Environmental study: Good carbon footprint for caravaning
By Michael Kirchberger, cenIs caravanning environmentally friendly? Opinions differ widely. A car uses significantly more fuel when it has to pull a caravan. And motorhomes are big, heavy and have a huge frontal area, they need at least ten liters of diesel per 100 kilometers. Some say that. Campers, on the other hand, are sure that they are traveling in an extremely environmentally friendly way. In the past, two studies from 2007 and 2013 largely confirmed this assumption. But what does the ecological balance look like when you look at the big picture? What is the format of a recreational vehicle's CO2 stamp from production to disposal?
A study commissioned by the Caravaning Industry Association at the renowned Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Heidelberg (ifeu) sheds light on the darkness.
ELECTRICITY IS GREENEST IN SCANDINAVIA
The researchers compared: holidays in a motorhome on parking spaces or campsites, holidays in a caravan on a campsite, air, rail or car trips to holiday destinations and hotel accommodation, as well as cruises on passenger ships. In addition to the pollutant emissions, the need for electrical energy was also taken into account, because its generation causes different levels of pollutant emissions in different holiday countries. The researchers therefore selected three travel destinations in different regions; Rügen, Marseille and a Scandinavian tour were used as the basis for the comparison.
Electricity is not always electricity. Because in Germany the CO2 emissions are relatively high at 571 grams per kilowatt hour, in France they are only 56 g / kWh due to the high proportion of nuclear power and Scandinavia undercuts the German value of 102 g / kWh thanks to the sustainable generation of electricity primarily from hydropower. kWh also.
MANY MANUFACTURERS USE WOOD WASTE FROM PRODUCTION FOR HEATING
In order to get the most exact results possible, ifeu has divided the recreational vehicles into different classes. One is the caravan with a gross vehicle weight of 1.8 tonnes behind an average diesel car with 150 hp, followed by the panel van up to 3.5 tonnes, a semi-integrated vehicle of the same weight and a fully integrated motorhome with a gross vehicle weight rating of 4.5 tonnes. The heat and electricity requirements during production were also taken into account; they are 739.5 and 491 kWh.
Since many manufacturers generate heat from wood chips as production waste, this item only played a minor role in the calculations. The consideration of the manufacturing and disposal costs of the vehicles is also interesting. A medium-sized passenger car with a diesel engine causes ten tons of CO2 equivalent. In the case of motorhomes, these emissions are between 15.2 and 18.6 tonnes, here too the panel vans mark the lower value and the integrated ones the upper value. The caravan weighs 5.6 tonnes, but needs a towing vehicle for the journey.
ECONOMICAL BOX VANS
The consumption of recreational vehicles is of great importance. Panel vans consume an average of 11.2 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers at 120 km / h on the motorway, 12.3 liters in urban areas and 9.3 liters outside of urban areas. In the case of partially integrated mobiles, these values are 12, 13.5 and 10.2 liters; fully integrated vehicles only consume 9.7 liters for 100 kilometers on the motorway and 14.4 liters in urban traffic due to the speed limit of 80 km / h that applies to them and 10.1 liters extra-urban. For a caravan combination, a maximum cruising speed of 100 km / h results in 11.2, 14 and 10.9 liters consumption.
Further parameters for assessing the environmental compatibility of the recreational vehicles result from the air conditioning of the living spaces when staying overnight as well as the need for electrical energy. These consumption values vary depending on the travel destination, while in Marseille there is no need for heating in summer, a considerable amount of electricity flows into the air conditioning. The balance sheet is different on Rügen or in Oslo, where most of the energy is used for heating.
According to the results of the study, when two people are occupied, motorhomes with emissions of 181 to 198 g of CO2 per person-kilometer are well below the value of an average intra-European flight (213 g of CO2). If a family of four is on board, the difference becomes even greater. If two holidaymakers travel to their holiday destination by car, they cause 125 g of CO per person-kilometer, while long-distance buses and trains are, on average, much more environmentally friendly with 31 g of CO2.
Hotels have a poor energy balance
However, due to the unfavorable energy balance of hotel vacations, the picture ultimately shifts significantly in favor of motorhomes and caravans. Even those who travel to the holiday destination by public transport cause 742 kilograms of CO2 emissions on the Rügen trip evaluated as an example. Anyone who stays overnight with a semi-integrated mobile on a parking space ensures emissions that are eleven kilograms lower. Panel vans are even cheaper here. Only those holidaymakers who take the train to a campsite can undercut this mark with 251 kilograms.
The shorter the arrival and departure times and the longer the length of stay, the more environmentally friendly caravanning is. The study clearly showed that an overnight stay in a hotel results in up to ten times more CO2 emissions per person. And that air travel or even cruises have by far the worst energy balance. On a 3350 kilometer round trip through Scandinavia, two campers with their motorhome cause around 1300 kilograms of CO2. If the couple were to go to the almost identical locations on a cruise ship in the upper category, it would weigh 2769 kilograms. (ampnet / mk)
