Project
Option B: Personal Energy Audit
Conduct an audit of your personal energy use over a one year period, indicating seasonal changes. Describe how you would reduce this energy consumption level by 10% and 40%, using existing and/or pending technologies and methods. The report of your project must be prepared on a word processor. All references used in your work must be cited and formatted in accordance with a standard referencing format (such as IEEE or Chicago). Write a report of maximum length 5000 words, not including Appendices), considering the following points while you are writing the report:
1) Start collecting data for this assignment as soon as possible; e.g. electricity and gas bills, amount of fuel consumed for transport etc.
2) Include in your report a summary of the domestic tariffs for gas and electricity applicable in your area
3) It is important in your introduction that you specify the scope of the project. You need to draw boundaries at as to what will be included in your personal energy audit and what will not be included in the audit.
4) Note that the focus of the personal energy audit is on reducing energy consumption levels rather than energy cost levels. Thus, in suggesting strategies to reduce energy consumption, a full life cycle cost analysis of implementing the strategy is not expected, but you should provide some basic costing and payback periods of recommended strategies and justify your assumptions.
Present results in written form, supported by graphs, tables, diagrams as required. The marking guide that will be used to mark your project report is available on the LMS.
Comments for Students with a Scarcity of Data for their Personal Energy Audit:
We realize that because of a range of factors, some students will have difficulty in obtaining utility records of their energy consumption for any significant period of time. This may be because of recently moving to Perth in order to undertake the course, living in a situation where access to actual utility accounts is difficult and so on.
In this situation, there are a number of possible ways of improving the situation:
• Try and obtain access to the electricity and gas meters on a regular basis and take your own readings over the three or four months. This will enable you to get some data over a couple of seasons and will enable you to attempt to reconcile the results of a walk-through audit with some actual results.
• The approach in the first bullet point could apply to both individual dwellings and multioccupancy buildings. If you are in a multi-occupancy building you may have to simply divide the meter readings by the number of occupants and then comment on the relative consumption of yourself with the other occupants (based on any observations made in this matter)
• If, after your best efforts you still cannot obtain data, then search on the Internet for the average daily electricity and gas consumption figures for an average suburban residential home in your country. You may also be able to find a typical percentage breakdown of electricity consumption with respect to application e.g. hot water heating, refrigeration, lighting etc. You will then be able to compare the consumption statistics that you have found for the average suburban home with the results of your walk-through audit and discuss reasons for any discrepancies. If you have difficulty locating data for your own country then try for a nearby country or Australia and then explain the likely reasons for any differences between your country and Australia.
• If you have had difficulty getting data for your assignment, then explain the situation in your assignment and detail the methods that you used to try and overcome the lack of data. If you have some limited data provide some indication of how you expect your consumption to vary as the year progresses through the four seasons.
Keep in mind that the Personal Energy Audit will be marked on the basis of the quality of the approach used rather than the quantity of data obtained. We will alert the markers that they should consider any special circumstances when marking the historical audit section of the assignment. However, note that if the marker determines from your assignment that the key reason for lack of data is laziness, then you will be marked accordingly.


Assignment Details
General tips for all your Assessments
A few hints for getting the most marks for all your assessable work:
1) If relevant, draw a diagram to illustrate your text and clearly label the diagram.
2) Show, in your Word document, a step-by-step explanation of the method behind the calculations in your Excel spreadsheet.
3) The relevant Excel spreadsheet tables and graphs should be inserted into the Word document so that the marker can clearly view the tables and graphs in context or print out the Word document and take it home for marking i.e. the Word document should be able to “stand alone” without the Excel spreadsheet.
4) Please also submit the Excel spreadsheets along with the Word document for the “find as many marks as possible” marker so they can, if something is not right or clear, check out the formulae you have used for your calculations if you make a mistake.
Project
Project Marking Guide
PEN594/EENV594 ENERGY MANAGEMENT
Project Marking Sheet
NAME:
1. Content (60 marks):
- Historical Audit (20 marks):
¨ Data Compilation from Bills ¨ Dealing with Lack of Data e.g. Use of Metering Box Data, Website
Tools ¨ Inclusion of Transport ¨ Relevant Tariffs ¨ Consolidate and Compare Energy Types ¨
Presentation of Data ¨ Interpretation of Trends
- Screening Survey/Walk-through Audit (20 marks):
¨ Include Date of Survey ¨ High Level of Detail through e.g. Use of Hand-held Energy Meters ¨ Evidence of Searching for Specifications on Appliances ¨ Justification of Assumptions made for e.g. Time of Use ¨ Validate Walk-through Data - Reconcile Findings with Billing Data
- Reduction Strategies (20 marks):
¨ Set Targets ¨ Propose Strategies ¨ Good Level of Detail ¨ Simple Payback Periods for Each
Strategy ¨ Targets Met ¨ Justify Assumptions ¨ Discussion of Impact e.g. Effect on Lifestyle
2. Approach and Context (20 marks):
¨ Explain Audit Methodology ¨ Define Audit Boundaries ¨ Describe Energy Systems ¨ Include a House
Plan or Sketch of Building Layout and Orientation ¨ Good Use of Visual Aids ¨ Use of References
3. Layout (10 mark):
¨ Well-structured ¨ Clarity ¨ Focus ¨Overall Well-presented ¨ Neat Figures and Tables with Labels and Captions
4. Originality (10 mark):
¨ Audit is presented in an original way
¨ Original methods of reducing energy consumption
MARK
Content /60
Approach /20
Layout /10
Originality /10
TOTAL MARK /100