Carbon Footprint

What is our Carbon Footprint
The amount of carbon emmissions into the atmosphere.  Some are natural, and some are man made.  Some of our biggest emmiters are transportation and buildings.


By insulation, and maximizing the efficiency of our heating system, and driving a Prius, we are trying to minimize our carbon footprint. By a quick calculation on an online calculator, Ginny and I emit about 50% of what the average american emits.  But we are also responsible for about 5 times the emission of the average household worldwide.

How can we alter our footprint fairly easily?
-Walk or bike instead of driving.  Get a credit of one pound of carbon for every mile you bike or walk.
-Plant a tree.  Trees convert Carbon Dioxide into carbon and store the carbon as wood for the lifetime of the tree.  This both removes carbon dioxide and sequesters carbon.  Unfortunately, at the present time, the world is being deforested.  South America leads the deforestation with cutting and burning of the rainforest in Brazil ad Between 1990 and 2000 the world forest has decreased by 0.2% per year.  The largest losses,in the Amazon rainforest, where forest is being cleared for soybean cultivation and cattle ranches.  In Africa:  Nigeria and Sudan are the leaders in deforestation due to subsistance living.  Tropical southeast Asia and Central America are also areas of large deforestation due to development.
-Recycle household trash. This is fairly easy here in Onondaga County, where we have curbside pickup of recylables in blue bins every week, along with the garbage.  The plastics and paper are separated by the home owner.
-Teleconference, or in my case, use Skype.  We have visited my brother, my sister and her family along with my mother, and my sons apartment in New York, all by Skype.  Though not quite the same as being there, it is much better to see people, than a phone or email and pictures.  Especially with the portable laptop and netbook computers, we can show people around our area.
-Change your lighting to the compact fluorescent lights.  We have done that, and are looking for the new LED lighting to come down in price and we will replace the cfl's as they burn out.
-Buy renewable energy.  This is an available option here in Syracuse, but one I have not yet taken advantage of, due to the increased price of the renewable electricity..

Windows

When saving energy and tightening up the house envelope, windows are important.  When we moved to our house 30 years ago, the windows were the double hung with a separate double hung storm window and screen.
About 15 years ago, we replaced the windows with double hung double pane windows, with a gas in between the panes.  A drawback of these windows is that when they are broken, it is not just a simple window pane replacement.  We needed to take the window in to Solvay Glass to have the proper double glazing and sealing.  I added a plastic storm window over the inside of the windows last winter.  When the wind blew hard, you could see the plastic "ballooning".  Bottom line, if you have a window, no matter how well sealed, you have air infiltration through the cracks.

This year we are replacing the basement windows with Block Glass windows.  Over the years, the basement windows have been broken and replaced with a combination of boards, glass and plastic.  This will tighten up our basement, having already eliminated gravity flue connections to the chimney in our earlier renovations, we are now eliminating a lot of cracks that wind can blow into.

Our Prius

2005 Prius

We drive a hybrid Prius car.  In March 2005, we bought a 2005, generation II Prius.  We now have 110,000 miles as of November, 2010.  I had first seen a Prius at the New York State Fair about 3 years earlier.  I had talked to the salesman, and was shown around the car.  My car at the time was a Saturn 4 door, with a manual transmission.  We also had a second car, a station wagon that my wife and later my kids drove.  I couldn't get them interested in the stick shift, it was too complicated, though thru our first 3 cars together, my wife Ginny and I had had manual transmission cars.
So when we needed a replacement for the Saturn in 2005, we were looking for a $10,000 used car.  We ended up buying a $23,000 Toyota Prius.
What Mileage do we get?  About 45 to 50 miles per gallon in the summer, and as low as 35 to 40 miles per gallon in the winter.  Some items that reduce miles per gallon:  electric air conditioning system, electric heat in the winter.  Driving into the wind going west to Rochester, and driving with the wind behind us coming back to Syracuse, gives a swing of 40 mpg going west, and 50 mpg coming back east.  Going up hills, and we have very low mileage.  Going down hills, the generator recharges the battery.  Stopped in Traffic, the engine will shut off.  When the brakes are applies, the regenerative braking system charges the battery.
The car is not electric, it runs on gas.  There is an electric motor, but the battery for the motor is charged by the gasoline engine.  I still have to fill the tank with gas.
The car does have quirks.  When my brother rented a prius, he called me up one morning to say he couldn't get the car in gear.  I think this happens to us all, you need to press down the start button while simultaneously stepping on the brake to start the car.  The car also makes noises after it is shut off.
Sneaky, is a description of a Prius.  When it runs on electric, there is no noise.  People often will walk right  in front of us on city streets, not hearing the car.
This car is our first Toyota, and we are very pleased with the performance of the car.  We needed new brakes at 80,000 miles.  Other problems have been minimal.
Price of Gas, when we first bought our Prius, gas was under $3 per gallon.  We were told the breakeven gas price for the additional cost of a hybrid was $3 per gallon.  Since then the price has gone up to $4, and down to $2.65, now back up to $3 per gallon.
The car has done well in snow.  A few years ago, while visiting in the Catskill mountains, about 6" of snow fell overnight.  Our other car, a station wagon, had a hard time making it out of the long driveway.  Our Prius went right up with no problem, it is a heavier car than one would think and had good traction.

Pushbutton start, touch screen climate control and radio tuning