Description

The intent of this activity is to better understand energy used by home appliances.

There are actually a couple of ways to go about it. One is to decide how much you want to cut in your family's power bull and then determine what needs to be done to meet it. The other is just to understand how much power is being used by the devides in and around your house.

In either case, the steps are similar.

• Create a list of the devices that you want to measure.
• Calculate the cost for the device to run for a minute or hour.
• Estimate how much time the device is being used.
• Multiply the cost to run by the time it runs to determine what it costs to operate.

This may be all that you want to do. But if you are trying to reduce your bill, then you need to do a couple more steps.

• Determine which devices can be used less. This may require things to be done differently.
• Total up the reduction and see if it totals the amount you want to cut.
• If it does not, keep looking. Start with the most expensive devices to operate first.

Once you have the list, you will need to work hard to make the changes required to achieve the new lower bill!!