If you would like to try this project for your own household, there are many ways you could go about it. If you have a record of your family’s heating bills, you could try the way I demonstrated.  If you don’t have your bills, you could use the average quoted by Direct Energy of 3GJ for July and 4GJ for August.   You could also achieve a fairly good estimate using Enerworks’ solar calculator, (http://www.enerworks.com/flash/solar_calculator.swf), or Climate Care’s house calculator, ( http://carbonfund.org/site/pages/calculator/category/Assumptions/).  If you experience trouble with the units used, (GJ, therms, kwh…), this site will help you with conversions, (http://www.energyshop.com/es/toolbox/Gj_to_m3.cfm).  Good luck!!     

Ellie Shifflett 

Grade 8, Cayley School

Last Edited May 1/07