A Campus-wide Energy Awareness Program

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "A Campus-wide Energy Awareness Program"

Darleen Mosley
7 years ago
Views:

1 A Campus-wide Energy Awareness Program

2 What will measuring my watt usage do? 1. Become aware of my usage 2. Save electricity 3. Lower maintenance costs 4. Extend life of equipment 5. Save money $$$ 6. Help maintain the earth for future generations to come!

3 HOW? It s as easy as Use the worksheet to create a list of all the appliances/electronics room by room 2. Measure the usage of each appliance by using the KILL-A-WATT METER 3. Create a course of action for reduced energy consumption and waste

4 STEP 1- Depending on what you want to measure create a worksheet or download one. Are you concerned about watts or money? Or BOTH! Use the worksheets to create a list of all the appliances/electronics room by room, appliance by appliance- Here are some samples

5 Download Electricity Audit Template (an Excel file) from

6 Room Device Watts used when ON Watts used when OFF Est. KWH Monthly (opt) Power Strip it Unplug It Lose it Line Switch it Wish List it Live with it Download Electricity Audit Worksheet (a pdf file) from

7 STEP 2- What s a WATT METER? A watt meter measures the electricity use of most electric home appliances and electronics. Some measure only the usage, some can calculate the costs associated with the usage. There are a few models on the market, currently we will be talking about the P4400 Kill-a-Watt EZ meter. The meter can measure how many watts are being used when the appliance is ON or OFF. Appliances can often draw vampire watts while being plugged into the wall socket and not being actively used.

8 This diagram shows the basic functions of your meter. Familiarize yourself with your meter.

9 P4400 Kill-a-Watt EZ will measure the usage as well as the cost associated with the usage. Look on your utility bill to figure your rate. To the right is a typical local UTILITY BILL. Some of you will be billed for Natural Gas as well as Electricity. The number you want to be concerned with is the sum of all your charges and surcharges. You may have to add up some of the charges to get your final cost per watt = = Here all the costs are added to get $o.107 / kwh.

10 Plug your KILL-A-WATT meter into a 120V wall socket near each appliance, then plug the appliance you want to measure into the socket on the meter. (you may need an extension cord to do this, as it may be difficult to see the reading on the meter if your wall socket is inconveniently placed behind the appliance)

11 Follow these instructions for inputting the necessary information 1. Press RESET till rest appears. You will do this every time you want to read new information. In any mode, you can hold the RESET to clear previous appliances, times, rates, etc. 2. Press SET till Rate appears. The rate should be flashing. Press UP or DOWN to set your rate. ( From your utility bill find your rate- if your rate was 10.7 cents per KWH, then set the rate to $0.107 or call your utility company to get the rate. If you have variable rates, you will have to meter for all rates and hours.) 3. Press SET again till SAVE appears on the display. 4. To see actual cost of power consumed or projected cost, press MENU button until COST is displayed. Then press UP or DOWN to set by HOUR, DAY, WEEK, MONTH, YEAR, TOTAL. 5. Plan to leave the meter on the appliance over a period of time & calculate as needed..

12 HOW LONG SHOULD I LEAVE MY APPLIANCE PLUGGED INTO THE METER? This depends on the usage. If it is on all the time you will get a pretty good idea soon. If the appliance is on for 4 hours then turned off for 20, you need to let it run through the cycle several times in order to get an accurate reading. The consumed cost projection will be higher then will average out over the cycle of usage and non-usage. WHAT IS BEING MEASURED? Total consumed Power- Press MENU till KWH is displayed Total Costs- Press MENU till Cost is displayed, push UP or DOWN to see by preference- hour, day, week, month, year, total WHAT ELSE CAN THIS MEASURE? If you press the MENU button, the other information options will show themselves- RATE, KW, ELAPSED TIME, VOLT, COST. When VOLT shows on the LCD display, you can push UP or DOWN to see Volts (true RMS) Current in AMPS (true RMS) Watts in Active power Watts VA in apparent power (VA=Vrms*Arms) Frequency in Hz, P.F. Power Factor (PF=Watts/Vrms*Arms),

13 STEP 3- CREATE A COURSE OF ACTION to REDUCE YOUR ENERGY CONSUMPTION Review your worksheet or excel file after you have logged the information of every appliance. Do you see how much electricity can be saved? Do you see how much money can be saved?

