With all this talk about climate change, carbon footprint, renewable energy, green living, energy efficiency and the like, I decided to try an experiment over the summer of 2009 to see what I changes I could make in my lifestyle to lower my carbon footprint. Sure I did the usual things like change most of my light bulbs to CFL bulbs, consolidate my automobile outings to as few as possible, recycle more, bring my own bags when grocery shopping, unplug as many electrical items as I could and run most appliances with a full load and during off-peak hours. But I wanted to try something drastic that could have more of an immediate impact.
I live in Dallas, Texas and the summers here are brutally hot and living without an air-conditioner is pretty much impossible; this summer had been hotter than usual with July having almost two weeks of above 100°F (37.7°C) days. I usually turn my air-conditioner on in June and turn it off after September; I also turn it off when leaving for work during the weekdays. Normally I set the thermostat at 80°F (26.7°C).
The daily summer weather here is such that it gets really hot after noon and stays so until well into the evening; during this time the air-conditioner continuously operates because it never gets the internal house temperature below the thermostat setting. Regardless of the actual internal temperature, the house is quite comfortable as long as the air-conditioner is running and continues to pump in cool air.
My experiment was to see if I could live comfortably during the summer months with the thermostat set higher and use ceiling fans for supplemental cooling. My thought was that with the higher setting, my air-conditioner would turn on later in the day, turn-off earlier in the evening and operate continuously in between. I arbitrarily chose a setting of 85°F (29.4°C) during the daytime and a setting of 82°F (27.8°C) at night, which I would set before I’d go to bed and change back to 85°F in the morning. I should point out that I live by myself and only maintained these settings when I didn’t have invited guests.
The month of June was tolerable; I was able to go a week into the month before having to turn my air-conditioner on. When I was in my house, I wore a tee shirt and shorts during the daytime and used a ceiling fan in any room I happened to be in; during the night I slept with the window in my bedroom open, which allowed relatively cooler air in and with the ceiling fan, made it comfortable enough for sleeping.
The months of July and August were admittedly tougher; there were days, especially in July, when I was tempted to forego this experiment and turn the thermostat down, but I was determined to get through to the end of summer. During these months I found myself checking weather reports and would look forward to cloudy or rainy forecasts as that would make for a cooler day. On those hot and sunny days, I kept the ceiling fans running on high, which made it bearable if somewhat uncomfortable. I was able to get through these two months, which made getting through September a relatively breeze.
What conclusions can I draw as a result of this experiment? First, I am under no illusion that I would have been allowed to even contemplate this experiment were I not the only occupant of my house. And second, the electric utility companies charge the same rate for peak and off-peak energy usage, i.e., they provide undifferentiated pricing so there is no incentive for me to reduce my peak-electricity use other than for altruistic reasons, which is still a good reason!
So I made it through the summer! But the experiment was to see if I could reduce my carbon footprint and live comfortably. June and September were comfortable while July and August were somewhat uncomfortable. Would I do it again? Perhaps, but with lower settings than what I had used for July and August! I’ll provide an estimate of my reduction in carbon emission from the experiment in my next post.
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