Chapter 17, Problem 5P

Replacing incandescent lights with energy-efficient fluorescent lights can reduce the lighting energy consumption to one-fourth of what it was before. The energy consumed by the lamps is eventually converted to heat, and thus switching to energy-efficient lighting also reduces the cooling load in summer but increases the heating load in winter. Consider a building that is heated by a natural gas furnace with an efficiency of 80 percent and cooled by an air conditioner with a COP of 3.5. If electricity costs $0.12/kWh and natural gas costs $1.40/therm (1 therm = 105,500 kJ), determine if efficient lighting will increase or decrease the total energy cost of the building (a) in summer and (b) in winter.

The demand for electric power is usually much higher during the day than it is at night, and utility companies often sell power at night at much lower prices to encourage consumers to use the available power generation capacity and to avoid building new expensive power plants that will be used only a short time during peak periods. Utilities are also willing to purchase power produced during the day from private parties at a high price. Suppose a utility company is selling electric power for $0.06/kWh at night and is willing to pay $0.13/kWh for power produced during the day. To take advantage of this opportunity, an entrepreneur is considering building a large reservoir 50 m above the lake level, pumping water from the lake to the reservoir at night using cheap power, and letting the water flow from the reservoir back to the lake during the day, producing power as the pump–motor operates as a turbine–generator during reverse flow. Preliminary analysis shows that a water flow rate of 2…

A stove element draws 15 A when connected to a 240-V line. How long does it take to consume 60 kJ .