Saving energy at home

Energy conservation plays a key role in preventing environmental disasters. The problem of reasonable use of energy is one of the most pressing problems of humanity. The modern economy is based on the use of energy resources whose reserves are depleted and cannot be renewed.

Every family has some impact on the environment. It's as if she's connected to a single life support system. Through the channels of this system - electrical and heating networks, water supply, gas pipelines, through trade, housing, public services, supply bodies and companies, we receive everything necessary for the normal maintenance of a home. And my family is no exception. If each person takes care of the use of natural resources, saves energy, water and reduces the use of disposable packaging materials, they will help prevent a global environmental catastrophe.

Using my family as an example, I decided to carry out a study on how to save on energy consumption at home. My project helped me consciously move towards conserving household resources, saving money on paying for consumed resources, improving my life and achieving greater comfort.

The problem of energy saving is relevant not only for my family, school, region, country, but also for the whole world. Saving energy allows you to reduce your own costs and have a smaller impact on the environment. It helps to create a culture of energy saving - it is, first of all, training in practical actions, namely, in the rational consumption of electrical energy, the use of new technologies and the use of energy-efficient household appliances and electric lamps.

Project's goal: Learn to use electricity in everyday life with maximum benefit and minimum costs.

project objectives:

• Talk about your everyday electricity use, why you need to save it and what methods can be used to do this.
• In the research part of the project, fill out the apartment's energy passport, measure and analyze energy consumption.
• Determine measures to reduce energy costs.
• The theme of the research is energy saving in everyday life.

Research hypothesis: I can assume that my family can make its viable contribution to saving energy and therefore saving planet Earth.

Main part

Energy saving at home

What do we mean by energy saving? Energy saving is a set of measures to conserve and rationally use electricity and heat. Energy conservation has become one of the priority tasks of man due to the scarcity of basic energy resources, the increasing cost of their production, as well as global environmental problems.

Every year, the production of fuel and energy costs a person more and more, while people begin to clearly realize that the senseless waste of energy and, in particular, electricity or the inept use of energy devices is not only immoral, but it also hits the pocket, and the further away, the more severely.

Therefore, the fundamental principle of a modern home is energy saving. Unfortunately, we rarely think about how and how much energy we spend on solving specific problems. We often use a lot of energy where we could save it.

From January 1, 2011, in accordance with this law, a complete ban on the circulation of incandescent lamps with a power of more than 100 W was introduced. And since 2014, a complete ban on the circulation of lamps with a power of more than 25 W was introduced. W.

Why save energy

You need to save energy to reduce the harmful impact on the environment. Unfortunately, no one can save energy just by pressing a button or switch. Of course, you can completely turn off the electricity supply, but how long can a person live in a de-energized apartment? This is unlikely to suit anyone. Therefore, the question of how to save energy at home is a big concern for everyone, including me. But energy costs are also rising for another reason – people have more and more electrical appliances in their apartments and houses. This increases the load on transformer substations, which more often need to be repaired or more powerful ones installed. Energy saving is the cheapest and most environmentally friendly "source" of energy. This is an approach to saving energy based on the use of energy saving technologies designed to reduce energy losses.

Ways to save energy

Each family is fully capable of reducing domestic electricity consumption by almost half, without significant damage to human comfort, if it learns a series of useful rules and implements them systematically. The most effective method is to replace incandescent lamps with energy-saving fluorescent or LED lamps.

Equipment that is in standby mode and unused for a long time must be turned off (computer, TV, charger, microwave oven, etc. ). It is advisable to use the washing machine at maximum load.

You need to make it a rule to turn off the lamp or chandelier when leaving the room for a long time. Boil only the required volume of water in the electric kettle and descale it regularly.

Clean your vacuum cleaner's dust container more often. Turn on the air conditioning with the windows and doors tightly closed.

If you are away for a long time or are going out, turn off all electrical appliances except the refrigerator.

Desks and computers should be positioned to make the most of natural light.

I think that if you follow the developed energy saving rules for a certain time, the invented ways of saving will become a habit for the family. That's why there's an energy-saving sticker on the refrigerator and every switch has a warning sign that my sister and I designed for our house.

Research part

The number of household appliances in our home is constantly increasing, as are our electricity bills. And this is not surprising, because 6 other people live in the house with me. A very pressing question for us is: how to save energy in our home? And I began my experiments. The first thing I did was create an energy passport for my home. Secondly, I looked at how much electricity we use when we live a normal life and we don't particularly monitor energy savings. And thirdly, I set a condition at home for two weeks: save money and not waste electricity. After analyzing all the data, I suggested that my father replace the light bulbs in some rooms in our house with energy-saving ones.

Energy passport for my home

I analyzed the house's energy consumption, and then compiled a table of household appliances with the indicated power and a table of lighting bulbs for all rooms in the house.

