Quizzes

Question 1

Which of the following is an/are example of energy efficiency?
Select one or many. Partial marks for each correct option.

a. Installing solar panels to supply your energy
b. Turning on hot water heater over night only
c. Reducing the brightness of lights in a room
d. Switching old halogen lights to LED lights

Answer 1

d. Yes! LED and CFL that produce the same amount of light is providing the same service, although LEDs use less energy to achieve this.

Question 2

Which of the following is an/are example(s) of energy conservation?
Select one or many. Partial marks for each correct answer, but negative partial marks for incorrect answers.

Select one or more:

a. Installing solar panels to supply your energy
b. Switching old halogen lights to LED lights
c. Turning on hot water heater over night only
d. Reducing the brightness of lights in a room

Answer 2

b. and d.

Question 3

Which of the following is/are likely to save you money? Select one or many. Partial marks for correct options.

Select one or more:

a. Turning on hot water heater while solar panels are producing excess power
b. Turning on hot water heater over night only
c. Installing solar panels to supply your energy
d. Reducing the brightness of lights in a room
e. Switching old halogen lights to LED lights

Answer 3

All are correct

b. Yes- over night electricity, or time of use tariffs are cheaper, or can have a seperate circuit for hot water or pool pumps which is cheaper, but with restricted hours of use.

Question 4

Which of the following is/are example(s) of demand side management? Select one or many. Partial marks for correct options.

Select one or more:

a. Changing your electricity provider from WattEnergy with a tariff of $0.29/kWh to Spreenergy at $0.27/kWh, which will save you money.
b. Managing the demand from consumers for high efficiency products such as lightbulbs, by making them expensive, hence less people will buy them.
c. Allowing a utility company to turn off your air conditioner for brief periods on hot days to reduce strain on the electricity grid.
d. Installing centralised battery banks such as the one in South Australia (Tesla battery at Hornsdale Wind Farm) in order to meet peak electricity demand

Answer 4

c. many network distribution companies are trialling this with Demand Response capabilities built into reverse cycle air conditioners. This is changing the amount of energy consumed.

Question 5

What provides most of Australia’s residential electricity?

Select one:

a. Rooftop Solar
b. Coal
c. Hydro Power
d. Natural Gas (methane)

Answer 5

b. Coal generates by far the biggest chunk of electricity in Australia.

Question 6

Australia is ranked in which position in the world for energy efficiency by the ACEEE out of 23 countries?

Select one:

a. Top 20
b. 2nd
c. Top 10
d. Top 5

Answer 6

a. Australia is ranked 16th

Question 7

What is an energy audit?

Select one:

a. A purely numerical analysis of energy usage. It is normally presented as a series of spreadsheets, including power and energy useage of different energy uses over time.
b. A report that tells someone how badly they use energy.
c. A process of assesing how energy is being used, and identifying opportunities for energy and financial savings.
d. An audit of available energy sources, such as coal, oil, gas, wind, solar. An audit such as this is generally done on a state or national level in order to determine the availability of different energy sources. It includes how fast we use them, their quantity, and cost to extract/use.

Answer 7

c.

Question 8

What is discounted payback time?

Select one:

a. The time it would take to payback an investment, given Government incentives are always nice!
b. The time it would take to pay off an investment, taking into account the varying value of money across time
c. The time it would take to “payoff” all the CO2 emitted during construction/installation of a product
d. Initial capital spent divided by savings per year

Answer 8

b.

Question 9

Would you generally expect simple pyback time, or discounted payback time to be longer for an investment such as a new, higher efficiency fridge? Why?

Select one:

a. They would usually be the same
b. Discounted payback time would be longer, because a lot of money is spent up front, and savings slowly pay it off over time, only the savings devalue each time period further into the future you go
c. Discounted payback time would be longer, because it dose not take into accont the cost of paying someone to install the fridge
d. Simple payback time would be longer, as discounted payback time takes into account Government subsedies, reducing the upfront cost
e. Simple payback time would be longer as discounted payback time is a more complex calculation.

Answer 9

b.

Question 10

Chose one advantage of resistive electric hot water heating systems

Select one:

a. They have low environmental impact
b. They are cheap to buy
c. Because they have insulated tanks, no heat is lost
d. They are cheap to run

Answer 10

b.

