Eddy and the Holiday Standby Crisis
Experiment with Eddy, a heater and series switches
Simple circuit description explaining potential difference and current
Copyright 2015 BTL Group Ltd and I R Gomersall (1992-1998)
Classroom activities to learn more about energy saving
Ask the chilldren to count how many items are on standby in their house e.g. still switched on at at the plug but turned on.
Calculate the following:
If a light uses 100 W (Watts) in one hour = 100 W/hr
If equipment on standby uses 1 W for a year. Calculate which uses the most electrons?
( 1 x 24 hours/day x 365 days/year = 8760 W)
Explain that phone chargers still use energy even when the phone is not connected to the charger. Ask the children feel the temperature of the mobile phone charger. They will notice it is warm when the switch is on and goes cold after the switch has been off for a while.
When the charger is warm then electrons are sill discharging. Energy is being used by the voltage transformer but no useful work is being done. This is wasteful. Make sure all transformers are switched off at the socket so they don't get warm.
Joke for teacher
Have we got lots of potential as well Sir.