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I made the plunge and bought a compressor and I am now filling up my car at home with Compressed Natural Gas from a well on my farm. I have wanted to do this for years but could not find a compressor that was not junk or very expensive. Finally located what I have been looking for in Dec. Ordered the compressor and bought a dual fuel car off of ebay. Now I'm looking to replace my Truck ( 12 MPG ).

My brother bought a "gas van" at auction 6-7 years ago. It had been a utility company vehicle in NYC, an early 90's Dodge heavy duty van. There was no place locally to fill the tanks, so my brother opened an account with a filling station near the Philly airport, about 25 miles from where we live. The van was near empty, so I followed him on his pilgrammage to fill the tanks. After a few wrong turns we finally located the place. It was Saturday and there was noone there, but the pump was open. We punched in his account number on the keypad, and his pin number. No gas, please re-enter code... So now we're sitting there with a $300 gas van with nearly empty tanks, in an unfriendly neighborhood, and no one to assist with the pump. My hacking skills kick in, we enter 111111 as the account number and 555 as the pin, BINGO! We've got gas! (Yes, he contacted the company and attempted to make restitution. Eventually he gave up when noone seemed to give a crap).

So, back on the road, homeward bound with a tanked up but mildly overheating gas van. (With a left front brake disc that's dragging and making his left foot uncomfortably warm).

We pull the van back into the yard, open the hood and remove the interior engine cowling to let if cool off better, and then we check the tank gauges.

We've used almost exactly half of the tanks load to make the 25 mile trip home.........

Not knocking CNG vehicles, just relating a funny story.

alpacafarmer wrote:I made the plunge and bought a compressor and I am now filling up my car at home with Compressed Natural Gas from a well on my farm. I have wanted to do this for years but could not find a compressor that was not junk or very expensive. Finally located what I have been looking for in Dec. Ordered the compressor and bought a dual fuel car off of ebay. Now I'm looking to replace my Truck ( 12 MPG ).

Congratulations on taking your first step towards energy independence...!!!

Next is getting a generator to run off that well for electricty. Charge a battery bank to run a inverter so you don't have to run the generator 24/7.

Gas stove, gas heater, gas refrigerator , air conditioning system and anything else you can think of.

You are so lucky...

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I already have the generator as my electric is off on average about 10 days a year. Gas heat, stove, hot water and dryer. I've already told the wife the next time we need a fridge it is going to be gas. I almost had a gas fridge a couple of years ago. I was selling a cabin that had an old gas fridge that hadn't been defrosted in years and was almost one big block of ice. The lady buying the place was complaining about needing to pay to have someone haul that big ugly thing out of there and I offered (much to enthusiastically ) to haul it away for free. She decided it might be worth keeping. Would really like to put in a fuel cell. They have been saying for the past 10 years that they are only 6 months away from having them available for home owners.

today...I kid you not...I had lunch today with a fella that has two used 454 cu engines designed for CNG and a NIB 454 cu CNG built by mercruiser...looking for a new home....hmmm I am a Ford guy but....they were used for emergency power source for a chiller in an office building.

alpacafarmer wrote:I already have the generator as my electric is off on average about 10 days a year. Gas heat, stove, hot water and dryer. I've already told the wife the next time we need a fridge it is going to be gas. I almost had a gas fridge a couple of years ago. I was selling a cabin that had an old gas fridge that hadn't been defrosted in years and was almost one big block of ice. The lady buying the place was complaining about needing to pay to have someone haul that big ugly thing out of there and I offered (much to enthusiastically ) to haul it away for free. She decided it might be worth keeping. Would really like to put in a fuel cell. They have been saying for the past 10 years that they are only 6 months away from having them available for home owners.

One of my dreams is being able to go off grid and your almost there. I'm so envious it's not even funny.

fasteddy wrote:today...I kid you not...I had lunch today with a fella that has two used 454 cu engines designed for CNG and a NIB 454 cu CNG built by mercruiser...looking for a new home....hmmm I am a Ford guy but....they were used for emergency power source for a chiller in an office building.

Those engines can be converted back to gasoline very easily. The great thing about engines that run on CNG is that the combustion is very, very clean, which in turn
leads to low wear and tear. Chances are that those used engines are still in great condition. And that NIB...

Too bad your a "cough, cough", Ford guy.



A Chevy guy would know what do with them.



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Lets clarify, I currently own more Fords the Chevy's right now (3 vs the one and a Buick).......I am well versed in the classic chevy, what if I took my FE out of my '65 F100 and put in that Chevy 454.....

BUt back to the thread...Alpacafarmer, man we are all jealous of your impending freedom...my friend has a well that he was thinking of plugging....but when oil took off in '08...he now drives caddy's....

Two of the wells on my farm I bought off of the producer when he was going to plug them. He said they didn't produce enough to make it worth his time. I wanted to keep my free gas so I bought them. The oil I sold that first year I figured I didn't make min. wage pumping them but I still had the free gas so I was OK with that. The first tank I sold I got $8.65 a barrel for the oil. Two years ago I sold a load at $140 a barrel. Now I really don't mine setting out there reading a book for $60 and hour.

love it

Wow, I am amazed at your resourcefullness alpacafarmer. This is also my dream to get off grid.