…to measure your carbon footprint

I’m wondering about this today, because we are considering buying a freezer.

The freezer that came with our refrigerator is too small.  We bought a side-by-side.  I don’t think I would do that again.  We didn’t have a big freezer in New York but it seemed to hold more.  And it was much easier to locate and extract things.  (The sound of the freezer door opening here is usually accompanied by thumps, crashes and muttered curses.  That’s if it’s the MotH that opened the door.  If it’s me, there’s usually an “Ow!” in there somewhere, frozen sausages being somewhat bruising to bare feet.)

We can probably clear out space in the laundry room for a small freezer.  Research indicates the cost won’t blow the budget.  It would be nice to be able to stock up on frozen pizzas.  (Currently, they have to be cut up and re-wrapped, and there are only so many pizza quarters that will fit.  [They aren’t any softer on bare feet, either.])  It would be nice to be able to take more advantage of the BOGO* offers at the local Winn-Dixie.

And I understand the risk involved in having a freezer full of food during hurricane season.

But. . .

What I am wondering is this.  Does it take more energy to run a freezer year-round or to make more trips to the grocery store?  Wouldn’t it be great if cars—and electric meters—came with more specific indicators?

Instead of that vague analog dial, why can’t a car have a digital display of fuel used down to tenths of a gallon?  You’re not going to tell me the technology isn’t available.

And shouldn’t my electric meter have something more useful than five dials whose pointers all spin different directions?  We ought to be able to see how much electricity we’ve used during any given billing cycle and what it’s costing us—not only in terms of dollars about to be billed but actual carbon footprint.

Awareness and attention.  The first steps to a balanced budget and energy conservation.

How hard can it be?

I wonder.