The Little Things
December 21st, 2007 Posted in Climate / Human habitat, Ecology, Work/life balance
In a previous post, I provided a link for a quiz that revealed your Ecological Footprint. Here’s another way (slightly more complicated) way to calculate part of your footprint (adapted from The Green Book by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas Kostigen):
Home energy carbon use:
- Electricity per year: ____ (x 1.34 lb CO2/kilowatt-hr) = year total ____
- Natural Gas per year: ____ (x 12.06 lb of CO2/therm) = year total ____
- Home Heating Oil per year: ____ (x 22.38 lb of CO2/gallon) = year total ____
- Propane per year: ____(x 12.8 lb CO2/gallon) = year total ____
Okay readers, I know what your thinking: “That’s all nice and depressing, now how do we DECREASE our ecological footprints.” Patience, quick and easy tips are on their way! In the mean time, here’s a teaser:
Turn Down your thermostat at night. According to Rogers and Kostigen, you’ll decrease your electricity bill by an average of 1% by every degree it is turned down while everyone is sleeping, and about 10% during the day when no one is at home.
2 Responses to “The Little Things”
By Health Patio on Dec 22, 2007
I grew up on wood heat- the old saying is it warms you twice… once when you chop it and once when you burn it! I still like a cool house at night. It is just more comfortable IMHO.
By Magdalena on Dec 27, 2007
We have had a programmable thermostat for years and love it. I also think it is more comfortable to sleep in a cool house. The magic number for our family is 67 degrees at night. With a programable thermostat there is one less thing to try to remember in the morning!