Demand response can be defined as “Changes in electric usage by end-use customers from their normal consumption patterns in response to changes in the price of electricity over time, or to incentive payments designed to induce lower electricity use at times of high wholesale market prices or when system reliability is jeopardized.”, “Demand Response entails customers changing their normal consumption patterns in response to changes in the price of energy over time or to incentive payments designed to induce lower electricity use when prices are high or system reliability is in jeopardy”

There are differences between energy efficiency and demand response. Energy efficiency keeps the same level of output, but less energy consumption; However, demand response encourages customers to reduce their usage at peak periods.

There several technologies used for demand response. These technologies are meant to monitor and dynamic control of electricity. Smart meters are one of these technologies.

There are two types of demand response.

1-Emergency demand response

In the case of extreme event, the demand will increase from consumers. If the demanded power was above the power generated, a call will be made to make a minimum usage from all consumers.

2-Econamic-demand response

This type is meant encourage consumers to get paid when they decrease their usage during peak hours.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_response

http://www.drsgcoalition.org/resources/factsheets/Demand_Response_and_Energy_Efficiency.pdf

http://www.enernoc.com/our-resources/brochures-faq/faq-pjms-economic-demand-response-program

In this lab, we generated voltages using magnet. There, three relations we should be aware of before we start explaining about my experiment, these relations exist between electricity and magnetism. Electric current flow will always produce some form of magnetism, magnetism is by far the most commonly used means for producing or using electricity and the peculiar behavior of electricity under certain conditions is caused by magnetic influences. Faraday’s Law states that changing magnetic fluxes through coiled wires generate electricity (currents and voltage).

When the magnet is being moved back forth, electricity and voltage are being generated because of the change in the magnet flux. Whenever there is a change in the magnet flux, electricity is being generated.

In this lab we had to practice this law, we were given a tool like a flashlight and it works by shaking it. However, we used the NXT to measure the voltage are being generated from the flashlight. We had a period of 30 seconds, and we had to try different amounts of shakes. The following graph will determine our results.

As it can be seen, when raise the number of shakes more voltage is being generated.

In conclusion, this lab explains the electromagnetism and applications of it.

In this lab,  we were asked to apply Newton’s second law, which is F=MA. This measures the conservation of energy, acceleration and velocity. By a to  a .

Newton second law says “acceleration is when a force acts on a mass. The greater the mass (of the object beingaccelerated) the greater the amount of force needed (to accelerate the object).” It can be read from the law that our three factors are mathematically to each other, and there is a proportional relation between that mass and the acceleration.

As it can be seen in the graph, when we add weights, acceleration increases. This proves the proportional relation between Acc and Mass. Note that we kept the power constant.

The following graph shows the second experiment, where we kept the weight constant and changed the power level. According to Newton’s second law, the power is proportional to the acceleration, A=F/M

As it can be noticed from the graph, the acceleration rises with the power level.

The next experiment is slightly different; it is about the battery discharge VS the Mass. The mass is proportional to the battery discharge, which means that when we increase the mass the batter discharge will be greater while keeping the power fixed.

This graph proves the proportional relation between the mass and battery discharge.

By using the power formula, which is power used= potential energy/time= mgh/time, we can get the average of the power we consumed while investigating the experiments. Note that we are using this formula for the experiments that had a constant mass.

This graph shows the relation between the mass and battery discharge

To sum up, this experiment is really helpful to understand the relation between power, mass and acceleration. the following excel sheet will show results in numbers.

This class experiment was about solar cells, and they are also called photovoltaic. When a source of light is aimed to the cells it can generate electricity without a power source. According to Wikipedia “The term “photovoltaic” comes from the Greek φῶς (phōs) meaning “light”, and from “volt”, the unit of electro-motive force, the volt, which in turn comes from the last name of the Italian physicistAlessandro Volta, inventor of the battery (electrochemical cell). The term “photovoltaic” has been in use in English since 1849.[1]“.

