Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Sometimes bullshit comes in a lovely shade of green

mcgeedo · 10-17-2008, 01:15 PM

Number of households in the United States, 2010 projected: about 115,000

source - http://www.census.gov/prod/1/pop/p25-1129.pdf

Carbon emission of a car, 2008 Toyota Corolla, 12,000 miles/year: 7862 pounds

source - Carbon footprint calculator | TerraPass: fight global warming, reduce your carbon footprint

Carbon emission of a power plant, Gavin in Ohio: 1062 tons Co2 per kW/year

source - CARMA - Carbon Monitoring for Action

Half of the households would number about 57,500. Replacing a 100 Watt incandescent bulb with a 25 Watt compact fluorescent bulb of the same brightness (lumens) would save about 75 Watts. The savings is about 6,296,250 kiloWatt hours, assuming that the bulb is used about 4 hours per day.

Using the carbon numbers for a fairly dirty power plant, you get 6,686,617,500 tons per year of Co2 savings.

800,000 cars at 7862 pounds per year is 6,289,600,000 tons of Co2 per year.

So there you go: Change just one light bulb in half the households and you can save the carbon emitted by 800,000 cars.

BUT!!! You have to use the carbon figures of one of the more dirty, coal-fired power plants, and you have to use the carbon emissions of a brand-new compact car. If you add a little reality, such as the average carbon per kW of US power plants... If you use the carbon emissions of a more typical car... You don't get the same rosy answer. Yes, you get a savings, but not as big as advertised. Not nearly as big.

Figures don't lie, but liars figure. That particular lie is often repeated, here for example:

http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partner...et_Mercury.pdf

10-17-2008, 01:15 PM	#8 (permalink)
mcgeedo Crazy	Number of households in the United States, 2010 projected: about 115,000 source - http://www.census.gov/prod/1/pop/p25-1129.pdf Carbon emission of a car, 2008 Toyota Corolla, 12,000 miles/year: 7862 pounds source - Carbon footprint calculator \| TerraPass: fight global warming, reduce your carbon footprint Carbon emission of a power plant, Gavin in Ohio: 1062 tons Co2 per kW/year source - CARMA - Carbon Monitoring for Action Half of the households would number about 57,500. Replacing a 100 Watt incandescent bulb with a 25 Watt compact fluorescent bulb of the same brightness (lumens) would save about 75 Watts. The savings is about 6,296,250 kiloWatt hours, assuming that the bulb is used about 4 hours per day. Using the carbon numbers for a fairly dirty power plant, you get 6,686,617,500 tons per year of Co2 savings. 800,000 cars at 7862 pounds per year is 6,289,600,000 tons of Co2 per year. So there you go: Change just one light bulb in half the households and you can save the carbon emitted by 800,000 cars. BUT!!! You have to use the carbon figures of one of the more dirty, coal-fired power plants, and you have to use the carbon emissions of a brand-new compact car. If you add a little reality, such as the average carbon per kW of US power plants... If you use the carbon emissions of a more typical car... You don't get the same rosy answer. Yes, you get a savings, but not as big as advertised. Not nearly as big. Figures don't lie, but liars figure. That particular lie is often repeated, here for example: http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partner...et_Mercury.pdf