want to cause trouble in this community.

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by ol trunt

What university are you at? What Department in that university? Who is your major professor and what publications has he or she written and where were they published? What hypothesis are you trying to prove or disprove? Why would it be in our best interest to provide you with information?
Jack

What the hell? Someone tries to research.. what personal info is asked for? None it’s all generic about what someone uses their bus for. You aren’t putting down your SS and license number or even your GPS coordinates.. if you don’t want to give your bus stats that’s fine then don’t.. but really? Not everything in this world is a conspiracy!!!!

[CHEESE_WAGON]

With the EcoNazis going around demanding everything be banned regardless of the impact of such bans on people who rely on the situation in question for living space or livelihood, I can understand a slightly suspicious nature. Though I'm wondering if OP is trying to justify the skoolie lifestyle.