Honors Chemistry Name________________________________

Climate Change Project 2019 Period______Date______________________

MY CARBON FOOTPRINT: lbs / year

Part I: Reading Your Electric Meter

1. Find the electric meter for your house or apartment. It should have 5 dials and have units of kWh (kilowatt-hour)—
NOT “CUBIC FEET”. You will read the meter twice and determine the amount of energy used per hour for that time
period. Write Reading #1 on the bottom line! Take a PICTURE of the dials during each of your two readings. You will
attach copies of the two pictures to this packet.

How to read your electric meter: Southern California Edison (SCE)

The face of the meter has five dials with the numbers 0-9 on each dial. The dials are not identical though. On the first dial,
the numbers increase in a clockwise direction. On the next meter, the numbers increase in the opposite direction, in a
counter-clockwise direction. Each dial alternates from clockwise to counter-clockwise as shown. To read a meter, you read
the dials from left to right and record the numbers. If the pointer is between two numbers, you always record the smaller
number. GOOGLE SEARCH/YOUTUBE: SMART (DIGITAL) METER:

Example:
Monday, May 4th at 4:00 pm

Reading#1: ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

Monday, May 11th at 4:00 pm

Reading #2: ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

Within one week, this house used ___________ kWh. If the cost of a kWh is $0.12, then they used $_____ in a week!

(ATTACH PHOTO) Reading #2: Date ______________Time __________am/pm Reading____________

(ATTACH PHOTO) Reading #1: Date ______________Time __________am/pm Reading____________

Total kWh___________

Total hrs elapsed _______ Calculate total days elapsed (1 day = 24 h), round to the tenths place _________

kWh / day___________

Electricity cost per day kWh / day ________ x $ / kWh** ________ = $_________/day

Calculated (from electric meter data) cost per month ($/month):

** Calculate the $ / kWh from your electric bill (total $ of bill / total kWh for month)**

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 Part II: Household Energy Consumption
The following household information is required for successful completion of EPA’s Personal
Emissions Calculator. Please ask the head of your household to provide you with the following
information. You will need to look at your household’s electric and gas bills.

Home Energy Use

1. Number of people in your household. ____

2. How do you heat your house?

___ Natural gas ____ Electric heat ____ Fuel oil (kerosene or propane)

3. What is your average monthly natural gas bill? $__________

4. What is your average monthly electric bill? $__________

Transportation (The program will accept up to 5 vehicles)

1. How many vehicles in your household? ____ 2. Do you perform regular maintenance? Yes ____ No ____

3. On average, how many miles do you put on your household’s primary vehicle per year? ___________ miles

What is the average gas miles for this vehicle (miles per gallon)? ___________mpg

4. On average, how many miles do you put on your household’s secondary vehicle per year? ___________ miles

What is the average gas miles for this vehicle (miles per gallon)? ___________mpg

5. On average, how many miles do you put on your household’s secondary vehicle per year? ___________ miles

What is the average gas miles for this vehicle (miles per gallon)? ___________mpg

6. On average, how many miles do you put on your household’s secondary vehicle per year? ___________ miles

What is the average gas miles for this vehicle (miles per gallon)? ___________mpg

7. On average, how many miles do you put on your household’s secondary vehicle per year? ___________ miles

What is the average gas miles for this vehicle (miles per gallon)? ___________mpg

Wastes:

1. Which of the following items does your household recycle?

____ glass ____ aluminum / steel ____ plastic bottles ____ magazines ____ newspaper

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 Part III: Personal Emissions Calculator _
1. Go to https://www3.epa.gov/carbon-footprint-calculator/ and complete this online worksheet as you enter the
information from Part II of this packet. Note: Use the Tab button to navigate through this online calculator.
Make sure you choose at least three ways you could reduce your emissions.

2. As you come to the last page of the online calculator, hit the “Print Summary” button to print the results. This will be
stapled to the back of the packet.

3. What is your household Carbon Footprint? lb. Write this # on top of page 1!
4. Print out a footprint that corresponds to your total emissions per year from
my website. Write your total emissions on the paper and decorate the poster. The footprint will be collected separately.

5. What can you do to reduce emissions? List which planned actions you chose on the online calculator to reduce
emissions. You should have chosen at least three planned actions.

Action #1:

Action #2:

Action #3:

6. How would your emissions be reduced if you took these actions? ______________________ lbs

7. If you took these actions, what would your new total CO 2 emissions be? ______________________ lbs

8. (a) List two aspects of your lifestyle were not taken into account by this online calculator.

I.

II.

(b) How would your carbon footprint be altered if the online calculator took these into account? Would it be
bigger or smaller? Explain.

I.

II.

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 Part IV: Personal Water Footprint Calculator (http://www.watercalculator.org/)
1. How many people are in your household? _____
2. How long is your average household shower? _____min
3. Do you have low-flow showerheads? Yes or No
4. Do you take baths? If so, how often? _____
5. How long do you leave your bathroom faucets running each day? _____min.
6. Do your bathroom sinks have low-flow faucets? Yes or No
7. Do you “let it mellow? Yes, No, or sometimes
8. Do you have low-flow toilets? Yes, No, or Some
9. How long do you leave the kitchen faucet running each day? _____
10. Does you kitchen sink have a low-flow faucet? Yes or No
11. How do you wash your dishes Dishwasher or by hand How often? _____
12. How do you do laundry? Washing machine or by hand How often? _____
13. Do you have a greywater system installed in your home? Yes or No
14. Do you water a lawn or garden? _____ How much do you water? _____
15. Do you landscape with plants that require little to no water? Yes or No
16. Do you have a rain barrel? Yes or No
17. Do you have a swimming pool? Yes or No
18. If so, how many months out of the year do you keep it covered? _____
19. Do you have a car? Yes or No
20. How do you wash your car? At home _____ Car wash _____ Self-service _____
21. How many miles do you drive per week? __________
22. Where does your electricity come from? Solar _____ Edison _____
23. How do you shop? (Not groceries) Shop for basics _____ Like to shop _____ Shop til you drop _____
24. Do you recycle paper? None _____ Some _____ All _____
25. Do you recycle plastic? None _____ Some _____ All _____
26. Do you recycle bottles & cans? None _____ Some _____ All _____
27. Do you donate or re-use old clothing, sheets, blankets, & towels? Never _____ Sometimes _____ Always _____
28. What’s your diet? Vegan _____ Vegetarian _____ Meat eater _____
29. How often do you eat meat? __________
30 How much money do you spend on dog and cat food each month? _____

31. Document you Water Footprint: ___________________________________ gallons/day

32. What can you do to reduce your water footprint? List three actions:

Action #1:

Action #2:

Action #3:

** Attach the two photos of your electric meter, the print summary from the EPA website, and
water footprint (save paper – print a screenshot of summary)**
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 PRINT footprint from class website that corresponds to your carbon footprint range.

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