This lesson plan is from the climatechangenorth.ca website. For all supporting materials and for more lessons, go to www.climatechangenorth.ca

Auditing the Energy-Guzzlers in Your Home

In a Nutshell:

In this lesson, students become aware of the electricity sources in their community, whether they are renewable or non-renewable, and the amount of greenhouse gases they produce. They identify what kinds of energy are used to heat their homes and water, and to power appliances and other energy-using devices. By calculating the amount of electricity used by each appliance/device in their household, students can determine their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which are mainly carbon dioxide (CO2), and then seek ways to reduce them.

Goal:

To make students aware of the energy consumed at home, the resulting GHG emissions, and how to reduce home energy use

Background Learning:

Teachers should be familiar with the material found in: • High School Backgrounder #1: Climate Change – What’s the Big Deal? • High School Backgrounder #13: Renewable Energy Opportunities • High School Backgrounder #14: Helping in your own way

High school students should be familiar with the material found in: • High School Backgrounder #1 Climate Change – What’s the Big Deal?

During the lesson, teachers may want to assign: • High School Backgrounder #13: Renewable Energy Opportunities • High School Backgrounder #14: Helping in your own way

Grade Level: 6 –12 Subjects: Sciences, Social Studies, Northern Studies, Mathematics, English Language Arts Enrichment: Social Studies, Science, Mathematics Time: Two hours plus homework Setting: Classroom, home Materials: Copies of handouts Skills: Calculating, estimating, analysis, recording, problem solving Key Vocabulary: Watt, kilowatt, renewable energy, non-renewable energy

Auditing the Energy-Guzzlers in Your Home ~ 2

Intermediate Students should be familiar with the material found in: • Intermediate Backgrounder #1: Climate Change Basics: What’s the Big Deal?

During the lesson, teachers may want to assign: • Intermediate Backgrounder #3: Climate Change Solutions: We can all help!

Learning Outcomes:

Visit the website and click on the icon for your territory to review the learning outcomes that are addressed by this lesson.

Introduction to Lesson Plan:

Depending on where you live in the north, your source of electricity will be different. If your community burns diesel to generate electricity, then your greenhouse gas emissions per kWh will be much higher than if your community uses a renewable resource such as wind or hydro-electricity. Our cold climate and dependency on diesel as an electricity source makes northerners very high GHG emitters. Our communities need to develop energy alternatives to diesel, and become more aware of our energy use patterns and how reductions can be made.

The government of Canada has issued the “One Tonne Challenge,” asking each Canadian to reduce their GHG emissions by one tonne per year. This would represent a reduction of approximately 20% from our current emissions, which are running at five tonnes per person. This activity challenges students to see how they could reduce wasteful appliance use to help meet this challenge.

Before the lesson, make sure you know how electricity is produced in your community. (Phone your electrical utility if you don’t know.) For more useful information on how electricity is generated in your territory, go to http://www.climcalc.net/eng/Learn_More/energysources_1.html.

This lesson focuses primarily on household appliances and other devices, mainly because these are easy to measure and calculate. What is more difficult is to measure hot water use and heating – two of the major GHG culprits. While it is more difficult

Auditing the Energy-Guzzlers in Your Home ~ 3

to measure the electricity used for hot water and heating, we have included a suggestion on how to calculate those heating costs and the GHGs produced.

Activity:

Part A: Understanding Home Electricity & the GHG Link

1. Home Research: Ask students to: • make a list of all the things in their homes that use energy. (Get students to

include not only appliances, computers, and so on, but also the hot water heater that produces hot water for showers and for washing clothes and dishes.)

• find out how their homes are heated – oil, wood, natural gas, propane, or electricity.

2. Discuss the findings: Put together a class list of appliances and devices. Discuss which of these (if any) would be powered by renewable energy (e.g., wind, solar, or hydro) and which use non-renewable energy sources (such as electricity produced by burning of diesel). Also create a list of types of energy used in heating their homes. Students’ homes may use appliances powered by hydro-sourced electricity (which is renewable), but be heated by oil (which is non-renewable).

