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Find out the energy use footprint of your household; work out just how much energy you and your family are using.
Time is measured in hours; electricity is measured in watts and kilowatts (one thousand watts makes one kilowatt). Electrical energy is measured in kilowatt-hours. A kilowatt-hour is the amount of energy present in one kilowatt of electricity supplied for one hour of time.One kilowatt hour is enough electrical energy to keep a standard 100-watt light bulb burning for 10 hours. Your house has a meter that records the amount of energy used by your household.
Find the meter in your home and record the number on your meter. Make sure you record the date you took this reading. In one week, do this again, and subtract the new number from the old one to determine how many kilowatt-hours of electrical energy your family has used in a week.
To find out how much this will cost your family, ring the electricity company that supplies the energy to your home or check a recent power invoice for your tariff rates. Work on ways of reducing your energy usage with your family, so when you repeat this exercise they will have used less energy, and made a saving. |