A Blog to help each other understand what is going on...
During my stay with Sarah and Abbot in Western Massachusetts we all went to see Al Gore's movie "Inconvenient Truth". A documentary that explains the influence of CO2 content in the atmosphere and the possible effects it will have on OUR future... There are no borders nor security measures to protect anyone from the effects of the rising level of CO2 in the atmosphere. It is one world we're living on and everybody is responsible in the contribution on the production of the CO2 gas in our daily lives. One important contribution is the electrical consumption, stuff that most of us are unaware of. But the fact is that every kilowatt/hour produces 2.1 pounds of CO2
are released into the atmosphere from a coal-fired power-plant. From oil-fired it is 1.4 pounds and from natural gas it is 0.8 pounds. Very little from nuclear and nothing from hydro, solar or wind powered plants.
Now what does that mean, what is 1 kilowatt/hour anyway. This is the way to measure the consumption of electricity and is explained as followed: if you turn on a space-heater on the 1000W setting and you leave it on for 1 hour you used up 1kW/hr. Or turn on 10 100W light-bulbs for 1 hour or 1 100W lamp for 10 hours and then You used up 1 kW/hr. So it is depending on the wattage of the appliance and how long it is turned on.
There are obvious things we use and are aware of its consumption of electricity, like the lights. And yes I'm sure your parents told you over and over to turn off the light when you leave the room, but now lets put a number behind this thing. A 60W incandescent light-bulb you forgot to turn of in your basement and come back lets say 3 days later consumed (3 days times 24 hours times 0.06kW equals 4.32kW/hrs and if you're living in a area were the power is produced by burning coal than your participation was a bit more than 9 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere. Well you might say, that is not a whole lot... but you are not the only one that forgot to turn off some light somewhere and that basement light is not the only thing that is burning away electricity in your house.
Things like your power-sources for charging your home-phone, cell-phone, portable vacuum, emergency light and many other gadgets that you plug a transformer into the wall receptacle. These small things add up to an immense sum of electrical consumption because of the shear mass of things that are constantly plugged-in. Even when you don't use them, like your cell phone charger is more likely plugged-in even though you don't charge your phone at the moment. For example for 1 day 1 power-adapter that uses 1 W in 150 million households of the US alone (1 day = 24 hrs times 0.001 kW times 150'000'000 equals 3'600'000 kW/hr that reads 3 million 600 thousand kilo-watts that equals to 7 million 560 thousand pounds of CO2 or 3429 tonns (the weight of a cagoship) in one day.... just for a tiny little transformer we plug in for nothing....
are released into the atmosphere from a coal-fired power-plant. From oil-fired it is 1.4 pounds and from natural gas it is 0.8 pounds. Very little from nuclear and nothing from hydro, solar or wind powered plants.
Now what does that mean, what is 1 kilowatt/hour anyway. This is the way to measure the consumption of electricity and is explained as followed: if you turn on a space-heater on the 1000W setting and you leave it on for 1 hour you used up 1kW/hr. Or turn on 10 100W light-bulbs for 1 hour or 1 100W lamp for 10 hours and then You used up 1 kW/hr. So it is depending on the wattage of the appliance and how long it is turned on.
There are obvious things we use and are aware of its consumption of electricity, like the lights. And yes I'm sure your parents told you over and over to turn off the light when you leave the room, but now lets put a number behind this thing. A 60W incandescent light-bulb you forgot to turn of in your basement and come back lets say 3 days later consumed (3 days times 24 hours times 0.06kW equals 4.32kW/hrs and if you're living in a area were the power is produced by burning coal than your participation was a bit more than 9 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere. Well you might say, that is not a whole lot... but you are not the only one that forgot to turn off some light somewhere and that basement light is not the only thing that is burning away electricity in your house.
Things like your power-sources for charging your home-phone, cell-phone, portable vacuum, emergency light and many other gadgets that you plug a transformer into the wall receptacle. These small things add up to an immense sum of electrical consumption because of the shear mass of things that are constantly plugged-in. Even when you don't use them, like your cell phone charger is more likely plugged-in even though you don't charge your phone at the moment. For example for 1 day 1 power-adapter that uses 1 W in 150 million households of the US alone (1 day = 24 hrs times 0.001 kW times 150'000'000 equals 3'600'000 kW/hr that reads 3 million 600 thousand kilo-watts that equals to 7 million 560 thousand pounds of CO2 or 3429 tonns (the weight of a cagoship) in one day.... just for a tiny little transformer we plug in for nothing....
posted by René Schaub at 3:46 PM
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