Water and Energy Monitoring Spreadsheet

Teachers' notes
This spreadsheet has been developed to meet these objectives:
1. Provide children, especially Years 5 and 6 with opportunities to use spreadsheets, and observe their capabili
automatic calculations using formulae; graph making
2. Provide schools with tools to assist with Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship, inclu
as part of the Eco-schools award scheme: www.eco-schoolswales.org.uk

How to Use this Spreadsheet

This spreadsheet (or 'workbook', to use Microsoft's terminology), is made of several worksheets, each of which
found by clicking on the labelled tabs at the bottom of this screen e.g. 'Gas'.
This spreadsheet has been designed with the expectation that data will be collected over four weeks, with spac
more data over a longer period.
Caretakers often take weekly recordings of gas, water and electricity, though heavy inspection covers or autom
meters may not make this easy. Gaining the co-operation of the caretaker to work with a group of children to r
meters will increase the interest to the children, but may need some preparation, to make the meters safe area
children to access.
The school secretary will have utility bills, from which the unit costs can be found. For ease of calculation, stand
charges, varying rates and correction factors have been deliberately left out.
The lilac-shaded boxes will then automatically be filled with calculated information, using the data you have en
white boxes. (The workbook is 'protected' so that you can only enter data into the intended boxes.)
To compare Usage with the external temperatures, there is a sheet to record this data daily. The BBC we
pages will give the current day's maximum and minimum forecast temperature for your postcode www.bbc.co.
(Historical monthly and daily data spreadsheets are available free to schools from the Met Office at
www.metoffice.gov.uk/education/data/catalogue.html - but the information provided is detailed! It could be us
further spreadsheet work.)
There is also a Summary sheet, which automatically collects your comments from the previous sheets, to help
analyse your results, and print them out easily.

Notes on the ICT involved in this spreadsheet

Some sophisticated geekery has been used to create this spreadsheet, but most of the technical aspects are w
of children working at National Curriculum Levels 3-5 in IT. This spreadsheet is intended to show the possibiliti
junior-aged children, for them to use in the spreadsheets they work with themselves. Here are some examples

Formatting: as with word-processing software, the appearance is greatly enhanced by editing the size and fon
The fill can tool enables selected cells to have coloured backgrounds, which improves the readability of tables.
The Tools/Options/View tab give the option to un-tick the Gridlines box, which also improves the look of the sh
finished
Clicking and dragging on the boundaries between column headings (e.g. between A and B) enables tables to be
comfortably.
Selecting a cell, right-clicking and choosing 'Format Cells' reveals possibilities such as in the Alignment tab, wra
so that it can flow over several lines within one cell, or shrink to fit the cell (as is used where you enter the typ
that are wasted most)
Using formulae: all of the formulae used can be seen, by viewing the '=' letterbox at the top of the screen. M
simple, and can be studied by children, with a view to creating their own. Where formulae are complicated, this
done to enable the spreadsheet to cope with eventualities such as there being no data for certain days (e.g. if
were out on a trip, or school was closed for a day of the week)

Notes for those keen on the ICT

Protecting sheets You are free to amend this spreadsheet for your own purposes. To do so, you will need to
any sheets you want to change. (On the Tools menu, select Protection, then 'Unprotect Sheet') You can then p
sheet again, to stop others tampering with it (Tools/Protection/Protect Sheet). This will give you the option of a
password, which is very dangerous, because if forgotten, the sheet is protected forever.
To leave certain cells alterable whilst the sheet is protected (as has been done in this workbook), the relevant
to be formatted before the protection is applied to the sheet (select the cell, right click, 'Format Cells', Protectio
untick the 'Locked' tickbox)

Inserting comments: right-click on a selected cell, select 'Insert Comment', and type one in. The cell will the
have a red triangle on the top right-hand corner, and show the comment when the pointer is placed over the c
 Eco-schools
Water and Energy use monitor
Gas
a) How much does a unit of gas cost us?
b) What is the unit used?
c) How much gas are we using each week?
Week ending: Gas reading Units of Weekly cost Weekly Gas usage
gas used of gas used 12

10
no data no data
no data no data
8
no data no data

Units of gas used

no data no data
no data no data 6
no data no data
no data no data
4
no data no data
no data no data
no data no data 2

no data no data
no data no data 0
no data no data Date
no data no data
d) How does our gas use change over the time it has been measured?
e) What exactly uses gas in our school? (e.g. central heating boiler, ovens)

f) What might be the reasons for the changes in our gas use?

g) What could we do, to try to reduce our gas use?

