Heating Bills: Ways to Conserve
Testing a Theory Assignment
By
Danielle Wyman
October 31, 2011
PSY 201
We live in an old apartment that has base board heaters and single pane windows. The fall and winter heating bills were getting pretty high. So we decided to find ways to help us conserve on our heating bills and make it warm in our house without an extremely high bill. The first thing we did was ask friends if they have any ideas, and then we searched on the internet for other ways to conserve. We found consumerenergy.org and care2.com that helped us with some ideas. Next we looked on the Puget Sound Energy website to see if they had any energy tips that would help as well. After looking at all the tips we decided to put them in action. We sealed the windows so that there were no drafts and we put insulated curtains on the window too. The front door had a draft so the Consumer Energy website said to put a new seal on the door to control the draft. Then we set our thermostat at sixty eight degrees during the day and sixty three degrees at night. The next month our bill was down by six percent of the month before and the weather said it was colder outside.
The research methods that psychologist use that is the most similar to the research methods we used is archival research and experimental research. It was archival research because we used existing information to find ways to save money and then put them to test. The experimental research part was that we compared it to the previous monthly bill. My family and I were very happy with the results and have used the tips for fall and winter months ever since. I definitely would not do anything differently if I had to start all over. This research was one that paid off for my family and saved us a lot of
By
Danielle Wyman
October 31, 2011
PSY 201
We live in an old apartment that has base board heaters and single pane windows. The fall and winter heating bills were getting pretty high. So we decided to find ways to help us conserve on our heating bills and make it warm in our house without an extremely high bill. The first thing we did was ask friends if they have any ideas, and then we searched on the internet for other ways to conserve. We found consumerenergy.org and care2.com that helped us with some ideas. Next we looked on the Puget Sound Energy website to see if they had any energy tips that would help as well. After looking at all the tips we decided to put them in action. We sealed the windows so that there were no drafts and we put insulated curtains on the window too. The front door had a draft so the Consumer Energy website said to put a new seal on the door to control the draft. Then we set our thermostat at sixty eight degrees during the day and sixty three degrees at night. The next month our bill was down by six percent of the month before and the weather said it was colder outside.
The research methods that psychologist use that is the most similar to the research methods we used is archival research and experimental research. It was archival research because we used existing information to find ways to save money and then put them to test. The experimental research part was that we compared it to the previous monthly bill. My family and I were very happy with the results and have used the tips for fall and winter months ever since. I definitely would not do anything differently if I had to start all over. This research was one that paid off for my family and saved us a lot of