recipes to cut your own carbon footprint

Here we go, insulative power of books.
It wasn't as impressive as I rmembered really though, if you check the scale (degrees Celsius) only a couple of degrees difference.  The room was pretty cold though, it might have been better if the actual room temperature was higher...

Nancy Reading wrote:

It wasn't as impressive as I remembered really though, if you check the scale (degrees Celsius) only a couple of degrees difference.

Celcius degrees are wider than Fahrenheit ones. I think that in the right range, a few degrees can make a big difference in comfort level. Added to "heat the body not the room" approaches, and the great value of books if the internet ever exits our lives in a bang ( or in my neighborhood, an earthquake) books as insulation is a fine idea!

Now if I could make some sliding, nesting book shelves to use as inside window coverings, that would *really* help keep my house warmer in the winter!  

paul wheaton wrote:I hope to convert this first post into a wiki in about three days.  It is time to build the list.

The average american adult carbon footprint is 30 tons per year.


Heat in a cold climate

the average montana house heated with natural gas puts 8.9 tons of CO2 into the air per year  

the average montana house heated with electricity puts 29.4 tons of CO2 into the air per year

the average montana house heated with a conventional wood stove puts 4.4 tons of CO2 into the air per year

the average montana house heated with a rocket mass heater puts 0.4 tons of CO2 into the air per year


Switching from electric heat to a rocket mass heater in a montana home can cut 29 tons per year.

I am going to guess that the average number of adults per household in the US is 1.6.   Therefore ...

how you heat your home in a cold climate could reduce the carbon footprint by 18.1 tons per year

Using a foot powered washing machine instead of the traditional electric powered one.

At this point, as far as I know the size of them are still small to medium so it might not cover 100% of your washing needs but at least you can start doing a 70/30 or 60/40 percentages.

paul wheaton wrote:

Am I allowed to share photos like this to social media? It seems like that is the intent of making something so nice, but I just thought I'd check

Kyle Clawson wrote:

paul wheaton wrote:

Am I allowed to share photos like this to social media? It seems like that is the intent of making something so nice, but I just thought I'd check

Share far and wide.  I didn't make it.  

paul wheaton wrote:

Kyle Clawson wrote:

paul wheaton wrote:

Am I allowed to share photos like this to social media? It seems like that is the intent of making something so nice, but I just thought I'd check

Share far and wide.  I didn't make it.  

The status quo situation in a nutshell yep.... I swear to god, the human race in general will start taking things serious with the beginning of the end starts and not a minute before.

My last months electricity bill was 18% higher than the previous month.
But, I think I'll survive that massive jump.
It was almost $9.  Yes, 900 pennies.
I'm really liking these solar panels.

Another topic we often do not think about when deciding on personal carbon footprints is the amount of new stuff we buy.  Big purchases such as a  new car - a large SUV is around 30 tonnes of carbon embedded in the manufacturing, whereas a small hatchback is only around 6 tonnes.
Imported food is also massive in embedded carbon terms- especially if flown to the country from across the planet - eg watercress grown in America ending up in my local store in the UK- when we grown watercress not so far away in the same country.

So no more large heavy objects or getting new clothes all the time- as we know here- go for second hand, get high quality and keep for a long time.

Charmian Larke wrote: Big purchases such as a  new car - a large SUV is around 30 tonnes of carbon embedded in the manufacturing, whereas a small hatchback is only around 6 tonnes.

Buying a great used vehicle would be much better. Even better would be if the used vehicle were a small hatchback.

You could switch to a renewable electricity supplier. One that  doesn't sell its carbon credits to other companies. In the UK that might be a company like Good Energy.
Land use: aim for not disturbing the soil, but add carbon to it through a diverse range of plants. Avoid peat products, and aim to keep water on the land rather than funnelling it down drains, risking floods downstream. These measures will also help to moderate the climate.

Should we add to this list:

Utilizing home-based micro-solar, micro-wind, micro-hydro power generation, in conjunction with reduced consumption?

Lots of people advocate large-scale solar and wind, but there can be land-use issues with that, as well as huge embodied energy and end-of-life questions.  A potentially more advantageous and more Permie-values-based way would be to leverage these technologies in a small scale at or near point-of-use.

Beau Davidson wrote:Should we add to this list:

Utilizing home-based micro-solar, micro-wind, micro-hydro power generation, in conjunction with reduced consumption?

Lots of people advocate large-scale solar and wind, but there can be land-use issues with that, as well as huge embodied energy and end-of-life questions.  A potentially more advantageous and more Permie-values-based way would be to leverage these technologies in a small scale at or near point-of-use.

Small solar yes, wind more difficult: output proportional to cube of wind speed, so in my garden that's not worth bothering. Coast and hills are brilliant.

Whilst patrolling the web looking up stuff for this and other Permies work, I found this tidbit of useful info: Eco Hacker Farm project of Cutting CO2 emissions

Eco Hacker Farm is a group of like-minded individuals practicing permaculture in Europe. I like them. They are innovative: developing some software projects related to agriculture and permaculture and such like.

EPA stats!

I found this site while reading thru some if Paul's Kickstarter stuff: 350.org The '350' refers to '350 parts per million' of CO2 they say we need to get down to in the atmo.

There are local groups all over, including one in Montana: 350Montana

Meanwhile, while I'm at it: check out Paul's latest Kickstarter, launching soon! Smash that 'notify me on launch' button as if it's one too many mosquitos that have bred because of global warming. Garden Master Course Kickstarter

Interesting chart attached..  I contend that many of Helen Atthowe's methods reach into many of these categories.

