Introduction
The aim of this report is to give you information about saving energy at home. Saving energy at home is very important for the environment, because if we don't save energy at home the fossile fuels will run out and we will have to find new methods which will give us (the consumers) as much energy as the fossile fuels do. We researched several methods that can help you with reducing your energy consumption and which can reduce your energy bills. So that is good for nature and your wallet :).
We hope you will learn something from our report about saving energy at home!
Group 4,
Bram, Hedser, Jamie and Willem
Index
● Research
● 3 Methods to save energy at home
● The houses of Bram and Jamie
● Which methods they use to reduce energy
● How much energy they consume on a saturday from 9 am to 9pm
● Interview with a company about saving energy at home
● Awareness activity
● Reflection
● Conclusion
The aim of this report is to give you information about saving energy at home. Saving energy at home is very important for the environment, because if we don't save energy at home the fossile fuels will run out and we will have to find new methods which will give us (the consumers) as much energy as the fossile fuels do. We researched several methods that can help you with reducing your energy consumption and which can reduce your energy bills. So that is good for nature and your wallet :).
We hope you will learn something from our report about saving energy at home!
Group 4,
Bram, Hedser, Jamie and Willem
Index
● Research
● 3 Methods to save energy at home
● The houses of Bram and Jamie
● Which methods they use to reduce energy
● How much energy they consume on a saturday from 9 am to 9pm
● Interview with a company about saving energy at home
● Awareness activity
● Reflection
● Conclusion
Research
We did research on a main question and subquestions. As main research question we had: How can energy be saved at home in the most effective way? We had several subquestions:
● Describe the home of two group members. Add some pictures.
● Measure the amount of energy used in these homes on a Saturday from 9 am till 9 pm. (heating, air conditioning, cooking, water consumption, computer, TV etc..)
● Which methods are being used in these homes to save energy?
● Visit a company running a business in materials to save energy at home. Which materials/methods does the company produce/sell?● Find a house where this method is being used and estimate the amount of energy that can be saved by this method. If possible try to substantiate your estimates with measurements, for example with a power monitor. Use pictures to illustrate this method.
● Identify three methods to save energy at home. Illustrate with pictures
Hedser indentified 3 methods to save energy at home and he estimated how much energy you can save, by using these methods.
Bram interviewed someone who works at a company that is running a business in materials to save energy at home.
Jamie and Bram described their homes and which methods they use to save energy, they also measured the amount of energy used on a saturday from 9 am till 9 pm.
Willem tried to convince his family to save energy at home but they weren't that enthusiastic.
We did research on a main question and subquestions. As main research question we had: How can energy be saved at home in the most effective way? We had several subquestions:
● Describe the home of two group members. Add some pictures.
● Measure the amount of energy used in these homes on a Saturday from 9 am till 9 pm. (heating, air conditioning, cooking, water consumption, computer, TV etc..)
● Which methods are being used in these homes to save energy?
● Visit a company running a business in materials to save energy at home. Which materials/methods does the company produce/sell?● Find a house where this method is being used and estimate the amount of energy that can be saved by this method. If possible try to substantiate your estimates with measurements, for example with a power monitor. Use pictures to illustrate this method.
● Identify three methods to save energy at home. Illustrate with pictures
Hedser indentified 3 methods to save energy at home and he estimated how much energy you can save, by using these methods.
Bram interviewed someone who works at a company that is running a business in materials to save energy at home.
Jamie and Bram described their homes and which methods they use to save energy, they also measured the amount of energy used on a saturday from 9 am till 9 pm.
Willem tried to convince his family to save energy at home but they weren't that enthusiastic.
3 Methods to save energy at home
Hedser: The most efficient way to reduce your energy consumption is by you stopping with wasting energy by unplugging your electrical devices for example, but there are also methods that can help you with reducing your energy consumption.
An insulated house makes a big difference to your energy bills. If your house is well insulated, you don't lose a lot energy because of the outside temperature being lower than the inside temerature. You have a lot of insulating materials like fiberglass, cellulose and rock wool. You can save approximatly between 500 and 1000 euros every year by insulating your home.
Hedser: The most efficient way to reduce your energy consumption is by you stopping with wasting energy by unplugging your electrical devices for example, but there are also methods that can help you with reducing your energy consumption.
An insulated house makes a big difference to your energy bills. If your house is well insulated, you don't lose a lot energy because of the outside temperature being lower than the inside temerature. You have a lot of insulating materials like fiberglass, cellulose and rock wool. You can save approximatly between 500 and 1000 euros every year by insulating your home.
Another good method is using HR++ glass, HR++ glass is almost the same as a normal float glass, but made with a thin layer of metal oxide. The HR++ glass is twice as efficient as regular glass. The coating allows the short-wave solare energy to penetrate into the building. It is like a barrier for the outflow of the energy. This helps people to reduce the heat loss and they can save up to 40% on heating costs during the winter. You can save around 300 euros every year.