The Experiment was to measure the voltage generated from the applied light from the flashlight. We took several measurements from several distances. We can see the relation between the distance and the voltage generated from the cells and the applied light.

It can be seen from the chart, when the distance is reduced the voltage generated becomes higher and higher. This experiment proves the relation between the quantity of light applied to the solar cells and the voltage generated.

After we finished these measurements, we were introduced to colored filters. This experiment is similar to the first one; however, the difference here is we do not change the distance; what we have to do is we change the colored filters and measure the voltage. The following chart will show my results.

It is shown in the chart that red filters absorb most of the light, then blue after that green.

In conclusion, this experiment gave us a brief idea about solar cells and how voltage are generated using solar cells

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell

We watched a documentary movie called “Pandora’s Promise”. This is about the history of the nuclear energy, how crucial and destructive nuclear weapons can be and the future of nuclear energy.
The main point from this movie was toshow how nuclear energy is effective, powerful and clear source of energy. The majority of people believes that nuclear cant be used for good reasons; because they are afraid of nuclear bombs after World War 2. However, this movie proves the point that nuclear energy is a very helpful method to generate cleaner energy. The movie started with some nuclear accidents, for instant, Fukushima, and they started with measuring the radiations in the area of Fukushima; I believe that is a good way to start, to show the audience that they are aware of their concerns toward nuclear energy. In the other hand, France was taken as a positive example. France produces a cleaner energy than the others, green energy.
In conclusion, it is true that there were terrible nuclear energy accidents, but engineers nowadays can avoid these accidents, we learn from our mistakes. Nuclear safety now is a very advanced area of researches. In addition, environmentalists agree that nuclear energy is a cleaner energy, and it is a reliable source of energy.

The President Climate Action Plan will be taken 3 initiatives to decrease the damage that have been caused to the climate. According to the action plan, president Obama said that in 2020, America would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions in the range of 17 percent below 2005 levels. Starting from this promise, the plan will be taken 3 initiatives to decrease the damage that have been caused to the climate.

First initiative was to cut the carbon pollution in America. Incredible statistics were provided in the plan, for instance, “Through 2030, these standards will cut consumers’ electricity bills by hundreds of billions of dollars and save enough electricity to power more than 85 million homes for two years” these statistics were provided by the department of energy in the president’s first term. What they actually mean, new efficiency standard were made by the Department of Energy for electrical products.

Second initiative was expanding the President’s better building challenge. The meaning of this challenge is to increase the efficiency of energy for commercial and industrial building at least 20%. Therefore, more 120 organizations owning more than 2 billion square feet are increasing the energy efficiency on 2020.

Third initiative was the forests of the U.S. It plays a very important role because it reduces 12% of gas emissions every year. According to the plan” In the face of a changing climate and increased risk of wildfire, drought, and pests, the capacity of our forests to absorb carbon is diminishing.” and it addresses the importance of the forests in carbon reduction.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/image/president27sclimateactionplan.pdf

When it comes to the gas and mileage of cars, people tend to care more about them. Therefore, car makers nowadays are trying to increase the gas mileage. Car makers considered many ways, however, some of them were not enough or even just not good at all. On the other hand, there were great ideas, for instance, hybrid cars and lighter weight materials.

According to Joann Muller, Forbes staff “Gas prices and miles per gallon claims are now top consideration points for new car shoppers when buying a car, playing a much bigger role than they did 10 years ago”

There should be a sundry of ways, but the most general and the most efficient way are hybrid cars.H Hybrid cars are cars with two engines. First engine works on electricity, and the second engine works on gasoline. There are kinds of hybrid cars, some of these kinds in some conditions work on electricity by itself; some other kinds electricity engines reduce the gas consumption during acceleration and speed.

Another way car makers are using to increase gas mileage is to use lighter materials to build a car. By reducing the mass; the power consumption will become lower and, therefore, the gas consumption will become lower and lower. There are many materials are being used to increase the gas mileage, the following table will show some of these materials and their percentage of mass reduction.

