Dear Diary...

Julia Schweiss
ENVR 490
Problem Set #2
Problems 1 & 2
Living situation
I live in a house on near the football stadium with four other people that I know through my
business fraternity. I’m not sure what year the house was built, but based off of the aged
appliances and the surrounding houses, I would suspect that it is at least 15 years old, maybe
even older. About half of the lights have energy efficient bulbs, but our landlord is all about cost
savings and does not want to buy energy efficient bulbs at the expense of a higher cost. The
house has four bedrooms inside and then an attached garage that was transformed into a
bedroom with a small kitchen and bathroom inside. There are two bathrooms inside the house
but only one shower that we all share, so we’ve made a habit of taking shorter showers. We
usually have guests staying at our house at any given point.

Inventory:
- I charge my phone every night while I’m asleep for about 7 or 8 hours
- I charge my laptop on an as-needed basis, typically for a few hours a day if I’m home but
often while I’m on campus.
- I make a pot of coffee every morning. On the weekends or when I have extra time in the
morning, I may leave it on for longer to keep the pot heated.
- The router in the house is always plugged in and running for internet and cable.
- The refrigerator is always running in the kitchen.
- When I study at home (about three nights per week) I will use a desk lamp for a few
hours at a time at night.

I made a table of the appliances that I use every single day:

Appliance Average kWh for a standard use

Phone charger .01

Laptop charger .03

Coffee pot .35

Refrigerator .76

Router .03

Desk lamp .02

Total 1.2 kWh

I am guaranteed to use 1.2kWh per day. Adding about .2 kWh for various energy consuming
activities like cooking, laundry, and showering, I use about 1.4 kWh of power in my home each
day.
Daily Energy Diary

Thursday, March 16
Appliance Used Number of Single Uses Amount of Time

Phone charger 1 8:00

Laptop charger 1 4:00

Coffee pot 1 0:20

Desk lamp 1 2:00

Hair dryer 1 0:02

Router 1 24:00

Refrigerator 1 24:00
I made a pot of coffee early in the morning and then left for campus, where I stayed for the
majority of the day because I had work from 8:00 - 11:20, and then worked at the visitor center
where I gave a tour of the university, and then had class until 6:00 pm. I was exhausted
afterwards so I picked up food on the way home and relaxed and watched a movie on my laptop
in my room, then did a little bit of homework at my desk.

I used my socket meter for the first time to track the consumption of my hair dryer. It took me a
while to figure it out, and the reading said that it used 121 kWh during a two minute period,
which I don’t think is accurate. I haven’t been able to find the energy meter at my house, so I’m
not sure if we have one or if it accessible.

Friday, March 17
Appliance Used Number of Single Uses Amount of Time

Phone charger 1 6:00

Laptop charger 1 2:00

Coffee pot 1 0:20

Shower 1 0:15

Desk lamp 1 4:00

Hair dryer 1 0:02

Router 1 24:00
Refrigerator 1 24:00
I had to get up early for work again so I made a pot of coffee and left, returning home after my
class around 4:00. I took a 10 minute shower, then spent the rest of the night in my room
studying for an exam I have on Monday in my Environmental Aesthetics class. I had cereal for
dinner because I didn’t feel like cooking - my roommates love to cook but I don’t do it very often,
which means that I save energy at home but it probably takes a lot more energy to eat out at a
restaurant. We had a ton of people coming in and out of the house because a lot of the alumni
of our business fraternity are in town for St. Patrick’s Day, so the doors were opening and
closing a lot and all of the lights were on until about 1:00 am. The weather was about 70
degrees so we didn’t have to use any heating or cooling in the house, even though I used a
blanket because I’m always cold.

