Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet, 2021a

20 Adaptation Strategies 337
yourself better to the climate. 31 Eat more responsibly. The next section
digs into related actions in more quantitative detail.
31: It is okay to put on more clothes <strong>and</strong> sit
under blankets in a cooler winter house.
20.3.3 Quantitative Footprint
A useful exercise is to compare your own energy footprint to national
averages. How much more or less are you using? For some categories,
information is hard to assess. For instance, how much oil is used to
transport the goods you buy <strong>and</strong> the food you eat? How much energy
is used in the industrial <strong>and</strong> commercial sectors on your behalf? 32 In
part, your level of consumerism is a good clue, but it still may be hard to
compare to others. The following items offer some guidance. The first
two entries can be derived from Fig. 7.2 (p. 105), after unit conversions
<strong>and</strong> dividing by the U.S. population.
Electricity: A typical American uses 12 kWh of electricity per day in
their residence. To get your own share, look at an electricity bill for your
residence <strong>and</strong> divide by the number of people living in the place <strong>and</strong> by
the number of days 33 in the billing period.
Example 20.3.10 In 2019, the author’s utility bills 34 indicate total use
was 3,152 kWh for a household of two. What is the daily average per
person <strong>and</strong> how does it compare to the national average?
32: Wouldn’t it be great if consumer goods
had labels revealing embedded energy <strong>and</strong>
resulting CO 2 ?
33: . . . usually a month: about 30 days
34: See the banner image on page 68 for a
one-month sample.
3,152 kWh divided by 365 days <strong>and</strong> 2 people is 4.3 kWh per person
per day, about one-third of the national average.
Natural Gas: A typical American uses about 13 kWh of natural gas per
day in their residence, amounting to 0.44 Therms per day. 35 To get your
own share, look at a gas bill for your residence, if applicable, <strong>and</strong> divide
by the number of people living in the place <strong>and</strong> by the number of days
in the billing period.
Example 20.3.11 In 2019, the author’s utility bills 36 indicate total use
was 61 Therms for a household of two. What is the daily average per
person <strong>and</strong> how does it compare to the national average?
35: . . . typical billing unit; one Therm is
29.3 kWh; see Table 20.1
36: See the banner image on page 68 for a
one-month sample.
61 Therms divided by 365 days <strong>and</strong> 2 people is 0.084 Therms (2.4 kWh)
per person per day, about 20% of the national average.
37: Personal transportation accounts for
about 65% of gasoline in the transportation
sector.
Gasoline: A typical American buys about 400 gallons of gasoline 37 per
year for personal transportation, amounting to a daily equivalent of
41 kWh 38 38: . . . 36.6 kWh per gallon, or 9.7 kWh/L
of energy use. Keep track of your fuel purchases 39 <strong>and</strong> compare
39: This practice is good for tracking fuel
how much you use. In the case of multiple occupancy in the car, your economy as well.
share can be computed by dividing how many gallons were used in the
trip by the number of people. Knowing an approximate fuel economy 40 40: . . . e.g., miles per gallon or L/100 km
for the car <strong>and</strong> distance traveled is enough to estimate fuel usage.
© 2021 T. W. Murphy, Jr.; Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Lic.;
Freely available at: https://escholarship.org/uc/energy_ambitions.