To sum up, these are the most common ways to increase gas mileage. Some other methods were not mentioned because they are irrelevant somehow, for instance, using natural gas instead of gasoline.

“Lightweight Materials.” Vehicle Technologies Office. N.p., 17 May 2013. Web. 9 Oct. 2013. <http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/technologies/materials/lightweight_materials.html>.

Muller, Joann. “10 Ways Automakers Are Helping You Spend Less On Gasoline.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 30 Aug. 2012. Web. 09 Oct. 2013. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/2012/08/30/10-ways-automakers-are-helping-you-spend-less-on-gasoline/>.

“Hybrid Vehicle.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Sept. 2013. Web. 09 Oct. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_vehicle>.

The Professor distributed a robot kit to us on that day, and the assignment was to build the robot in a particular way. After building the robot correctly and testing it, we plugged the robot using a USB cable to the lap computer. Plugging the robot to a computer will give us the ability to program it, so that it moves forward and backward.

Several measurements and calculations were made to indicate the experiment results. The following table will show the results of the experiment:

These results show the purpose of that class, which was to calculate the power, rotations, speed, time and the number of wheel turns. We used a verity of rules to calculate the results, but some of them I did not use in the experiment, and these rules are average speed=Distance/time, average velocity=displacement/total travel time, average acceleration=change in velocity/time for change to occur.

     We went to a library tour last Thursday; several resources were explained to us by our tour guide. There were a sundry of recourses I found at Suffolk library, for example, printed books. We were trained to look up for any reference we need in Suffolk library.

Starting with the reference desk, simply you can look for racecourses from there. You may also borrow printed books for few hours. The library is equipped several computers and printers that might help you with your research. In addition, there are labtops to borrow from the library to help you with your research as well. Therefore, the reference disk is considered a huge help for Suffolk students.

Next, the most important part in my opinion was the online database. I can access the data base via Suffolk home page, then library link. It’s where I can look up for any reference I need, easily and rapidly. We were introduced to a whole new level of resources, which can help with my studies here at Suffolk. By looking for the author name or the article title I can save a lot of time, even if I don’t remember the article title I can just look through A-Z search method. If I weren’t looking for some particular article or book, I can just look into categories and see what I need. Filters can be used to reduce the search results. I can also email the results I found to myself.

To sum up, this was important to me because I knew where to look into and how to look into it, that could save me time and effort, even money sometimes.

Hurricane Sandy and Global
Warming

Hurricane Sandy is a frequent topic of academic discussions nowadays, especially if global warming were relevant or not. Global warming caused several effects on our environment, for instance, temperature raise, ice melting worldwide and sea level rise became faster than it used to be.

Hurricane Sandy was a strong and deadly hurricane, it happened in fall of 2012. It occurred at the east coast of United States, it was a tragedy at some states, and it went through some other states without a noticeable damage. Because of this massive damage we wanted to know whether we caused this terrible hurricane or it was naturally caused.

Some researchers found that the hurricane is somehow relevant and irrelevant to global warming at the same time. Basically what they meant that it didn’t happen because of the global warming. However, global warming made it worse. According to Andrew Freedman, “What is already clear, however, is that climate change very likely made Sandy’s impacts worse than they otherwise would have been.”

There was a study conducted by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions suggested that weather change might drove Sandy inland.

There are slight diversities of some studies can be seen while looking through some researches. Therefore, what can be clear is that global warming made Hurricane Sandy just worse than it supposed to be in normal conditions. Normal conditions can be defined as the nature without the effect of global warming.

In conclusion, Hurricane Sandy did not occur because of global warming but it made Hurricane Sandy more destructive in many levels.

My References:

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/did-global-warming-contribute-to-hurricane-sandys-devastation/?_r=0

http://www.c2es.org/science-impacts/extreme-weather/climate-change-hurricane-sandy

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/how-global-warming-made-hurricane-sandy-worse-15190

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-effects/