Get car ready for winter now

Well-maintained vehicles deliver stronger and more efficient performance. Proper maintenance also helps avoid breakdowns and costly repairs, which can save you money. And when it comes time to replace your vehicle, a documented maintenance history will contribute to a higher resale value.

Last winter AAA’s Roadside Rescue Team came to the aid of nearly 35,000 stranded drivers. Almost 9,000 calls came from drivers with dead batteries, and more than 3,800 calls were for tire problems.

Now is the time to have your vehicle inspected to prevent breakdowns during the cold winter months that lay ahead.

How do you know when your vehicle needs routine service? With older vehicles, motorists had to study the owner’s manual or maintenance booklet and decide if they drove in “normal” or “severe” conditions. Then, they consulted a time/mileage chart that indicated when the car should be taken to the shop – and hopefully they remembered to do so. Most cars today are equipped with computerized maintenance reminder systems that remove much of the hassle from car care.

Confusion still reigns

Based on 2012 Car Care Council vehicle inspections, 77 percent of vehicles had overlooked maintenance items — the majority of which involved low or dirty engine oil. But many also had other service needs that are not routinely prompted by in-vehicle maintenance reminders, things such as low engine coolant, dirty air filters or burned-out headlamps.

Oil changes are another point of confusion. Suggested intervals for oil changes today can vary widely. AAA Tire & Auto manager Jason Brown recommends drivers take a cautious approach when it comes to scheduling oil changes. Brown said “The on board computers only monitor driving habits. They have no ability to monitor oil conditions. The oil itself is usually OK for the longer intervals, yet the oil filter can only filter so much dirt. After it becomes full of dirt it stops filtering and continues to flow the debris throughout the engine, which can result in serious damage. An oil change is the one of least expensive routine maintenance procedures you can do on your vehicle, and it has the greatest impact on the longevity of your engines life span.”

What’s right for your vehicle?

Whether you personally perform vehicle maintenance or rely on a trusted technician, the key is to follow the schedule set by the vehicle manufacturer. If your car has a reminder system, trust it to schedule your oil changes, but also be sure to review your owner’s manual or maintenance booklet to learn what other services are due at the same time.

Never ignore a maintenance reminder. Doing so will increase engine wear and potentially cause long-term damage.

It’s time to prepare your vehicle for the winter ahead

The new AAA Tire & Auto Center located at 8381 Old Troy Pike in Huber Heights offers customers a free air station so motorists can make sure their tires are properly inflated. Drivers can also get free bumper-to-bumper preventative maintenance inspections to help prepare for the upcoming winter. For more information, call (937) 281-3530.

Every month in Life, Cindy Antrican, public affairs manager for AAA Allied Group, Inc., provides traffic safety tips and information for motorists. Email: CAntrican@aaa-alliedgroup.com.

Get car ready for winter now

Renewable Energy Public Lands Legislation Ready for Hurdles

PHOTO: Wind turbines on BLM land in California. Renewable energy projects would be easier to develop under legislation sponsored by Montana Democrat Jon Tester. CREDIT: Bureau of Land Management.

June 16, 2014

MISSOULA, Mont. – Wind and solar energy companies would have an easier time leasing public lands for projects, under a bill from Montana Sen. Jon Tester.

The Public Land Renewable Energy Development Act is waiting for a spot on a committee calendar. It has support from the state’s Congressional delegation, as well as bi-partisan signees from other states. The Western Governors’ Association and National Association of Counties also support it.

According to Dave Chadwick, executive director of the Montana Wildlife Federation, wildlife conflicts are the biggest concern for renewable projects. Tester’s bill addresses that, and more.

“It’s really a win-win-win for wildlife conservation for hunting opportunity, and for energy companies,” said Chadwick. “It’s also a win for local communities, because the program also includes an element of impact assistance.”

Chadwick added the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management would have funding to inventory possible development regions to make assessments about wildlife conflicts, and how they could be reduced.

The bill was part of a package of legislation blocked by the Senate last month. Chadwick said he hadn’t heard any opposition to the bill by itself.

“The political environment right now is challenging,” said Chadwick. “But something with this kind of broad, bi-partisan support hopefully can pass in Congress.”

