Santiasco Air Quality a la Bei Jing..

[bow26]

If anyone I knew in Chile turned round and said "let me just invest in some good insulation for my home" I would probably fall off my chair. What's the point in home improvements other people can't see?

You can just buy a really expensive toyotomi and then brag to anyone who will listen about how much it cost

Not that I don't agree with you entirely about it being a good idea.

[Dosedmonkey]

I still see plenty of transantiago buses belching out black smoke, I saw one last week that was still in service but couldn't go above 40kph on the autopista the other day. Often simple things like doors don't work or important safety things such as the turntables in the articulated buses are completely booked. There maintenance is poor on poorer bus routes but this is also where a huge amount of people ride with out paying, yet they keep fairs low for everyone else, so I have sympathy with the business also. Two hours on transantiago for 600 peso compared to London where you can easily pay equivalent to ten times that much.

The biggest problem I would have with electric heaters is how low house electrics trip at. 25 amps is a struggle for my wash machine, drier, television, cable TV box, internet modem, lights, computer set up, surround sound, kettle and oven to all be used at once in evening. When oven is cold and all heating elements switch on often it trips. How another high load like heating for house would go I don't know.

They need to sort there electrical safety out so they can raise house hold ampage to European levels, or at least half way.

I use gas heater, emissions are minimal.

Way to much industry with low chimney stacks belching out in Santiago probably doesn't help too. Route 5 northern from Santiago honks of chemicals from the industrial state some times.

As for insulating homes. From what I have seen houses are having more ventilation added, not only here but world wide I hear, to protect construction companies being liable for damp issues I feel. Easy way out. The house I'm in currently I had to improve the seals on even door and window. Close off vent on external kitchen door, stairwell cupboard external vent. This still left ventilation for wall cavities in roof. But this alone changed temperature of house dramatically, you don't need double glazing here it seems. Just prevent too much ventilation. It's warm enough in the day to keep you warm at night with no heating at all most the time I find.

Is there a map of copper mines around Santiago region? I hear loud bangs occasionally out my way, I thought I was mad when I thought it could possibly be mining.

[Donnybrook]

YMMV.

[fraggle092]

This week in Coyhaique, domestic wood burning stoves caused triple the amount of air pollution as Santiago. Generated by the same people that violently opposed the HydroAysen project for supposedly "ecological" reasons a couple of years ago. No consideration for the deforestation caused by burning all of those trees either.

http://www.eldinamo.cl/ambiente/2015/06 ... ambiental/

[scandinavian]

Heard in the radio this morning that they are contemplating a full ban on leña in the Santiago province next year. Causes 30% of all pollution - 5% of homes use leña. Of course, they need to enforce it...
Furthermore, I saw that they are also looking at changing the restrictions for vehicles to be based on age of car.

Both very welcome changes if you ask me.

[Dosedmonkey]

Yeah yesterday on the news they mentioned about banning log burning in Santiago being currently evaluated.

I did pay attention today and looked how many cello verde cars that were under restriction drove and ignored it, a fair few, didn't see any carabineros stopping them. But still a lot less then when there is no restriction. Probably only a few percent ignored it.

Tomorrow I can't drive in Santiago. Worse bit is the car park at the outer metro station is tiny and holds about 100 cars, so you never know if it is going to be full or not. Might just stay at home/out of Santiago.

Banning by age of car is stupid. By how much pollution it makes would be much more logical. 'A brand new 4x4 causes a lot more pollution then my old Peugeot 206.

[Donnybrook]

Banning by age of car is stupid. By how much pollution it makes would be much more logical. 'A brand new 4x4 causes a lot more pollution then my old Peugeot 206

That is interesting as they say the opposite when they talk about restriction by age. Can you explain?

[Donnybrook]

Thanks, very clear.

The statistics they have been showing give double chamber wood or pellet burning heaters a much bigger chunk of the pollution pie than cars. I would think those are for the chop. There aren't enough people to police them on pre-emergencia and emergencia days. They should have announced their demise a few years ago and we would be rid of them now. I can still remember the coal fires in London and the difference when they forbade their use.

[Dosedmonkey]

Good explanation Bert.

Essentially my small hatchback uses less Litres of fuel per Kilometer then a new 4x4 does, due to the greater weight of a 4x4, larger resistance caused by larger wheels and wider wheels, causing large contact surface to the road. Great for off roading up slopes, but not for flat city driving. To over come the larger mass of the vehicle and the extra resistance of the wheels, the engines burn much more fuel. My hatch back being a 1.6 litre, opposed to a 4x4 being a 4 to 6 litre engine. 6 litre is close four times my engine burning capacity, such as the Chevrolet Silverado which I often see blocking up lanes in Chile. A true city car is as low as 1.1 litre engine.

A brand new Chevrolet Silverado has a 14 mpg (miles per gallon), compared to my 45 mpg of my hatch back, and thats just a quick figure search. The only advantage of some modern cars is, the engine will stop when not moving in traffic. But I don't know how wide that feature is in cars, and if it is only in smaller city designed cars.

The type of fuel burnt effects emissions a lot also, and the form it is burnt, e.g. temperature, air/fuel mix, if under compression/pressure or not.
A log burning fire is usually open, or not controlled as optimum as a engine combustion, so for this reason the log fires cause a lot of pollution, even a gas heater is much better then a log fire.

If you use electric heating, not only is power created by renewable sources such as hydro electrical or wind turbine. But even fossil fuel power stations are hugely efficient and run at optimum efficiency at all times, as it makes a huge financial difference for power companies.

Even my 2006 Peugeot 206 has a oxygen sensor in the exhaust, to control the air inlet choke/butterfly valve, to allow better, cleaner combustion, and electronic timing for spark plugs. So I feel stopping older cars is more of a gimic to allow the richer to drive in Santiago, and make some extra cash for car sales and imports. On the plus sides second hand cars are expensive here compared to other countries, so it might cause a drop in second hand car prices for us people who don't like investing in brand new cars.

[frozen-north]

Marti has resurrected himself! ......................

Spoke too soon...checking back an hour later, that post has now disappeared. Odd.

I noticed it too. His reply to 'bert.douglas' that pollution is measured in grams/km or grams/mile and not in "parts per million" is gone. That is correct for some pollutants, but not for particulate matter -mentioned by 'scandinavian' , which is measured in micrograms per cubic meter.

Main motor vehicle emissions:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exhaust_gas

Here you can check cars:

http://fueleconomy.gov/m/m.do?action=getMenuYear

or look at trucks:

2015 Most and Least Efficient Trucks
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/best/be ... ksNF.shtml

[marti]

...

[frozen-north]

Do you see vehicle emissions measured in grams per mile?

Iit is difficult to have a dialogue with someone that deletes his posts and later denies what he had written.

As for the measurement of particulate matter, your claim of it being measured on grams per mile needs a better source (a newer one?).

EPA's health-based national air quality standard for PM-10 is 50 µg/m3

http://www.epa.gov/airtrends/aqtrnd95/pm10.html

http://www.epa.gov/airquality/particlep ... ndards.pdf

Do you have a source for your deleted claim of large SUVs producing less pollution than small cars?