Energy and Water Conservation and Usage Analysis

Individual Household Audit Data and Action plans

As a part of learning about water and electricity usage and conservation used in households, I have studied and considered many ways to apply this knowledge to my own household, with several potential ideas that could lower my usage in both water and electricity.

Saving Electricity

Saving Water

Home Electricity Usage Data

Graph of total power usage

While collecting data of my household's electricity usage, I found the majority of power being used was from the AC unit. AC power becomes significantly higher throughout the summer time, and while living in the Inland Empire it tends to persist in heat throughout the year. Other parts of electricity being used are minuscule compared to AC.

Equity Report Data

My equity report has compiled a majority of information about my city, in which I have learned much about. I have found my personal experiences fit in with many averages, such as household sizes, education, and my family members work commute times.

Population Data

datausa.io

In my zip code 92376, the great majority of ethnicity from the residents here is Hispanic. Of the 103,000 residents, an estimated 75% are Hispanic, while 12% are of African-American decent and 8% are white. Other ethnicities and races are miniscule in this data.

Race Map

Important data that I have picked up while researching the demographics of 92376 are the median incomes of households located in each census tract. A pattern I have found is that the more rural and less condensed areas seem to be the highest in income, while those that are very compact tend to get very low in income.

Median Income map (focused on 92376 Rialto)

Chart of household income compared to US average (datausa.io)

Comparative Energy Analysis

From the Comparative Energy Analysis Datasheet that I was tasked with, I have represented the data from the sheet into visual graphs that display values sampled from throughout the year, such as energy and gas usage, as well as their costs. Here I have displayed data from specifically Powerville High School.

Powerville High School

The graph to the right is representing the electricity that has been consumed throughout the entire year, with the summer times and winters showing the most consumption. This is likely due to the school utilizing their HVAC systems to keep cool or stay warm during extreme temperatures.

Gas Consumption is typically something that is more often used during a time of heat. In this graph it represents this in some extent, where months that typically have a colder temperature to deal with. The months closest to those of rainy temperatures seem to have the most usage, likely inferring that this school might not be in a chilly climate. As well, months with shorter days may use as much gas as another month with more days.

MMBTU's are a measurement of thermal energy, short for one million British thermal units. Electric energy is divided by 0.003412, while added by gas consumption multiplied by 10, this formula creates the value for MMBTU. Here in this graph the usage is depicting traits similar to gas consumption and power usage combined.

The total utility amount collects the data from the costs off of the utility bills. This graph shows the total utility costs in dollars, with the electric and gas utility bills show their proportion to the total throughout the months. From this data, there is large amounts of power and gas being used in the summer, as well as spring time.

The total percentage of energy cost for each month is represented in this graph. This could be thought of as the percent of responsibility that each month has on the total cost of energy for the school. Any months that seem to be exceeding a trend while compared to other months can be reviewed and tweaked in order to lower costs or problems that may arise from the utility services that are being operated.


Analysis and Recommendations for Powerville High School

Overall, the trendlines for the energy usage are quite ecstatic, and have some interesting months that wouldn't normally seem to use as much power as others. An example would be the month of March using the most power and heating compared to all other fall and winter months. However the data does showcase the schools ability to stay low in costs during the heat of the summer, dictating that possibly the weather in the region of the school may be different than traditional climates.

A recommendation that could be implemented in the school is to replace the lights in each building of the school to LED lighting. Not does LED lighting reduce the electricity cost per month by 8%, but also could possibly increase the productivity and morale of students in classrooms by eliminating lazy light hues that could be emitting from older lights that could of had low maintenance for several years.

Powerville Unified School District

The electricity consumed throughout the entire school district of Powerville is depicted in this graph, with days billed per month located at the bottom. As mentioned previously with Powerville High School, months with less days may be higher than depicted on the graph, as represented by February being close in power usage to March, making us understand that February may be one of the most power consuming months in that quarter of the year.

Here is the graph for gas consumed throughout the district, with data that seems very similar to the patterns shown by electricity used. This is likely due to the overall demand of HVAC systems adding on to the already high costs of building utilities, as well as using gas differently throughout the year.

