Uncook Cardwell is a carbon offset project that will counter-balance the greenhouse emissions from the Caring for Country Conference and Festival, estimated at over 800 tons CO2e.
Uncook Cardwell is a carbon offset project that will counter-balance the greenhouse emissions from the Caring for Country Conference and Festival, estimated at over 800 tons CO2e. |
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UNCOOK CARDWELL is proudly supported by:
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This website is designed to:
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Uncook have calculated that over 800 tons of greenhouse emissions will be produced by the Caring for Country Conference and Festival in Cardwell Queensland, October, 2007. These greenhouse emissions are from:
To counter-balance or 'offset' these emisisons, Uncook is working with Girringun Aboriginal Corporation the Cardwell Community, and Local Authorities in the Girringun Range to develop a simple greenhouse emission reduction project. We call this project Uncook Cardwell. Between 22 and 25 August, 2007, Uncook will co-ordinate the free distribution of 2,500 CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lamps) to homes and businesses in Cardwell. The CFLs will replace incandescent light globes. Click here to see carbon balance calculations. So how does swapping light globes for energy efficient lamps make a difference? The story starts in a Coal Mine... |
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Light globes use electricity. In North Queensland (and most places in the world) electricity is produced by buring coal. Coal is a 'fossil fuel' made from remains of ancient forests that have been buried for millions of years. Coal is a cheap energy source (excluding the environmental cost) and is abundant. To extract the energy from coal and make electricity, it is necessary to burn the coal. In the picture, coal is torn from an open-cut mine to be sent to a power station. There is so much coal in the world that the atmosphere will be totally cooked by the time we use even a tenth of the global reserves. As we continue to burn coal, we change the earth's atmosphere back to how it was in the carboniferous period. In this time the atmosphere was thick with greenhouse gases. It was hot, hot hot. Most of the species alive today, including humans, would not be able to live in this atmosphere. |
The coal is burnt in a coal fired power station, pictured left. Burning coal produces heat. The heat is used to boil water. Boiling water produces steam. The steam is used to drive a steam turbine. The steam turbine is connected to an electrical generator that produces electricity. This electricity is measured in units called Megawatt hours (MWh). Coal is mainly composed of carbon. When it is burnt, the carbon joins with oxygen from the air to form carbon di- oxide (CO2). CO2 is a gas that traps heat from the sun - a greenhouse gas. Other greenhouse gases are also produced from burning coal. Collectively, these greenhouse gases are measured in a unit call carbon di-oxide equivalent (CO2e). About 1 ton CO2e is created for every MWh of electricity produced. The more coal is burnt, the more greenhouse gases are produced. The greenhouse gas is released from the smokestack of the power station, the two tall pipes with red lights shown in the picture. |
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The electricity produced in the coal fired power station is moved around the country through power transmission lines. Transmission lines allow the power station to be many hundreds of kilometers from the place where the electricity is consumed. Power station are often located in remote areas close to the coal mine. As a result, many people have never seen the dirty, polluting power station that makes the energy they use and so they cannot connect the pollution produced by burning coal with their own energy consumption. Have you ever seen the power station that produces your power? Eventually, the electricity reaches the home and is used to power all manner of electric devices including televisions, water heaters and incandescent light globes. |
'Light globes' should really be called 'heat globes' because they produce so much heat. They work by passing electricity along a fine wire called a filament. As the electricity passes through the filament, it gets hot and glows. The glow is known as incandescence and it produces the light that we want. This industrial-revolution era technology is very inefficient. Only about 10% of the electricity put into the light globe is converted to light. The remaining 90% is turned into heat. The incandescent light globe produces 90% waste that we pay for through our energy bills. Consider all of the greenhouse emissions produced by the power station which is wasted in a light globe. If we can had a way of creating light without so much heat, this would save energy and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. This is where the Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) comes in. |
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CFLs run cooler, using much less energy than light globes. If we replace a light globe with the appropriate CFL, the light output remains the same, but the energy consumption drops because less heat is produced. A CFL uses only one fifth as much energy as an incandescent light globe for the same amount of light. For example, a light globe that uses 60 watts of energy can be replaced by a CFL that uses only 11 watts. One fifth of the energy consumption means one fifth of the greenhouse emissions. Swapping Incandescent Light Globes for CFLs reduces greenhouse emissions. Greenhouse emissions are measured in a unit called carbon di-oxide equivalent (CO2e). |
If we do our sums and calculate that each 60 Watt light globe replaced with a 11 Watt CFL saves 49 Watts of electricity, we can calculate that over the life of the CFL lamp - estimated at 6,000 hours operation time - a total of 294,000 watthours or 0.29 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity is saved. This is equivalent to about 0.31 tons CO2e per lamp. Put another way, for every three incandescent lamps swapped for a CFL reduces on ton CO2e greenhouse emissions over the operational life of the lamp (6,000 hours or 1-3 years depending on usage). This is significant if you consider that the average Australian home produces about 15 tons CO2e per annum (from electricity consumption, fuel use and emissions from organic waste include food scraps and paper sent to the landfill). |
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This incandescent light globe consumes 66 watts of electrical energy. In a light globe, 66 Watts of electrical energy produces:
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The compact fluorescent lamp produces an equivalent amount of light but only consumes 10 watts of electrical energy. In a CFL, 11 Watts of electrical energy produces about:
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Note: The text above refers to 60 watt incandescent light globes and 11 Watt Compact Fluorescents. However, the metered test results shows 66 Watts and 11 Watts respectively. The difference is due to normal variability in the lights lamps and the electricity meter.
