Offsetting My Computer's Carbon Footprint

[freeztar]

I am surprised no one has mentioned char yet.

You could offset the carbon footprint right in your own yard.

 

Look here:

http://hypography.com/forums/terra-preta/11643-terra-preta-carbon-credits.html

 

And some background here:

http://hypography.com/forums/terra-preta/3451-terra-preta-parent-thread-started-all.html

http://hypography.com/forums/terra-preta/10684-terra-preta-newbies.html

 

If I had the numbers, I would do the calculations to show how much you would need, nonetheless any amount of carbon sequestration is going to offset your carbon footprint.

 

For fun, let's work with carbon credits. Let's assume an annual computer power usage of 126kW (which I have derived from this statement

Gardner reports that 230 million personal computers are sold per year, approximately 165 million of these are desktops and 65 million of them are laptops. Assuming 2000 hour use per computer per year at the low end of power consumption (idle-mode), and an average 3 year lifetime, 87 billion kilo-watt hours are used to power the world’s personal computers per year.

found here (interesting read btw)). This is also assuming a 2,000 hour annual runtime while idling (ie conservative figures for most of us).

 

{Note that the following does not account for the difference in power consumption between desktops and laptops}

[math]87,000,000,000 kWh / 230,000,000 comps = 378.26 kWh / 1 comp [/math]

(for three years in idle mode at 2,000 hours usage per year)

[math]378.26 kWh / 1 comp / 3 yrs = 126.09 kWh / 1 comp / 1 yr [/math]

 

The next part gets tricky.

Let's make it easy (although we sacrifice worth when we make it easy) and trade kW for the equivalent residential market value in $US and "buy" carbon credits with this money.

1kWh = $10.65 US U.S. Average as of April 2007

 

[math]$10.65*126=$1342[/math]

 

Let's purchase some carbon credits From here. (let's call it 19 euros, which is about $25.53 US, lets call it 26)

 

[math]$1342/$26=51.6[/math]

 

So you would need about 52 carbon credits to offset an average computer running idle for 2000 hours a year (according to this shoddy methodology).

 

:)

[freeztar]

Here are some other pertinent links I came across:

 

Green Power - AWEA Fact Sheets - What Does Green Power Cost?

Environmental Impact - OLPCWiki

[Turtle]

take the lightbulb out of your refrigerator. It uses electricity twice! Once whenever the light is on, and again when the refrigerator has to run to remove the heat the bulb added. Keep a small penlight in the fridge for when you need light. :hihi:

[Turtle]

if you have an automatic garage door opener, unplug it and disengage it from the door. never use it again. you save power and get exercise.

 

if you have an automatic dishwasher with an 'air dry' feature, switch it on and leave it. (switching 'on' the air-dry feature, switches 'off' the heating coil used for drying.) If no air-dry feature, open the door after wash but before dry cycle and allow dishes to air dry.

 

that's a wrap. :lol: