Zoe Chernowski Capstone

My capstone is an analysis of energy use in SLA. I collected how much heating and lighting we are using and how much that is costing. I then designed and proposed ways to not only save the money we spend but also the amount of electricity we use. I did this by learning a lot of new skills. I learned how to CAD, how to 3D prints, how to run a large wide analysis, and how to manage costs. To see more detail on what I completed, please review my analysis document!
Energy Efficiency at Science Leadership Academy

Annotated Bibliography


“2016 Energy Benchmarking Report.” PECO, 2016,

http://www.phillybuildingbenchmarking.com/

This source is an annual report about energy consumption in Philadelphia in the year 2016. It especially breaks down the consumption of the percentage of school usage in the city. This report also shows how energy consumption in the city has changed over four years. This report is reliable since it is coming directly from PECO’s website; a major provider of electricity in the city. I plan to use this source as a way to show how my data can connect to our larger community, Philadelphia. I plan to include this data directly in my end report when comparing the city average to our average as a school.


Desjardins, Jeff. “What Uses the Most Energy in Your Home?” Visual Capitalist, 14 Nov.

2016, https://www.visualcapitalist.com/what-uses-the-most-energy-home/

This site shows an infographic of what appliances use the most electricity in an average household. I need this because I need to know the primary appliances I need to focus a lot of my analysis on when I collect the data in the school. This source shows me that heating and lighting are the things I may want to focus on when approving the amount of energy we use at SLA. This source is kind of reliable as the publisher of the site has done other infographics that have been referred to, but I am a little weary because it is data on a household and not a larger building or school.


“Electricity and the Environment.” Electricity and the Environment - Energy Explained, Your

Guide To Understanding Energy - Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=electricity_environment

This source explains the importance of lower one’s energy usage for the environment. I really want to include this source in my report to explain why my Capstone is important and relevant. The source even does talk about greenhouse gas emissions, so I need to make sure I reference the specific part about electricity consumption in my report. I do want to reference where our electricity is from and how it affects the Earth as well, which this source completely covers. I find this source very reliable because it is published from the United States of America’s government and from its energy department.


“Estimating Appliance and Home Electronic Energy Use.” Department of Energy,

https://energy.gov/energysaver/estimating-appliance-and-home-electronic-energy-use    

This source is a calculator like website which can help someone determine how much an appliance is costing them on their electricity bill. It is especially useful because the price calculator includes wattage of you appliance and price per state. I plan to use this to calculate how much our school would be spending if we had to pay these fees out of pocket. I would then use it to determine the solutions I want to implement and see the savings we gain. This source is reliable because it is sponsored by the U.S.’s department of energy in the government.


“Estimating Electricity Usage.” Calculate Your Energy Consumption | SaveOnEnergy.Com®,

SaveOnEnergy.com, https://www.saveonenergy.com/energy-consumption/

This site is a step by step guide on figuring out how much electricity different appliances actually use. It also provides a small section of different estimates of different appliances’ usage. The site even goes a step further and helps someone convert the rates they found into kilowatts per hour and then a month estimate. I plan to use this source to help me understand the data I will be collecting. Then I can use this guide to figure out some hypotheses on some of the appliances’ electricity and then later, cost. This source is reliable because the domain it is on is also a company that professionally deals with electricity conservation.


Guidelines for Writing Reports in Engineering. Monash University,

https://www.monash.edu/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/567156/guidelines-writing-reports.pdf

This article is a lesson showing how someone should write a professional engineering report. This source explains the key parts of the report, as well as a more detailed breakdown of what structure it needs to have and what things need to be included in the report. It even provides examples of every section, which is very helpful. I would use this source mainly in the fourth quarter when I distribute this report I will write with my data and findings. I find this source really reliable because it’s written to especially teach university students by mature engineers with a degree.


Lanzisera, Steven, et al. Methods for Detailed Energy Data Collection of Miscellaneous and

Electronic Loads in a Commercial Office Building. U.S. Department of Energy, Apr. 2013,

https://eta.lbl.gov/sites/all/files/publications/methods_for_detailed_energy_data_collection.pdf  

This source runs through a longer official report on an energy use analysis in a larger building environment. This is especially useful as our school building is a larger building than just the average household. This report even walks through their data collection process using different technology. This source is also useful as a way to see how a longer report might look like to a degree. I would use this source as a model on how to approach my larger data collection process in February through April. I find this source very reliable because it is produced from a professional laboratory.


Meier, A, and HP Siderius . “Should the next standby power target be 0-Watt?”

Escholarship.org, 2017, https://escholarship.org/uc/item/566951pn

This source is another longer report on power consumption. However, this report talks specifically about the concept of standby power consumption. So, lights that are left on when they do not need to be, devices plugged in when they are fully charged or not in use, and other examples. This source is very useful to me as SLA uses a lot of standby power consumption and this source can help me think of a potential avenue to take (the standzero option). I find this source to be reliable as it is sponsored from the U.S. government and is produced from a professional laboratory.


Safar Hatami, and Massoud Pedram. Minimizing the Electricity Bill of Cooperative Users under

a Quasi-Dynamic Pricing Model. University of Southern California, 2010,

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5918/097ada30b8f50400c8a9abd5aba88bea8065.pdf

This source breaks down how to save money in a more mathematically based concept, using a quasi-dynamic pricing equation to complete the goal. The source helpfully breaks down time based pricing and runs through this scenario of an alternative environmentally friendly way of using electricity. This source is useful to me in running through on how to implement data collection (various sensors) and different cost optimization for saving energy. However, I am a little weary about the mathematics involved, but I plan to work through it and see how much I can include in my report. This source is reliable because it was produced in the University of Southern California from an electrical engineer.


Sexton, Joe. “Calculate How Many BTUs are Needed to Heat Home.” Inch Calculator,

Construction Calculators, https://www.inchcalculator.com/calculate-many-btus-needed-heat-home/

This source is a calculator like site where someone can determine how many BTUs it is necessary to heat and cool a room from their thermostat. This source also includes a climate zone option because the heating is also determined by the area in which people live. This site also provides explanations on what BTUs are and more information on thermostats and furnaces. I am going to use this source to determine how much energy we need to heat up a room for my data collection process. I have a source for this because our furnace may be hard to access in the building. This website is reliable to a degree, but it is sponsored by Amazon and other companies. It also includes links where the website’s data calculations are based on.


Comments