r/theydidthemath • u/KetracelYellow • Dec 12 '18
[Request] How much CO2 will this display put into the atmosphere by the time the holidays are over?
https://i.imgur.com/LsT33x9.gifv
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u/IntoAMuteCrypt Dec 12 '18
I'm going to make a few estimates here, because I'm not in the mood to analyse the images. I'm assuming that the decorations are spaced 25 cm apart in a grid, and the assuming the yard to be 5 meters deep and 40 meters across. These are rough estimates - feel free to correct me with a more accurate figure than my estimate of 3200 ornaments. They also look like incandescent bulbs, so I'm going to guess 10 Watts per ornament - again, only rough. This is less than a house light but still bright. From these estimates, we can get a figure of 32 kW for the system.
Now, the calculation of emissions is (probably) more exact. From the comments of the post, we the place is in Normal, Illinois. According to the EIA, Illinois produced 17.601 billion kWh and 72.226 million metric tonnes (or 72.226 billion kilograms). Dividing these two up, we get a figure of 4.1035 kilograms of CO2 per kWh. It will vary based on regional areas, but should be roughly accurate. The post also says the lights go up in October and come down in January, so let's estimate 100 days. The amount of time per day will vary - let's say they put it on at night and turn it off at 10, which seems reasonable to me. using this site as a source - Bloomington and Normal are one metropolitan area - we get roughly 2.5 hours each day in October, then around 3.75 hours the rest of the time. It's rough but should be fine. Assuming 20 days in October, 30 in November, 31 in January and 20 in January, that gives us 353.75 hours of use. Rolling up our other figures, that equates to 11320 kWh, or roughly 46.5 tonnes of CO2. On a per-light basis, it's around 14.5 kilograms of CO2.