The Green Ration Book | Assessing the cost of everyday living

Welcome to The Green Ration Book

The average UK citizen creates 11 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide equivalent (CO2e)
a year. CO2e includes the effects of other greenhouse gasses as well as
the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide.

New UK targets aim to cut this by 80%.

Reducing these 11 tonnes by 80% gives a ration of 2.2 tonnes per year.
This makes a daily ration 6kg CO2.

Dividing the ration equally between categories “consumables”, “building”, “transport” and “government”, allows 1.5kg per day.

The estimates below are for CO2e and amount of a 1.5kg daily ration.
This is expressed as a time (e.g. a quarter of a daily ration is given as 6 hours).

Bunch of Flowers from Holland

CO2e: 36.00 kg (24 days)

See: http://www.greenrationbook.org.uk/food/bunch-of-flowers-from-kenya/

“Including the altitude effect on CO2 impact, Dutch CO2 emissions were about 5.8 times larger than Kenyan CO2A emissions (Table 1). Including the altitude effect (albeit tentatively) with other GHG to give estimates for GWP100A, the Dutch emissions were about 6.0 larger then the Kenyan ones”

Six times the Global Warming Potential of a bunch of flowers from Kenya gives 36.00 kg CO2e for a bunch of flowers from Holland. (Is this realistic??)

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Boiling a litre of water

CO2e: 0.05kg (40 mins)

The AECB (http://www.aecb.net/forum/index.php?topic=1064.0) board quotes DEFRA CO2 figures for electricity:

“The correct figure is now 0.527kgCO2/kWh http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/business/envrp/pdf/conversion-factors.pdf“

However the originator of the topic says:
“My research shows that it will be approx 1kg but this is based on some very rough assumptions which aren’t sufficiently reputable and referenceable.”

Heating 1 kg of water by 80 degC is 80(degC) * 4.2(joules/degC/gm) * 1000 (gm) = 336,000 joules. = 0.336 megajoules

1kw/hr = 3600(sec) * 1000 (joules/sec) = 3.6 megajoules

This gives 0.527 * 0.336 / 3.6 kgCO2e = 0.05 kg.

If a litre of water is allowed to boil dry the heat reqiured is 1000(gm) * 2260 (joules/gm) = 2.26 megajoules

Unfreezing a litre of water requires 1000(gm) * 334 (joules/gm)= 0.334 megajoules

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Watching a large television for 5 hours

CO2e: 0.18kg (3 hours)

http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/howmuch.html gives

55-90 watts

19″ television

Assume large TV is 100 watts. 5 hours is 18000 seconds. Electrical energy is 100 * 18000 joules or 1.80 megajoules. This creates 0.18 Kg CO2.

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A Return flight to New York from Leeds

CO2e: 2,257.0 kg (1504 days)

Return distance 10750km at 210 gm CO2 per km
(Leeds/Bradford to New York and back)

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Anchor Steam Beer

CO2e: 0.43kg (7 hours)

Anchor Steam Beer at 1.91kg
(now revised – see below)

Agricultural CO2e 100g
530g “Road Freight to London” (*0.21) 111g
200 gm glass (* 8.4) 1680g
530g “Road Freight from London” (*0.03) 16g

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25 kg bag of cement

CO2e: 25kg (16 days 15 hours)

Mark Brinkley gives the price of a 25kg bag of cement as £2.77 in September 2005.
(http://www.housebuildersupdate.co.uk/2005/09/building-materials-price-update.html)

1kg cement causes about 1 kg CO2e so if carbon taxes applied the following prices would hold

CO2 tax in £/t	Bag of cement in £
0	2.77
10	3.02
40	3.77
100	5.02

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Return car journey York to London

CO2e: 128 kg (85 days)

Distance 320 km at 200 gm CO2 per km 64.00kg CO2 (doubled for the return)

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A desktop computer on standby for 16 hours

CO2e: 0.03 Kg (50 mins)

mrzonbu.wordpress.com says

“What I discovered, after the Kill-A-Watt was in place, is that my PC is sucking back 6 watts of power just idling in standby mode. Wow. Thats only mildly less than the low end (8 watts) of what PC Magazine said their Zonbu unit was drawing while in use.

“Put in perspective, it sounds like replacing my desktop PC with a Zonbu for the 80% of the time I’m using my PC for web browsing would allow me to cut my energy usage for that same period to 1/10th of my current load. Moreover, depending on what the standby load is for the Zonbu, I may be able to experience similar savings when in standby (most of the day while I’m at work and all through the evening).”

For CO2 from electricity we have 0.1 Kg per megajoule.

Assume large TV is 100 watts. 16 hours is 57600 seconds.
Electrical energy is 6 * 57600 joules or 0.345 megajoules.

This creates 0.03 Kg CO2.

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Desktop computer switched on for 8 hours

CO2e: 0.58 Kg (10 hours)

How do I find out how much electricity something uses?
http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/howmuch.html says

140-330 watts, Desktop Computer & 17″ CRT monitor

Low power consumption PC’s:
http://www.yourpcholmfirth.co.uk/acatalog/Low_power_consumption_PC_s.html
“Asus, Build your own AMD Power Saving PC
Typical desktop computer uses about 85 to 250 watts. Yes, some computers
use more. Our power saving system consumes 55 watts on idle. In doing so
you are not sacrificing performance for typical home & small office activities – email,
web browsing & general office applications.”

A rough estimate might be 200 watts.

For CO2 from electricity we have 0.1 Kg per megajoule

Assume large Computer is 200 watts. 8 hours is 28800 seconds.
Electrical energy is 200 * 28800 joules or 5.76 megajoules.
This creates 0.58 Kg CO2.

Michael Bluejay also does specific computers:
http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/computers.html

Configure my PC to Save Electricity – Queen’s University Belfast
http://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/InformationServices/HowdoI/ConfiguremyPCtoSaveElectricity/

Why estimate when you can measure?
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000353.html

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