Paul Wheaton summarizes a lot of this in

Phil Swindler wrote:My last months electricity bill was 18% higher than the previous month.
But, I think I'll survive that massive jump.
It was almost $9.  Yes, 900 pennies.
I'm really liking these solar panels.

Just paid this months electric bill.  $10.31

I think these suggestions are great, but not so much from worrying about our carbon footprint, more from common sense. And they spell our future.
However, what do you really know about carbon dioxide? Here's a serious but fun quiz - https://co2coalition.org/climate-quiz/

A lot of the points made by Paul in this thread is summarized in his llatest podcast and this podcast for those who prefer to listen than read.

Hi, and thank you for this post! I am trying to convince the dean of my school to give me the possibility to build an outdoors rocket stove in Germany for the students. Therefore, I need to write why rocket mass heaters is sustainable, and that it will not make the university look bad, in the face of an energy and climate crisis. I would like to use the data you published bellow,  but I cant use it without its source. Can you please cite the source? I would be very very grateful.


- the average montana house heated with natural gas puts 8.9 tons of CO2 into the air per year

- the average montana house heated with a rocket mass heater puts 0.4 tons of CO2 into the air per year

You can find how we calculated all of this at https://permies.com/heat

I am a rare breed or so I think. I am approaching thirty years old and I still have the same car that I have had since the end of high school. My first record is from 02/08/2014. I wonder if there is somehow I can calculate from fuel mileage compared to gallons to get a carbon footprint based on driving alone

I drive a 2004 Mercury Grand Marquis.

Average MPG - 19.8
Gallons Consumed - 2,658.774 Gallons of Unleaded Gasoline
Total Spent - $13,176.13

I might attempt seeing if I can manage to bicycle to work in the good seasons to try and start offsetting that number. I would love an extra $13K in my pocket!

I consider myself a hybrid with an ever-decreasing carbon footprint. One of my current contributions is to only buy used cars.  I have learned, and am still learning, how to maintain and repair all my vehicles.  In my opinion, this is an effective method of recycling.

Timothy Norton wrote:I am a rare breed or so I think. I am approaching thirty years old and I still have the same car that I have had since the end of high school. My first record is from 02/08/2014. I wonder if there is somehow I can calculate from fuel mileage compared to gallons to get a carbon footprint based on driving alone

I drive a 2004 Mercury Grand Marquis.

Average MPG - 19.8
Gallons Consumed - 2,658.774 Gallons of Unleaded Gasoline
Total Spent - $13,176.13

I might attempt seeing if I can manage to bicycle to work in the good seasons to try and start offsetting that number. I would love an extra $13K in my pocket!

From epa

8,887 grams of CO2 emissions per gallon of gasoline consumed

This assumes that all the carbon in the gasoline is converted to CO2, which of course over estimates slightly, since there will be other biproducts such as soot.
Is that 2.6 million gallons since you've had the car? - impressive record keeping!

Nancy Reading wrote:

Timothy Norton wrote:I am a rare breed or so I think. I am approaching thirty years old and I still have the same car that I have had since the end of high school. My first record is from 02/08/2014. I wonder if there is somehow I can calculate from fuel mileage compared to gallons to get a carbon footprint based on driving alone

I drive a 2004 Mercury Grand Marquis.

Average MPG - 19.8
Gallons Consumed - 2,658.774 Gallons of Unleaded Gasoline
Total Spent - $13,176.13

I might attempt seeing if I can manage to bicycle to work in the good seasons to try and start offsetting that number. I would love an extra $13K in my pocket!

From epa

8,887 grams of CO2 emissions per gallon of gasoline consumed

This assumes that all the carbon in the gasoline is converted to CO2, which of course over estimates slightly, since there will be other biproducts such as soot.
Is that 2.6 million gallons since you've had the car? - impressive record keeping!

Thank you for that citation, that helps me get a ballpark at the very least! I do agree, that is assuming the vehicle is running at hits optimal at all times which we know is impossible outside of a vacuum.  It is two thousand six hundred and fifty eight gallons and change. I actually started tracking fill up data in order to watch how efficient my vehicle was. If the miles per gallon started to drop or suddenly dropped I was tipped off to something running suboptimal. It helped me decide if to run sparkplugs to recommended service intervals or to change it out early. Same thing with gauging perhaps tire pressure issues among other things. I'm glad I started doing it right as I got the vehicle.

our new carbon footprint vid

Don't know if this really counts.
I've been working from home and my wife only works 2 miles from here.  MAN have we been buying a lot less gas.

Phil Swindler wrote:Don't know if this really counts.
I've been working from home and my wife only works 2 miles from here.  MAN have we been buying a lot less gas.

To express that in tons ...  

I wonder if "work from home 100%" could translate to a dramatic drop in miles-per-year ...

researching ...  

According to the Federal Highway Administration, US drivers average 14,263 miles annually.  

... ... ...  struggling to find data on average commute.

paul wheaton wrote:... ... ...  struggling to find data on average commute.

I'm betting you will find average daily commute is further than the average Middle Ages Peasant travelled even once in their life. Not that I'd like to return to Peasanthood, but looking at how ancient carless societies organized their environment might give us good ideas to learn from. Edo Period Japan also.

I'm not sure if this is good enough data but here is a potential source for average commute times by USA States - https://www.zippia.com/advice/average-commute-time-statistics/

It cites its sources at the bottom of the article but I didn't do any due diligence investigating them for quality.

kinda looking for commute miles.

I might be getting somewhere. This PDF lists different average one way distances per state.

https://www.streetlightdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Commutes-Across-America_180201.pdf

I'm trying to create a wiki about ways to cool a house without electricity!

https://permies.com/wiki/248994/Ways-cool-house-electricity