Sen. Tester has held local meetings about the legislation to boost support, in hopes that the bill will be placed on a calendar soon.

Read the Public Land Renewable Energy Development Act, as submitted to the Library of Congress.

Deborah Courson Smith/Deb Courson Smith, Public News Service – MT

Renewable Energy Public Lands Legislation Ready for Hurdles

Is solar really ready for prime time?

Roslan Rahman | AFP | Getty Images

Solar panels on the roof of a building at the Marina Barrage in Singapore

Predictions that solar energy will disrupt and replace the current electricity grid system may be premature, with analysts noting urban settings are likely to remain dependent on traditional delivery methods for a while yet.

“The problem is solar or wind or some of the other main intermittent renewables only work when the sun is shining or when the wind is blowing or when the tide is moving,” said Lord Ronald Oxburgh, chairman of the Science & Technology committee in the U.K.’s House of Lords as well as a former non-executive chairman of the U.K. arm of Royal Dutch Shell.

Read More Has solar power’s day in the sun arrived?

“None of these things will work unless you have some means of storing energy,” he said on the sidelines of CNBC’s EnergyFuture brainstorming event Tuesday. “You’ve got to have some backup and your backup at the moment looks like fossil fuels.”

That’s been the experience of import-dependent Singapore, which is keenly interested in cutting energy use.

“By using solar energy, we are not going to be able to be self-sufficient,” said Dr. Liu Thai-Ker, chairman for the Centre for Liveable Cities and a former head of Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority and its Housing Development Board. “But we’ll try to use solar energy to supplement the energy supply as much as possible,” Lui said on the sidelines of the EnergyFuture event.

He noted the island nation has few other renewable energy options besides solar as it doesn’t have strong winds or currents or large rivers, while due to the country’s small size, nuclear power is too dangerous.

The declining price of installing and using solar power has led many analysts to expect it could effectively compete with and displace fossil fuels, as well as weighing on the finances of traditional electricity distributors.

Read More Solar power’s ‘a decade-long story’: Pro

Solar could reshape the market within 10 years, Bernstein Research said in an April note. Many companies are also stepping up solar installations. Wal-Mart, for example, has said it wants to switch to 100 percent renewable power by 2020.

“Great ideas, but they’re incomplete without another technology,” Oxburgh said. “You’re really talking about fancy batteries. And they exist, but they’re really too expensive for general application.”

To be sure, analysts expect the batteries, and lower prices, are coming. In the April report, Bernstein said it expected moves by distribution utilities to protect their revenue from solar’s incursions would make battery storage more cost effective compared with the grid.

Read More Why Asia’s utilities may welcome solar disruption

“A failed battery technology in the auto sector (too hot, too heavy, too rigid a form factor) might well be perfect for the home energy storage market,” Bernstein said then.

Others also expect the batteries will become cheaper.

“Historically, EV (electric vehicle) battery prices were high because they were customized to large formats, with limited production runs, making each battery much more expensive (per kWh) than the smaller models used to power consumer devices,” Barclays said in a note last month. But with electric carmaker Tesla bundling cheaper laptop cells into batteries large enough to power vehicles, it reaped production efficiencies and brought prices down, it noted.

“The power required to operate an electric vehicle can power the average home for 2-3 days,” Barclays said.

Within an urban setting, there are also expectations that the solar panels themselves can reduce overall energy use.

“If you put it at a suitable distance above the flat roof, it not only generates energy itself, it also reduces the heat transmission through the top floor,” Liu said. “It is really kind of a joint effort.”

He noted the city-state is taking other steps to cut energy use, including orienting buildings in a north-south direction, rather than east-west, to minimize sun penetration and cut the use of air-conditioning.

Read More Solar gadgets that could save the planet

In addition, Liu noted it’s possible to put greenery on the buildings, especially facades with high sun exposure, to reduce reflected heat on the ground.

It’s a plan recently put into practice by the ParkRoyal Hotel in the city-state’s central business district, which, in addition to using solar power for landscape lighting, also has four flours of “sky gardens,” as well as using natural light whenever possible.

—By CNBC.Com’s Leslie Shaffer; Follow her on Twitter @LeslieShaffer1

Is solar really ready for prime time?