Elinor lives in west Moonah and is over the moon, because she has reduced her household energy usage by 40% in just three years. She couldn’t have done it without knowing what she was using in the first place and where it was being used.
So she measured everything and made a big list – and put a number next to each item.
The flow rate of her shower.
The size of her home.
The area of her home that is heated.
The area of her vegetable garden.
The kilograms of vegetables grown that year.
The kilometres travelled by car and by plane.
Her power bill for the whole year.
And the preceding 8 years.
The area of windows that get sun.
The area of windows that don’t get sun.
The temperature of her hot water.
The temperature of her freezer.
The power output of her different heaters.
The power used by all the household lights
The thickness of her ceiling insulation
... and so on.
Some things (like your electricity usage or water usage) are easy to measure – with a meter, a measuring tape, a watch, a timer, a calibrated jug.
Other things (like how much stuff you compost and the transport energy locked up in the foods you buy) you can take an educated guess.
The main thing is to turn abstracts into numbers that you can challenge and improve upon.
You can find a number of templates to help you monitor your performance by clicking CLICKING HERE.
It’s very hard to measure success without numbers. That’s why most people are in the dark about their real climate footprint.