Save a Watt Activity Tips
This advanced activity is a long-term homework assignment that teaches students about
reading energy bills and conserving energy and money. It appears in the section You’ve Got
the Power.
Objective
Students will learn how saving energy through conservation measures can help reduce their
family’s energy bills.
Implementation Tips
- Make sure students understand why they should compare the same three months of this
year’s and last year’s bills—so they are comparing periods that have roughly the same
weather patterns and family habits.
- Make sure students are comparing actual energy used, not dollar costs. Help them look for
these totals, which will show up in kWh and therms used.
- In some cases students may find that even though their household energy use went down
for the months they saved energy compared to those months in the prior year, their bills
went up due to increased energy costs.
- Some students may find that despite their energy conservation efforts they were not able
to reduce household energy use compared to last year. Solving this mystery will take some
detective work. Have students think carefully about the activities in their home that might
have contributed to this. For example, if students had more people living in their home or
visiting in the current year period, that means more energy was used to run dishwashers,
clothes washers and dryers, and water heaters for hot showers. If the current year period
was a lot hotter or colder than the prior year period, that means more energy was used to
run the air conditioner or heater for longer periods of time or at higher settings.
|