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When the price of gas started going up a few months ago everyone pointed their fingers at the size of our gas guzzling cars. How wasteful they are, the carbon footprints they have, how they contributed to the troubles that the auto industry is experiencing now. While all this is definitely true, does anyone stop and think about the size of the houses we live in and the impact they have on our planet? After all really, how many rooms can we occupy at once?
Since 1940 the average square footage of a house in the US has gone up by 800 square feet, from 1200 sq ft. to 2000 sq ft. That’s and increase of almost 67%. I doubt very seriously that the average number of people in a household has gone up 67%. In fact the number of people per household has dropped dramatically since 1940. So we have to ask ourselves, is all this space necessary.
Beyond the averages are the no longer rare mega mansions, found almost in every corner of the country. Why anyone would need a 56,000 sq ft home like Candy Spelling, or the 60,000 sq ft mansion sold by Donald Trump for a cool 100mil, or the 66,000 sq ft home owned by Bill Gates is beyond any reasoning that I can find acceptable. But that’s just me.
We seem to like space, to be surrounded by empty rooms that we can walk into anytime we like, but that spend most of the time empty. Maybe it’s a possession thing, or a territorial thing who knows. But the bottom line is that the bigger the space, the bigger the footprint, and the amount of energy that is consumed.
Some Statistics:
- Average Household of 2000 sq ft uses 8900 kw hours of electricity a year.
- Half the energy consumed in a home is for heating and cooling it.
- The typical home is a major source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for over twice as much carbon dioxide (CO2) annually as the average automobile. (ref: HERE)
Maybe we need to reevaluate how we use space, if there is a need for so much of it, and if the space is already there how to share it with others. Back in 1940 the average house was 1200 sq ft and 3-4 people lived in it, in 2003 the average house was 2000 sq ft and 2-3 people lived in it. Not only has our appetite for house space gone up, but also our need for personal space. Not sure what this says about our society, but we have to ask ourselves, are these, luxuries that we can afford to live with or do we need to rethink our needs.
The EPA has a Household Emissions Calculator that you an use to figure out the footprint of your house.
Here are some tips from the EPA that can help you reduce your footprint at home.
April 24th, 2009 at 12:01 am by bibi in Carbon Footprint, Conservation, Green Building, Green Homes, Living Green, Sustainable, household emmissions, household energy consumption
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Comments
Well, in this case, I would prefer a small and cozy house, as it’s definitely useless to have a huge mansion, but have no one living in there at all, Bibi!
In our home, we have strict rules about unplugging electronics when not in use. We also have an A/C unit for upstairs and one for downstairs. We are habitual about making sure they aren’t both running at the same time. We plan our family activities so we are all upstairs or downstairs at once. It is just a matter of habit for us at this point.
Its all to do with what you need and use…. I share my home with one other person and we have nine rooms all of which are used every day- except if it is very cold we block off and do not use the conservatory. We have no empty rooms or rooms kept for special occasssions. All rooms are small or medium size, to me this makes sense in terms of keeping things warmer, I never understood the craze for open plan.
I live in England where houses tend to be much smaller than in the US -to be honest a lot of them are absolutely pokey. Fitting in a dining table is almopst impossible and having the space to make a pair of curtains or have a hobby would be out of the question
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