Table of most used appliances in our home:

No.	Device name	Power consumption, W
1	Washing machine	2300
two	Vacuum Cleaner	2100
3	Refrigerator	400
4	Microwave	1500
5	Food processor	1200
6	Grilled oven	1300
7	Blender	750
8	television 1	67
9	television 2	80
10	television 3	80
eleven	Hairdryer	2000

Table of lamps for all rooms in our house:

Type of room	Lamp type	Type of lamps	Power, W
1st floor
Living room	Roof	LED	9 L x 2 = 18 W
Kitchen	Roof	LED	11 L x 12 = 132 W
Bath	Roof	LED	9 L x 5 = 45 W
Hall	Light bulb	Energy saving	11 L x 1 = 11 W
Pantry	Chandelier	Energy saving	11 L x 1 = 11 W
2nd floor
Room 1	Chandelier	Energy saving	11 L x 3 = 33 W
	Desk lamp	Energy saving	11 L x 2 = 22 W
Room 2	Roof	LED	11 L x 4 = 44 W 9 L x 1 = 9 L
Room 3	Chandelier	Luminescent	36 L x 1 = 36 W
Room 4	Chandelier	Energy saving	11 L x 3 = 33 W
Hall	Light bulb	Luminescent	36 L x 1 = 36 W

The table shows that among household appliances, the washing machine is the one with the highest energy consumption, followed by the vacuum cleaner and the hair dryer, although the latter is rarely used.

Measuring and analyzing energy consumption

The objective of the experiment was to calculate the cost of electrical energy consumed. The first period is normal consumption, the second period is savings.

date	Contrary reading at the beginning of the week	Meter reading at the end of the week	Electrical consumption kW/hour	Price to scrub.
from 10/08 to 10/22/2017	5117	5324	207	730, 71
from 10/23 to 11/06/2017	5340	5501	161	568, 33

The adopted tariff is: 1 kW/h - 3 rubles 53 kopecks.

Thus, the table shows that in two weeks of economical consumption of electricity, our family received162 rubles 38 kopecks.

I have observed in practice that electricity is wasted if appliances are switched on but not used, or if appliances are in standby mode.

During the work, my hypothesis was confirmed. We found ways to save electricity, however, it was difficult for family members to save electricity all the time, with the exception of the older generation (grandparents). That's why at this stage, saving energy is not a habit for our family, but for now just a condition of experiment.

I think that if you follow the developed rules of energy saving for a certain time, the invented ways of saving will become a habit for our family.

Saving the family budget

I decided to calculate how much energy would be wasted if the appliances were turned on but not in use. Knowing the power of the devices, I was able to calculate how much electricity is used when the TVs are on (and we have three of them! ) when they are not in use. If TVs are on and not used for just 2 hours a day, they will consume 13. 8 kWh of energy per month. Over the course of a year, this will be 165. 6 kW/h, and in some cases this time interval is longer and averages 6 hours, therefore they consume energy of up to 41. 4 kW/h, and over the course of a year – 496. 8 kW/hour. For a family budget, this varies from 49 rubles to 146 rubles per month. Per year it will be, respectively, from 585 rubles to 1, 754 rubles. We decided this is a significant savings for our large family!

And one more experiment. Measure energy costs when equipment is in standby mode.

I disconnected the cord from the refrigerator and turned off the light. The appliances remained on in standby mode: TV, washing machine, microwave oven, charger. I watched the meter readings: in 4 minutes the meter disk made one turn. I made a calculation: 4 minutes -1 revolution, 1 hour - 15 revolutions. If standby mode is 20 hours per day, the energy consumption results can be up to 180 kW/hour per year.

Conclusion: the energy audit showed that the total electricity consumption in the apartment per day was slightly higher than 8 kW/h, which corresponds to a monthly electricity consumption of around 240-250 kW/h. All calculations were made in autumn, when maximum energy consumption occurs due to the short daylight hours. Additionally, I discovered that electrical appliances that are turned on but not in use, or in standby mode, consume a large amount of energy. This means that by turning them off, you can reduce energy costs and save your family budget.

Conclusion

In the process of preparing the project, I not only studied and analyzed the data obtained from measurements and experiments, but I also took the initiative to replace obsolete incandescent lamps with energy-saving lamps, proving their advantages. At the moment, my apartment is fully equipped with LED and energy-saving lamps.

This is the simplest thing you can do to save energy in a single family; anyone can do it.

Now imagine that we managed to reduce electricity consumption by 100 W. This means that we saved:

• coal - 48 kilograms
• oil - 33 liters
• gas - 35 cubic meters.

The study showed that if you use household appliances correctly, use energy-saving light bulbs and do not leave household appliances in standby mode, energy costs in the family can really be reduced and the family budget can be saved.

Therefore, by studying the issue of how to save electrical energy and putting into practice various energy saving methods, we also take care of future generations that will live on our planet.