Explore monthly and yearly energy costs for a few items that you use every day, experimenting with changing the hours and watts in the energy usage calculator to see how the monthly and yearly costs change. Keep a written record of your research. Based on your findings, choose one item that you could save money on by changing your hourly usage, replacing the item with a lower wattage item, or both. Which item did you choose and why (give a few details of your research within this answer)? (2 points)
Describe how you could save money on the item you chose in part II above. Compare your current yearly cost to the yearly cost with the change in hours and/or wattage described, and find the difference to calculate your yearly savings. Show your cost calculations clearly with the use of dimensional analysis. Using the template below, you just need to fill in the watts for the item and hours used per day and do the calculations to show how to calculate yearly cost for your current usage, and again to show yearly cost with different hours and/or watts from your savings plan. Verify your calculations using the energy use calculator from the website. If your calculations are off, double-check your work! Your answers must match your by hand calculations shown. (Note: If you choose an item initially and are struggling to find the wattage for your item (for example, it can be hard to find wattage information for older refrigerators) then choose a different item and change your answer for part II above accordingly.) (6 points)
What is the current cost of using that item for one year? Use the template provided to help you show the dimensional analysis required. Fill in the missing information and calculate the cost. You will need to upload a single photo of your written work for your calculations for parts A, B & C for documentation. Do all work on one page.
What is the cost of use for this item based on your savings plan changes in hours used and/or different wattage? Again, use the template, fill in the missing information and calculated the cost.
What is the yearly savings? Calculate the difference between your yearly cost with your current usage as compared to the yearly cost with your savings plan changes.
Do you intend to initiate your cost-savings plan in real-life? Why or why not? Explain. (2 points)
