Home Eco-Footprint Audits

Transcription

1 Home Eco-Footprint Audits Collect data at home All calculations will be done in class Your tables need to be in your Lab Journal follow the project guidelines for the lab report Make sure to leave room in your journal for calculations one full page should be sufficient. Electricity Audit Your Goal: To identify the specific electronic devises or practices that currently waste electricity and identify ways your family can decrease this aspect of their eco-footprint. To do so, you must have detailed data! - Gather data for at typical 24 hour period in ALL of the following electricity-use areas - Recognize that it may take a few days of monitoring your family to capture a typical day Make sure you are gathering data on ALL electronic devises. This includes: - Major appliances - All light fixtures - Anything that requires a charger (cell phones, laptop computers or tablets, game devices) - Anything that is plugged in Tips for You will need to identify the watt or kilowatt rating of the appliance. This is often on major appliances (see figure below). If the appliance is given in watts, be certain to use the following formula to convert to kilowatts: - Kilowatt = watt/1000 Occasionally, appliances only give the current in amps. Use the following to convert to kilowatts: - Kilowatt = (amp x volt)/1000 o Volts in the US = 120v in a typical electrical socket, and 240v for large appliances such as your refrigerator or dryer Look for the wattage on the label. This is the power that the appliance uses if turned on for an hour. In this case, if on for an hour, this uses 2.15 kilowatts, or 2,150 watts. 1

2 Create this table in your lab journal it will be MUCH larger. The number of lines needs to equal the number of electric appliances you inventory! Appliance Description (examples given, modify/add to as necessary) Power Rating (kw) kw=w/1000 Approximate number of hours on (or charging) per day (h) # of appliance in house Kilowatt hour calculations kw-h = (kw x #hours in use) x #appliances ** Make sure to leave room for these calculations in your journal! Total kilowatt hours for specific appliance (kw-h) Refrigerator* 24 h 1 This will be completed in class Completed in class 60 watt light bulbs =60W/ kw 3 h 10 Cell phone chargers 8 h 2 Lap-top computer 4 h 2 *For major appliances that are plugged in and on for 24 hours per day (e.g. refrigerator, deep freeze), they are rarely drawing electricity for that entire time. A safe estimate is to reduce the total kilowatt hours by 1/3. Do this as part of your kilowatt hour calculation. Mobility Analysis Your Goal: To analyze your family s transportation habits and create an alternative transportation plan for your family. Examples of areas that you could recommend decreasing your carbon footprint (but only if you have the data!): Carpooling, walking or using bikes or public transportation Reducing your air travel - Determine data for a typical week in your household o Be sure this reflects both average weekends AND weekdays - Gather data for the past year for flights and other major trips Tips for - Re-set the odometer on the car to get accurate mileage data - If you can t collect data from the car s odometer, use a mapping program to determine the mileage for the most common routes taken - Look up the MPG ratings for each car on-line - Electric cars must be included on the electricity audit, not here! 2

3 Create these tables in your lab journal add or subtract columns if necessary Part 1 Automobile Data Questions Car 1 Car 2 (if applicable) Car 3 (if applicable) Vehicle Manufacturer (Honda, Ford, etc.) Year and Vehicle Model (Accord, Focus, etc.) Typical Weekday Mileage Description of trips and approximate length of each (to help identify where you can reduce use) Typical Weekend Mileage Description of trips and approximate length of each (to help identify where you can reduce use) Average Weekly Mileage (5 weekdays + 2 weekend) Average Miles Per Gallon (MPG)- Use internet sources to find this information Gallons gas used in 1 week Gallons gas used in 1 month (assume 1 month = 4 weeks) Gallons gas used in 1 year Part 2: Flights Use computers and mapping programs such as Google Maps to find the distances for the flights that your household takes. Fill in the chart below with the distances (keeping in mind ROUND TRIPS). Some information to help you: Questions Describe trip, number passengers, length Response Example: Family Reunion to Florida 4 passengers, round-trip = 4360 miles/person TOTAL distance travelled via plane for your household (MAKE SURE TO REMEMBER ROUND TRIPS!) = 0.01 gal/mile x 4 passengers x 4360 miles Gallons gas used per person for 1 year (use information above) Water Audit Your Goal: Identify wasteful practices in your home around water use! Examples include: - Replacing a leaky faucet because you realize how much water is lost - Taking shorter showers - Gather data for at typical 24 hour period in ALL of the following water-use areas - Recognize that it may take a few days of monitoring your family to capture a typical day 3