3. Pose the question: What does this have to do with climate change? In the discussion, make sure the students understand how electricity is produced in their community, and that burning diesel to produce electricity means that every time you use electricity, you are emitting GHGs. Even if your community uses hydro electricity, at peak times the electrical utility may supplement it with electricity generated using diesel. The result is that your electricity use may increase GHG emissions. Non-renewable sources of heat, such as oil or coal, also add substantially to GHG emissions. Wood heating, however, is not considered a source of greenhouse gases. This is because the trees that were burned as firewood are replaced by growing trees that take carbon dioxide back out of the atmosphere. Wood, then, is a renewable energy source and considered GHG neutral. (Note: Wood burning is known to create human health problems. To reduce health problems from burning wood, use EPA-approved wood heaters and UL-certified chimneys. If wood smoke is dropping below roof level, adding a section to the chimney may be the simplest solution.)

Auditing the Energy-Guzzlers in Your Home ~ 4

4. Rank your list: Look at the list of appliances/devices developed by the class. Select about 10 of the items, and invite the students (possibly working in pairs or groups) to rank the energy-use per hour of these appliances/devices from highest to lowest energy-use. When they have completed this, distribute Student Handout: Energy Use at Your House. Direct them to the table entitled “How Much Energy Used in an Hour?” and invite them to compare this table to their ranking. Explain that some appliances, such as hair dryers, take a lot of energy but aren’t used for very long, while others, such as a fridge, take a lot of energy because they cycle on and off, day and night.

Part B: Home Energy Audit

5. Home Research: Ask students to take home the Student Handout #1 and complete the table entitled “How Many Watts? How Many GHGs?” Go over what they need to do and the example in the table, to make sure they understand the process. (Decide whether you want students to complete “More Pieces of the Energy Puzzle: Hot Water & Heating” at the bottom of the handout. This is fairly complex, and students may need guidance.) Note: If this doesn’t seem feasible for your students, create a fictional family for your students: How much would they use various appliances, and heat their house?

6. How We Can Reduce: Either as a class, or in small groups, go over some of the charts. Explain the “One Tonne Challenge,” issued by the Canadian government, asking Canadians to reduce their GHG emissions by one tonne (20%)per year. Brainstorm ways that students and their families could reduce energy use in their homes. (Possible answers might include: lowering the temperature by two degrees, turning off computers when not in use, turning off lights, hanging out washing to dry in the summer, washing clothes with cold water, taking shorter showers, keeping the fridge door closed, and waiting until the dishwasher is full before running it on a short cycle. For more suggestions on reducing energy-use, see the checklist in Student Handout #2 (Enrichment): Some Ways to Reduce Your Energy Use.)

7. Action Report: Ask students to write a 400–800 word Energy audit report and action plan to reduce energy use and GHG emissions in their home. The report could focus on these questions: • What did you learn about GHG-emitters in your home: Anything you didn’t

already know? Anything surprising?

Auditing the Energy-Guzzlers in Your Home ~ 5

• How could your family reduce their GHG emissions? See the checklist in Student Handout #2 (enrichment): Some Ways to Reduce Your Energy Use. How could you help them make some changes?

• What changes do you plan to make? Try to be as specific as possible, and work with your family to create an energy-reduction action-plan.

Source: Some of this activity was inspired by materials in the Passion for Action Climate Change Challenge Student Workbook, Virescens and GVRD.

Handouts:

Visit the website and click on the icon for the complete set of handouts that support this lesson:

• Student Handout #1: Energy Use at Your House • Students Handout #2 (Enrichment): Some Ways to Reduce Your Energy

Use

Student Web-Exchange:

Get students to post their written reflections on the student exchange. Submissions should be under 800 words. Visit the website and click on the icon for information on how to post material.

Evaluation: • Evaluate completed student charts (list of

appliances completed, calculations correct) • Evaluate written reflections (thoughtfulness,

ideas about reducing)

More Information:

CanREN Youth Site: http://canren.gc.ca/school/index.asp Energy Solutions Centre: http://www.nrgsc.yk.ca Appliance Energy Guide: http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/energuide/ Re-Energy: http://re-energy.ca Yukon Department of Environment: http://www.environmentyukon.gov.yk.ca/epa/climate.shtml

Auditing the Energy-Guzzlers in Your Home ~ 6

Enrichment Ideas:

Social Studies, Science, Mathematics

The 10% Challenge: Challenge students to figure out ways to reduce their home electricity use by at least 10%, and to calculate how they would do this. (Note: Students may see ways of reducing the use of some home energy-users but not others. Encourage them to be realistic in their estimates, and not just reduce everything by 10%. For example, it would be difficult to reduce the electricity used by a fridge, unless an old fridge you were prepared to replace it with a newer, energy-efficient model.) You may want to distribute Student Handout #2 (enrichment): Some Ways to Reduce Your Energy Use.

