PERSONAL/HOUSEHOLD ENERGY RESOURCE USE ASSESSMENT # 2

OBJECTIVES: 
1.  Calculate/estimate the resources that you or your household uses on a daily or yearly basis.
2.  Appreciate  the fairly large amounts of resources needed to support your life-style.
3.  Recognize methods for decreasing you use of resources.

INTRODUCTION:  In this exercise, you will be introduced to various energy resources which are used to support the lifestyles that we are accustomed in the United States.  You will calculate the amount of resources that you personally use, as well as, the amounts calculated on a per capita basis.  The per capita amounts are used indirectly by you because of the manufacturing, industrial, and other commercial activity needed to support society in general.  For the per capita calculations, assume that the population of the United States is 250 million.  Take whatever figure is given for the entire U. S. and divide by 250 million (250 x106) to get the per capita amount.

MAJOR ENERGY RESOURCES USED IN THE UNITED STATES

                  
	 		82 quads in BTU's per year consumed in the U.S.
                                         
One BTU is defined as the heat energy needed to change 1 pound of water 1 degree Fahrenheit. 
One  Quad = Quadrillion is 1 x 1015.

QUES. 1:  Calculate the total amount of energy in BTU per capita  used in the U.S.

	82 x 1015 quads      =
	250 x 106 people

   This large amount of energy represents 35 % of the energy used in the world by 5 % of the population.

QUES. 2:  Name the major fossil fuel that supplies the majority of the energy in the U. S.
TRANSPORTATION - INVENTORY #1:  Gallons of Gasoline Used:

How many cars are used in your family?  ___________

Keep a record of all the gallons of gasoline purchased for all cars in the family for one month.

CAR # 1:   _____  CAR # 2: ______ CAR # 3: ________ 

TOTAL GALLONS/MONTH: _________  TOTAL GALLONS/YEAR    ___________

TOTAL GALLONS PER YEAR per person in the family 
(divide by total family members including children)    ____________

If one barrel of oil contains 42 gallons,  how many barrels
of oil does each person in the family burn in gasoline per year?
					BARRELS OF OIL as gasoline /YEAR ________

                
                  15.7 Million (15.7 x 106) barrels of oil consumed per DAY - 1984

     As you can see from the pie chart almost half of a barrel of oil is used to make gasoline, which is consumed mainly in private automobiles.

QUES. 3:  First calculate the total barrels of oil consumed in one year.


QUES. 4:  Calculate the barrels of oil consumed per capita in one year. 


QUES. 5:  a.  Use the percent of gasoline (43%) to find the barrels of oil consumed as gasoline per capita per year.   Percent is defined as "part" divided by the "whole" times 100. To solve for the "part":  (43%/100)  x  ans. to QUES. 4)

b.  Compare and comment on the per capita figure with that calculated in the Inventory # 1.

QUES. 6:  a.  How often do you walk, ride a bicycle, or ride public transit to work or the store?
b.  Are there any life-style changes that you could make to use less gasoline?   Explain.
ELECTRICITY:

     Electricity is measured in terms of kilowatt-hours.  Take a look at an ordinary light bulb and you will notice that the number of watts is indicated.  For example, the bulb may read 100 watts or 75 watts.  The wattage marked on the bulb indicates the amount of electricity that the bulb will use in one hour.  For example a 100 watt light bulb will use 100 watts in 1 hour and 1000 watts in 10 hours.  A kilowatt-hour is equal to 1000 watts.  If you burn 10 light bulbs of 100 watts each for one hour, you have used 1000 watts in one hour or one kilowatt-hour.
     If you look carefully at various appliance motors or the instruction manuals, you may find the wattage listed.

INVENTORY 2:  ELECTRIC LIGHTS IN YOUR HOUSE OR DORM ROOM & FLOOR

     On a typical evening go around your house OR dorm room and floor and make a list of all the lights turned on along with the wattage for the bulbs.  A four foot fluorescent tube (usually two per fixture) is 40 watts.  Also list the amount of time each light is turned on in quarter fractions of an hour.  Multiply the watts times the time in hours, and finally add them altogether.  Convert the watts per hour to kilowatt-hours.



Week Night Lights:     _________________         Week-end Lights _________________

INVENTORY 3:  MONTHLY AND YEARLY USE OF ELECTRICITY

     Use your monthly electric bills to tabulate monthly and ultimately yearly use of electricity.  Find as many bills as possible.  There will be differences in the amounts in summer to run air conditioning, winter to run the furnace, and spring/fall when neither is used very much.   If you live in an apartment or dorm, try to obtain this information from family, friends, or relatives that live in a house.

