groar's co2 emission thread

[groar]

I have done a CO2 emission accounting for my family, or at least I tried...

Here are my emissions (based upon French figures) :

• Electricity :

Electricity	yearly consumption	CO2 g/kWh	CO2 kg/year	comment
constant consumption	4.5MWh	0.060	270	500W inst.
water heating	1.5MWh	0.060	90	4.1kWh/night - off peak hours only
heating	3.0MWh	0.143	429	16.1kWh/day
other	3.0MWh	0.090	270	8.2kWh/day
saving	-2.0MWh	0.090	-180	misc : fridge, computers, no AC...
PV	-3.0MWh	0.09	-270	pro-PV use 0.143g/kWh while anti-PV use 0.060...
Total	7.0MWh	0.087	609	80% of French Electricity is from nuclear plants !!!

• Natural gas :

Natural gas	yearly consumption	CO2 g/kg	CO2 kg/year	comment
butane	13kg	3870	50.31	for cooking only, except oven and micro-wave

• Diesel :

Diesel	yearly consumption	CO2 kg/L	CO2 kg/year	comment
consumption	1890L	2.66	5027.40	30000km @ 6.3L/100
ecodriving	-390L	2.66	-1037.40	30000km @ 1.3L/100
work from home	-78.75L	2.66	-209.48	-1250km @ 6.3L/100
Total	1421.25L	2.66	3780.52	.

• Grey energy :

Grey energy	yearly consumption	CO2 kg/€	CO2 kg/year	comment
Food and weekly buys	10.785€	0.125	1345.79	20% is energy cost, 0.0962€/kWh and 0.060kg/kWh
Misc (appliances...)	1.000€	0.125	124.78	fridge, TV...
Cars	3.000€	0.125	374.35	1/10 of cars buying cost
House	xxx	xxx	659.31	1/8 of house consumption
Total	xxx	xxx	2504.23

The total is 6944.07 kg/year of CO2.

As Earth can absorb 1.8 ton/year of CO2 by human and we are a family of 3, we are generating 1544 kg/year too much. Nearly what we are saving by eco-driving and electricity saving (1696 kg/year). This total is certainly not complete, but we are probably far from 6.2 tons/year/people as a French.

The biggest saving is eco-driving and my wife and I are still improving...

The grey energy is the biggest guesstimate : I consider 20% of what we buy (food, appliances, cars...) is energy cost, then change this cost to CO2 by considering French electricity. For the cars I considered 1/10 of buying price. For the house I considered 1/8 of CO2 emission by house consumption.

Some ways to improve :

• About grey energy, does low cost goods really have lower grey energy ?
• A solar water heater would save 2/3, ie 1.0MWh/year and 60kg/year of CO2.
• A heat pump to heat would save 2/3, ie 2.0MWh/year and 286kg/year of CO2.
• A little 400Wp PV grid tied would save 460kWh/year and 41kg/year of CO2.
• Have another child

I ordered the assembly to connect the electricity meter to a computer. I'll use it to trace the consumption in near real time and use my measures with the wattmeter to identify the consumptions and try to optimize.

Denis.