4 Tips for and Calculations It can be difficult to determine how much water is used by our appliances. Use the following information if yours is not easily locatable: - Toilet flush 1.5 gal/flush for low-flow; 3 gal/flush otherwise - Washing clothes 40 gal/load ( top-loading machine); 15 gal/load (front-loading) - Dishwasher 15 gal/load - Shower head 1.6 gal/min for low-flow; 2.5 gal/min otherwise Create the following table in your research notebook with data: Question Calculations How much water is used in your household by flushing the toilet? # of daily flushes Avg. Gallons per flush Total gallons per day (toilet) How much water is used in your household in baths and showers? Average length of shower # of showers per day Avg. Gallons per minute (shower) Total gallons per day (shower) # of baths per day Average gallons per bath Total gallons per day (bath) How much water is used in your household for other faucets? # of MINUTES faucet is on (including brushing teeth, washing hands, food prep, cleaning, etc.) Average gallons per minute Total gallons per day (faucets) How much water is used in your household for washing dishes with a dishwasher? # of loads per day Average gallons per load Total gallons per day (dishwasher) How much water is used in your household for washing clothes? # of loads per day (if once every 5 days, put in 0.20 loads per day, once every 2 days, 0.50 loads per day, etc.) Average gallons per load Total gallons per day (washer) How much water is used in other areas of your household e.g. watering hose outside? # of minutes water runs Average gallons per minute Total gallons per day (garden hose) Total number of gallons used in a day= 4

5 Waste Audit Your Goal: To identify the specific waste items that can be reduced in your family to decrease your eco-footprint. To do so, you must have detailed data! Examples of areas that you could recommend decreasing waste (but only if you have the data!): Catalogs and junk mail Single serve containers Excess food packaging Gather data for at least 48 hours in ALL of the following waste areas Try your best to estimate a normal 48 hour period in your household. Additionally, keep track of what recycling errors that were made. For example did you throw anything away that was recyclable? Did you put anything into recycling that actually wasn t recyclable? Tips for When you get home, take out the garbage in your home so that each garbage can and recycling bin has nothing in them, so you can record the data for the entirety of the period. Wash your recyclables thoroughly! You will be bringing them into class to weigh on the lab day. When you are out of the house, have a bag to carry any excess waste that you might have over the day. This should be done by every member of your household. Collect your compost in the compostable bag. Have your data sheet on you so that you can record any waste over the day. Recyclables Type of waste (below are examples, please add/modify) Paper/Cardboard Plastic Metal Glass Other (please specify) Description of what this is be specific Mass (g) this will be weighed in class Compost Mass of total amount of compost g General Description (please distinguish if this is composted at home or by the city) Were these items edible (e.g. rotten leftovers) or not-edible (e.g. egg shells, banana peels)? Estimated % of the total Re-used Items Type of waste that was adverted (below are examples, please add/modify) Ziplocks that were washed and re-used Jars and containers washed and re-used Clothes/material turned into rags instead of thrown away Donated items Description of what this is be specific Mass (g) this will be weighed in class 5

6 Landfill-Bound Garbage Type of waste (below are examples, please add/modify) Non-recyclable food packaging Description of what this is be specific Mass (g) this will be weighed in class Recycling/Landfill garbage Errors Types (below are examples, please add/modify) Description of what this is be specific Mass (g) this will be weighed in class Pizza box was put into landfill garbage, could have been composted 6