By: Jon Armaly, Will Price, Brendan Jenkins, Eric Staszel

The top uses of electricity in the average household are:•Heating, Ventilation, and Cooling: 31.2%

•Kitchen Appliances: 26.7%

•Water Heating: 9.1%

•Lighting: 8.8%

•Home Electronics: 7.2%

•Laundry Appliances: 6.7%

•Other Appliances/equipment: 2.5%

•Other end uses: 7.7%

Most of these uses have more energy efficient options and easy ways to conserve energy.

*based off of the average household monthly electricity usage of 958 Kwh per month

Since Heating, Ventilation, and Cooling are the largest users of our electricity they will be most effective to target.

• One easy way to conserve energy is to turn up your thermostat in the summer and turn it down in the winter. Each degree of change can save 1-3% off your electricity bill per month which is about 20 Kwh per month.

• Investing in alternative heating and cooling methods such as a geothermal heating and cooling unit, which is 30-70% more efficient than a standard furnace and air conditioner will save around 150 Kwh per month.

Both kitchen appliances, laundry appliances and water heating depend on the appliances each family owns.

Investing in Energy Star Appliances can greatly reduce energy usage. On average an energy star appliance is 20% more efficient than other appliances.

Replacing all of these appliances would save about 80 Kwh per month.

Replacing only the refrigerator with an Energy Star model would save about 26 Kwh per month. It would be the best to replace because it runs constantly all year.

Lighting can be greatly effected by the type of bulb that is used.

A standard incandescent bulb (60 watt) uses 3000 Kwh over its life of 1200 hours.

An led light bulb uses 300-500 Kwh over its life of 50,000 hours.

Under these conditions a household (assuming 25 lightbulbs per house) could save around 65,000 Kwh and 6650$ over the life of the bulbs by switching from incandescent to led.

Switching all 25 bulbs from incandescent to led would provide a savings of 63 Kwh per month.

Electronic devices can draw a lot of power when running, and they draw power when they are not running but still plugged in.

Turning off or unplugging devices while they aren’t being used is an easy way to save electricity.

Plugging devices into a power strip that can then be easily turned off will eliminate the power wasted by electronics while they aren’t being used.

Having a plasma tv, cable box, dvd player, and a surround sound system on a power strip would save about 25 Kwh per month in wasted electricity.

A kilowatt meter is an easy way to find which devices and appliances use the most electricity.

In total a household could fairly easily conserve about 135 Kwh per month, or 1620 Kwh per year of electricity.

70% of Northville’s electricity comes from coal burning power plants.

It takes  0.813lbs of coal to produce 1kwhr of energy 1620 kwhr per year x 70% from coal power plants x

0.813lbs/kwhr =921.942 lbs of coal per household 921.942 lbs X 8000 households in Northville Township =

7375536 lbs of coal 1 lb of coal burnt = 625 L of CO2 7375536 lbs of coal X 625 L of CO2 = 4.61 X10^9 L of

CO2

1 Teenager= 3 charges left plugged in on average 1charger= 1.5 watts Time not charging= 22 hours per day Money per kilowatt hour= $01216 Energy used per day= 1.5 watts X 3 Chargers X 22

hours = 99 watt hours per day Energy used per year= 99watt hours X 365 days =

36135 watt hours per year In Kilowatt hours= 36135 watt hours / 1000 =

36.135 Kilowatt hours per year How much it costs= 36.135 X $0.1216 = $4.39 per

teenager There are about 2200 teenagers in Northville high

school= $4.39x 2200 = $9666.84 per year spend on wasted energy

It takes  0.813lbs of coal to produce 1kwhr of energy

36.135 kwhr per year x 0.813lbs/kwhr =29.38 lbs of coal per teenager

29.38lbs X 2200 teenagers = 64631.061 lbs of coal

1 lb of coal burnt = 625 L of CO2 64631.061 lbs of coal X 625 L of CO2 =

40394413.13 L of CO2

Nationwide, coal plants are responsible for over 40% of the mercury that enters the air each year.

When coal is burned harmful air pollutants like sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulates are released to the air. These pollutants cause and aggravate respiratory diseases, damage lung tissue, and can lead to premature death. They can also harm vegetation, trees, crops and water quality.

The ash from coal-fired power plants contains about 5% hazardous substances including arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead and mercury. Over 120 sites across the country have contaminated surface and ground water due to improper disposal of ash from coal-fired power plants. At least 3 federal Superfund sites were created by improper disposal of this ash.

In an average year, a typical coal plant generates: 10,000 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2), which forms small

airborne particles that can penetrate deep into lungs. 500 tons of small airborne particles, which can cause chronic

bronchitis, aggravated asthma, and premature death, as well as haze obstructing visibility.

10,200 tons of nitrogen oxide (NOx), NOx leads to formation of ozone (smog) which inflames the lungs, burning through lung tissue making people more susceptible to respiratory illness.

720 tons of carbon monoxide (CO), which causes headaches and place additional stress on people with heart disease.

220 tons of hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds (VOC), which form ozone.

170 pounds of mercury, which can make fish unsafe to eat. 225 pounds of arsenic, which will cause cancer 114 pounds of lead

 

Carbon monoxide Cause harmful health effects by reducing oxygen

delivery to the body's organs (like the heart and brain) and tissues.  At extremely high levels, CO can cause death

Lead Can adversely affect the nervous system, kidney

function, immune system, reproductive and developmental systems and the cardiovascular system

Nitrogen dioxide Adverse respiratory effects including airway

inflammation in healthy people and increased respiratory symptoms in people with asthma

Ozone Permanent lung damage with repeated

exposures Particulate Matter

Respiratory damage, lung disease Sulfur dioxide

Respiratory effects including bronchitis and increased asthma symptoms

National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) Clean Air Act requires EPA to set National Ambient

Air Quality Standards for pollutants considered harmful to public health and the environment

Clean Air Act Identifies two types of national ambient air quality standards1. Primary Standards: provide public health protection,

including protecting the health of "sensitive" populations such as asthmatics, children, and the elderly.

2. Secondary Standards: provide public welfare protection, including protection against decreased visibility and damage to animals, crops, vegetation, and buildings.

EPA has set National Ambient Air Quality Standards for six principal pollutants, which are called "criteria" pollutants Carbon monoxide, Lead, Nitrogen dioxide,

Particulate Matter, Ozone, Sulfur dioxide Units of measure for the standards are

parts per million (ppm) by volume, parts per billion (ppb) by volume, and micrograms per cubic meter of air (µg/m3).

http://www.epa.gov/air/criteria.html http://breathecleanair.org/index.php/what/ca

tegory/outdoor-air

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