My Internship at The Energy Coalition
Home Data Collection, Equity Report, District Energy Analysis, Reflection
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Home Audit Data and Action Plan
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Not My Actual Home
5 Steps to Conserve Energy | 5 Steps to Conserve Water |
---|---|
1) Unplug chargers while not using the device | 1) Reduce the time spent running water |
2) You can air seal and insulate | 2) Load the dishwasher as much as possible before running |
3) Heat and cool efficiently with a smart thermostat | 3) Load your laundry as effectively as possible |
4) Use Energy Star electrical products | 4) Don’t overwater your lawn and garden |
5) Use appliances for less time/only when needed | 5) Don’t eat meat every day |
Equity Report Data of San Diego
The more I researched about San Diego city, the more I realized how big and complicated southern California can get. With 1.4 million people living in it’s border, there are many areas where certain demographics are densely populated. There are a large number of food banks that keep these areas served and healthy as well as food markets that provide market match and EBT. A funny little fact is, a personal care attendant may ride with you free of charge. While a PCA may travel without paying a fare, at least one passenger must always pay a full fare. Two passengers cannot claim each other as PCA to avoid fare payment.
When it comes to housing cost and availability, 1-bedroom apartments have an average rent of $2,887. 52% of households are rented and 48% are owned. The average price of utilities are as follows; Electric $190, Gas $55, Water $94, Sewer $43.07, Internet $68. 92.2% of people under 65 are insured and the median household income is $100,010, with 11.3% living below the poverty line. There is a 68% employment rate and 90.8% of 25 and up graduated high school or higher.
ArcGIS Online
School Site Comparative Energy Analysis
While it is reasonable to have the high schools use more electricity because of pumping, the amount of students for each is reasonbly similar, leading to a vast energy per student difference between some of these schools. Energetic seems to use the most energy out of the three titles and Steven Sparker is a close second. I have no idea why Steven Sparker High uses more energy than others and the middle school doesn’t. From the given data, it seems that Energetic schools use an extravagant amount of gas(therms) in comparison to the other schools in the grade range.
District-Wide Comparative Energy Analysis
There is a clear consistency of energy usage throughout the year for all schools and their peaks are all around March, July, and December. I don’t know why these are peaks, but I suppose they are the least efficient times during the year for energy use. It is also noticeable that the adjacent months to December are far less costly than any other month. The months next to July, however, are some of the far more costly ones. It seems that during times when there are usually large school breaks, there is more energy used than when in school
Highlight of One Career Within the Water Sector.
The highlights of a water/wastewater engineer are that they disgign and oversee projects that have to do with mainly water. This kind of engineer designs structures and systems, then evaluates the designs and characteristics as well as identifies opportunities for the improvement of the processes and operations. After analysis, they provide recommendations about green practices, environmental data, and technology to use in operations. There are 4,490 annual projected job openings in California with their wages being from $67,000 -166,610. The required education is most commonly a Bachelor's degree to start.
Internship Reflections
I chose this internship because I thought it would be interesting to learn more about energy conservation after learning about biodiversity in class as well as having previous experience with the EPA.
The best part about this internship is how not only the work conditions but my mentors are wonderful and unrestricted.
The challenging part of this internship is also the workload along with the conditions. Now, if there was any deadlines for the heavy workload we were given, it would break the enjoyment of having a malleable schedule, but also with the fluid time, there is large room for time management errors which can heavily disrupt the progress being made to the already arduous curriculum.
This internship has inspired me to learn more about how much electricity, gas, and water I use so that I can at least have a small impact on saving resources.
This has influenced my plan to work in STEM because it taught me that there are many more situations where math can be used than what was taught in school. I also got more insight on what a civil engineer does at places like SDG&E from one of the faculty members during a small info session. Overall, this internship fueled both my determined pathway and new options for a career in just 4 weeks.