14 Strip it- CREATE A COURSE OF ACTION to REDUCE YOUR ENERGY CONSUMPTION Plug it into a power strip that you can easily turn off when you are not using them. Useful for several appliances which work together like a computer, printer, scanner, external drive. Or an entertainment center - TV, DVD player, cable box. There are many models of Smart-Strips available which allow certain items to be turned on or off according to usage needs!

15 CREATE A COURSE OF ACTION to REDUCE YOUR ENERGY CONSUMPTION Unplug it- Unplug any thing that you only use occasionally

16 CREATE A COURSE OF ACTION to REDUCE YOUR ENERGY CONSUMPTION Switch it- For a device you use occasionally but is difficult to unplug you can install a line switch. The heavy duty switches are recommended, can be installed into the appliance cord, and cost about $3 but make sure they are PROPERLY installed!

17 CREATE A COURSE OF ACTION to REDUCE YOUR ENERGY CONSUMPTION Wish List it Such as an old appliance... figure out which ones are energy hogs and plan to replace it with an Energy Star model as your budget allows. Newer appliances are more efficient so they will save you $$! There may also be rebates and tax credits available..

18 CREATE A COURSE OF ACTION to REDUCE YOUR ENERGY CONSUMPTION Live with it- There are some things you just can t turn off clock radios, appliances with built in clocks necessary for proper operation, devices where cords /plugs are inaccessible, cordless phones, answering machines, etc. Or put items on auto sleep mode!

19 CREATE A COURSE OF ACTION to REDUCE YOUR ENERGY CONSUMPTION Lose it- Just do it! Get rid of something that you don t really need ~ an extra old fridge or freezer with just a few items, a mug warmer, a lava lamp!

20 CREATE A COURSE OF ACTION to REDUCE YOUR ENERGY CONSUMPTION It looks like you won t really be saving so much per year? Imagine this -you have 20 students in your class, they each have a room full of appliances, multiply this by the whole school, every one has a family whose home has appliances, a village, a town, a county, a state, a nation.. THE WORLD! So, EVERY LITTLE BIT C O U N T S!

21 Some of the great information provided herewith can also be found at You can also go to these YouTube sites for more info

26 The Kill-a-Watt EZ meters can be loaned through the TC3 Baker Learning Center / Library system by TC3 students, staff, and faculty. The loan program allows you to keep the meter for up to 2 weeks to measure your personal watt usage. The meters can also be loaned for class projects or departmental usage. Each Meter will come with directions to go to TC3 sustainability site for a link to this pdf. This Kill-a-Watt Loan program was brought to you by In Shik Lee, SUNY GREENS NY COORDINATOR and funded by TC3 INNOVATIONS GRANT 2010.

27 How can I use a Kill-a-Watt in my classroom? Consider using these with your students to open their eyes to their own energy usage to calculate how much energy or money a class, a school, a city might use/save to show that appliances draw energy when not turned on to apply math skills in everyday functions to show how to set up Excel files to show various outcomes to show relationships between volts, hz, amps, watts, and $$ to show that every little bit counts! Create games or contests to promote energy savings and awareness set class goals, office goals, team goals Create a chart with various appliances to see relative usage or to compare efficiencies of various models

A. Title of Lesson: Quantification of Appliance Electricity Consumption at Home. D. Timeframe for entire lesson: 3 classroom sessions of 55 minutes

A. Title of Lesson: Quantification of Appliance Electricity Consumption at Home B. Author: Geoffrey Kavulya C. Audience: 5th -8th grade science students D. Timeframe for entire lesson: 3 classroom sessions