CT 108: Energy & Environmental Informatics

Assignment 1
You are required to do an energy audit/analysis of your home. This will be done using both a bottom
up and top down approach as detailed. The objectives are twofold:
1. To assess whether your home comes in above or below the average for residential total energy
usage i.e. 23,000 kWhr per annum.
2. To determine the extent to which you can account for electrical energy use in the home using a
bottom up approach
Recall: Main consumers of energy in home are electricity and heating/cooking fuel .
Your application should be developed in C using the skills you are acquiring in CT103.
1. Top Down Approach
Assess total energy inputs. Your code should :

Read in average annual electricity bill in . Check your energy provider cost per kWhr and use
this for conversion from to kWhr

Read in average annual fuel bill for heating and/or cooking. Use current cent/litre for heating oil
to convert to litres and then use calorific value to convert to kWhr. Work out gas/turf-peat/coal
usage in a similar manner. Eg 1 Tonne = 1000 kg of coal/turf and then use calorific values
provided below to convert to kWhr

Add the 2 to give you total energy requirement per annum in kWhr and then compare with 23,000
calculate how much (%) your house is above/below target
2. Bottom up electrical use approach
For this approach, you need to do a detailed analysis of principal sources of electrical energy usage
in home. When you add up each individual appliance and how much (kWHr) it uses per annum,
compare this with the top down approach and calculate what % of electrical kWHr you can account
for.

You should customise inputs to suit your house. The more thorough you are, the more accurate will
be your data and analysis. Use structures, for/while loops and functions where possible. Eg.
Sample Pseudo code for Bottom Up
declare structures for room lights, TV/Computers, appliances
input number of rooms
for each room in house
input name of room
input wattage of lights
input number of hours use/day (average)
calculate kWHrs for year
sumkWHrs_lights

input number of TV/Computers

for each TV/computer/gaming device in house
input name ofdevice
input wattage
input number of hours/day (average)
calculate kWHrs for year
sumkWHrs_TV_Computers

for each appliance

input name ofappliance
input kWHrs per use
input number of times used per week
calculate kWHrs for year
sumkWHrs_Appliances

Total_kWHrs = sumkWHrs_lights + sumkWHrs_TV_Computers + sumkWHrs_Appliances etc etc..

The following rough data may be useful. Feel free to do your own research to ensure more accurate
data. Include your sources in your report.
Typical Power Use
Lights : 10-200 Watts per room

Television: 200W
Computer: 150W
Electric Cooker : 3-7 kW
Elec Shower: 4-10kW
Typical Energy Use
Washing Machine 1kWHr /use
Clothes Tumble Drier 3kWHr /use
Dishwasher : 1.5 kWhr/use
Fridge/freezer : 2kWhr/day
Calorific value of fuels (approx)
Home heating oil: 35,000 kJ/litre
Turf/Peat: 17,000 kJ/kg
Coal: 20,000 kJ/kg
Hand up your report which will include:

Description of problem 2 pages including a description of the house/apartment/caravan/tent

you are living in . Comment on its energy efficiency and your energy usage.

Top-Down Analysis: Screenshots of running code + half page Summary of findings

Bottom-Up Analysis: Screenshots of running code + 2 page Summary of findings

Appendix
o

Source code well commented and structured

Detailed screenshots

References

Deadline is 5pm Monday 1st Dec. Submit via Blackboard only .