Question 11

Can solar thermal hot water systems typically supply 100% of residential or commercial hot water loads in a climate like Sydney? What does this mean about thier viability?

Select one:

a. No. They generally require some sort of extra boosting for cloudy periods, but can still be a great way to heat water most of the time.
b. No. They are a terrible choice of hot water heating in a climate like Sydney
c. Yes. They are amazing.
d. Yes. But They are prohibitively expensive, so they aren’t particularly viable.

Answer 11

a.

Question 12

Instant hot water systems don’t hold water in a tank, sitting waiting to be used. Therefore, they don’t lose energy through poor insulation. What is the main disadvantages of instant hot water systems?

Select one or more:

a. Instant hot water systems are prohibitevly expensive
b. They can only run on LPG, a big limitation in fuel choice.
c. There is a limit to the amount of energy that can be given to the water, so with high flow rates there can be a reduction in temperature.
d. Because they have no storage, instant electric systems cannot take advantage of off peak electricity prices, or control load tariffs.
e. They all have a pilot light that keeps burning all the time to light the burner when needed. This wastes energy.

Answer 12

c. and d.

The higher power the system is, the less of an issue this is - but high power can have disadvantages financially with some electricity tariffs (eg. demand charg
es)

Instant hot water systems, if electric, will heat water on demand.

Question 13

Which of the following will NOT reduce the amount of energy required for hot water heating?

Select one:

a. Using large diameter pipes for distributing hot water
b. Using water saving shower heads
c. Installing lagging on distributing pipes.
d. Installing a heat pump hot water system

Answer 13

a. In heat transfer from pipes 2 things to consider:
The time that water sits in pipe waiting to be used. A bigger pipe will leave more water sitting in the pipe to get cool.
Secondly, the fact that water travelling through a pipe will heat the pipe up - and then the limiting factor in further heat transfer out of the pipe is the air-pipe convection process. With a smaller overall surface area (even though it has a lower surface to volume ratio) a smaller pipe will have less surface area for this air-pipe transfer to occur.
Big pipes are great for reducing frictions losses - much more on this later in the course!

Question 14

A how much heat load does an LED light with a power rating of 6W introduce into the room? (Assume efficiacy of 90lm/W)

Select one:

a. 0.6W because 5.4W are turned directly into visiblle light energy, leaving 0.6W of heat energy behind
b. 5.1W because 0.9 W is converted to visable light, the remainder being convertered to heat.
c. Nearly 0W because LEDs have a radiative efficiency (power in to electron magnetic radiation out) of nearly 100%
d. 6W, because all of the electrical power in eventually turns to heat energy

Answer 14

d. All light energy that does come out of the globe, and hits surfaces where it is either absorbed (as heat) or reflected to then bounce on to another surface and repeat.

Question 15

A 15W, 1200 Lumen LED bulb whith a CCT of 5000K would be most appropriate for lighting what space?

Select one:

a. The main floor of a large warehouse
b. A bedroom
c. A car’s glovebox
d. An office hallway

Answer 15

d.

Question 16

You have a 1.5 metre squared kitchen bench that you would like to light whith at least 650 Lux. You got a great deal on a box of 5W LED down lights whith a luminous efficacy of 85 Lumens per Watt. Assuming no other light falls on the bench, what is the minimum number of downlights needed to satisfy or exceed the lighting requierment?

Select one:

a. 4
b. 1
c. 2
d. 3

Answer 16

d.

Question 17

What type of lifts (elevators) are in the Tyree Energy Technology Building?

You may need to go for a walk and have a look.

Select one:

a. A hole-less hydraulic elevator
b. A machine-room-less traction lift
c. A conventional hydraulic elevator
d. A traction elevator with a machine room

Answer 17

b.

Question 18

Is the choice of lift (elevator) in Tyree a good choice of lift efficiency wise?

Select one:

a. No - traction lifts have poor efficiency.
b. Yes, the hydraulic systems provide smooth movement.
c. Yes, this IS an efficient lift. It has a fairly efficient drive system and the yellow counterbalances reduce load while the lift is lifting heavy loads.
d. No. Having it in the open air significantly increases aerodynamic drag making it inefficient.

Answer 18

c.

Question 19

What component is the largest energy user in an “average” HVAC system ?