The last but not the least method to save energy at home are LED lamps. An LED lamp is a light bulb that produces light using light-emitting diodes (LEDs). LED lamps have a longer life duration and a better efficiency than other lamps. LED lamps use only 10% of the energy that other lamps require. LED lamps don't make a big difference in a short period of time but in a longer period of time they make a big difference. They could save you up to a few hundred dollars in the course of 10 years.
The houses of Bram and Jamie
Bram: I live in a small city called Veere. My house is semi-detached with a garage. It was built in 1996 and it has a surface of 150 squared meters. It has 3 floors and it has 6 rooms of which 4 are bedrooms and it has 1 bathroom. It has a garden of approximately 160 squared meters. It has an energy label B. Which means that it is fully insulated (roof insulation, wall insulation and double glass). It has a boiler which consumes gas. It is an efficient compact model with an energy label A. We used on saturday from 9am to 9 pm only 5 kWh, but this was mainly due to the fact we went to a restaurant so we didn't have to use the kitchen and we didn't do any washing.
Bram: I live in a small city called Veere. My house is semi-detached with a garage. It was built in 1996 and it has a surface of 150 squared meters. It has 3 floors and it has 6 rooms of which 4 are bedrooms and it has 1 bathroom. It has a garden of approximately 160 squared meters. It has an energy label B. Which means that it is fully insulated (roof insulation, wall insulation and double glass). It has a boiler which consumes gas. It is an efficient compact model with an energy label A. We used on saturday from 9am to 9 pm only 5 kWh, but this was mainly due to the fact we went to a restaurant so we didn't have to use the kitchen and we didn't do any washing.
Jamie: I live in the city Vlissingen. My house is semi-detached, the garage is detached to the house. The house has a living room, kitchen, a bathroom and 5 bedrooms. It has a surface of 165 squared meters with a garden of 155 squared meters and it is built in 1964. Houses from 1964 usually weren't insulated that well when they were built, but we insulated it better when we moved in. The walls and roof are very well insulated and we have HR++ glass. The boiler works on gas and has an energy label A. We used 20 kWh on saturday from 9 am to 9 pm, because we wash and dry in the weekend and that uses a lot of power.
Interview with a company about saving energy at home
Interviewer: Bram Hament
Interviewee: Peter van de Maas
Interviewer: At which company do you work and what is your function?
Interviewee: I work at the company Croon Wolter en Drost, it’s a company that installs technical installations in buildings. I work there as a project manager. As a project manager I have to supervise the installation of our products for our customers.
Interviewer: Which products does your company sell and install to save energy at home?
Interviewee: We install everything what is needed in a house for heating, water and electricity. We also replace products that are not functioning anymore by products which are more energy efficient. So if you have a boiler for example which isn’t functioning any more we replace by a more efficient one or we replace it by new technologies like a heat pump or a solar boiler.
Interviewer: What do you think about saving energy at home?
Interviewee: In my opinion it’s very important to save energy at home because a lot of houses are heated up by boilers which consume gas, but in a certain moment in time we will run out of gas so we will have to find new methods to heat up our houses.
Interviewer: What are next to your products good ways / methods to save energy at home?
Interviewee: To save energy at home you first have to use only the energy you need and you should use the energy that you have as efficient as possible. Because you can spend a lot of money in products to save energy, but if you don’t use your energy efficient you still don’t save that much energy.
Interviewer: Bram Hament
Interviewee: Peter van de Maas
Interviewer: At which company do you work and what is your function?
Interviewee: I work at the company Croon Wolter en Drost, it’s a company that installs technical installations in buildings. I work there as a project manager. As a project manager I have to supervise the installation of our products for our customers.
Interviewer: Which products does your company sell and install to save energy at home?
Interviewee: We install everything what is needed in a house for heating, water and electricity. We also replace products that are not functioning anymore by products which are more energy efficient. So if you have a boiler for example which isn’t functioning any more we replace by a more efficient one or we replace it by new technologies like a heat pump or a solar boiler.
Interviewer: What do you think about saving energy at home?
Interviewee: In my opinion it’s very important to save energy at home because a lot of houses are heated up by boilers which consume gas, but in a certain moment in time we will run out of gas so we will have to find new methods to heat up our houses.
Interviewer: What are next to your products good ways / methods to save energy at home?
Interviewee: To save energy at home you first have to use only the energy you need and you should use the energy that you have as efficient as possible. Because you can spend a lot of money in products to save energy, but if you don’t use your energy efficient you still don’t save that much energy.
Awareness activity
Willem: I tried to convince my family to save energy and I told them that there are some solutions that might be easy to do without too much effort, for example doing the dishes by hand, instead of using an electrical dishwasher or letting clothes dry by themselves instead of using a dryer for this.. What might help too is turning off the lights when you leave a room. But how do you get your family members to do all this?
All of these involve saving energy, but they take away some comfort, so why would anyone do this? If your family members like to save energy, they might want to give these solutions a try, you can help them remember this by, for example, putting a sign on the dryer, or the dishwasher might help them think of this. Turning off the lights might be harder to think of, unless you want to put signs on every door and light switch.
