Save energy at home

Energy saving plays a key role in preventing environmental disaster. The problem of the reasonable use of energy is one of the most pressing problems of humanity. The modern economy is based on the use of energy resources, the reserves of which are exhausted and cannot be renewed.

Every family has a certain impact on the environment. It's as if she's connected to a single life support system. Through the channels of this system - electricity and heating networks, water supply, gas pipelines, through trade, households, utilities, supply organizations and businesses, we receive everything that is necessary for the normal maintenance of a house . And my family is no exception. If every person took care of the use of natural resources, saved energy, water and reduced the use of disposable packaging materials, they would thus contribute to preventing a global environmental catastrophe.

Taking my family as an example, I decided to conduct a study on energy saving at home. My project helped me consciously move towards conserving resources in the house, 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 costs and have a smaller impact on the environment. Helps create a culture of energy saving: this is, first of all, training in practical actions, in particular, rational consumption of electricity, the use of new technologies and the use of energy-efficient household appliances and electric lamps .

Goal of the project: Learn to use electricity in everyday life with maximum benefit and minimum cost.

Project objectives:

• Talk about the use of electricity in everyday life, why it is necessary to save it and what methods can be used to do this.
• In the research part of the project, he compiles the apartment's energy passport, measures and analyzes energy consumption.
• Determine measures to reduce energy costs.
• The object of the research is energy saving in everyday life.

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

Main part

Energy saving at home

What do we mean by energy saving? Energy saving is the set of measures aimed at conserving and rationally using electricity and heat. Energy saving has become one of man's priority tasks due to the shortage of basic energy resources, increasing production costs and global environmental problems.

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

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

From January 1, 2011, in accordance with this law, an absolute ban on the circulation of incandescent lamps with a power exceeding 100 W was introduced. And from 2014, an absolute ban on the circulation of lamps with a power exceeding 25 W was introduced.

Why save energy

It is necessary to save energy to reduce the harmful impact on the environment. Unfortunately, no one can achieve energy savings simply by pressing a button or switch. Of course, you can completely cut off the electricity supply, but how long can a person live in an apartment without electricity? This is unlikely to be suitable for anyone. Therefore, the question of how to save energy at home worries everyone, including me. But energy costs are also rising for another reason: People have more and more electrical appliances in their apartments and houses. As a result, the load on transformer substations increases, which more often have to be repaired or installed more powerful. Energy saving is the cheapest and most ecological "source" of energy. It is an approach to energy saving based on the use of energy saving technologies designed to reduce energy losses.

Ways to save energy

Every family is fully capable of reducing household electricity consumption by almost half without significant harm to human comfort if it learns a set of useful rules and systematically applies them. The most effective method is to replace incandescent lamps with energy-saving fluorescent or LED lamps.

Equipment in standby mode and not used for a long time should be turned off (computer, TV, charger, microwave oven, etc. ). We recommend using the washing machine at maximum load.

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

Clean the dust container of your vacuum cleaner more often. Turn on the air conditioner with the windows and doors tightly closed.

If you are away for a long time or are about to leave, turn off all 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 to save will become a habit for the family. That's why there's an energy saving sticker on the refrigerator and on every switch there's a warning sign that my sister and I designed for our house.

Part of research

The number of appliances in our homes 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 urgent 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 spend when we live a normal life and don't particularly monitor energy savings. And thirdly, I set a condition at home for two weeks: to save money and not waste electricity. After analyzing all the data, I proposed to my dad to replace the lamps in some rooms of our house with energy saving ones.

Energy passport of my house

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

Table of the most commonly used household appliances in our home:

NO.	Device name	Energy consumption, W
1	Washing machine	2300
2	Vacuum	2100
3	Fridge	400
4	Microwave	1500
5	Kitchen robot	1200
6	Grilled oven	1300
7	Mixer	750
8	television1	67
9	television2	80
10	television 3	80
eleven	Hairdryer	2000

Table of lighting lamps for all rooms in our home:

Room type	Type of lamp	Type of lamps	Power, W
1st floor
Stay	Ceiling	DRIVEN	9Lx2=18L
Kitchen	Ceiling	DRIVEN	11L x 12 = 132L
Bath	Ceiling	DRIVEN	9L x 5 = 45L
Hallway	Lamp	Energy saving	11L x 1 = 11L
food storage	Chandelier	Energy saving	11L x 1 = 11L
2nd floor
Room 1	Chandelier	Energy saving	11L x 3 = 33L
	Desk lamp	Energy saving	11Lx2=22L
Room 2	Ceiling	DRIVEN	11L x 4 = 44L 9L x 1 = 9L
Room 3	Chandelier	Luminescent	36Lx1=36L
Room 4	Chandelier	Energy saving	11L x 3 = 33L
Hallway	Lamp	Luminescent	36Lx1=36L

The table shows that among household appliances, the washing machine is the one that consumes the most energy, followed by the vacuum cleaner and the hairdryer, even if the latter is not used that often.

Measurement and analysis of energy consumption

The purpose of the experiment was to calculate the cost of electricity consumed. The first period is normal consumption, the second period is saving.

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

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

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

I have seen in practice that electricity is wasted if appliances are plugged in 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 always save electricity, except for the older generation (grandparents). This is why at this stage energy saving is not a habit for our family, but for now just a condition for an experiment.

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

Save the family budget

I decided to calculate how much energy was wasted if appliances were turned on but not in use. Knowing the power of the devices, I was able to calculate how much electricity is spent when the televisions are turned on (and we have three! ) when they are not in use. If the TV is turned on and not used for only 2 hours a day, it consumes 13. 8 kWh of energy per month. Over the course of a year, this will amount to 165. 6 kW/h, and in some cases this time interval is longer and on average 6 hours, so they consume energy up to 41. 4 kW/h, and over the course of a year – 496, 8 kW/hour. For a family budget, it ranges from 49 rubles to 146 rubles per month. Per year this will be from 585 rubles to 1754 rubles respectively. We have decided that this is a significant savings for our large family!

And another experiment. Measuring energy costs when the equipment is in standby mode.

I unplugged the refrigerator and turned off the light. Home appliances remained turned on in standby mode: televisions, washing machine, microwave oven, charger. I observed the meter readings: in 4 minutes the meter disc made one revolution. I did a calculation: 4 minutes -1 lap, 1 hour - 15 laps. If the standby mode is 20 hours a 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 approximately 240-250 kW/h. All calculations were carried out in autumn, when maximum energy consumption occurs due to short daylight hours. Additionally, I have found that electrical appliances that are turned on but not in use, or used in standby mode, consume a large amount of energy. This means that by turning them off you can reduce energy costs and save money on your family's budget.

Conclusion

In the process of preparing the project, I not only studied and analyzed the data obtained as a result of measurements and experiments, but also took the initiative to replace obsolete incandescent lamps with energy-saving lamps, demonstrating 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 household; 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.

Thus, studying the question of how to save on electricity and practicing various methods of energy saving, we also take care of future generations who will live on our planet.