Energy Audit

With the world’s fossil fuel supply beginning to dwindle, and the threat of climate change looming in our future, conservation of energy has become more important than ever before. In this personal energy audit I will analyze my energy use over the week of September 21st-27th. I made a log of any daily activities which required an energy input, and noted their duration. This information was then used to determine the energy required per year.

As I have not been living at my current address for at least 1 year, I was unable to collect data with regards to the heating of the home, and so estimates were done regarding the heating and cooling energy requirements of the home.

Item Weekly Energy Use (kWh) Yearly Energy Use (kWh) stove 13.50 702.00 microwave 0.84 43.68 lighting 18.00 936.00 fridge 9.23 480 washer 7.69 400.00 dryer 17.31 900.00
Television (LCD) 2.16 112.32
XBOX 360 0.72 37.44 computer 19.80 1029.60 monitor 2.88 149.76 subway 10.56 549.19 car 5.25 271.70 hot water 0.05 2.51 heating/cooling 92 4784.00
Total 199.97 10398.20

Sample calculations:

Electrical Energy Use: Estove = Pstove x (5 x tweekday + 2 x tweekend) = 2kW x (5 x 0.75h + 2 x 1.5h) = 13.5kWh

Subway Energy Use: Esubway = Psubway x dweekly = 0.1167kWh/km x (18.1km x 2 x 5) = 10.56 kWh

Gasoline Energy Use: Ecar = Pvehicle x dweekly Pvehicle = 9.167kWh/L * FEactual = 9.167 * 5.7L/100km (Honda Civic Hybrid – Recorded, not EPA) = 52.25 kWh/100km

Discussion

Compared with the average residential energy usage of 30kWh/day (210kWh per week), I am well below the average. I believe this is most likely due to my use of the subway rather than a car for my daily commute. Although the energy usage numbers I have recorded with my fuel-efficient vehicle are lower than the per kilometer energy usage for the subway, this is because my driving occurs during non-rush hours, on the weekend. The lack of stoppages allows for much