Energy efficiency

Activity 1 – how efficient are appliances?

Some appliances waste a lot of energy. The more efficient an appliance is, the less
energy it wastes as a percentage.
efficiency (%) = (useful energy / total energy) x 100

Example:
A camera battery supplies 20 J of energy. 5 J of this are converted into light energy, the
rest becomes heat energy. How efficient is the torch?

efficiency = (5 J/20 J) x 100

= 25%

1. Complete the table.

Appliance energy in (J) useful energy out (J) efficiency (%)

A 100 20

B 200 50

C 350 280

D 2800 70

E 100 50

F 40 25

G 45 30

H 30 95

Show your working in the following questions.

2. Fred’s petrol engine takes in 2000 J of chemical energy and does 400 J of work. How
efficient is the engine?

efficiency = _____

3. Fred’s diesel engine takes in 3000 J of chemical energy and does 800 J of work. How
efficient is the engine?

efficiency = _____
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 Energy efficiency

4. Fred’s hairdryer takes in 1200 J of electrical energy and gives out 500 J as thermal
energy, 500 J as kinetic energy and 200 J as sound energy. How efficient is it?

efficiency = _____

5. Fred’s TV takes in 2000 J of electrical energy and gives out 1100 J as light energy.
300 J is given out as sound energy and 600 J as thermal energy. How efficient is it?

efficiency = _____

6. Fred’s light bulb takes in 60 J of electrical energy and gives out 54 J as thermal energy
and 6 J as light energy. How efficient is it?

efficiency = _____

7. Fred’s other light bulb takes in 20 J of electrical energy and gives out 2 J as thermal
energy and 18 J as light energy. How efficient is it?

efficiency = _____

8. Fred wants to spend as little money as possible on his light bulbs and running them.
What should he consider in trying to do this?

9. Fred’s lawnmower takes in 1500 J of energy and gives out 500 J of kinetic energy.
400 J is also given out as sound energy and 600 J as thermal energy. How efficient is it?

efficiency = _____

10. Fred’s heater gives out 1900 J of thermal energy, 90 J of sound energy and 10 J of
light energy. How efficient is it?

efficiency = _____

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 Energy efficiency

Activity 2 – illustrating energy efficiency

Energy can be transferred from one type into other types, as shown in the diagram. The
width of the arrows shows how much energy is converted into each type – in this
example, slightly more energy becomes ‘Energy 2’ than ‘Energy 3’.

Task

1. Sketch and label ‘Sankey diagrams’ for Fred’s appliances. The first is done for you!

Heater TV

Light bulb 1 Light bulb 2

Lawn mower Heater

2. Use graph paper to construct an accurate Sankey diagram (to scale) for one of Fred’s
appliances.

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