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Activity Tutorial

Purpose

• Teams should use this activity to learn how the measured power usage and “on”/“off” power schedules of individual household appliances contribute to total home energy consumption
• Select 8 electric appliances/devices found in their homes and manually collect their power usage data
• Approximate and record the “on”/“off” power schedule of each device over a 24-hr period, then graph their data and discuss key features
• Calculate the total energy consumed by each appliance over a 24-hr period

Table 2.1: Inventory of Home Devices

Device Name

Instructions: Rank your devices from 1–8 based on which you suspect consume the most energy. 1 is the device that you think consumes the most energy. 8 is the device that you think consumes the least energy. Your devices will be labeled with these numbers in later tables (i.e., Device 1, Device 2, etc.).

1.  
2.  
3.  
4.  
5.  
6.  
7.  
8.  

Instructions: Why do you think certain devices consume more or less energy than others? Write two or more sentences for your answer in the space below.

Part 2: Measuring and Recording Device Power Schedules

Your team received a Digital Power Monitor from your teacher to collect data on the 8 devices you chose in the table above.

Instructions: Measure the power usage of your 8 devices and record your data to create a 24-hr home device power schedule.

Watch this video to learn how to use your digital power monitor to measure your home devices, then follow the instructions below to record your data in Table 2.2.

Measuring Power Usage for Each Device

1. Find the home device you want to measure.
2. Turn it off and unplug it.
3. Plug the power monitor into the wall outlet. If the outlet is hard to reach, you may need to ask your parent or guardian for help.
4. Use the first mode of the power monitor (W).
   1. You will see a timer at the top, the device’s wattage value in the middle with a “W” under it, and a cost number at the bottom.
5. Plug your device into the outlet on the power monitor.
6. Measure the wattage values of your device while your device is turned “on” and “off”, and proceed to step 7.

Recording your Data (Step 7)

Follow the points below to record your data in Table 2.2 on the following page.

NOTE: “Start” and “End” values represent the beginning and end of a 1-hr time slot in a 24-hour day. Hours 0–11 hr correspond to 12:00am–11:00am. Hours 12–23 correspond to 12:00pm–11:00pm.

• In each empty cell of the table, you will enter either the “on” or “off” wattage value of each device.
  • If your device is not plugged in during a time slot, enter “0” into that cell.
  • Estimate when you think a device is “on” or “off” during each time slot.
    • For example, if you measure a washer machine, estimate what times your family does the laundry and how long it takes. If you measure a lamp, try to approximate what times and how many hours the lamp is turned on in a 24-hour period.
  • If the measured wattage of your device changes, record the highest value you measured.
  • Round your time slots to the nearest whole hour.
  • See “Dev 0” for an example of how you might fill out a column in your table.

Table 2.2: 24-hr Power Schedule for Home Devices
Start (hr)	End (hr)	Dev 1 (W)	Dev 2 (W)	Dev 3 (W)	Dev 4 (W)	Dev 5 (W)	Dev 6 (W)	Dev 7 (W)	Dev 8 (W)	Dev 0 (W)
0	1									0
1	2									0
2	3									0
3	4									20
4	5									20
5	6									20
6	7									0
7	8									0
8	9									0
9	10									10
10	11									10
11	12									0
12	13									20
13	14									20
14	15									20
15	16									0
16	17									0
17	18									0
18	19									0
19	20									30
20	21									30
21	22									30
22	23									30
23	0									30

Part 3: Graphing Your Home Device Power Schedule

Now you will use your power-vs.-time data to create graphs in Microsoft Excel to visualize trends and compare the power usage of your different home devices.

Instructions: In the “Activity 2” folder under “Files”, open the Excel file called “PTCMS_25_2_Graphing Power Schedules.xlxs”. Follow the steps below, or watch this video, to transfer and graph your power schedule.

Graphing Initial Power Schedule for All Devices

1. Select the “Initial Power Schedule” tab at the bottom of the Excel spreadsheet to start.
2. Scroll up to your 24-hr Power Schedule for Home Devices (Table 2.2) in this Activity 2 document.
3. Click and drag to select all of the data points for Dev 1 through Dev 8.
4. Right-click anywhere within the highlighted section and select “Copy”.
5. Return to the spreadsheet tab for “Initial Power Schedule”.
6. Left-click Cell C3 in the spreadsheet to select it (The cell is highlighted in gold).
7. With your cursor in Cell C3, right-click and select the first clipboard icon with the paintbrush for “Keep Source Formatting” under “Paste Options”
8. Change Your Graph Labels – Double-click each label on the graph and rename “Dev #” to the corresponding device name. For instance, if your first device is your microwave, double-click “Dev 1” and replace this with “Microwave”.
9. Right-click the graph and select “Copy”. Paste the graph in the space below. If the formatting changes, you may need to take a screenshot of the graph and paste that.

Part 4: Analyzing Total Energy Consumption

In your data table on the “Initial Power Schedule” tab of the Excel spreadsheet, you calculated how much energy each device consumed in 24 hours. When discussing how to conserve energy in your home, it is important to consider how your home devices consume different proportions of your home’s energy.

Instructions:

1. Look at the values for each home device in row 27 of the “Initial Power Schedule” table. Enter the values into the “Device Energy Consumption” column in Table 2.3
2. Enter the “Total” Energy Consumption for all devices (Cell K27) for each row in “Home Total Energy Consumption (W h)” in Table 2.3.
3. Calculate the percentage of energy used by each device and enter that value into the final column, “Percentage of Energy Used.”
   1. Percentage of Energy Used = (Device Energy Consumption / Home Total Energy Consumption) * 100%
   2. Example: (35 / 150) * 100% = 23.3%

Table 2.3: Proportions of Home Energy Consumption
Device Number	Device Energy Consumption (W h)	Home Total Energy Consumption (W h)	Percentage of Energy Used (%)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Example	35	150	23.3

Part 5: Summarizing Your Findings

Instructions: Answer the following discussion questions.

1. Look back at the graph you provided in Part 3 Question 11. What was the maximum total power? Include your units.
2. Look back at the graph you provided in Part 3 Question 10. At what time(s) of day (12:00 AM–11:00 PM) was the maximum total power? Include your units.
3. Look back at Part 4 Table 2.3. What device had the highest energy consumption over 24 hours? There may be more than one, in case of a tie.
4. Using the relationship between power, time, and energy, explain why some devices consumed more energy than others. Give specific examples using the graph in Part 3 Question 10 and the data in Part 4 Table 2.3.
5. How does your answer to Question 4 in Part 5 (above) compare to your initial ideas about device energy consumption in Part 1?

Part 6: Submit this Activity

• Meet with your team’s mentor to check your work and make changes as needed.
• Save this document as a PDF with the title Activity_2_[Team Name].pdf
• Have your Quality Engineer submit your PDF here: https://ufl.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eQaBRiCJA8MfQUe