Personal Energy Audit
Collaborators:
Sam Freeman
Abstract:
In order to determine the amount of electricity I use per day and calculate the environmental effect of my usage, I read my electric meter at the same time every day for 10 days and recorded the values. Furthermore, I took daily notes on the patterns of electricity use in my house such as when we ran the washing machine, the dishwasher, the AC and heating, etc. It was discovered that I used an average of 23 kWh of electricity a day during the data collection period. Furthermore, it was found that, at the same rate of energy consumption, I would emit 669.3 kilograms of CO2 and 4.14 kilograms of SO2 in a month's time.
Problem:
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average amount of electricity used per month by a residential utility customer in the United States in the year 2011 was 940 kWh, or about 31 kWh a day. Assuming most customers' electricity is fueled by coal, the average customer will emit about 900 kg of CO2 and 5.6 kg of SO2 a month. The massive amounts of chemicals being released into the environment due to electricity usage negatively affects the environment; CO2 is a greenhouse gas and the addition of more of it to the atmosphere causes global warming and the addition of SO2 causes acid rain. With these negative effects of high energy consumption in mind, how much energy does my house use and what can I do to use less?
Materials:
House, electric meter, writing utensil, paper,
Methods:
1. Read the electric meter at the same time every day for 10 days and record values
2. Take note of when large appliances are used
3. Record the settings of the air conditioner and water heater, the amount of cooking done, etc.
4. Also record the weather
Data:
Collaborators:
Sam Freeman
Abstract:
In order to determine the amount of electricity I use per day and calculate the environmental effect of my usage, I read my electric meter at the same time every day for 10 days and recorded the values. Furthermore, I took daily notes on the patterns of electricity use in my house such as when we ran the washing machine, the dishwasher, the AC and heating, etc. It was discovered that I used an average of 23 kWh of electricity a day during the data collection period. Furthermore, it was found that, at the same rate of energy consumption, I would emit 669.3 kilograms of CO2 and 4.14 kilograms of SO2 in a month's time.
Problem:
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average amount of electricity used per month by a residential utility customer in the United States in the year 2011 was 940 kWh, or about 31 kWh a day. Assuming most customers' electricity is fueled by coal, the average customer will emit about 900 kg of CO2 and 5.6 kg of SO2 a month. The massive amounts of chemicals being released into the environment due to electricity usage negatively affects the environment; CO2 is a greenhouse gas and the addition of more of it to the atmosphere causes global warming and the addition of SO2 causes acid rain. With these negative effects of high energy consumption in mind, how much energy does my house use and what can I do to use less?
Materials:
House, electric meter, writing utensil, paper,
Methods:
1. Read the electric meter at the same time every day for 10 days and record values
2. Take note of when large appliances are used
3. Record the settings of the air conditioner and water heater, the amount of cooking done, etc.
4. Also record the weather
Data:
Data Analysis:
My average daily usage of electricity during the study turned out to be 23 kWh, eight kWH less than the average customer. Also, because coal is used to generate my electricity, I emit 669.3 kilograms of CO2 and 4.14 kilograms of SO2 a month, which is also less than average. I believe the reason my house is below average is because the study was done in the month of October, when temperatures are relatively mild; in other words, the AC nor the heater are needed as much. Supporting this claim is my electric bill for the month of July, which showed that we used 53 kWh a day, well above the average.
Other factors that perhaps played into how much electricity my house used include our medium quality insulation, our black, asphalt shingle rooftop, our use of vents to circulate air in the attic, and our brick outer walls which absorb light. Even though the roof being black and the outer walls being brick should absorb a lot of sunlight, there are a good amount of tall trees in the backyard which block out a lot of the light. There are also a good amount of trees to the sides of my house which also stop lots of sunlight from hitting my house. The only side of my house without any trees at all is the front, but because it faces north, sunlight does not really shine there. The reason why the amount of sunlight being absorbed is important is because sunlight heats houses. Because my house has a decent amount of trees and faces north, we might have to turn up the heat a little bit more in the winter and we might be able to keep the AC a slight bit lower in the summer. My house can be seen below.
Something important to note about the data gathered is that we use a lot more electricity on the weekends than on weekdays. The reason for this is simply because we are home more on weekends and use more appliances such as the washing machine, dishwasher, etc.
Conclusion:
There are several things the members of my household and I can do to conserve energy. Firstly, we can be sure to turn of all the lights when we leave the house or go to bed. Secondly, we can invest in some better insulation which, over time, may end up actually benefiting us economically by allowing us to not use the heat or AC as much. Thirdly, we can clean a larger amount of our dishes to avoid running the dishwasher as frequently. These are just a few but there are several other things that we can do conserve energy. If we make these changes, we can use less electricity and thus emit less CO2 and SO2, which is better for the environment. Despite this, some of these changes may result in economic loss. For example, changing the material of our roof from asphalt shingles to a more energy efficient material would initially result in economic loss but after a certain amount of time not using as much heat and AC (made possible by the new roof material), it is possible that we would actually benefit economically.
Going back to investing in better insulation, insulate.org writes says "homeowners may be able to reduce their energy bills from 10% to 50% by taking certain steps," such as "increasing the amount of thermal insulation." To put this into actual numbers, if my energy bill from last month ($135) was reduced by, for example, 25%, it would be about $34 dollars less. The reason for this is because roughly 44% of a homeowner's utility bill goes to heating for cooling costs and insulation helps reduce these costs, thus reducing the bill drastically.
Citations:
"How Much Electricity Does an American Home Use?" Eia.gov. U.S. Energy Information Administration, n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2013. <http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=97&t=3>.
"ICAA - Consumers FAQs." Insulate.org. Insulation Contractors Association of America, n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2013. <http://www.insulate.org/consumerinfo.html>.