Footprint Score!

With my a footprint score of 4.7 I really got a better look at how I was affecting the enviornment but I found there were severak flaws or inaccurate sections 0f the quiz such as questions on car milage/efficency when people like us in communications (teens who are mostly yet to drive) which could throw the results of the quiz thus defeating the purpose.

One very effecting point towards me is the fact that the quiz cannot take into consideration positive additions to a house/lifestyle which greatly reduces the ammount of electricity/resources consumed. For example, my home has a several tonne geothermal ground loop burried in our 2 acre forested back yard which works by taking heat/cooling from the constant temperature under the earths surface by circulating water through burried tubes. Meaning in winter, there are higher temperatures under the earths surface than than on the surface. In summer, the earths heat is segnifigantly lower than the 25+ C above on the surface. Basically, the ground loop acts as a high effeciency air conditoner in summer and heater/furnace in winter.

Our house also uses a "Power Watch" system which moniters the source of energy consumption and its location (i.e a fridge, computer, or dryer) allowing for us (the users) to reduce use of high power consuming appliences and devices. Even lowering the time it takes for my computer to go into standby mode can (over a longer perioud of time) drastically reduce the cost of use. This point in particular is rather important to me as I regularly use my computer for extended periods of time. What make my computer different than most others is that it uses a 600 watt power supply. You may know that the power supply only takes as much as is needed from the computer rather than constantly drawing 600 watts, but my computer uses two graphics cards and two hard drives which greatly increases the ammount of power needed to keep the computer running. In conclusion, I believe that there are many changes needed to be made to the quiz and to our lifestyles.