Dear all,
my name is Max and I'm a PhD student from Australia. I'm interested in calculating the total carbon emissions that I have accumulated throughout my PhD. I only have 4-6 months left to complete my final thesis and my intention was to include a brief chapter referring to how much carbon has been emitted over the course of my degree. So basically I'm hoping someone might know of a useful online carbon footprint/emissions calculator I can use to calculate all the emissions related to my studies/research, e.g. energy used from computers, laptops and lights, car usage, plane travel and flights, as well as emissions from paper usage.
I'm aware that there are many good calculators on the internet that can calculate these emissions already, e.g. I have frequently used Climate Friendly (https://climatefriendly.com/) to calculate emissions from using my car and my international flights. However whilst they do provide some calculators for home electricity use these are quite vague and can't provide the accuracy I would like, e.g. I want to know exactly how much carbon has been emitted from using my desktop computer each day over the past 4 years. This site only estimates total house electricity consumption and doesn't break it down according to appliance. I'm aware that it is possible to calculate the emissions from each appliance the hard way by finding how many Watts it generates for each hour of usage which I can then convert to a yearly energy consumption based on how many hours they are used in the average year then multiply this by Australia's CO2 conversion factors for my state. But I'm hoping an online calculator might make this task a little easier.
I have looked at some of the other footprint calculators mentioned on this site but they still have problems, e.g. they aren't based in Australia or they include emissions from other lifestyle factors, e.g. food which isn't what I really need. I just want to calculate the emissions from computer, transport, plane and paper usage.
I would be greatly appreciated if anyone can help me with my request, whether they have some useful information or material or know about some other carbon footprint/emissions calculators that can help me.
Thanks,
--Max
Max Deuble
PhD Student
Macquarie University
Australia
Carbon Emissions Calculator
Sign in or Sign up to comment
Thanks for that Aldan.
I've come across that page before. I think the majority of data listed is based in the UK so while it may not be deemed that useful to Australian appliances but I still regard it as somewhat useful. It can at least give me a good idea at the energy usage for several appliances.
Thanks again,
--Max
Max Deuble
PhD Student
Macquarie University
Australia
Hi Max,
You may want to try using a Kill-a-watt or similar energy meter. You input the carbon intensity of the energy source to the device, it measures energy use, and calculates CO2.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_A_Watt
Bill MacKinnon
Project Technologist, Smart Buildings and Energy Management
BC Housing
Canada
www.bchousing.org
Thanks for your comment Bill,
I don't really have that much time on my hands nor money to get a Smart Meter/Energy Meter to perform these calculations. I'm really looking for something that can do it online. But thanks for your input.
--Max
Max Deuble
PhD Student
Macquarie University
Australia
Max,
Congratulations on your imminent degree completion! Im also a doctoral candidate, in final stages of writing dissertation, which was why I didnt respond earlier have been buried under spreadsheets and graphs. My work focuses on improving the GHG footprint modeling at an institution level (I performed the modeling for my university), expanding that into a sustainability model, and prioritizing mitigation options.
I dont know of a carbon footprint calculator that will directly do what youre aiming for, but there are several pieces I can point you towards.
In the US there is a program called the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/ ). Participating institutions use a calculator called Clean Air-Cool Planet to compute an institution-wide footprint. The model is available free at http://www.cleanair-coolplanet.org/toolkit/inv-calculator.php and addresses Scope 1 direct emissions (on-site energy generation, fleet vehicle emissions, refrigerant & chemical usage, and agriculture all might not be relevant for your situation), Scope 2 emissions from purchased energy, and Scope 3 emissions including commuting (faculty & staff in addition to students), air travel, other travel (we included athletic teams in our modeling), solid waste, wastewater, paper purchases, and offsets. Full modeling with this tool is probably beyond your current interest, gathering from your responses to other posts, but there might be equations in the model that would be useful for your purposes. Particularly for purchased energy youd need to know how your utility generates it (very different GHG profiles for different fuels) to compute your personal footprint.
Reports for individual institutions are available in a searchable database at http://rs.acupcc.org/ and general summaries at http://rs.acupcc.org/stats/ . Reports are normalized on a per-student basis (and by several other denominators). So maybe you could find institutions that are similar in size and climate to yours (heating and cooling degree days are an important variable for energy consumption) and use the per student results. (But bear in mind that not all institutions are equally rigorous in their use of the model. I attempted benchmarking and found several that had omitted whole sections. I can vouch for the one I performed, available at http://rs.acupcc.org/ghg/1425/ )
This approach would not give a completely accurate value for you, but short of doing the actual modeling for your situation, might be close enough for your purpose.
If you have further questions or need insights on particular aspects, please feel free to write me at the email below.
Best wishes with your project!
Carol Clinton, P.E., LEED AP
PhD Candidate, Environmental Engineering
University of Cincinnati (Ohio, USA)
School of Energy, Environmental, Biological and Medical Engineering
[email protected] or [email protected]
Carol Clinton
United States
Dear Carol
no need to apologise as I know the feeling of being buried (more drowning) underneath mountains of spreadsheets and paper.
I'd like to thank you for your post. Your research and the information you sent me looks very interesting and can probably help with the task I have set for myself. Whilst these resources are more based in the US I can at least use them as a guide along with some of my own number crunching to calculate the carbon footprint of my PhD.
Thanks again and if you do find any other resources you think may be useful please let me know
Take care,
--Max
Max Deuble
PhD Student
Macquarie University
Australia
Hi Max,
Here is a page that lists carbon footprint by appliance (though laptop is not included). You might have to investigate the assumptions behind each, but it might be a good start. There's also a carbon calculator on the site.
http://www.carbonfootprint.com/energyconsumption.html
Cheers,
Aldan Shank
CleanScapes
www.cleanscapes.com