Saturday, March 18
Appliance Used Number of Single Uses Amount of Time

Phone charger 1 6:00

Coffee pot 1 0:20

Router 1 24:00

Refrigerator 1 24:00
I really did not use very much energy today, because I was out of the house all day. I went out
for breakfast with a friend that was visiting from out of town, came home and made coffee then
left for the remainder of the day to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a few friends, where I wasn’t
using any electricity. I went out for dinner so I didn’t cook anything at the house. We have four
alumni of our business fraternity that came into town and are staying at our house for the
weekend, which is most likely consuming more electricity even though we haven’t all been in the
house very much. They cooked a large breakfast in the morning but then we all left the house
for the day and went to bed almost immediately after getting home. I’ve started unplugging
appliances when I leave the house, so I unplugged the coffee pot, my chargers and my desk
lamp before I left.

Sunday, March 19
Appliance Used Number of Single Uses Amount of Time

Phone charger 1 9:00

Laptop charger 1 1:00

Coffee pot 1 1:00

Router 1 24:00

Refrigerator 1 24:00
I went out for breakfast again with my friend in town, came back to make some coffee and
gather my things for the day, and then headed to the library to work on a group project for my
International Business course for two hours. After that, I had to go to a meeting for my business
fraternity at Close-Hipp, then spent the rest of the night on campus studying.

I had plugged my socket meter into my refrigerator before I left and checked it when I got home,
but it said that the fridge used 390 kWh during the ten hour period that I was gone. I thought this
was strange so I looked up the average energy consumption of a normal refrigerator, and
Google said that it should use approximately 350 kWh per year, so I’m not exactly sure what
happened with the meter.

Monday, March 20
Appliance Used Number of Single Uses Amount of Time

Phone charger 1 7:30

Coffee pot 1 1:00

Laptop charger 2 3:00

Shower 1 0:12

Oven 1 0:40

Stove 1 1:30

Desk lamp 1 2:00

Router 1 24:00

Refrigerator 1 24:00

Washer 1 0:25

Dryer 1 0:30
I got up early to do some last minute studying for my exam at 10:50, and then drove to campus
to take the exam. It should be noted that I drive to campus every day. It’s only about a six or
seven minute drive, but it saves me a lot of time. I used to have a bike but my lock got stolen, so
I’ve been procrastinating buying a new one but I probably will soon because the weather is
getting warm.
After my exam, I had one more class and then went to the kickboxing gym under 650 Lincoln for
a quick workout. I don’t suspect that they use as much energy as a regular gym because it is
only one small room and none of the equipment is electronic. I came home and took a shower
and then went out again to go grocery shopping, which I desperately needed to do because I
hadn’t gone since before I left for Europe for spring break. In an effort to be healthy, I bought
chicken, vegetables and quinoa and came home to cook it all up. I used the stove for the
chicken and quinoa and the oven for the vegetables in a glass pan. I did a little bit of research
on the efficiency of each, and found that glass bottom or ceramic pans are most efficient for the
oven because they’re conducive. I had always assumed that the microwave was way more
energy intensive, but as it turns out it may be less so because you can use it on small portions
for a much shorter period of time. We don’t have a dishwasher so I washed the dishes by hand,
saving energy there. I also did a load of laundry on the “eco spin” setting for both the washer
and dryer.

Tuesday, March 21
Appliance Used Number of Single Uses Amount of Time

Phone charger 1 8:00

Coffee pot 1 0:20

Router 1 24:00

Refrigerator 1 24:00

Shower 1 0:05
I had to get up early again for work at 8:00 am, so I made a pot of coffee before. I work at the
Russell House and because I have energy on the brain, I’ve been thinking about how much
energy our student union probably uses, between all the dining facilities, keeping the place lit,
heavily concentrated wifi, and everything else that keeps it up and running, it has to be one of
the most energy consuming buildings in Columbia.