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Installation of the CFL lamps began on 22 August, 2007. Installation was project managed by sustainability consultants SEA O2. While the specific objective was to reduce a total of 800 tons of greenhouse emissions, there were secondary, sustainable development objectives to bemet. These included:
See the UNCOOK CARDWELL brochure (right). Artwork for the brochure produced by ConceptionX TOwnsville. |
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Left: Uncook Cardwell HQ at the back of the Girringun Aboriginal Corporation. On the left of the picture is a large pile of waste generated by the project. This included carboard boxes and carboard and plastic bubble packs used to protect the lamps in transit. It is intended to recycle this waste, however, this was hampered by the absence of recycling facilities in Cardwell. One option discussed was to use the boxes for kindling in campfires. However, this was discouraged because the boxes were wrapped with a plastic tape. |
Above: One of the Installation Teams, Cardwell 22 August, 2007. From Left to Right: Nick Bultreys, Nina Dawson, Michael Grainger, Willl Hyams, Kimberley Go Sam. |
Above: The installation team queuing up for a trial run of the installation stick in the toilet of a Cardwell Home. From left to right: Kimberley Go Sam, Peter Leo, Will Hyams, Michael Grainger, Daniel Leo. |
Above: The installation sticks were purchased for $15 and were invaluable for replacing light globes in ceiling fittings. Unfortunately, the cup at the end of the stick was too large for the 11 Watt Genie Lamps. The innovative installation team solved this problem with bits of tissue paper and tea towels. |
Above: Joanne Keune replaces a light globe in a Cardwell home. The tea towel on the end of the Installation Stick was used to cushion the CFL lamp which was a little too small for the fitting on the end of the stick. |
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Left: Installation team talks to Cardwell Resident and askes if they many replace incandescent light globes with compact fluorescent lamps. Not one of the visited homes refused this offer and some of the installation teams came away with gifts of fruit. On average there were 5 light globes to be replaced in each home. Some homes had as many of 16 - 20 incandescent lights to be replaced. |
Above: Boxes full of light globes taken out of Cardwell homes. The lamps will be taken to Townsville to be euthanased. The plan is to establish a light globe and CFL recycling facility in Townsville as part of the broader reach of the Uncook Cardwell Project. |
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Above: Closer inspection of the replaced lights revealed a wide range of incandescent light globe types. These included normal 60 watt globes, small 25 watt globes and even 120 Watt flood lights. On balance it is believed that the overall benefit of the replacements was the planned 49 watts per lamp. The replacement of flood lights was particularly desired. This is because by replacing a 120 Watt flood light with an 11Watt CFL lamp delivered an energy saving of 109 Watts. While the light output of the CFL lamp is considerably less than that of the flood light, it was widely held that the floodlights were overpowered for their principal task which was security illumination. Replacing a 120 Watt light with an 11 Watt CFL falls into the definition of 'Deep Cuts'. Deep Cuts is a term that describes significant reductions in greenhouse emissions - ie in the order of 80 - 90 %. If every part of the global economy were to be able to acheive deep cuts in greenhouse emissions, much of the global battle with climate change would be won. It should be noted that not everyone was happy to replace a flood light with a CFL. In thoses instances, the floodlights were left in place. |
See Map of Cardwell. The lamps were distributed to Cardwell homes and businesses by:
See Uncook Cardwell Installation Team Run Sheet. |
See Girringun Agreement for recipients of the lamps.
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For more information: |
UNCOOK CARDWELL was developed and project managed by: |
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