Calculating Personal Energy Use And Carbon Equivalents

In the previous post I gave an example of energy use calculations for our residence and car.  When energy is produced, transported, and used, CO₂ is produced.  CO₂ is an important greenhouse gas and recent research suggests that monitoring and controlling its production and release is necessary for good policy formation.  We can begin this process by calculating our personal production associated with residence and car.  

Using the numbers for annual energy that I gave before and CO₂ equivalents for fuels, our annual production of CO₂ can be calculated.  

400 gal propane      =  36.64 Mbtu  x 139.2 = 5,100 lbs

120 gal gasoline      =  13.80 Mbtu  x 156.4 = 2,158 lbs 
3 cord firewood        =  72.00 Mbtu  x 195.0 = 14,040 lbs

550 Kwh electricity   =    1.87 Mbtu              =  0 lbs

Total residential        =  124.31 Mbtu            = 21,298 lbs 

Car gasoline            =  55.20 Mbtu  x 156.4   = 8,633 lbs 

Waste disposal        =  (EPA calculation)      = 1,493 lbs 

Total annual household CO₂ production for 2 people = 31,424 lbs 


(Assumed 1 Mbtu propane = 139.2 lbs CO₂; 1 Mbtu gasoline = 156.4 lbs CO₂;  1 Mbtu firewood = 195.0 lbs CO₂; electricity was solar generated with no CO₂ production).

The EPA calculates that average U.S. annual residence and car CO₂ production for a household of 2 people is 41,500 lbs CO₂.  So Jackie and I are at 75.7% of the average.  Assuming that less CO₂ is better, we can begin to contemplate ways to reduce our “carbon footprint”.  As pointed out in the previous post, these calculations only include energy and carbon used and released by annual use of the house and car and do not include carbon released from production, transport, and marketing of food, clothes, shelter, appliances, education, and cars.  These latter items need to be accounted for by life cycle calculations that are beyond the scope of this post.

So have some fun and do your own calculations for energy use and carbon release.  

See here and here for examples.  

Posted by michael