Weekly Gas usage

Date
 Eco-schools
Water and Energy use monitor

Electricity
How much does a unit of electricity cost?
What is the unit used?

Week ending: Electricity Units of Weekly cost Weekly Electricity usage

reading electricity of electricity 12

used used
10
no data no data
no data no data
8
no data no data
no data no data

Units
no data no data 6

no data no data
no data no data 4
no data no data
no data no data
2
no data no data
no data no data
no data no data 0

no data no data Date

d) How does our electricity use change over the time it has been measured?
e) What exactly uses electricity in our school? (e.g. lights, computers)

f) What might be the reasons for the changes in our electricity use?

g) What could we do, to try to reduce our electricity use?

Weekly Electricity usage

Date
 Eco-schools
Water and Energy use monitor

Mains Water
How much does a unit of mains water cost?
What is the unit used?

Week ending: Water meter Units of Weekly cost Weekly Mains Water usag
reading water used of water used 12

10
no data no data
no data no data
8
no data no data
no data no data

Units
no data no data 6

no data no data
no data no data 4
no data no data
no data no data
2
no data no data
no data no data
no data no data 0

no data no data Date

d) How does our water use change over the time it has been measured?
e) What exactly uses water in our school? (e.g. taps, toilets, water fountains)

f) What might be the reasons for the changes in our water use?

g) What could we do, to try to reduce our mains water use?

Weekly Mains Water usage

Date
 Eco-schools
Water and Energy use monitor

Tracking daily temperatures

Energy and water use in school might follow changes in the external temperature. By
recording daily temperatures over the time that gas and/or electricity use is measured, you
will be able to look for any patterns between the weather, and your energy and water use.
The graphs below will display the data you have entered in previous sheets.

You can measure the outside temperature using a thermometer (at the same time of day
each time), or by reading the daily forecast temperature for the current day from the BBC
(www.bbc.co.uk - make sure you set your location to your post code).

Day Date Day's Daily Temperature

Temperature 12

10

Temperature in degrees C
Monday
Tuesday 8

Wednesday 6

Thursday 4
Friday
Monday 2

Tuesday 0 Weekly Gas usage

12
Wednesday Dates

Thursday 10

Friday
Units of gas used
8
Monday
Tuesday 6

Wednesday 4
Thursday
2

0
 Units
4

Friday 2

Monday 0 Weekly Electricity usage

Tuesday 12 Date

Wednesday 10

Thursday 8
Friday

Units
6

What patterns do you notice between the graphs? 4

0 Weekly Mains Water usage

12 Date

10

Units
6

0
Date
y Temperature

Weekly Gas usage

Dates
kly Electricity usage
Date

kly Mains Water usage

Date

Date
 Water and Energy Use Monitor
Summary School:

Gas
d) How does our gas use change over the time it has been measured?
0

e) What exactly uses gas in our school? (e.g. central heating boiler, ovens)
0

f) What might be the reasons for the changes in our gas use?
0

g) What could we do, to try to reduce our gas use?

0

Electricity
d) How does our electricity use change over the time it has been measured?
0

e) What exactly uses electricity in our school? (e.g. lights, computers)

0

f) What might be the reasons for the changes in our electricity use?
0

g) What could we do, to try to reduce our electricity use?

0

Water
d) How does our water use change over the time it has been measured?
0

e) What exactly uses water in our school? (e.g. taps, toilets, water fountains)
0

f) What might be the reasons for the changes in our water use?
0

g) What could we do, to try to reduce our mains water use?

0