Home of the Future: Students design an energy-efficient home of the future, using energy-efficient appliances, renewable sources of energy, more insulation, triple pane windows, etc.

About the Author:

The author of this lesson plan was the Yukon Conservation Society Curriculum Team. The team consists of teachers, writers, environmental educators, scientists and curriculum specialists. We worked with teachers across the north, helping them to create lesson plans for this website, and gathering input about website features, backgrounders and lesson plans that would be useful in northern classrooms.

Student Handout #1

Energy Use at Your House

How Much Energy Used in an Hour? Item Watts

Clothes dryer 5060

Oven 3060

Clothes washer 1400

Microwave 1350

Hair dryer 1300

Iron 1200

Toaster 1200

Dishwasher 900

Halogen floodlight 300

Computer/printer 215

Regular light bulb 100

TV 89

Compact Fluorescent bulb 20

Electric kettle 1500

Older fridge (pre-1994) 460

Newer fridge 250

Furnace fan motor 432

Energy Use at Your House ~ 2

GHG’s per kilowatt-hour (kWh) • If your community uses hydro-generated electricity, 1 kWh results in 0 grams of GHG

emissions approximately. (The actual figure for your community may be higher if flooding for a hydro dam increased GHG emissions (from decaying trees in the flood area), if emissions from dam construction were factored in, or if some diesel is used for electricity generation during peak load times.)

• If your community uses diesel-generated electricity, 1 kWh = 795 grams of GHG emissions. Note: To get the full GHG emissions for your community, add on the diesel fuel used to truck it in. A diesel truck that has a carrying capacity of 45,000 litres uses approximately 0.625 litres of diesel fuel per km. Each litre used emits 2830 grams of GHGs. (That equals 1769 grams of GHGs per kilometer.) If your truck is carrying 45,000 litres of diesel and drives 1000 km into your community, you will need to add 1769/45,000 × 1000 = 39.3 grams/litre to your rate. One other useful conversion factor: One litre of diesel will produce about 3.56 kWh of electricity.

Find out how many km your diesel travels into your community, and calculate how many grams of GHG emissions this will add to the basic rate of 795 grams of GHG per kWh.

• If your home uses wind- or solar-generated electricity, 1 kWh results in 0 grams of GHG emissions.

How Many Watts? How Many GHGs?

Look on your electricity bill to see how many kilowatt-hours (kWh) your family has used during the billing period. Fill in the chart to get an idea of how your family consumes all that electricity.

Get your family to help you complete the chart, following this order: a. Write down your major appliances and energy-using devices. (For this chart, omit your hot

water heater and furnace.) b. Estimate with your family how many hours per week (on average) this appliance is used. c. Using the table above, write in the number of watts used per hour of operation. d. Multiply “b” times “c” to find the total watts per week. e. Divide by 1,000 to get the kilowatt hours (kWh) per week f. Check your electricity bill to find the cost for each kWh in your community. g. Multiply “e” times “f” to get the cost per week to operate this appliance. h. Using the “GHGs per Kilowatt-hour” table above, write in the number of grams of GHG

per kWh for your type of energy generation.

Energy Use at Your House ~ 3

i. Multiply “e” times “h” to get the total GHG emissions created by this appliance/device in a week.

h. At the bottom, total all the columns. k. To figure out how many kilowatt-hours your family uses for heating your hot water and your

home, look below.

(a) Appliance or Device

(b) Hrs per Week

(c) Watts

(d) Total Watt-hours

per wk.

(e) Kilowatt-

hours (kWh)/wk

(f) $ per kWh

(g) Cost/ week

(h) GHG/ kWh

(i) grams of GHGs/w

eek

Fictional e.g.: Oven 4 3060 12,240 12.2 $0.10 $1.22 795 9699

(j) TOTALS

Energy Use at Your House ~ 4

More Pieces of the Energy Puzzle: Hot Water & Heating

Two major GHG-emitters missing from this chart are:

Hot water – How do you heat the water in your hot water tank? Hot water is a huge energy-guzzler!

