Green and RVing

[Clay L]

Here are some numbers I worked up after a conversation with an idiot.

We use fewer resources than we did when we lived in a stick house even though our motor home gas mileage is 7 MPG. The Honda does good- about 26 MPG average and we put less than 4000 miles per year on it.
Our numbers:
12 gallons of water per day versus 160 to 200 gallons per day for two people - average use. (http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/qahome.html#HDR3)

We use about 1500 gallons of gasoline per year.

Our sewage outflow (13 gallons per day) is a little more than our water useage versus 160 to 200 gallons per day for the average two couple household.

250 KWH of electricity per month versus 500 to 1000 KWH average for two people.

About 200 gallons of propane per year - would be less but we spend a couple of months in CO in the fall with family and use the furnace some there.
I used close to 1500 gallons of fuel oil per year to heat my 3600 square foot house in NH and at least 1500 KWHs of electricity per month. We now put about 4000 miles per year on the car versus 14,000 when we had the house.

The fuel and propane we use is offset by the fuel oil we used in the house. Water and electricity are quite a bit less, so it would seem to me that we are using considerably fewer resources in the motor home than we did in the house.

[chasfm11]

Thanks for all of the recent replies. There is a lot of good information and ideas in what each of you has added.

One of the more interesting things that I've discovered when I've talked to some of the more radical green types. Most of them have no idea about what actual consumption of anything that they do. They think that because they drive a Prius, for example, they can piously tell anyone with an RV that they have too big of a carbon footprint. They just KNOW that they have a smaller carbon foot print but don't have facts to support it.

I, on the other hand, know exactly. We used 1190.662 gallons of gas and diesel last year, including what I put into the lawn mowers. I also know exactly what water we used Unfortunately, we had a drought here in Texas for the last 18 months and that number is way bigger than it might have been with just a little rain. That, apparently, is no excuse. I wasn't about to let the huge trees that we have on our property die and one would have expected that to be a good thing. Oh, no. I was supposed to have magically saved the trees without using all of that water. I just don't get it.

I really don't have good numbers for our RV use. We generally camp with city water and electric but there are no meters on either. We dump our tanks at the end of the weekend but I don't believe the indicators on the tanks are all that accurate. I do know the propane use but that is about it. Judging by what the others of you are saying, it doesn't make that much difference whether you have data or not.

I guess I would have graded myself moderately green before all of the radical rhetoric started. Maybe I still am.

[RVDude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chasfm11 some of the more radical green types. Most of them have no idea about what actual consumption of anything that they do. They think that because they drive a Prius, for example, they can piously tell anyone with an RV that they have too big of a carbon footprint.

I think that just about says it all!!!!!!!! Excellent point.