Save Mother Earth

Recently in Physics class we discussed the topic of electricity and energy. In doing so, some assignments included calculating the resistance, voltage, and current in everyday items found in our household. I was able to observe that a lot of the larger devices or devices which created a lot of heat created the most electrical current. It was brought to our classes attention that the amount of electrical current, or killowatts, that each item uses somewhat determined how much money our parents spent on their electric bills.

The electric company used on Kauai is Kauai Island Utility Cooperative. 91% of their electric is from petroleum that is shipped to the islands with only 0.2% from solar energy. Hawaii is actually the highest electricity rate in the United States. With a growing rate of 25.13 cents per kWh, it becomes very critical that we try to save as much energy as possible.

It is encouraged greatly to switch all your light bulbs to fluorescent light bulbs but how much does it really save you? Does changing it make a big difference? These are questions I asked myself as I created this experiment.  The control will be the lamp. The independent variable is the watts/type of light bulb. The dependent variable is the thermometer or heat projected off the light bulbs. I will be measuring how much energy each light bulb uses by measuring the temperatures that each light bulb emits. Since it takes more energy to make things hot I can measure how much more heat one light bulb has to another light bulb. I will be doing 2 trials with 2 different types of lamps and measure it by recording the temperatures for each light bulb.