A ton of greenhouse emissions produced can be balanced by a ton of emissions reduced.
My Clean Sky facilitates the replacement of energy-hungry incandescent light globes with energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps.
Through this process, less energy is consumed and as a result fewer greenhouse emissions are produced. |
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Light globes use electricity which is normally produced by burning coal.
Coal is a 'fossil fuel' made from the fossilised remains of ancient forests that have been buried for millions of years. Coal is a source of cheap energy and it provides over 80% of global electricity supplies worldwide. Good quality coal is almost pure carbon. To extract the energy from coal, it is necessary to burn it.
In the picture, coal is torn from an open cut mine to be sent to a power station.
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The coal is burnt in a coal fired power station. This produces heat which is used to boil water and create steam. The steam drives a steam turbine which is connected to an electrical generator that produces electricity.
This electricity is measured in units called Megawatt hours (MWh). When the coal is burnt, greenhouse gases measured as CO2e, are produced. About 1 ton CO2e is produced per MWh of electricity produced.
The more coal is burnt, the more greenhouse gases are produced. |
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The electricity is then moved around the country through transmission lines.
Transmission lines allow the power station to be many hundreds of kilometers from the place where the electricity is consumed. Most people have never seen the power station that produces the electricity they use.
Eventually, the electricity reaches the home and is used to power all manner of electric devices including televisions, water heaters and incandescent light globes.
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'Light globes' should really be called 'heat globes' because they produce much more heat than light.
In fact, only about 10% of the electricity put into the light globe is converted to light - the rest is heat. (only 10%!) Consider all of the greenhouse emissions produced by the power station to make the light globe hot.
If we can have a light that is not so hot, this would save energy and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. |
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Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) are an ideal alternative to incandescent light globes. CFLs run cooler, using much less energy than light globes.
A CFL uses only one fifth as much energy as an incandescent light globe for the same amount of light. For example, a light globe that uses 100 watts of energy can be replaced by a CFL that uses only 20 watts and produces one fifth of the amount of greenhouse emissions.
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Each 100 Watt light globe replaced with a 20 Watt CFL saves 80 Watts of electricity. Over the life of the CFL lamp - say 6,000 hours operation time - a total of 0.48 MWh of electricity is saved. This is equivalent to about 0.48 tons CO2e (see calculation right).
My Clean Sky buys carbon credits created through energy efficiency projects administered by the respected Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme - the worlds longest running carbon trading system.
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Swapping an Incandescent Light Globe for a Compact Flurescent Light |
100 | Watts consumed by an incandescent globe |
20 | Watts consumed by a CFL |
80 | Watts saved by using CFL |
6 000 | Hours expected life of a CFL |
480 000 | Watts Hours saved over the life of 1 CFL |
0.48 | MwH reduced |
1.00 | ton CO2e emissions per Mwh |
0.48 | tons CO2e reduced by using CFL |
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