It was an absolutely beautiful day, and so after work I did work in the sun at the Longstreet
Theater and then went for a run. Then I drove home, took a quick shower and then drove back
to school for my classes. After class I drove home again, changed, and then drove back to
Close-Hipp (an older building that is probably not very energy efficient) for a meeting that lasted
until about 11:30, then came home and went to bed. I had plugged my socket meter into the
router in the living room to track it throughout the day, but when I came home one of my
roommates had unplugged it because it blocked the outlet next to it, which they needed.
Although my roommates were not in the house for the majority of the day, I suspect that we
used a lot of energy because it was so hot and we turned the air on for the first time this year,
plus one of my roommates left the back door open with only a screen door shut, letting in all of
the hot air. The air conditioning wasn’t on very high and I couldn’t sleep with the heat, so I had
to keep the ceiling fan on in my room overnight.

Wednesday, March 22
Appliance Used Number of Single Uses Amount of Time

Phone charger 1 8:00

Coffee pot 1 0:20

Stove 1 0:20

Router 1 24:00

Refrigerator 1 24:00

Shower 1 0:07
Today was a pretty average day for energy consumption. I had two classes, one in the morning
and one in the afternoon. I stayed on campus to get some work done in between, charging my
laptop at the honors residence hall where my first class is. After my last class, I went the
kickboxing gym again, and then when I was driving home I got stopped by two separate trains
so my 7 minute drive turned into a 40 minute drive because they were both stopped on the
tracks. I’m not exactly sure if it’s appropriate to turn your car off when you’re sitting at a stopped
train, but I definitely considered it because I started to feel guilty about having my car running for
that long. I had to shower very quickly again when I got home because I was running late, and
then met up with another group project team in the library for two hours, where I charged my
laptop. Then I walked over to the visitor center for our weekly meeting for University
Ambassadors, which only lasted an hour. I drove home, cooked pasta on the stove, ate dinner
and hung out in the living room with my roommates. Of course I found it on the last day of my
diary! The main light in our living room hasn’t worked all year (and our landlord won’t help us fix
it), which might actually help us save energy, because we just use one little lamp for the whole
living room. I was talking to my roommates and a friend that is staying with us for the week
about this assignment and about how I didn’t think our house had an accessible energy meter,
and one of my roommates told me that we actually do have one and he showed me where it is,
which was on the side of the house behind a large bush, which is why I never saw it. Right now,
it reads 99,292 kWh.

Friday, March 24
Even though I finished my diary, I tried testing my refrigerator again and after six hours, it read
0.76 kWh, which is much more realistic. My energy meter is also at 99,350 after about 36 hours,
so my house uses about 39 kWh per day without heating or air conditioning turned on.
Conclusions
Because I was already somewhat energy-conscious, and because I am not home very often, I
do not use very many appliances or waste much energy. However, living in a house with four
other people and frequent visitors is not conducive to energy efficiency, particularly because my
roommates are not very conscious of their energy consumption and often leave lights on,
especially in the stairwell and the laundry room (my greatest nemesis). This is something that I
can work on by simply reminding (nagging) them to turn lights off and putting it in terms of cost
savings because we are all “broke college students” that have to pay their own bills. There are
certain things that I cannot change, like the lack of efficiency due to the house’s age. I am living
in this same house next year, so when my landlord comes over summer to hire cleaners and
evaluate the house, which she does annually, I will talk to her about the cost benefits of LED
lightbulbs, which last 8-10 times longer than the CFL bulbs we currently have and use less
energy.

As far as my personal lifestyle, I would also like to start biking to and from school more often,
especially as it gets warmer. As it starts to stay lighter longer, I will not have to use my desk
lamp as often, but it will start to get warm and we will most likely have to start using our air
conditioning more often, but my roommates and I are pretty conservative about using it if we
can be. I will challenge myself to continue unplugging appliances when they are not being used,
and make sure that lights are always turned off and we are not flooding a room with
unnecessary light.

I appreciated this challenge in giving me a more concrete idea of my energy consumption and
how I should always be conscious of any time that I am wasting energy!

2. Calculating electricity costs

Technology Cost of electricity

Supercritical coal $0.09
Natural gas combined cycle $0.04
Advanced nuclear $0.17
Onshore wind $0.08
Solar PV $0.18
*see attached email for excel file with work