Power and Energy in the Home

This lesson is designed to allow middle-school age or older students (and others) to explore power and energy usage in the home. Most power comes from a power plant to the home through a system of power lines, power substations, and transformers that make up the power grid. This simulation shows power flowing through the transformer drum, the meter, and into the home circuit breaker panel. From there, it powers various appliances. There is also an adjustable solar panel that can contribute to the home power demand or send power through the meter to be used by others.

Users can open and close switches to turn appliances off and on and track power usage as they learn about concepts such as power conservation, network flows, and the relationship between power and energy. An appliance's energy use and cost depend both on the amount of power needed for its use and on the amount of time the appliance is used. Some appliances require a lot of power, but we don't use them often or for long time periods, so they don't use much energy. Other appliances may not need as much power, but are used for more time. For example, a toaster needs a lot more power than a room air conditioner does, but most people use a toaster for much less time.

Users can connect and charge an electric vehicle using either level 1 (110 v) or level 2 (240 v) charging options. Users can also connect the vehicle battery and use it to provide power.