Energy Calculations Lab

Part 1:

1. What is a calorie?
    - A calorie is the energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree Celcius.

2. What is a BTU
     - A BTU is a British Thermal Unit. It is the energy needed to raise 1 pound of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit

3. How many calories are in 1 BTU?
    -  A BTU is approximately 252 calories

4. What is a QUAD? (hint lots of BTUs)
     -  A QUAD is 10^15 BTUS.

5. The USA uses about 1 QUAD of energy about every 4 days. So approximately how many quads does the USA use in a year? (hint 365 days in 1 year)
     -  91250000000000000 QUADs.

Part 2:

6. What is a cubic foot?
    - A cubic foot is the volume of a cube with the dimmensions of one foot.

7. Natural gas is measured in a cubic foot. One cubic foot of natural gas contains about ______ BTUs of energy.
    -  1020

8. Texas homes used about 8 million BTUs of natural gas, so how much is that in calories (use question 3 for help).
     -  2016000000   calories

Part 3:

The numbers for the USA and Texas energy usage are very high, so what do you think can be done to reduce the demand for energy? Write a one summary with 4 sources that describes what you think can be done.

    -  One thing that people in the USA could do to help reduce energy consumption would be to buy ENERGYSTAR products, because these run more effiecently and more cleanly, causing the amount of energy being used to go down. It iould also help if people would replace their bulbs with ENERGYSTAR lighting. Something else that helps reduce the amount of energy used would be good window treatments. The right kind of window treatments can help keep warm air in during the winter and cold air in during the summer, causing your A/C unit to not have to work quite as hard, once again, causing you to save energy. Intstalling skylight can cause a homeowner to need to use light bulbs less during the day, because the sun would be giving off as much light as the light bulbs would, and if the light bulbs don't have to be on as much, that can save a tremendous amount of money.
One really simple way that many people don't think of that can save energy is unplugging all of your plugged in devices while they are not in use. There are so many things plugged in constantly around households, and if those things were all unplugged while not being used, a lot of energy could be saved. Something else that homeowner can do to reduce energy used and also to help the environment is to plant trees around their home. Shade trees can help cover the house and cause it to be less exposed to the sun, causing it to need less energy in the first place.

http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-and-you/reduce.html
http://energy.gov/energysaver/articles/energy-efficient-window-treatments
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient_energy_use
http://www.motherearthnews.com/renewable-energy/save-money-on-energy.aspx?PageId=3#axzz2XjpJ4IRe