Solar Panels And Cutting Your Carbon Footprint
Solar Panels And Cutting Your Carbon Footprint
If you were to survey thousands of people, very few would say that they don't care about the environment. However, how many people are really making an effort to cut their carbon footprints? This article considers a variety of easy methods to do so, and it also considers how and why considering solar panels could make a massive difference.
Your carbon footprint is harmful because it causes the greenhouse effect. Whenever you use energy in your house, or for transport, or when factories have to use energy in the productive process for goods that you use, then carbon dioxide is emitted.
Let's take the example of using electricity. The reason that cutting your electricity consumption will cut your carbon footprint is that the electricity you use is, in the UK, very normally produced by power stations that generate electricity through burning fossil fuels. When these fuels are burned, heat energy is transformed into electrical energy, which is then transported to your house along the main grid. However, burning the fossil fuels emits carbon dioxide into the atmosphere - all living things contain carbon, so when fossils from animals thousands of years ago are burned, they combine with oxygen to emit carbon dioxide.
All of this carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere. Itself, it isn't poisonous; the effects of too much of it in the atmosphere can be deadly. The carbon dioxide builds up and causes the greenhouse effect - it traps the Sun's energy, and this means that global temperatures are rising. As global temperatures rise, a myriad of problems will occur - widespread flooding, the devastation of land as it becomes unsuitable for farming, and a greater number of extreme weather events.
This is where the phrase "cutting your carbon footprint" comes from - a massive percentage of your everyday activities will contribute to the greenhouse effect and global warming.
How then can you do your bit to help cut that footprint down to size?
Minimising energy usage from unsustainable sources is key. What does this mean? Turn off lights when you leave a room, don't leave your phone charger plugged in after your phone is removed, don't have a bath, but shower instead, use public transport, try to reduce car and plane usage as much as possible.
That's a lot! Any further ideas?
Recycle - producing every day goods requires a lot of energy (for example, to heat materials up or to extract certain chemicals in the manufacturing process). Did you know that if you recycle an aluminium can, then it only takes 5% of the energy to make a new can from an old one, rather than producing an entirely new can from the raw materials? Do it!
Getsolar panels! You can make a fortune through the government schemes available, which are deliberately set up so the systems will pay themselves off over time and then make you a significant profit - the government wants you to help the environment. In the UK, look up the Feed In Tariff and the Renewable Heat Incentive (go here for solar panels information). Once you fit them on your roof, there is very little routine maintenance required at all, and even small household size systems can cut your carbon footprint from electricity usage at home by 50%, since the electricity produced by solar panels does not cause any carbon emissions (only manufacturing them creates a few emissions, which are outweighed by the benefits on average after a few months' use, and 90% of solar panels function effectively for at least 30 years).
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