Green Building Pre-Apprenticeship Program/Energy Fundamentals

Objectives[edit | edit source]

By the end of the Energy Fundamentals module, students will understand:

1. Energy basics
2. Working with dimensional units
3. Global, national, local and personal energy use
4. Renewable and non-renewable methods of energy production and their impacts

Goals[edit | edit source]

The following are some of the main goals for the Energy Fundamentals module.

Concepts[edit | edit source]

By the end of the Energy Fundamentals module, students will understand the following concepts (among others):

• Energy types and transfer
• Power loss and efficiency
• Laws of Thermodynamics
• Energy generation, storage and generation
• Models
• Power versus energy
• EROI
• Primary energy source versus energy carrier

Vocabulary and units[edit | edit source]

By the end of the Energy Fundamentals module, students will be able to confidently use the following vocabulary and/or units (among others):

• Conduction, convection, radiation, energy, power, length, area, volume, EROI, entropy, power loss, distribution, energy carrier, primary energy source
• BTU, therm, joule, quads, cal, Cal, kw, kWh, kg, m, ft, s, hr, m³, ft³, prefixes (m, k, M, G)

Calculations[edit | edit source]

By the end of the Energy Fundamentals module, students will be able to do the following calculations (among others):

• E=P*t
• gas mileage and cost
• efficiency

How to[edit | edit source]

By the end of the Energy Fundamentals module, students will be comfortable doing the following (among others):

• use a kilowatt meter
• electrical energy audit
• Back Of the Envelope calculations

Field trips[edit | edit source]

By the end of the Energy Fundamentals module, students will be have gone on the following field trips (possibly among others):

• Schatz Energy Research Center
• Campus Center for Appropriate Technology
• Redwood Coast Energy Authority