Carbon Footprint is a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of green house gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide

In simple terms our foot print is calculated from the amount of energy we use in our homes and the level of traveling that we do.

Reading the UK governments assessment of how the UK will be affected by global warming is concerning (http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/about/ukeffect.htm) and the following chart shows the exponential grow of carbon emissions on a global scale.

The good news is that we can do something about this.

In the UK about 26% of our CO² emissions come from heating residential homes. About one quarter of these emissions are related to heating hot water the majority of the rest relate to space heating (ie central heating). So about 6% of our carbon foot print is created from heating hot water and a solar thermal system would reduce this to less than 3%. Reducing your carbon foot print by 3% may appear to be just a small step but at least it is a step and you can also save money (link to save money) by doing this. Other energy saving systems such as heat pumps (using energy from the air or ground) , solar voltaic (electricity generated from the sun) and wind energy devices can also assist in reducing your carbon foot print but our research has concluded that an investment in solar thermal currently delivers the best financial return for residential homes. There are many other ways of saving energy in our homes which are really about changing habits. Switching off lights, cavity and attic insulation, turning off electrical devices and not leaving them on standby all make sense and save money.