Version information




Version 3


Version 3 of the calculator (the current version) was published in March 2008.

We plan to coninue it for the forseeable future.

The main changes from version 2 were:
  • electricity: the CO2 emission factor was changed to 0.527 kg / kWh (from 0.43 kg / kWh) to allow for grid losses
  • the reduction for renewable sources of electricity was changed from a 90% reduction to a 25% reduction and restricted to certain tariffs
  • natural gas: the CO2 factor was changed from 0.19 kg / kWh to 0.203 (to allow for supply inefficiencies)
  • addition of heating oil
  • the factor for cars was changed from 10.5 to 14.3 kg CO2 per gallon (to allow for oil extraction, refinery inefficiency, and motor vehicle manufacture)
  • the basic total for food was increased from 1.4 to 2.2 tonnes CO2 equ. per person, to incorporate information on methane and nitrous oxide emissions in sources [10] and [12].

The factors unchanged were:
  • the CO2 emission factor for bus travel of 100 g / mile
  • the CO2 emission factor for rail travel of 100 g / mile
  • the CO2 emission factor for air travel of 250 kg CO2 equivalent per hour flying

It was updated in December 2013 to include coal, wood, bottled gas, and newer "green" electricity tariffs.

Cosmetic changes were made in February 2015, together with a change from .htm to .html filetype, but there were no changes to the underlying calculations.


Version 2


This was first published in August 2007 - and was superseded in March 2008.


Version 1


This was first published in February 2007 - and was superseded in August 2007.