Note: You will receive a paper copy of this assignment in Lecture Wednesday.

Due Wednesday April 12

Note that the content on this assignment will be on the test on Wednesday April 12.

 

In class

Advantages and disadvantages of different forms of sustainable energy

 

Your readings this week discuss the need for alternative sources of energy.  Several of the articles also examine the advantages and disadvantages of the alternatives.  For discussion this week, you will work in a small group to sort out the advantages and disadvantages of each of the following alternative sources of energy.  Use the articles from this week as well as your text book and links from the course web site lecture outline on sustainable energy.

 

Source                                     Advantages                                                     Disadvantages

 

Biomass

            Bio Power

           

 

Bio Fuels

 

Solar

            Active Solar

           

 

Passive Solar

           

 

Solar Thermal

 

 

            Photovoltaic

 

 

 

Wind

 

 

 

 

Geothermal

 

 

 

 

Hydrogen Fuel/Fuel Cells

 

Energy Efficiency

The last two sections are to be started in class and finished at home. You may discuss how to do the problems as a group but you should work out the calculations yourself and come up with your own answer.

 

The following set of questions are designed to help you understand how energy is measured as well as to show how you can estimate the cost of the energy that you use in your own home.

 

1.  Last month your professor used 835 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity.  One kWh is equal to 1000 watts used for one hour.  This is the same as the energy needed to run a 100 watt (W) light bulb for 10 hours.  How many hours could he run a 100W light bulb on the electricity he used last month?

 

 

 

2.  The median life of a 100W light bulb is 1000 hours.  How many light bulbs worth of power did your professor use last month?

 

 

 

 

3.  A power saving compact fluorescent light bulb that produces the same amount of light as a 100W incandescent light bulb is rated at 26 W and has a median life of 7000 hours.    How many compact fluorescent light bulbs worth of power did he use last month?

 

 

 

4.  Last month his electric bill for the 835 kWh of electricity was $72.18 before taxes.  How much did he pay per kWh.

 

 

 

5.  The other night your professor fell asleep and forgot to turn off his lamp with a 100W light bulb in it.  He slept for 10 hours (he was really tired after creating this assignment).  How much money did he waste by leaving that light on? 

 

 

 

6.  If he had a compact fluorescent light bulb in his lamp how much money did he waste?

 

 

 

 

7.  Last weekend your professor played his PlayStation for four hours.  The label on the back of the PlayStation says it draws 79 W of power.  The TV draws 90W of power and the stereo it is hooked up to draws 30W.  Assuming that the rate for power (as calculated in 4 above) did not change, how much did his four hour session on the PlayStation cost him? 

 

Environmental Impact of Energy Use

The following questions ask you to quantify the environmental impact of energy use.  According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory the average consumption of electricity per Household in the United States in 2003 was 10,532.00 kWh.   In 2000 Valparaiso had 10,867 households.  (the total population however is 27428—but we won’t be working with that number).

 

Since we are doing rough estimates let’s round off some of our numbers to make the calculations a bit easier.  Let’s assume that between 2000 and 2003 the number of households in Valparaiso increased by a moderate amount to about 11,000.  We’ll also assume that people in Valparaiso used less energy than the average household in 2003; 10,000 kWh annually for each household. 

 

 

8.  Given those assumptions estimate how much power all of Valparaiso’s households used in 2003 in kWh. 

 

 

 

9.  Your answer above should be a pretty big number.  One Megawatt hour (MWh) is equal to 1000 kWh.  Let’s convert it into MWh by dividing by 1000. 

 

 

 

10.  Nisource, the parent company of NIPSCO which supplies our power claims that in 2003 their plants produced about 2200 pounds of CO₂ per MWh.  How much CO₂ did Valparaiso contribute to the atmosphere in 2003? ¹

 

 

 

 

 

11.  NiSource claims that in 2003 their plants produced about 550 pounds of NO_x emissions per MWh.  How much NO_x did Valparaiso’s electricity use generate in 2003?

 

 

 

 

 

12.  NiSource claims that in 2003 their plants produced about 6 pounds of SO₂ per MWh in 2003.  How much SO₂ did Valparaiso’s household electricity use generate in 2003?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

¹NiSource.  Accessed 3/30/2005.  Environmental, Health and Safety Metrics.  Available http://www.nisource.com/enviro/metrics.asp