Heating – How do you heat your home? Home heating, especially when it uses fossil fuels, is a big cause of GHG emissions.

• Oil Heat: If your family heats your house by using oil, check out your family’s heating fuel bill to see how many GHGs your home has emitted during the billing period. The bill will show how many litres of oil have been used during that time. Burning a litre of oil creates 2830 grams of GHGs. Multiply the number of litres on your bill by 2830 grams to see how many grams of GHGs you have emitted. You can also figure out the kWh used in heating your hot water by electricity. Just use the method below (Electrical Heat – home & hot water). When you subtract all the kilowatt-hours used by appliances, what you have left over will be (roughly) the amount used to heat your hot water. As a check, the amount of energy to heat your hot water should be approximately 10 per cent of the amount of energy used to heat your house. (Remember that a litre of heating oil contains about 8 kWh of heat, if the furnace is about 75% efficient.)

• Wood Heat: Although wood burning creates some human health problems, it is low in the amount of GHGs produced because it is a renewable fuel, so your home will score a 0 in home-heating GHG emissions. You can figure out the kWh used in heating your hot water by electricity. Just use the method below (Electrical Heat – home & hot water). When you subtract all the kWh used by appliances, what you have left over will be (roughly) the amount used to heat your hot water.

• Electrical Heat – home & hot water: If your family heats by electricity, get a rough idea of the kilowatt-hours used for heating and hot water. Figure out how many kilowatt-hours were used by your appliances for the total billing period, and subtract these from the total kilowatt-hours on your bill. The remaining kilowatt hours are probably the ones you used in heating your water and heating your home. (Remember to calculate your GHG emissions by multiplying the kilowatt hours used by the GHG rate for your energy-source.)

• Electrical Heat (meter-reading method): If you heat by electricity, you can estimate how much energy your household uses during one hour of heating by asking your family to turn off everything except the heat for an hour, and reading your meter at the beginning and end of the hour on an average cold day. (Depending on your meter, this may not be easy.) Then multiply by 168 (the number of hours in a week) to see how many kWh you use in a week.

Student Handout #2 (Enrichment)

Some Ways to Reduce Your Energy Use (This is a guide – prices and savings vary widely and should be checked locally)

Energy Saving Option Approx. Cost ($)

Savings per year ($) Comments

Payback (Cost/Saving)

(optional)

Water heater thermostat setback 0 3 • can be set at 50°C or “low”

Clean or replace furnace filter 9 60 • replace as needed (more than once per year)

Electric outlet gaskets 10 50 • increases comfort by eliminating drafts; use eliminating drafts; use “safety plugs” in unused outlets

Change 100 W bulb to 50 W 1 5

Change to compact fluorescents 7 10 • (varies with wattage and hours of operation)

Low volume showerheads 13 10 • can provide a more forceful spray

Auto block heater timer 20 14 • use approved model for outdoor use

Caulking cracks, joints, etc 50 61 • read instructions carefully: some require special cleaners and tools

Attic access hatch weather strip 10 6 • make sure hatch fits tightly

Some Ways to Reduce Your Energy Use ~ 2

Energy Saving Option Approx. Cost ($)

Savings per year ($) Comments

Payback (Cost/Saving)

(optional)

Weather stripping windows/doors 100 48 • increases comfort by eliminating drafts; helps keep out dust

Automatic setback thermostat 90 38 • free if you adjust your thermostat

Dimmer switch installation 8 3

Insulate hot water heater 30 8 • can also insulate hot water piping

High-efficiency furnace 1600 300 • make sure furnace is not over or undersized; this is the additional cost

Basement wall insulation 1200 200 • also makes basement more comfortable

Fluorescent lighting 20 3

Attic insulation 575 50 • make sure vapour barrier is intact

Glass doors on fireplace 200 15 • can alternatively install an insulated fireplace “plug”

Triple-glazed window or inside or outside storm windows

500 33 • a bonus is that windows stay clear all winter

Wall insulation (2 x existing R) 1420 70 • cost does not include siding; most effective when siding to be replaced anyway, or as part of other renovations

Window coverings or shutters 2500 70

Use microwave oven 100 16