Electric Power Usage - Research Paper Example

The Annual Electric Power Usage in a household The Annual Electric Power Usage in a household Energy is one of themost fundamental economic drivers as well as for the domestic usage. This paper explores to quantify the amount of energy likely to be consumed in an average household and the ultimate cost thereof. It ultimately compares the amount of the energy used vis avis other sources of energy. Having known the number of households that are in demand of the electric power, this paper can be useful for the federal government to plan for power consumption.

With regard to that, the table below constitutes all the household appliances that require the use of energy, which in this case will be the electric power, and the subsequent wattage consumption related to each appliance. The table depicts the energy consumption in a week; this will eventually be translated into a year.Appliances available in the household and warts consumedDays of the week computersCloth washersDish washersHair driersMicrowaves ovensTVrefrigeratorradioclockMonday202.92.930.54.510.

57Tuesday202.92.940.5510.57Wednesday202.92.931510.57Thursday202.92.941510.57Friday202.92.941510.57Saturday2452.92.972520.57Sunday302.92.982510.57TOTAL1545202033834.584The power in the table is in kwts/hour. Since energy is billed in Kwts per hour, the energy consumption of this household in the last one month, which is consistent with the billing policy that is sent every month, the total power consumption is 750-Kilo watts/hour in this household. Assuming that the trend is uniform and the average of the power consumption in the one month is used to reflect the annual consumption then this will be 9000-Kilo watts/hour in a year.

This wattage expressed in duration per second will be; 9000Kwts * 3600 (second in 1 hour) =32400000 joules/ sec. (32.4 Mega joules per second). In relation to the information above it can be appreciated that the energy consumption per household is quite high and apart from electricity, it is hard to sustain the energy demand more so using other non-renewable energy sources like coal. It is therefore vivid that the amount of coal required to produce the stated energy can be calculated. It is known that the energy released by coal can be calculated in Kilowatts per hour for a defined mass of the coal compound (Stoyke, 2007).

This is 6.67Kwts/hr/kg; this cannot be efficiently transferred to usable power since the thermodynamic efficiency of coal to transfer the energy is about 30%. This is about -2.0 Kwts/hr/Kg. thus the energy that is efficiently transferred is 4.7 Kwts/hr/Kg (Meier, 2006). To sustain an annual energy demand in a household, a total of about 1915 Kilograms of coal is required. In regard of the above table of power consumption, the top five energy consumers in a household comprise of cloth washers, microwave ovens, driers, refrigerator, and dishwashers.

This is not the only energy consumption in a household, there are other energy consumptions that do not take place within the household though at time contribute negligible watts compared to the main household volume. This can be in the places like in the cyber café, hair dressing in a saloon as well as car washing in car wash centers. In comparison with the energy that is released in the atomic reactors (Uranium), it is found that uranium produces million tines the energy produced by other energy sources of comparable mass.

For instance, 1 kg of Uranium of atomic mass 235 produces about 24,000,000 kWh of energy (Murray, 2009). This is much more that what other energy sources produce. Energy waste is also a challenge to most household users through what is termed as ‘energy vampires’. In the United States, vampires account for up to 5 % of the total energy usage in the US (Murray, 2009). This has raised concerns to regulate and advice the public on hoe to mitigate on the waste.References Meier, A. v. (2006). Electric power systems a conceptual introduction.

Hoboken, N.J.: IEEE Press :. Murray, R. L. (2009). Nuclear energy: an introduction to the concepts, systems, and applications of nuclear processes (6. ed.). Amsterdam: Butterworth-Heinemann/Elsevier. Stoyke, G. (2007). The Carbon Busters home energy handbook: slowing climate change and saving money. Gabriola, B.C.: New Society Publishers.