Name: ______

How Much Energy Do You Use Per Month?

You will type this entire project up! Due Monday Feb 3rd. If handed in early an extra 5pts will be added to your score.

Every one uses electrical energy in their normal day to day activities...(Except the Amish!!!)

Your mission if you chose to accept it is to ask you parents to find your electrical bill and write down the following information:

  1. Total kilowatt hours of energy used for the month. ______
  2. Price per kilowatt hour. $______
  3. What was the amount your parents paid on the bill. $______
  4. Multiply the kwh for the month time the price per kwh. $______
  5. Subtract line 4 from line 3 this is the amount of taxes and surcharges you paid.

$______

  1. Divide line 5 from line 3 and multiply by 100. This is the percentage of the bill which is non-consumption. ______%

Now the fun begins.

You have to go through your house and write down every electrical apparatus that you use and about how much time that apparatus is being used.

You have to find how many watts each apparatus uses to run. Find watts( Amps or Ohms can be used to find watts).

Then change the watts into kilowatts and your time into hours.

Multiply the kilowatts times the hours to find kilowatt hours then multiply the kilowatt hours time the price per kilowatt hour to find the daily price of that apparatus.

Then you are going to add up all of your apparatus daily prices and multiply by the number of days in the month.

This will give you the monthly price and then you will take that answer and multiply it by the non-consumption (line 6).

That total should be close to the amount on the bill.

Here is a sample of what your data would look like for a 75 watt light bulb being used for 8 hours with a $0.04 per kwh price with a 45 % consumption for December (31 days).

Apparatus / Power / Kilowatts / Time / Price per KW hour / Daily Price / Monthly Price / Price with non-consumption
Watts / KW / hours / $0.04 / $ / $ / $ * 1.45
Light Bulb / 75 / =75/1000
.075 / 8 / $0.04 / =.075*8*.04
$0.024 / =.024*31
$.744 / =$0.744*1.45
$1.079

Now, go through your house and write down all the apparatuses you use. If the product does not tell you the watts it may tell you the amps of (I) just multiply it time 120 and that will be the watts. If you think it is wrong ask me and I will tell you if it sounds good. Set up a chart like the one below.

Apparatus / Power / Kilowatts / Time / Price per KW hour / Daily Price / Monthly Price / Price with non-consumption
  1. Write your reaction below to the project and list ways to save energy.
  1. What 3 items cost you the most to run? What things could you do to cut costs for them?
  1. CFL’s and LED lights are the new wave of lighting. In fact standard incandescent light bulbs are no longer being produced. Research the different types of bulbs and discuss how each works and compare them to the standard 60 incandescent light bulb.
  1. Now got to your local store or online and find the price for a 60 watt equivalent in CFL and LED. Using some math (show the work CLEARLY) how long would it take for you as the consumer to “break even” if the cost of an incandescent light bulb was $1.00.
  1. If the bulb lasts 75% of the projected life span how much money would you save over the life of each bulb? (show work)
  1. What is vampire energy and what things can you do to combat it?
  1. What is an energy smart power strip? How does it work?If you bought one where would you use it and how much money do you predict to save per month? At what time period would you break even for the power strip?
  1. Turning you computers off vs. sleep mode. The average computer uses 25 watts in sleep mode. If you shut your computer off vs leaving it on will save you more money and it will not damage your computer. Do you leave your computer in sleep mode or shut it off? How much would you save if you shut your computer down? (estimate it on your usages from project)
  1. Cell phone chargers, iPad chargers, etc... Add up all of your chargers and calculate how much money you spend on charging each month. Do you keep your chargers plugged in when not charging? If so you are still using energy (3-watts).
  1. Show your report to your parents and have them write a reaction to this project below.