Exploring Electricity Use

• Compare the electricity use between a typical summer day and a typical winter day. Or for a larger period such as a week or month. Which is more?
  Usually there are either heaters on in winter or air conditioning on in the winter that usually make the usage quite different in the different seasons.
• Compare the electricity use on a school day and on the weekend. Which is more?
  One can expect the usage to be much higher on a weekday when the school is being actively used.
• Is there any electricity being used in the middle of the night when nobody is at school?
  Usually there is some usage 24 hours a day and seven days a week as some lights are left on, the fridge is still running and alarm systems, clocks and some computers are left running all of the time.
• Can you make changes to the school's electricity use and see the changes over the coming days and weeks on the graphs? 
  Change some or all of the school's light globes to energy efficient ones.
  See what equipment is left on all of the time — often computers are left on all weekend for very little reason.  How many of the schools lights are left running all of the time.
  Make some of these changes and then see if the differences can be observed on the graphs.

Exploring Solar Electricity Generation

• Compare the electricity generation between a typical summer day and a typical winter day. Or for a larger period such as a week or month. Which is more?
  For younger primary kids it is enough to say that it is hotter in summer and so the solar panels generate more electricity then.
  For older kids we can explain that the sun is higher in the sky during summer and so the solar panels receive more light.
  Senior high school science students can perhaps understand why it is hotter in summer using a solar system model (because of the tilt of the earth and the position of the earth around the sun).  So the earth receives more solar energy on the same area during the summer as do the solar panels. More solar energy means hotter weather and more solar electricity generation.
• Compare the electricity generation on a school day and on the weekend. 
  One can expect the generation to be much the same as it has nothing to do with people being in the school.
• Compare the electricity generation on a rainy or cloudy day and on the bright sunny day.  Which is more?
  One can expect the electricity generation to be higher on a sunny day because the panels receive more of the sun's energy when there are no clouds to block it.
• Is there any electricity generated in the middle of the night?
  No, it should be zero when there is little or no solar energy about.