As mentioned previously, MMBTU's are a measurement of thermal energy, short for one million British thermal units. Electricity is divided by 0.003412, while added by gas consumption multiplied by 10, this formula creates the value for MMBTU. The data depicted in the graph showcases MMBTU usage throughout the entire district.

This graph displays the total cost of all utility bills in dollars. Highlighted in grey demonstrates the total cost of both electric and gas bills combined. Highlighted in blue is electricity bill costs, and highlighted in red is gas bill costs. From this data it is easy to see the relationship of the utilities compared to the overall cost, and to take away that gas does not have a great impact on the district's overall utility costs.

Highlighted in blue on this graph shows the months with the lowest responsibility of energy cost, and highlighted in red shows months with the highest responsibility of energy cost. July being the highest raises no questions, as during the summer time the district may face severe heat waves.


Analysis and Recommendations for Powerville Unified School District

Powerville USD has a predictable energy usage trend when comparing all of its sites together, with no issues that have a consistent arise. However, it is possible to lower the costs of Powerville school district during the summer. Unless the summer school program for the district is consistently under full effect, it is possible to lower the costs of energy during high months such as July by lowering the necessary amount of cooling used in the buildings.

Pathogen Filtration System

A potential project for PUSD is to implement updated HVAC systems to all buildings in the district, possibly decreasing the usage during summer by having a connected system that could lower power throughout the summertime while there is no occupation in the buildings. An upgrade like this is estimated $200000 dollars, but is guaranteed to save ~10% of costs to energy district wide, by saving 9% of costs in electricity to each building. As well as improving costs, there is the ability to reduce pathogens in the air and overall provide a more productive environment for occupants of the buildings simply from creating a safer and more comfortable air quality and temperature.

Career Highlight

Wastewater Engineer

Wastewater engineers focus on planning facilities that may treat wastewater, as well as design systems that transport wastewater around cities, ultimately being the engineers that would design sewers and drains for communities. Overall wastewater engineers typically are made up of civil engineer that use their skills to solve these problems. Personally, I think this is a very cool job to have as an engineer, as civil engineering in general has many categories that many can explore throughout their careers. Being able to source water throughout flooded areas to areas meant to occupy large amounts of water, such as stormwater basins, seems like a very interesting and exciting project, certainly something that makes me consider civil engineering as a possible engineering major I may choose in university.


Internship Reflection

  • Why did you choose this internship?

It was referred to me by my engineering teacher, and mainly it was my most accessible.

  • What was the best part of the internship?

Probably working on the CEA, the google sheet with all the numbers. That was very enjoyable to work on and it actually made me start off my school year and engineering competitions over the summer much better, as I realized I really enjoy things with lots of numbers and I should keep that mentality going into my second year of calculus.

  • What was the most challenging part of the internship?

The equity report was probably the most challenging, as you really had to go through a lot of data just to find what the questions were looking for. Many parts of the internship felt a little on the side of homework that is very common to see in my classes today. The story map, sheets work and data analysis felt much different than the rest however.

  • What has the internship inspired you to learn more about?

It definitely made me think how civil engineers would use ArcGIS and CEA to refer to for their projects. I plan to continue to learn these programs.

  • How has being a part of this internship influenced your future goals and plans?

It definitely has taught me how to push through boring work. My junior year I really struggled and felt burnt out from tons of work that would be completely oblivious to me even months later, and I felt like being able to keep my own pace while still understanding I need to get work done has impacted me for the better, considering I've always had a hard time finishing busy work despite me knowing its achievable. I mentioned at the beginning of my internship that I was interested in 3 different majors of engineering, with the last pick being civil engineering. Although engineering thinking skills were not too prominent in this, it certainly made me much more interested in the field. Overall it is likely that I may choose to peruse an Aerospace or Chemical Eng. degree, the idea of being a civil engineer will never leave my mind simply for the reason that all fields of engineering are extremely difficult for me disregard, as they all fill into my best interests. Currently I am working with the engineering department in my school to create a better storm drain management system for the mass amounts of flooding that we experience during stormy days as a personal project. And for the most part this internship has given me the passion to pursue such a project simply because of the idea that I was a part of a utilities management group, gaining experience that made me feel involved with the field.

Graph of total power usage

datausa.io

Chart of household income compared to US average (datausa.io)

Pathogen Filtration System