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As we discuss in the CBS segment, the average American emits about 26,766 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent every year from energy use; this costs about $3,208 (see the explanation in this post). That’s for each person in the household (minus the driving for the kids). The average household spends about $8,150 per year in energy costs. Learn how to calculate your carbon footprint.
How can I calculate my own footprint?
All of the energy that you use is measured somewhere. Your electricity use is measured on your bills in kilowatt-hours (kWh). Home heating fuel is on your natural gas (therms or CCF), fuel oil (gallons), or other kind of bill. Gasoline use is easy to measure by getting odometer readings from your vehicle, and dividing by the miles per gallon to get gallons used. For vehicles, you can also check out your emissions at the government fuel economy website. For flights, you can input the different airports into a calculator. Take the numbers from your bills and plug them into a carbon footprint calculator.
Carbon footprint calculators:
http://www.terrapass.com
http://www.carbonfund.org
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ind_calculator.html (US EPA Personal Emissions Calculator, does not include flights)
The one I built that was on the CBS program (click on links above)
What is the energy use, cost, and emissions of the average American?
Electricity
- Average electricity use: 6078 kilowatt-hours (kWh)
- Greenhouse gases from electricity: 8,145 pounds CO2e (1.34 lbs CO2e per kWh)
- Electricity Cost: $608 ($0.10 per kWh)
Gasoline (one car)
- Average gasoline use per car: 619 gallons (assumes 12,375 miles driven per car with 20 mpg
- Greenhouse gases from fuel oil: 12,100 pounds CO2e (19.56 pounds CO2e per gallon)
- Gasoline cost: $2,012 ($3.25 per gallon)
Residential Fuel: Natural Gas (we used natural gas in the CBS example. If you use another fuel, there are more resources in this post for you to calculate your emissions)
- Average natural gas use: 470 Therms
- Greenhouse gases from natural gas: 5,500 pounds CO2e (11.71 lbs CO2e per therm)
- Natural gas Cost: $588 ($1.25/therm)
Flights
- Average 1 domestic flight per year, short distance round trip
- Greenhouse gas emissions from flying: 1,021 pounds CO2e
- Cost of trip varies
Background: How does using energy emit greenhouse gases?
Each unit of energy that you use results in the emissions of a certain amount of greenhouse gas because of combustion. Combustion combines fuel and oxygen to produce energy, water, and greenhouse gases. Every fuel produces a specific amount of greenhouse gas per unit burned. Surprisingly, something like a gallon of gas that weighs about 6 pounds can emit 19.56 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent through combustion with oxygen. That’s a real number that has been verified in lab experiments and is a standard of the Department of Energy.
Pounds of Carbon dioxide equivalents produced from each fuel type
- 1 gallon unleaded gas: 19.56
- 1 gallon diesel or heating oil: 22.38
- 1 CCF/therm of natural gas: 12.06/11.71
- 1 gallon propane: 12.67
- 1 kilowatt-hour electricity: 1.34 US Average (varies by mix of fuels used in state to produce electricity)
- Burning wood for heat: 0 if renewed (part of natural cycle)
In Part 1, we discussed Carbon Reduction Action Groups (CRAGs) and carbon emissions. In Part 3, you’ll learn how to reduce it and save about 20% on your energy bills.