Reducing My Carbon Footprint
By cycling instead of driving whenever possible, I have rediced my use of petrol by about 80%. I used to fill up my tank about once a week with 30 litres of petrol. Over a year I would use about 1560 litres of petrol. Each litre contains 32 MJ or 9 KWh of energy, so over a year I would use about 14000 KWh of energy. Now I only fill upwith 30 litres once a month. In a year I use about 360 litres of petrol containing 3240 KWh of energy.I also have solar panels installed on my house. These panels generate about half of my electricity needs. Last year they generated 2000 KWh of electricity of the 4000 KWh I used..
I used to need about 14000+4000=18000 KWh of energy.
Now I only need 3240+2000=5240 KWh of energy from non renewable resources.
My carbon footprint has been cut by
\[\frac{18000- 5250}{18000} \simeq 71 \%\]