My family's habits aren't as that bad as other people as we don't use that much air conditioner, and we don't really watch that much of television. For my brother and I, we use electricity to play video games on the weekend for around 2 hours every week. We only consume about 50 kilowatts on an average basis of 2 hours, which plays around 8% of the total amount of kilowatts that our family had consumed. Other than that, our electricity habits are using our computers, using fans, watching television, turning on lights, and so on. This habit also applies to our parents although they do more work using electricity, they don't play any videogames, they use cooking appliances, and so on. The amount of energy used by doing school homework differs depending on how much homework we have. On some days when I get lots of homework, I spend more than 3 hours working on my computer. But normally, I would work about an hour and a half and so far in this month, our family has consumed around 132Kwh. According to my data, in a month my family has consumed around 636 Kwh. I think that this is quite low as other people's average consumption might even be in the thousands! Some things that my family can change are really turning off the fan if it is on. In several occasions, in the living room, the fan is on but nobody turns it off but me. I just go and check all the fans so that if it is on, I can turn it off and make a difference. Also another thing to change is to turn off the computer at night or if nobody uses it. Once, when my family was coming back from Singapore form a 3-day holiday, we saw the computer on when we came back and we were extremely shocked. The difference between the amount of electricity used by fans vs. my air conditioner is 164 Kwh. Since our family uses fans more than air conditioners, I am not surprised that the difference is huge. The fans were used around 300Kwh and the air conditioners were used 136Kwh. Our family uses about 1 air conditioner at least a month, as we have to put it on at least 4 hours on a week. They are set at least from 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit, as the room that the air conditioner is in has to be cool so that when my teachers come to my house to teach me, they can feel the good breeze and air. If guests come, we normally turn on about 3 air conditioners at a lower temperature like 21 degrees Celsius as it is our job to make the guests comfortable as possible.
The family project that I will use is to when we are sleeping, we can set a timer for the fan so that the fan won't be on until next morning when we get unconscious, to turn off any electronics that is left on when we're going on a trip, being sure to unplug machines as they have stand-by functions that consume energy even though they are turned off, keeping doors or windows shut when the air conditioner is on, turning off the water when I am brushing my teeth because it will not only save water but it will also save the electricity it takes to pump and heat the water, and so on. By setting a timer for the fan around 3 hours, it can save electricity by automatically turning itself off. Although our family uses the fans at full maximum power, we can save time so that we can cut down on our energy consumption. According to the manager of my apartment, our apartment has around 223 air conditioners including the management office. The air conditioners are used around 5 times a week and are turned on 34 hours in a day. They are not used at night in all of the bedrooms, as there are more fans than air conditioners in our apartment.
Table:
Line Graph:
Bar Graph:
Fourth Paragraph:
In my graphs, the main change is that as 3 months goes by, the amount of KwH consumed decreases significantly. From August to September, it had the biggest decrease of around 100 KwH as the amount of KwH on the first month was just below 650 whereas for the KwH for September, it was around 550. From September to October, the decrease was around 50KwH as if you subtract 550 to 500, it equals to 50. If you look closely to the line graph, you should see a trend more visually than the bar graph although both of these best show data comparisons. Reflecting on successful as our family is doing a good job on decreasing the amount of KwH by carrying out small acts such as simply turning off the lights. On August, the amount of time spent on video gaming and watching Television for all of my family members was shortened as nowadays my brother and I are starting to focus on our academic studies more. Also, before this project, my parents made a rule which was the maximum amount of time spent on video games is 90 minutes per person on a day. This rule was working very well on making my brother and I save energy as we limit our game time. There is room for improvement, as our family needs to be cautious of how long electronics last such as fans, air conditioners, and so forth. Although we are doing a great job following our plans, there are some occasions were we leave the timer for the fan off which makes the fan keep spinning when we wake up in the morning. Normally, my family would turn the timer on by 4 hours but if you leave it all day, extra 5 hours of electricity is “wasted” which is unnecessary as I shower in the morning which gets rid of the sweat. To become more successful next month, I don’t really think that visual aids are necessary for my family as it’s just simple things such as leaving the lights on that are really wasting electricity although as a reminder of who is the patrol for which month, I have pasted a paper on the front of the house to make everyone in my family see it clearly. What I have done is everyday at least once before going to sleep, someone has to volunteer to become a patrol to see if any electronic appliances are left on so that they can shut it down and decrease the amount of KwH my family uses. Another way that could save my family’s electrical consumption is to follow the yearlong plan created in September. Closing the doors when the air conditioner is on, turning off the water when someone brushes their teeth and other ways can contribute to the “decrease” that I am hoping will continue on. It only takes a minute to look around the house to see if any electronic device is left on so this way looks like it could decrease the consumption of electricity. I don’t really think my progress, the plans for the year-long project is working very that my family needs to change my plan to decrease the usage as it so far is working. My family understands this plan and is trying to follow it when they can which is a great sign. If you look at the graphs, the amount of KwH is decreasing every month, which is because of my family members following this plan. Anyhow, reflecting on the 3 months of gathering data, my family so far is decreasing the amount of KwH we consume in a month, which is not only saving the environment, but our economic finances too.
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