I tried to get my family members to do this, I do not yet have results on the lights, but it is starting to work, I think. Washing the dishes by hand wasn't a succes because none of them liked to do the dishes by hand, and the energy gains on that one may not be very high. We do not have a dryer, so I could not test anything there. So altogether my experience was (not yet?) a success.
Willem: I tried to convince my family to save energy and I told them that there are some solutions that might be easy to do without too much effort, for example doing the dishes by hand, instead of using an electrical dishwasher or letting clothes dry by themselves instead of using a dryer for this.. What might help too is turning off the lights when you leave a room. But how do you get your family members to do all this?
All of these involve saving energy, but they take away some comfort, so why would anyone do this? If your family members like to save energy, they might want to give these solutions a try, you can help them remember this by, for example, putting a sign on the dryer, or the dishwasher might help them think of this. Turning off the lights might be harder to think of, unless you want to put signs on every door and light switch.
I tried to get my family members to do this, I do not yet have results on the lights, but it is starting to work, I think. Washing the dishes by hand wasn't a succes because none of them liked to do the dishes by hand, and the energy gains on that one may not be very high. We do not have a dryer, so I could not test anything there. So altogether my experience was (not yet?) a success.
Reflection
When we first began with the project we didn't know what to expect and therefore our expectations weren't that high however the project was actually quite interesting. Especially the video conferences with India, even though our microphone wasn’t that great and we had to use our phone to communicate. We did a lot of research about ways to save energy and how we are already saving energy at home. We learned a lot so the project was a good way of learning about saving energy.
There were however some downsides of the project. We started too late so we almost ran out of time, we couldn't really communicate with the Indian school because not everyone was added to the whatsapp group, but we did communicate during the video conferences. We worked together with the group code green from India, but we don’t know what their conclusion to the main question is, because they haven’t communicated with us about it nor they have put any information on the weebly.
In the first video conference we met the Indian pupils and we introduced ourselves. We also began with sharing information like; Have you done any research yet? Or by asking if they made a plan of action. In the second video conference we began to share more information, we knew what they were going to do. We still couldn't communicate that well. But it was a fun and interesting experience.
Altogether we think it was a nice project but the communication could have been better.
When we first began with the project we didn't know what to expect and therefore our expectations weren't that high however the project was actually quite interesting. Especially the video conferences with India, even though our microphone wasn’t that great and we had to use our phone to communicate. We did a lot of research about ways to save energy and how we are already saving energy at home. We learned a lot so the project was a good way of learning about saving energy.
There were however some downsides of the project. We started too late so we almost ran out of time, we couldn't really communicate with the Indian school because not everyone was added to the whatsapp group, but we did communicate during the video conferences. We worked together with the group code green from India, but we don’t know what their conclusion to the main question is, because they haven’t communicated with us about it nor they have put any information on the weebly.
In the first video conference we met the Indian pupils and we introduced ourselves. We also began with sharing information like; Have you done any research yet? Or by asking if they made a plan of action. In the second video conference we began to share more information, we knew what they were going to do. We still couldn't communicate that well. But it was a fun and interesting experience.
Altogether we think it was a nice project but the communication could have been better.
Conclusion
During this project, we have discovered a number of ways to save energy at home, the most notable three being insulation, LED lamps and HR++ glass. Some of our solutions are much easier to implement than others. Insulation is very useful when building a house, but it might not be easy to do when the house is already there, HR++ glass is a little easier to apply, but still is very expensive. We have compared all of our methods and we think, although a bit expensive, that LED lamps are the best solution to save energy at home because they are easy to implement, and of all solutions, the best price/benefit ratio. And as Peter van de Maas, our interviewee, said, efficiency per device is important, and LED lights are the most efficient lights with a “normal” color, some special kinds of lights might be more efficient, but those are either purely theoretical or give off a nasty orange color. So with little or no sacrifices, you can save massively on energy, if you are willing to pay some extra money.
Thank you for reading our report. We hope you've learned anything about saving energy at home and that you will try to implement some of our methods like using LED lamps instead of normal light bulbs, to help nature and your wallet.
Group 4
During this project, we have discovered a number of ways to save energy at home, the most notable three being insulation, LED lamps and HR++ glass. Some of our solutions are much easier to implement than others. Insulation is very useful when building a house, but it might not be easy to do when the house is already there, HR++ glass is a little easier to apply, but still is very expensive. We have compared all of our methods and we think, although a bit expensive, that LED lamps are the best solution to save energy at home because they are easy to implement, and of all solutions, the best price/benefit ratio. And as Peter van de Maas, our interviewee, said, efficiency per device is important, and LED lights are the most efficient lights with a “normal” color, some special kinds of lights might be more efficient, but those are either purely theoretical or give off a nasty orange color. So with little or no sacrifices, you can save massively on energy, if you are willing to pay some extra money.
Thank you for reading our report. We hope you've learned anything about saving energy at home and that you will try to implement some of our methods like using LED lamps instead of normal light bulbs, to help nature and your wallet.
Group 4