carbon calculator
Electricity Footprint
Steps of calculating your school’s electricity footprint:
- Find what energy grid your school is in by inputting your zipcode into the EPA power profiler.*
- See how much CO2 is produced per mWh in your school’s grid.
- Look at your school’s electricity bill and figure out how many kWhs the building uses per year.
- Take the total kWhs and convert it to mWhs (divide by 1,000).
- Multiply the CO2 produced per MWh in your energy grid by your school’s total amount of mWh for that year.
- Repeat steps 1-5 if your school is billed separately for each building. You may then decide to add the values you have calculated for each building or keep them separated depending on what you think would make a more compelling argument for administrators.
Conversions (for gas footprint):
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Therms of natural gas
- 11.7 lbs CO2 per therm of natural gas
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Gallons of heating oil
- 24 lbs CO2 per gallon of heating oil
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Therms of propane
- 13 lbs of CO2 per therm of propane
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Mwh of total electricity (non-renewable)
- Look on epa power profiler for how much CO2 per Mwh
Gas Footprint
Steps of calculating your school’s gas footprint:
- Look at your school’s gas bill to see what kind of gas (or combination of gases) your school uses (natural gas, propane, etc.).
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If your school uses natural gas:
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By looking at your school’s gas bill, figure out how much natural gas your school used over the course of the year.
- If the unit for your school’s natural gas is not in therms, convert it to therms (this can be done by a google search).
- Multiply 11.7 lbs CO2 by how many gas therms your school uses to get how much CO2 is emitted.
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By looking at your school’s gas bill, figure out how much natural gas your school used over the course of the year.
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If your school uses propane:
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By looking at your school’s gas bill, figure out how much propane your school used over the course of the year.
- If the unit for your school’s propane is not in therms, convert it to therms (this can be done by a google search).
- Multiply 13 lbs CO2 by how many therms of propane your school uses to get how much CO2 is emitted.
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By looking at your school’s gas bill, figure out how much propane your school used over the course of the year.
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If your school uses heating oil:
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By looking at your school’s gas bill, figure out how much heating oil your school used over the course of the year.
- If the unit for your school’s heating oil is not in therms, convert it to therms (this can be done by a google search).
- Multiply 24 lbs CO2 by how many gallons of heating oil your school uses to get how much CO2 is emitted.
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By looking at your school’s gas bill, figure out how much heating oil your school used over the course of the year.
- If your school uses a combination of fuels, conduct carbon calculations for each fuel and add the CO2 values together (be sure that before you add anything together all of the units match; it is easiest to add everything once you have calculated the co2 values, as all the units are in co2).
- Repeat steps 1-4 if your school is billed separately for each building. You may then decide to add the values you have calculated for each building or keep them separated depending on what you think would make a more compelling argument for administrators.
Greenhouse Gas equivalencies calculator