Perform an Energy Audit in Class to Teach Students About Sustainability & Energy Conservation
Give your students a taste of the importance of energy they consume in their daily life. This energy audit of the classroom includes:
- Calculating the energy units consumed in the classroom in a day, a month and a year.
- A cost estimate of these.
- Comparison with other applications of energy, so that students get an idea of what value this energy holds in terms of what use it could have been put to, had it been saved.
- Understand the importance of saving energy and using energy saving and energy efficient appliances.
Data required:
1. Voltage received from input. In the United States, it is most often 120 volts.
2. Power rating of the appliance. This can be obtained from the manual or from the school authorities. Otherwise refer to this link.
3. The cost of electricity, in terms of the cost of a unit of electrcity - 1KWhr (a KiloWatt hour is the energy of 1 W source giving output for an hour. It is the commercial unit of electricity.)
Procedure:
1. Begin by listing the appliances used in the classroom.
2. Make a table to list energy measurements. The labels at the top of the columns will read Name of Appliance, How Many of Each, Power Rating (W), Number of Hours Used Per Day, Number of Hours Used in a Month, Number of Hours Used in a Year, Energy Used in a Day, Energy Used in a Month, Energy Used in a Year. The rows of the tables will list the various pieces of equipment along with the values for their power ratings, numbers of hours used, and the extrapolated data.
3. Energy(in KWhr) used in a day = power rating X hours used in a day = P
4. Energy used in a month/year = P X no. of days used in a month/year
5. Write totals in the last 3 columns.
6. Multiply each of these totals with the cost of 1 unit of electricity.This gives the cost of electricity consumed by the class in a day, a month and a year.
Carry out a discussion on te following topics(region specific)
1. The major mode of power production in your country and the current day challenge of energy shortage. Express concern over pollution and global warming caused by the use of fossil fuels.
2. Discuss ways of conserving energy in class, such as keeping the AC temperature to a comfortable level and not too cool, switching off the lights during the day, switching off all appliances when the class leaves the classroom for labs, games etc.
3. Additional activity: ask students to do a similar energy audit at their home. In the homework submission class, compare the consumptions of different families and carry out a discussion on how each of them can reduce their consumption. Discuss the variations in the appliances and their energy-saving properties and encourage students to buy power saving appliances
