My Carbon Footprint for 2014

My Daily Impact for the Year 2014

I am over a month late in posting this; things just got a little busy.

2014 was a good year for my reduction efforts in my carbon footprint. There were no long driving trips or airline flights. I rode my scooters and motorcycle a lot, and drove my cars much less. I rode my bicycle a lot, and did quite a bit of walking. On the down side, I still eat meat, and still care for a large dog. I am doing more each day to reduce my meat consumption, and Astro is well worth the reduction in carbon emissions from other sources. The occasional release of Methane from both me and Astro cannot be quantified!

Power use this year was a total of 4601 KWh. This is an increase of 29% from 2013. This figure includes the use of power for two people, and having an extra person share my home actually reduces the total power consumption as compared to two people in separate dwellings. It is an increase of power use for two years in a row, and I intend to reverse this trend in 2015.

As mentioned earlier, there was a big reduction in gasoline use as compared to 2013. I drove my least efficient vehicle, my 1997 Plymouth Voyager, only 736 miles last year. Because this mileage was mostly flower delivery, the miles per gallon for the van this year was only 18.8. I do not consider this bad because it was almost all city driving with the A/C on. The EPA ratings for this van are 16 city, 22 highway, and 18 combined. I am satisfied that I drive this van as efficiently as possible.

My second least efficient vehicle is my 2000 Toyota Celica. I drove it 5318 miles using 153.2 gallons for an average MPG of 34.7. The average MPG fell this year because there was no big road trip, and I towed my 760 pound camping trailer quite a bit. This figure still is well above the published figure of only 27combined MPG as per the EPA. The highway rating for this car is only 31. I am really pleased with this number. I get better than 31 MPG towing my camper!

A new vehicle in my fleet is a 2005 Ninja 250 motorcycle. This bike is not known for its fuel efficiency, but mine does quite well. Most people who own this type of bike only report between 50 and 70 MPG. There are some other people like me who get mileage like the 81.7 that I average with mine. I did change the gear ratio shortly after I bought it to reduce the RPM at highway speeds, and that raised my average from 72 to the 81.7 that I get now. I also coast and sail (coasting with the engine off) as much as possible, and I almost always shut the engine off at red lights.

The most efficient group of vehicles I used in 2014 was my Honda Elite scooters. The least efficient, but most reliable is the 1988 CH-80. I rode it 2554 miles, and averaged 88.9 MPG. I have stopped riding this scooter because I find the Ninja to be much more fun.

I revived that 1988 Honda because my 2007 Honda CH-80 died on me, and I could not figure out why. I drove it a total of 1538 miles, and got 100.5 MPG. If this scooter was still running, I would have kept it, and used it for the fuel mileage advantage over the Ninja.

My most efficient scooter was one that I originally bought for parts. It was a 1985 Honda Elite with a 50cc two-stroke engine. I drove it only 348 miles before it too died, but it averaged 110.9 MPG. I would have kept it had it lasted.

My total carbon dioxide footprint for 2014 was:
                Gasoline:             280.50 gallons x 19.4=5441.7 pounds CO2
                Electricity             4601 KWH x 1.22=5613.2 pounds CO2
               Total                    11055 pounds or 5.53 tons
I used 1.22 lb/KWh for my house per Cotap.org, and I used 19.4 lb/gal for gas in my vehicles per the US Energy Information Administration.

The best transportation option I used this year is my trusty Raleigh Technium 12 speed racing bike. I often ride it to Ikea for breakfast, and run short errands with it too. I pledge to ride this bike even more this year for the two benefits it gives: no carbon output, and great exercise for me.

This year, 2015, I will do some things to improve my over-all impact. I will reduce my consumption of meat, further reduce the use of my cars, and increase the energy efficiency of my house. I recently took advantage of Ikea’s 50% off sale on LED light bulbs; I spent 50 dollars for 100 dollars worth of very efficient bulbs. I am to the point where there are no incandescent bulbs in my house, and fewer and fewer florescent ones. I will also re-whiten my roof with fresh coating this spring, and insulate the wood floor above the crawl space. I look forward to even better news next year.