EGEE 101H, Homework #3 March 10, 2014 Due on Tuesday, March 25. 1.

Calculate your personal or your familys greenhouse gas emissions using the on-line Carbon Footprint Calculator at http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/ind-calculator.html Summarize the results from the following sections using the calculator. Section 1: Estimate your current total household emissions. ! pts "y home uses #!$ # l%s of C&' Section : E(plore actions you can ta)e to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions$ energy use$ and waste disposal costs. ! pts *hough they suggested many ways to reduce my car%on footprint$ the only ways + can actually see myself reducing are: ,riving less miles *urning down the thermostat Ena%ling power management features on my laptop -ashing my clothes in cold water Su%sisting around 1!. of my electricity for green power /eplacing around 1! %ul%s with more efficient one Section 0: See how much you can save 1in dollars and emissions2 %y ta)ing the actions you chose in Section . ! pts 3elow is a summary of my reductions:

+ could potential reduce my home %y 1 $#4 l%s of C&' per year5 this is 16 percent of my current emissions. *his amounts to 71$644 a year. *his is still around 18$!!! l%s of co' over the national average$ so perhaps + could do more than what + am currently willing to do. . 9sing the power profiler at http://oaspu%.epa.gov/powpro/ept:pac).charts

Compare the fuel mi( and air emissions rates of the electricity in your hometown to the national average. ! pts ;s shown %elow$ my area uses far more coal than most other areas. -e also use very little hydro-power and non-hydro renewa%les. ;lso nota%le is that we compensate for more coal use with less gas use. 3ecause of this$ we emit far more C&' $ sulfer dio(ide$ and nitrogen o(ide. *his is surprising to me %ecause <itts%urgh is %uilt around three different rivers5 + would e(pect hydro power to %e much higher. +t is also interesting to note that + as)ed a classmate what his emissions were li)e$ and though his )-= were stri)ingly similar$ his emissions were much lower5 + attri%ute this to <itts%urgh %eing a primarily coal-using area while his region uses a large amount of nuclear energy.

 ,etermine the air emissions impacts of electricity use in your family home. ! pts "y family uses around 6>0! )-= of energy per month. *his translates to a%out 46 l%s of nitrogen o(ide$ ## pounds of sulfer dio(ide$ and 1 $0!! pounds of car%on dio(ide. +t is interesting to note that a friend of mine compared his num%ers to mine$ and even though we had stri)ingly similar num%ers of )-=$ + had much higher nitrogen o(ide sulfer dio(ide and car%on dio(ide outputs. -e compared out num%ers further and he realized that his area used much more nuclear energy than my area$ and my area 1<itts%urgh2 is a huge coal user. *o me$ this show how important it is to %egin to use less wasteful$ less harmful$ and more efficient energy.