KeirstynMarcucci

EGEE101H
Homework3
2/25/15
1. Calculate your personal or your familys greenhouse gas emissions using the on-line Carbon
Footprint Calculator at http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/ind-calculator.html
Summarize the results from the following sections using the calculator.
Section 1: Estimate your current total household emissions. 20 pts
In my household, which consists of my parents and me, we use 36,096 lbs of CO2 or 12,032 pounds
of CO2 equivalent per year per household member. We use natural gas for heating and electricity
throughout our household. We have three vehicles, all three of which are small cars, and one of our
cars is not used very often. These vehicles get 20, 23, and 26 miles per gallon. The two latter cars are
driven around 8,096 miles a year and 12,000 miles per year, respectively. The first vehicle varies, as
it is only driven in the summer, on breaks, or when my parents need to use it. Combined, these cars
produce 17,144 pounds of CO2 emissions per year.
Our gas bill was $123 this month, meaning that we produce 15,817 pounds of CO2 a year (it is
important to note though that this months gas bill is high because of the freezing temperatures
outside). Our electric bill was $92 this month, meaning we produce 1,688 pounds of CO2e per year
(bills are higher in the summer because of air conditioning though). As a household, we do not use
green power. We also recycle everything that we can, which is part of the reason we have a lower
emission average than the average household in the United States, which is 62,250 pounds of CO2
per year. Our total waste before recycling was 2,466 pounds of CO2e per year. We recycle aluminum
and steel cans, which subtracted 395 pounds of CO2e from our total. Recycling plastic subtracted
154 pounds, glass removed 81 pounds, newspaper removed 306 and recycling magazines subtracted
83 from the total. Our total waste emissions after recycling dropped to 1,447 pounds of CO2e per
year, a difference of 1,019 pounds of CO2e per year.
Section 2: Explore actions you can take to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions, energy use,
and waste disposal costs. 20 pts
By cutting down the miles on two of our three cars, which can be done by my step-dad driving my
mom to work and taking public transportation more often (Pittsburgh has a good trolley and bus
system), we can cut down our emissions from the cars. My mom could cut about 40 miles off of her
mileage usage per week by taking the trolley to and from work, as we live very close to her place of
work, but not close enough to walk. This would save us $340 a year, reduce our CO2 emissions by
1,847 pounds or 5% of our total emissions. If we perform regular maintenance on the vehicles, we
could save $167 a year and 1,200 pounds of CO2 per year, or about 3% of our total emissions. My
parents also plan to get a new car this year (a used Passat most likely), which gets a combined 35
miles per gallon, which is 15 more than our current 2000 Taurus. This would in turn give us an
annual savings of $32 and save 228 pounds of CO2e per year, or 1% of our total emissions.
Throughout my home, there are also many improvements we can make. We will start to turn down
our thermostat by two more degrees during winter nights (we already keep it relatively low, so we
cannot decrease this by much more), which we save us $55 annually and save 588 pounds of CO2
per year, or 2% of our total emissions. We will also turn our air conditioner up by two degrees
(again, we already keep this relatively high, so we cannot decrease it by much more), which will
save us $1 annually and save 41 pounds of CO2 per year. By enabling the power management
features on my computer, we can save $12 per year, along with 161 pounds of CO2e. We will also

start to use a drying rack for 50% of our laundry, which will save us $62 annually and save 826
pounds of CO2 emissions a year, or 2% of our total emissions. We will also replace 10 of our
lightbulbs (so the lighting in the kitchen and dining room) with 13-watt energy star bulbs, which will
save us $60 annually, and save 780 pounds of CO2e, or 2% of our total emissions per year. We also
already have Energy Star appliances, such as our refrigerator, furnace, and washer/dryer. Since we
already recycle as much as we can as a family, EPA did not have any other recommendations for my
family to take to reduce our waste emissions.
Section 3: See how much you can save (in dollars and emissions) by taking the actions you
chose in Section 2. 20 pts
If my family and I take all of the actions I selected on EPAs website, we would reduce our annual
emissions by 5,671 pounds of CO2 per year, which would be 16% of our overall total emissions
annually. Our potential dollar savings as a family would be approximately $729, as this is based on
generalized assumptions. My new total annual estimated CO2 emissions would be 30,425 pounds of
CO2 per year, or 10,142 pounds of CO2 per year per household member (average emissions per
person in the United States are 20,750 pounds per year, number found on EPA website). With this
cost saving and emission saving actions, my annual CO2 emissions would go from 36,096 pounds
per year to 30,425 pounds per year, a drop of 5,671 pounds.
2.

Using the power profiler at http://oaspub.epa.gov/powpro/ept_pack.charts

Compare the fuel mix and air emissions rates of the electricity in your hometown to the
national average. 20 pts
The fuel mix in my region, which is Pittsburgh, PA (zip code 15243), is vastly different from that
of the national averages for many of the different sources. My region uses 1.9% non-hydro
renewables, while the national average is 4%. For hydro generation, my region has 0.7%, while
the national average is 6.2%. My region uses more nuclear generation, 23.8%, than the national
average of 19.6%. As for oil, my region uses 0.4%, but the national average of 1% is not much
higher. The national average of gas used to generate electricity of 24% is much higher than my
local region, which uses gas for 4.2% of electricity generation. The majority of electricity
generation in my area comes from coal, which accounts for 68.6% of electric generation in the
area, while the national average is 44.8%.
As for emission rates (lbs/MWh), my region is higher than the national average for nitrogen
oxides, sulfur dioxide, and carbon dioxide. My region produces 1.4 lbs/MWh of nitrogen oxides,
while the national average is 1.1. The national average for sulfur dioxide is 2.6 lbs/MWh, while
my region produces 5 lbs/MWh. My region produces 1,503 lbs/MWh of carbon dioxide, which is
slightly higher than the national average of 1,232 lbs/MWh.

Determine the air emissions impacts of electricity use in your family home. 20 pts
Looking at my most recent electric bill, it stated that my family uses a monthly average of 814
kWh. I choose to use this average because it takes account for the months where we use less
electric and those where we use more. Each year, my home produces 14 pounds of nitrogen
oxides, 51 pounds of sulfur dioxide, and 15,536 pounds of carbon dioxide.
From here, I took the 15,536 pounds of carbon dioxide and entered them into the greenhouse gas
equivalencies calculator. This is equivalent to 7 metric tons of carbon dioxide. This is equivalent
to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from 1.5 passenger vehicles, 16,779 miles per year

driven by an average passenger vehicle, 2.5 tons of waste sent to the landfill, and 0.361 garbage
trucks of waste recycled instead of landfilled. This is equivalent to the CO2 emissions from 793
gallons of gasoline consumed, 7,569 pounds of coal burned, and 0.093 tanker trucks worth of
gasoline. It is also equivalent to the CO2 emissions from 0.643 homes energy use from one year,
0.002 wind turbines installed, and 0.969 homes electricity use for one year. It is also equivalent
to the carbon sequestered by 181 tree seedlings grown for 10 years, 5.8 acres of U.S. forests in
one year and 0.054 acres of U.S. forests preserved from conversion to cropland in one year.