personal mission for 007: start carbon dieting
Finally, my wife and I are getting around to checking up on our carbon budget. How about you?
We're starting with our household energy and transportation choices, and I'll be sharing what we're learning about our own ecological footprint.
For example, according to KIUC's home energy use information for Kaua`i, our two home computers are consuming 0.2 kWh of electricity for every hour of use and costing us almost $40 per month.
OK, so we both work at home and do computer-intensive work.
Still, that's 144 kWh drawn from Kauai's (mostly) non-renewable electric generating sources.
Oh, and never mind that we just switched to a big flat screen TV that consumes twice the energy of older tube TVs. At least we only watch it 2 hours a day. Still, that's another $5 and 18 kWh monthly (or 9 kWh more than the old TV).
Our two portable fans, which run nearly 12 hours daily, take another 72 kWh and add nearly $20 to our monthly.
It's small consolation to note that even the smallest (5000 BTU) AC unit would consume twice the energy...and prolly not provide a lot of relief.
On the transportation front, I should stipulate that I’m a diehard cyclist who loves buses and has never owned a car.
Still, I recently married and my wife owns a high-mileage 10 year-old Toyota which we use lightly (under 10,000 miles per year).
So, I’m looking to switch her to a biodiesel vehicle, and we look forward to patronizing our island’s new biodiesel providers.
I'll be chronicling these changes in our household throughout this new year.
Anyone else wanna share their carbon dieting story?
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