Saving water and energy – it’s really easy !
Imagine you wake up on Saturday morning in 2040. Your only dream is to have a hot shower and then sit in front of the TV with a cup of your favourite tea. Suddenly you realize that there’s no running water and the TV doesn’t work as there is no electricity. A nightmare? If we don’t do something to save water and energy now, the nightmare will come true very soon.
So, here is a list of what each of us can do to help our planet:
· Remember to switch off the light whenever you leave your room. · Turn off the TV, radio or computer if you don’t use them · Use energy saving light bulbs in the lamps in your house These simple actions will save a lot of energy and make your electricity bills much lower. |
And how to save water? It’s easy, too.
· Try to have a shorter shower (5 minutes will save a lot water and money) · Replace the inefficient shower head with a water –efficient one. · A running tap wastes more than six liters of water a minute, so turn off the tap while brushing your teeth, shaving, or washing your face - and use cold water if you don't need hot. · A dripping tap can waste more than 5,500 liters of water a year, so make sure your taps are properly turned off. Try to do some things from the list and see how easy they are. Everybody can help save our planet. So don’t wait until 2040 and try to avoid the future nightmare. Good luck!
Marta Warszawska (Poland) |
LIGHT AND WATER: BEFORE, NOW AND AFTER
Can you imagine not being able to watch TV or play video games or use the computer because there is not electricity in homes? Can you imagine having to walk miles to fetch water from a well because there is no water at home? Just a few years ago people could not imagine anything else.
Until 1903 no electricity came to the houses of Lepe. The first power station that supplied energy to the homes of Lepe and its neighbours, Cartaya, stood at Barca’s Bridge, a bridge that is in the middle of the two villages. This electricity supply only gave light to two or three lamps for houses, therefore most of them placed one lamp above the door for street lighting and oil lamps to illuminate the inside of the houses. Technological advances have made electricity consumption is increasing. New technologies and appliances need energy to operate. At home: the light, computers, mobile phone chargers, dishwashers, stoves, heaters, TVs, air conditioners, etc.
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All the necessities of today’s society need light. Recent innovations that have increased light consumption at homes are air conditioners in summer, and in winter heaters and stoves.
As for water, Spain is one of the few countries in Europe that has the habit to take a shower every day. This custom greatly increase water consumption compared to other countries. Tap water reached to homes of Lepe in 1968. The water that supplies Lepe’s houses comes from Chanza dam and from Piedras River. Water and light consumption will probably continue increase, because of that they are searching saving measures. JULIA BLANCO PÉREZ
IES La Arboleda, Lepe (Spain) |
LIGHT AND WATER CONSUMPTION IN LEPE
People don’t know about their consumption of light and water, we have done an investigation of this information about people of our class, the Comenius People. We have calculated the average of the consumption. Here you have the results in graphs, and you won´t have problems to understand it.
We are going to start with the light consumption, you will see two graphs where you can check that the results change depending on the season.
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Here, we can see the consumption of water during the year 2012:
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Light consumption increase in autumn-winter seasons because it is cold and we use a lot the heating and it consumes more energy. In summer the consumption increase a little bit because the temperature are so hot and we use the air conditioning, but we don’t spend so much energy than in winter because we don’t spend much time at home, because the majority are in the beach because Lepe is near the coast.
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Water increase in winter’s season because the temperature are colder than the other months and for example, we spend more time when we are having a shower, and we pass more time in home because of the weather.
In summer decrease the consumption of water because, we spend less time having a shower. And we pass more time in the beach, so we spend less water because we are not in our houses. Finally, we have done an average of all the results, and we can see that, generally we spend more amount of water than light. This can cause a problem with the environment because, water, is a nonrenewable and if we spend a lot of water we can end with this resource, so we mustn’t waste the water. On the other hand, we can see the consumption of light, it’s less than the water, but we must be careful and don’t waste because it pollutes the environment.
Sara Muriel Iglesias and Rocío Domínguez García
IES La Arboleda, Lepe (Spain) |