TL;DR: Turn off your computer when you aren’t using it and you can buy a goat. There’s some other stuff too, but that’s the most important part.
There are a plethora of posts about ways to improve your energy footprint in your home. The suggestions usually run from the obvious (turn stuff off) to the drastic (get a $1500 energy audit). Unfortunately, many of these articles are a little shy on the actual benefits you could expect from implementing these measures. For example, which should you do first: change your lightbulbs to CFLs or start using a programmable thermostat?
Granola Personal has always included a breakdown of your savings in three dimensions: energy, money, and carbon footprint. It also calculates a number of equivalence classes for each of these dimensions, giving you a concrete example of it’s benefits. I took a little time to do some research, and I’ve done the same thing for a number of common household sustainability suggestions.
Use a clothesline instead of a dryer (5 loads/month)
You’d save 149.5 kWh, enough energy to power a dryer, a space heater, and a big plasma screen for a day
You’d reduce your carbon footprint by 203.32 lbs of CO2, as much as 4 trees, 22 miles in a compact car, and 34 daisies
You’d save $17.94, enough cash for a monkey wrench to throw in the gears, a political bumper sticker, and a tomato from the farmers market
Swap a 60W bulb with a 13W CFL equivalent (used 10hrs/day)
You’d save 171.5 kWh, enough energy to power a dryer, an air conditioner, and a refrigerator for a day
You’d reduce your carbon footprint by 233.24 lbs of CO2, as much as 4 trees, a day of electricity for your home, and 2 miles in a compact car
You’d save $20.58, enough cash for a 16-pack of CFL bulbs, a political bumper sticker, and a tomato from the farmers market
Eliminate all of your vampire load
You’d save 574.8 kWh, enough energy to power a radio station transmitter, a water heater, and an incandescent bulb for a day
You’d reduce your carbon footprint by 781.73 lbs of CO2, as much as a small car, a tree, and a gallon of gasoline
You’d save $68.98, enough cash for a goat for lawn mowing and 2 packs of granola bars
Turn off your 100W computer when it’s unused
You’d save 584.0 kWh, enough energy to power a radio station transmitter, a water heater, and a small window unit AC for a day
You’d reduce your carbon footprint by 794.24 lbs of CO2, as much as a small car, a tree, and a day of electricity for your home
You’d save $70.08, enough cash for a goat for lawn mowing, 2 packs of granola bars, and a reusable grocery bag
Turn your thermostat down/up 10 degrees when you’re at work
You’d save 1149.6 kWh, enough energy to power an electric vehicle charger, a radio station transmitter, and an air conditioner for a day
You’d reduce your carbon footprint by 1563.46 lbs of CO2, as much as midsize car, 5 trees, and a gallon of gasoline
You’d save $137.95, enough cash for a giraffe adoption, a Kill-A-Watt power meter, and a pack of granola bars
Use a ceiling fan instead of a window unit AC while you sleep
You’d save 1389.92 kWh, enough energy to power 2 electric vehicle chargers, an electric furnace, and a big plasma screen for a day
You’d reduce your carbon footprint by 1890.29 lbs of CO2, as much as midsize car, 2 500-mile flights, and a tree
You’d save $166.79, enough cash for a giraffe adoption, a goat for lawn mowing, and a pack of granola bars
Change all your light bulbs from incandescent to CFL
You’d save 1524.37 kWh, enough energy to power a commercial heater, a dryer, and a big coffee maker for a day
You’d reduce your carbon footprint by 2073.14 lbs of CO2, as much as midsize car, a small car, and a tree
You’d save $182.92, enough cash for a solar panel, 2 packs of granola bars, and a shirt from the thrift store
So it looks like using alternative cooling/heating, upgrading your thermostat, changing your light bulbs, and (of course!) turning off your computer are all good bets. If you’re interested in doing the latter, be sure to check out Granola Enterprise. For $20, you can control up to five computers, which is, like, 25 lawn-mowing goats worth of savings.
If you’ve got any questions or comments, or if you would like to see anything else estimated, let me know in the comments.
UPDATE: Assumptions used on the calculation and references:
All savings are annualized, so when it says ‘enough to power a tanning bed for a day’ it means you’d save enough in a year to power a tanning bed running continuously for a day. When it says ‘as much [CO2] as a midsized car’, it means the amount of CO2 a midsized car would release in a year.
US National average cost/kWh of $0.12 (source)
Each kWh releases 1.31lbs of CO2 into the atmosphere (source)
Average american yearly energy consumed is 11,496kWh (source)
You can save 10% on your electric bill by adjusting your thermostat (source)
The emissions of variously sized automobiles (source)
Energy used by lighting systems is roughly 1/6th total residential energy (source)
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Joseph
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