SAVING OUR PLANET: ONE STEP AT A TIME

WRITTEN BY: ASHKA DIGHE, PERIOD 6 ADV.ALGEO

How does it affect us?

The amount of electricity that people are using today seriously impact the environment. The main problem caused by wasting electricity is that it releases carbon dioxide into the air which not only affects peoples health but leads to climate change (global warming).The worlds population is increasing as well as our need for electricity. The people of the future are likely to use even more electricity than we do now, which means more damage to the environment and more bad chemicals released in the air. Energy sources and electricity arent things that all people have access to so we ALL have to start thinking before we unnecessarily use electricity. Each individual has to start making an effort to reduce the amount of electricity we use.

How We Helped
From June 2012 to March 2013, Ashkas family has been trying to save electricity. We started off with the shocking amount of 3873kWh of electricity per month and managed to bring that amount down to 3347kWh by March. Ashkas family became more conscious about the amount of electricity that was being wasted. Were all much more environmentally friendly because now we make a point to switch off the lights, fan and air conditioning if nobody is in the room. Weve also begun taking shorter showers and try not to keep on doing the dishes and laundry unless we need to.

Every drop of water used counts to the amount wasted. Every kilowatt hour of electricity used counts to the amount wasted. Every single one of us can make a difference because each and every one of us count. Together, we can save electricity and save this planet. - Ashka Dighe

Graphing the Steps to Convesravtion

MONTHLY ELECTRICITY USAGE

This graph above shows the amounts of electricity Ashkas family has been using and is an example of linear decay. The tted line doesnt connect all of the points, it goes through where most of the points are except for a few outliers at the end. To nd the slope of this line, you have to divide rise/ run. The rise of this line is -449 and the run is 10 (months). -449 divided by 10 is -44.9. Now the equation would be y = -44x + b because m in the equation y = mx + b represents the slope. The slope is negative because this graph is a representation of linear decay because as the value of the xaxis increases, the value on the y-axis (the kWh per month) decreases. This means that the amount of electricity Ashkas family has been using is decreasing. The equation for this line is y = -44.9x + 3873 because the slope is -44.9 and the vertical

(or y) intercept is at 3873 kWh. The graph and the table below are representations of Ashkas familys electricity usage habits. When the 8B students began this yearlong electricity conservation project in their maths classes, Ashkas family used to have most of their lights on during the day,

air conditioners set at 18 degrees and theyd take up to 20 minute showers. After realizing the impact this has on the environment, their electricity usage has been going down as represented by the graph.

Month

June
July
August
September
October
November
December
January
February
March

KwH
3873 3837 3626 3355 3511 3181 3059 3495 4321 3374

To Reach 300 kWh

This is a table showing the exact amounts of electricity Ashkas family has used over a 10 month period. If it takes Ashkas family 10 months to save 499 kWh then it would take 3374 - 449x to reach 300kWh per month. If 3374 - (449 x 10x) = 300, then it would take another 70 months, which is nearly 6 years to reach 300 kWh per month.