Electricity Use at Home Curriculum Activity
Activity DETAILS
YEAR LEVELS
Curriculum Links
The Electricity Use at Home activity develops students’ auditing skills and raises awareness around energy consumption at home. The exercise enables students to learn where electricity is used at home, investigate how much is used and the frequency of use over time. Students are then able to readily identify where electricity use is highest and develop recommendations for energy saving opportunities.
Energy Use, Electricity, Conversions
1. Students will be able to identify where electricity is used at home
2. Students will be able to calculate electricity use of various appliances over time
3. Students will be able to order where electricity use is highest and develop recommendations for energy saving opportunities
Formative
1. Participation in the Electricity Use At Home survey
2. Participation in the Discussion questions below
1. Describe your home
Describe your home. Consider information about the building material, its size, number of rooms, the building’s age and how many people live there. Identify if your heating and cooking is electric or gas.
2. Electricity Use at Home Survey
Read through the student worksheet for the ‘Electricity Use at Home’ survey. Look through the table of electric appliances and calculate how much electricity you use per item monthly, estimating first how many hours you use each item per week. Where is your electricity use the highest and/or lowest? Does anything surprise you?
3. Discussion
1. What five appliances use the most electric energy at home? Why?
2. Where do you see opportunities to save electricity? How?
3. Compare your data with someone else from your class.
a) How did your electricity use compare to your classmate’s? What was similar or different?
b) What external factors (such as building size, material, number of inhabitants, etc.) may affect electricity consumption between your two homes?
c) What other behavioural factors affect electric energy consumption in the home?