“A camper van, it is anti-green !” Here is what we often here when we announce that we just bought our little house on wheels. So we asked ourselves the question, and we did some research! Here is a little comparison between life at “Mon P’ti Pote” (our camper van) and life in a parisian apartment (since it was the last place we lived in).
Average consumption for 2 parisian people: 240L per day.
Source : le Planetoscope
Average daily consumption at Mon P’ti Pote: 46,7L.
In total, we save 183,3L of water every day living at Mon P’ti Pote (that’s 70 554,5L per year!)
Average annual consumption at Mon P’ti Pote: 184kWh
To see details (in French), clic here.
So we save 1132kWh per year living at Mon P’ti Pote!
In the last place we lived in in Paris, according to a nationale medium, we use to consume around 620kg of bottled gaz per year (125kg for hot water and 495kg for heating).
(Source : PicBleu)
At Mon P’ti Pote we use bottled gas to heat water, to heat the camper van itself in winter, for the fridge and for cooking. In average, in one year, we use 465kg.
(based on datas from Le Camping-Car Pour les Nuls)
So we save 164kg of bottled gas per year living at Mon P’ti Pote (meaning 12,6 bottles of 13kg)!
A French person, on average, travels 25km a day. Meaning 750km per month. Meaning 52,5L of gas per month.
Nevertheless, let’s be honest, we didn’t have a car when we were living in Paris. So for the comparison to be fair, let say we used to travel on average 120km by bus and 60km by car (borrowed) per month. Knowing that a bus consume on average 40L for 100km (with 20 passengers) and lets take an average of 7L per 100km for a car. So we used to consume 4,5L of gas per month (by passenger).
Lets say we travel 1000km per month (we won’t travel as much as we did this summer all year long!).
Mon P’ti Pote consume 10L for 100km (which is pretty good for this kind of vehicule from 1989!). Meaning we consume on average 100L of gas per month.
Per passenger, it is 50L per month.
We thus save 5L of gas per month living at Mon P’ti Pote regarding French average.
And we consume 91L of gas more than we used to during our parisian life.
And I didn’t even mention the huge pleasure (in addition of the energetic and financial savongs) of eating local and almost only directly from the producers ; the happy sobriety we are in (even more since we moved in our camper van) ; the rich encounters we make that feed each day the eco-logical transition we are in; the little seeds we humbly sow with the Mon P’ti Pote Workshops ; etc.
So yes, we could consume even less, but the sure thing is that we cannot say that living in a camper van is “anti-green” ;)!
As we like to say, eco-logical transition is like happiness: a way of life, an approach, not a goal reach!