    Month 1:

    Month 2:

    Month 3:



   AVERAGE MONTHLY ELECTRICAL USE IN KW-HRS: ____________

    Find the average for the 2 or 3 months and multiply by 12 to find the yearly usage of electricity.

    AVERAGE YEARLY ELECTRICAL USE IN KW-HRS:    ____________

    AVERAGE YEARLY ELECTRICAL USE IN KW-HRS per person in family:    ____________
  
                        
                           2.5 trillions (2.5 x 1012)KW-HRS. consumed in U.S. - 1985
 
QUES. 7:  How many KW-HRS are consumed per person per year in the U.S.?  Assume a population of 250 million  (250 x 106).  


QUES. 8:  Compare this national average number with the yearly per person KW-HRS calculated for your house.  Speculate on where the rest of the electricity is consumed to support society in general.


QUES. 9:  Which is the major fuel used to generate electricity?

                    
                       843 Million Tons Coal Consumed in U.S.985.   1 one Ton = 2000 lbs.
QUES. 10:  From the percentage, calculate how many tons of coal per year are used to generate electricity.

QUES. 11:  Calculate the tons of coal per capita and finally the TOTAL pounds of coal consumed per person per year.
         Water heating and space heating require approximately 39% of the energy needs in a house.

               

QUES. 12:  a.  What is the major energy source for space heating?  Which source do you have in your house?
	b.  What source of energy is used to heat water in your house?  nat. gas or electric?
	c.  What source of energy is used for the clothes dryer?  nat. gas or electric?

INVENTORY 4:  Natural Gas or Fuel Oil for Space Heating:

Use your natural gas (or fuel oil) bills to find the cubic feet of natural gas used for an entire year.  The number given must be multiplied by 100, since it is listed in 100s of cubic feet.  One barrel oil = 7700 cubic feet natural gas equivalent.

                                                                          CUBIC FEET NATURAL GAS/YEAR __________

QUES. 13:  Interview  a senior citizen, grand parent, relative (the older the better) to find out what energy source changes have occurred in the last 50-80 years.  What was the major energy source for heating, lights, transportation in the 1920s or 1930s?  Have there been intermediate changes in energy sources for the 1940s or 1950s?





QUES. 14:  Based upon the energy inventories, list any specific life style changes that you can and will make to use less energy (specify the energy resource to be saved by your action).  OR make the case that no changes are necessary.





INVENTORY 5:  Carbon Dioxide Emissions  

QUES. 15: (Optional-in Class)    How much does each person contribute to the production of excess carbon dioxide by driving an automobile and using 1 gallon of gasoline to drive 20 miles?
     An automobile burns gasoline in the combustion reaction.  Although gasoline is a complex mixture of organic compounds, this problem will focus on one of them, octane - a hydrocarbon, (C8H18).  Other information needed to solve the problem includes:  1 gallon = 4 quarts;  1 quart = 960 ml; density of octane = 0.69 g/ml

a.  How many quarts in a gallon? (ans. 4 qt)

b.  How many milliliters in a gallon?  (ans. 3840 ml)

c.  How many grams in a gallon? (ans. 2650 g)

d.  The balanced combustion reaction for octane is:
	2  C8H18   +   17  O2   ===>   16  CO2   +   18  H2O
e.  What is the mole ratio of octane to carbon dioxide by reading  balanced equation?
	2 moles octane   =   16 moles CO2   
f.  What is the molecular weight of octane?  of  carbon dioxide?
		1 mole octane   =  114 g;        1 mole CO2  =  44 g
g.  Calculate the mass of carbon dioxide produced from 1 gallon of gasoline.

2650 g  x  1 mole octane   x   16 moles CO2   x   44 g CO2      =   8,182 g/gal  or 8.18 kg/gal
		       114 g octane         2 moles octane     1 mole CO2  

QUES. 16:  How many kilograms of carbon dioxide do you personally produce in one year from gasoline?
										_________

QUES. 17:  Personal Total Carbon Dioxide Emissions per year:

To find the totals simply multiply the yearly totals from Inventories by the factors listed below.
Transportation:  
Automobile:  8.18 kg carbon dioxide/gal.   					__________  

Electricity:  
Coal Fired Electrical Power Plant: 1 kg CO2 per 1 kilowatt hour		__________ 
(Note:  Commonwealth Edison uses nuclear power for about 60 % of its 
electricity production, which does not produce any carbon dioxide)

Natural Gas:
Burning 1 cubic feet natural gas produces 0.062 kg carbon dioxide	__________ 

Total Carbon Dioxide per year in kg					_________