AP/IB Environmental Science
Kill-A-Watt Lab
Use your group’s Kill-A-Watt Meter to measure several different small appliances and electronic
devices. You will rotate through different lab tables as your teacher instructs. At the FIRST lab
table only, answer the following:
1. Plug the meter into the socket at the lab table. Press the button that says Volts. What is
the voltage of the electrical outlet? ___________117.6 V____________
2. Press the button that says Watts.
3. Go through each station and plug in the appliances/electrical devices into the meter. Fill in the chart.
SAFETY:
● Be careful with hot appliances. Keep hands away from boiling water, heaters, etc.
● Unplug each item after you get your reading.
● DO NOT pull out plugs by the cords---this will break the cords over time. Pull the plugs out by the end
piece.
Data: Wattage of each device.
Station Electric Device Watts Plugged in and Turned on.
1 Toaster -see link provided 825 w
1 Electric Pencil Sharpener 8W
1 Blender on “puree” 230 W
2 Electric space heater 112.5 W
2 Kettle 112.6 W
3 Microwave (high) 1,286 W
3 Microwave (defrost) Reading 1: 1300 W Reading 2: 1275 W
4 Hot plate on “2” 570 W
4 Hair Dryer high/hot:145.8 W high/cold: 108.5 W
Fan (with oscillation)- see link
4 provided low: 36.2 w med: 42 w high: 47.2 w
5 LED Christmas Lights 1.2 W
5 Incandescent Lights 4.8 W
5 Cell Phone Charger #1 With phone attached: 8.4 W
5 Cell Phone Charger #2 With phone attached: 7.0 W
Adapted from lab by [Link]-Do not upload to public websites/social media
1. Which devices drew the most power (highest Watts) in the lab?
Microwave on high, microwave on defrost, and toaster drew the most power. The microwave on high
drew 1,286 W and the microwave on defrost drew 1,300 W for reading 1 and 1,275 W for reading 2. The
toaster drew 825 W.
2. Are the items you answered in #1 typically used for long periods or for short periods with NORMAL use? In
other words, are they used for a few minutes or longer periods of time? The items in #1 are usually used for
short periods less than a few minutes. with normal use
3. Is there a commonality amongst these appliances that drew the most power? What is it? Cooking appliances
used for heating draw the most power
4. Think about it: Most of the items in the lab are smaller and are easy to set up on lab tables. But these items do
not use most of the electricity in your home. What are bigger items that use electricity in your home that
probably use the bulk of the electricity on your bill?
Bigger items that use electricity in my home that probably use the bulk of electricity on the bill are
heating systems and cooling systems, like air conditioning and furnaces.
****Show work for all math problems using dimensional analysis with units****
How much does it cost to run appliances?
When you calculate the amount of electricity used, you multiply the watts and hours together.
For example, if a cell phone charger uses 6 Watts and it was run for 3 hours to charge your phone, it used 18Wh (NOT
18 W per hour). Divide by 1000 to get kWh. So, the cell phone used 0.018 kWh to charge.
SHOW SET-UP for ALL MATH PROBLEMS. Use the highest wattage for a particular appliance in the calculations.
5. How many kWh would the toaster use if turned on throughout the day for a total of 2 hours (because frozen
waffles are yummy)? 825 W / 1,000 = 0.825 kWh
0.825 kWh x 2 hours = 1.65 kWh
6. How many kWh would the microwave use if it was used during the day for a total of 30 min? 1286 W / 1,000
= 1.286 kWh
1.286 kW x 0.5 hours= 0.643 KWh
7. If energy costs $ 0.15 per kWh, how much would it cost to run the microwave for one year? (Based on the 30
min per day in #6.)
Adapted from lab by [Link]-Do not upload to public websites/social media
0.643 kWh * 365 days = 234.695 kWh
234.695 kWh * $0.15 = $35.20425
8. A family that lived on Grey Rock Rd., in Agoura used to have the most amazing Christmas lights.1 In 1993,
they had 175,000 incandescent lights and in 1994, they had 225,000 incandescent lights.2 For the entire month
of December, these lights would be on from 5:00 PM to 11:00 PM.
a. If one strand of lights contains 100 lights, how many strands did they use in 1994?
225,000 lights / 100 = 2,250 strands
b. How many kWh were consumed by one strand of lights over the course of the month?
4.8 W / 1,000 = 0.0048 kWh
0.0048 kWh * 6 hours/day = 0.0288 kWh
0.0288 kWh * 31 days = 0.8928 kWh
c. How much total energy was used to light all of the lights for the month?
0.8928 kWh * 2,250 strands = 2,008.8 kWh
d. Suppose that in 1994, the price of electricity was $0.20/kWh. How much would their electric bill have
been for the month of December just for the lights? (Note- they also had music and dancing animation
things).
2,008.8 kWh * $0.20 = $401.76
e. If they switched from incandescent to LED lights, how much money could they have saved?
1.2 W / 1,000 = 0.0012 kWh
0.0012 kWh * 6 hours/day = 0.0072 kWh
0.0072 kWh * 31 days = 0.2232 kWh
0.2232 * 2,250 strands = 502.2 kWh
502.2 kWh * $0.20 = $100.44
$401.76 - $100.44 = $301.32
1
[Link]
2
[Link]
Adapted from lab by [Link]-Do not upload to public websites/social media
Adapted from lab by [Link]-Do not upload to public websites/social media
