Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton

This is the fourth installment in the Sarah’s Online Reference Warehouse series. I’ve formatted this one a bit differently, bolding the site titles and listing the URLs afterward. This is in response to the several (somewhat nasty) emails I got demanding that I not hyperlink the titles of the sites, but rather list the URLs in the text. This was because these readers print out my blog posts and read them, thereby making the link URLs invisible. I am willing to try to help, but people please – this is a blog. It is online and meant to be interactive through hyperlinks and comments. It’s not a printed journal. Anyway, enough of that. Please take a look at the other topics in my “Reference Warehouse” series, including Readers Advisory tools and more.

This list is of some of the more useful energy saving and carbon footprint sites I’ve found. If you have other favorites, please add them in the comments section. That way, the list grows longer and stronger!

Sarah’s Favorite Online Energy Saving Resources

• U.S. Department of Energy: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/consumer/calculators/ They
  have a whole list of calculators for homes, buildings, vehicles, and industry. Good lists.
• Home Energy Saver: http://hes.lbl.gov/ Created by Lawrence Berkeley Labs, creates a
  local and customized recommendations list about home energy consumption (can be
  used for a business too, though some questions won’t apply).
• The Building Life-Cycle Cost Program: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/information/download_blcc.html BLCC 5.3-08 is a program from National
  Institute of Standards and Technology to provide computational support for energy-usage
  analysis of capital investments in buildings.
• Personal Emissions Calculator: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/calculator/ind_calculator.html From
  the EPA, this site calculates, based on individual and local information, the
  environmental cost of personal, driving, household, and business electricity
  usage.
• General Electrical Energy Cost Calculator: http://www.csgnetwork.com/elecenergycalcs.html From
  a random free calculator site, this will give you the exact cost for the use of
  lighting, appliances, personal items, and other things based on the type and
  hours used. Really, really detailed.
• Carbon Footprint Calculator: http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx
  The original calculator, with sections for home or business.
• Energy Guide’s Carbon Footprint Calculator: https://www.energyguide.com/calculators/Default.aspx?referrerid=244&h=0
  Detailed, easy to use, and suggests ways of reducing consumption as well.
• Nature Conservancy’s Carbon Footprint
  Calculator: http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/
  Allows you to calculate for only
  yourself or your whole household. Includes
  cross-links to informational pages and ways to save energy.
• An Inconvenient Truth’s Carbon Footprint
  Calculator: http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/carboncalculator/
  A simplified calculator from the popular Al Gore documentary.
• Power Score Card: http://www.powerscorecard.org/reduce_energy.cfm Twenty
  things to do to reduce energy consumption.
  
• 365 Ways to Save Energy: http://www.savewithces.com/365in2008.html
  A lengthy, and good, list from Carroll Energy Solutions
• EnergyQuest’s Saving Energy Page: http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/saving_energy/index.html
  Geared toward middle and high schoolers,
  this page lists many ways to save energy, though some of the links are out of
  date (so just ignore that part).
• Alliance to Save Energy: http://www.ase.org/section/_audience/consumers
  This is the section for consumers – filled with info on tax credits,
  energy-saving tips, and more. There are
  also sections for educators and others.