Home Energy Consumption

A picture of a Kill-a-Watt. A rectangular device with a screen and 5 buttons above an outlet plug. At the top it is labeled KILL A WATT TM with a pink circle and P3 in a digital font. 4 grey buttons labeled from left to right Volt, Amp, Watt (with VA underneath the button), Hz (with PF underneath the button), and a pink button with KWH on top and Hour on the bottom.
Learning Goals

Learning Goals:

  1. Students will understand power and energy as they relate to their electricity use.
  2. Students will be able to calculate energy consumption and the associated costs.
  3. Studentswill investigate ways they could reduce their own energy consumption.
Materials List

Handouts

Classroom Supplies

  • Kill-a-Watt meters (enough for students to borrow over the course of assignment)

Important Links

Next Generation Science Standards

Next Generation Science Standards

  • MS-PS1-3. Gather and make sense of information to describe that synthetic materials come from natural resources and impact society.

Time: 1 hour 30 mins

Students will calculate the energy consumption of a set of common household devices based on their operating power rating and then investigate the power consumption of other devices in their homes.

 

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