Select one:

a. Fans
b. Cooling
c. Lighting
d. Pumps
e. Heating

Answer 19

a.

Question 20

Name one way that an Energy Management Control Systems specifically, would not save money or energy.

Select one:

a. Reducing lighting power by automatically turning lights off at night.
b. Limiting Peak demand charges by turning off non-critical loads at peak times.
c. By reducing the heat loss or gain from piping systems by adding insulation
d. By optimising thermal storage, “charging” it when electricity is cheap.

Answer 20

c. insulation is not something that is controlled by an EMCS.

Question 21

Amory Lovins claims that efficient buildings can be cheaper UP FRONT than less efficient buildings. Why is this?

Select one:

a. Because he argues we should make buildings smaller. Small buildings are cheaper to make, and use less energy, because there is less floor space to heat, light etc.
b. Energy efficient buildings only use the newest technologies. thease are cheaper to run, and therefore you have a cheaper building.
c. Amory advocates for the use of magic to build and heat buildings. The correct magical spells can make buildings cheaper to build - and can heat, and light them with no external energy.
d. By making buildings efficient, you can make savings in other areas. For example, a well insulated building does not need as large a HVAC system as a poorly insulated building. It may not even need a HVAC system.
e. Amory Lovins thinks we should all live in cold, dark buildings. These are cheaper to make.
f. Because Amory Lovins has no idea about energy and economics. He is clearly wrong.

Answer 21

d.

Question 22

How much useful heat can the TETB Trigeneration system deliver at maximum power?

Select one:

a. 23 kW
b. 919 kW
c. 250 kW
d. 465 kW
e. 800 kW

Answer 22

d.

Question 23

Which of the following is a big drawback of cogeneration and trigeneration systems?

Select one:

a. They are big complicated systems with many expensive parts that can fail.
b. The engines used are a very new technology, and are poorly understood.
c. They are very inefficient compared to just using mains electricity and a gas heater.
d. They can only run on fossil fuels.
e. There are no applications where heat and electricity are both needed.
f. They never make economic sense because gas is expensive.

Answer 23

a.

Question 24

Which type of motors are most common in commercial and industrial applications?

Select one:

a. Induction motors
b. Two stroke motors
c. Synchronous motors
d. DC motors
e. Axial flux motors

Answer 24

a.

Question 25

Which statement is true about the pumps and motors used in the lab?

Select one:

a. The pumps used in the lab where not particularly efficient. The motors used DC electricity.
b. The pumps used in the lab had poor efficiency. they were powered with AC electricity.
c. The pumps used in the lab where highly efficient- this is energy efficiency! The motors were DC powered because this is always more efficient.
d. The pumps used in the lab were very efficient. They were powered directly with AC electricity.

Answer 25

a.

Question 26

Which statement about VSDs is true?

Select one:

a. A VSD allows a motor system to be optimised continuously, by inputting only the energy that is needed for a task rather than always running the motor at full power.
b. VSDs can only work on induction motors.
c. All VSDs are also VFDs ( variable frequency drives).
d. A VSD increases the efficiency of a motor. This is because motors are more efficient when they are turning slowly.
e. A VSD will always increase the efficiency of a motor system.

Answer 26

a.

Question 27

What would not reduce energy usage from a compressed air system?

Select one:

a. Insulating the compressor to reduce heat loss.
b. Find and fix any leaks.
c. Use shorter fatter pipes.
d. Move the air intake to somewhere cooler.
e. Don’t use compressed air.

Answer 27

a.

Question 28

Would pipe insulation be more important in compressed air or steam distribution systems?

Select one:

a. Steam
b. Neither
c. Compressed air

Answer 28

a.

Question 29

Heat pumps are becoming a viable way of producing steam. One of the challenges is pumping across very large temperature differences.

What is one of the most attractive ways of overcoming this?

Select one:

a. Using higher gear ratios and cogged V belts on the heat pump’s compressor in order to get a better optimised output. The higher compressor RPM will lead to higher temperatures.
b. Using better insulation on the pipes.
c. There are no viable solutions - high temperature heat pumps are a pipe dream.
d. Using a warm to hot stream of low grade heat to pump from.
e. Burning gas to create warm water from which to pump heat.

Answer 29

d.