Comments on: What’s the difference between Carbon Offsets and Renewable Energy Credits, Anyway?

By: Tae Pang

Tae Pang — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:38:47 +0000

Great analogies! There is a lot of confusion around carbon offsets so it’s time that someone clearly and slowly explain the technicalities behind them. We at TheGreenOffice.com sell both RECs and carbon offsets to businesses going green. The first step to purchase offsets from us involve using our carbon calculator to estimate office emissions. We use RECs to offset electricity use and then carbon offsets to offset everything else. Considering the lack of regulation around offsets, it took us quite a while to find acceptable offset projects of the highest standards. We are very satisfied with our Green Office Offsets that meet international Kyoto Protocol standards and are third party certified. Make sure to scope out our offsets on our site http://www.thegreenoffice.com!

By: Russell

Russell — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:04:17 +0000

Great post. Thanks for getting this information out there!
- Russell Simon
Carbonfund.org

By: Alex Krogh-Grabbe

Alex Krogh-Grabbe — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:30:38 +0000

Generally a really good post, but ditto Nate on the glaring inaccuracy above the fold.
One 100-watt bulb left on for 1 hour = 100 watt-hours.
Ten 100-watt bulbs left on for 1 hour (or one left on for ten hours) = 1000 watt-hours = 1 kilowatt-hour (1 kWh).
However, despite this big problem (please edit to fix it), I learned a lot from this post. Thanks.

By: Nate

Nate — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 01:00:18 +0000

“A kilowatt hour is the amount of work that can be performed by one kilowatt of *energy* in one hour.”
Power! Kilowatts measure power!
“Picture a lonely, dim lightbulb hanging from the ceiling that turns on for one hour each day by which you feverishly darn socks in a carbon constrained world – that’s a kilowatt”
Those blinding work-lights are only 500 watts. The most I’ve ever seen for regular sockets is 200 watts. And you’re saying a “lone, dim bulb” is 1000 watts? Sorry, wrong.
“These days, you probably use hundreds if not thousands of kwh per day.”
Average in the USA is 264 kWh/day, but that’s *ALL* sectors, not just residential. I used 300 kWh for all of last MONTH in electricity.