Introduction

Watch the three videos below before beginning the lab:

Lab Objectives

Compare and contrast your energy consumption information with those of a home opposite in size of your own to determine differences in power bills.
Examine how the differences in energy consumption can affect consumers.
Introduction

photo of a small house in Belize

In our last lab we examined the energy consumption of your home, cars, and water loss. Hopefully you learned a lot about where energy is being used and ways to conserve energy. For us as consumers, we want to get the most for our dollar. Now you know some tools that might help you save a little money. As environmentalists, we want to help make the world safer and cleaner for ourselves and future generations. It will take a lot of work in order for the government to make any changes when it comes to energy production, but it is always important to be thinking about what we can do as individuals. Small changes can make big differences, especially if many people make many small changes!

Typical housing in Belize is small and often without
modern conveniences such as air conditioning.
photo of a small house in Bainbridge

For this lab, we will continue with some similar ideas and themes as our previous lab. When we think about our power bill it can make us cringe! The bill certainly doesn’t seem to be getting any cheaper even when we try and make efforts around our homes for improvements. There are several reasons why our bills keep getting higher and higher. There are increased demands on the utility companies to meet more and more needs of the consumers and increases in fuel costs. These things equal a bigger bill for us. So where does this leave us? Do we have any other options?

This small home on Monroe Street in Bainbridge is very
nice and comfortable and most likely has an affordable
electricity bill

photo of a large house in Bainbridge

One possibility is solar energy. Solar energy is used much more commonly around the world than it is used in the United States. Solar panels are placed in areas where they have unobstructed sunlight. This can take lots of space, so it can be very limiting. The panels collect sunlight. The energy is used to boil liquid that produces electricity from steam turbines. One form of solar energy is called photovoltaic solar energy. Light photons (from the sun) excite electrons and generate an electrical current on a panel, which then charges a battery. The best types of homes for these in terms of architecture are ones that have a roof angled at the sun in such a way so the photovoltaic solar panels can take advantage of the light. These panels can be effective at bringing your power bill down by up to 50%. They cost about $25,000 to install (at the low end). Many states offer rebates and tax deductions for using and/or purchasing the photovoltaic panels. However, few new homes that are built include these solar panels.

This is the Rollins home on Shotwell Street in Bainbridge.
It is one of the largest homes in the county. The monthly
electricity bill is very high for this home.
Lab Supplies

Information about someone else’s energy bill and consumption based on a home that is the opposite of your own. For example, if you live in small home, apartment, or trailer, then talk with someone who lives in a larger home and vice versa.
Calculator
Procedures

The procedures for this lab experiment will be a little different than some of the others you have been working on previously. We will actually be using one of the same procedures from the previous lab: calculating the kw/hr from lights and major appliances, however, the difference is you won’t be determining it for your own home, but someone else’s home. The idea is to examine how different the energy consumption is in a home that is the opposite of your own as described in the lab supplies (above). Ask a friend, relative, or someone else you feel comfortable with for some of the details you need in order make the necessary calculations regarding different rooms and appliances in their home. The most important thing to remember is that whoever you ask should have a home that is opposite in size as your own.

Lights and major appliances: Check the wattage of the light bulbs in 3 places: bedroom, kitchen, and living room and on 3 major appliances: the fridge, computer and TV. Monitor how many times the person you are asking for their energy information uses a specific light source or appliance (meaning how many total minutes over a period of 24 hours). Calculate the kilowatt-hours using the following formula and record the information in the chart below:

(watts)(total minutes used/60)
1000

For example, say you have a 70 watt light bulb in the kitchen and you use it for a total of 325 minutes, then the formula would like this:

(70)(325/60) = 70*5.42 = 0.38 kw/hr
1000 1000

Now gather the information you calculated from the previous lab about your own home using the same calculations from #1. This shouldn’t be information that you have to recalculate, simply copy and paste it from your previous materials.
Data

TABLE 1

Data for lights and major appliances from a home opposite of your own
Item Minutes Used Kilowatt-Hours Purchase Price
Lights in kitchen
Lights in bedroom
Lights in living room
Fridge
Computer
TV
TABLE 2

Data for lights and major appliances from your own home (as calculated from the previous lab)
Item Minutes Used Kilowatt-Hours Purchase Price
Lights in kitchen
Lights in bedroom
Lights in living room
Fridge
Computer
TV
Lab Report

In addition to following the specific criteria of your lab report grading rubric, also consider and address the following questions in your report:

Describe the experimental design you carried out for your energy consumption comparisons.
What similarities did you see between your home and the one opposite in size as your own in terms of energy consumption? Differences? Explain.
When you described this experiment to the person you were using as your opposite, what was their reaction? Were you able to help them become more energy conscious than they previously were? Did they think you were a little crazy for asking all these unusual questions?!

THESE ARE JUST A FEW ITEMS SHE TOOK OFF ON MY LAST PAPER…

Overall, you really need to work on many things for future reports because the remainder of them will be written in this same manner.

In the intro: provide much more background and include references for anything you don’t know. Think about things such as why are you writing this report and why is it important (other than of course that you have to do it!).

The hypothesis should be written in an “if/then” statement and you did not include one for this experiment, which will directly affect your conclusions section and questions you have to answer regarding your hypothesis.

Materials and methods:In this section, you really need to expand more. This should be so detailed that if I were to copy this experiment using your lab report, then I could do it exactly like you did and get the exact same results. Sometimes it helps to write this section as you go along with the steps of the lab so you include every single thing you did and not leave out anything.

Your results were your best section, but don’t forget to add graphs or charts as needed to show your data.

The conclusions could use some work. You need to expand them greatly and answer all the questions from the experiment that are asked and also the ones you have in the rubric as well.

Criteria
Title
Introduction (1)
Introduction (2)
Methods and Materials (1)
Methods and Materials (2)
Results and Discussion (1)
Results and Discussion (2)
Results and Discussion (3)
Conclusion (1)
Conclusion (2)
Conclusion (3)
Conclusion (4)
References

Please format references in APA format…