Earth Hour 2008

Thread Starter

LED Man

Joined Jan 15, 2008
62
http://www.earthhour.org/

Hey everyone,

I'd like to get everyones opinion on this event. Will it actually save energy? I've heard people say "more power wasted because of the surge when all lights were turned back on" and "power plants produce the same output all all hours of the day regardless of consumption. So turning off all the lights, though it may bring more attention to an issue, will save absolutely nothing by itself."

What's the verdict here guys?
 

Dave

Joined Nov 17, 2003
6,969
Other than raising attention I doubt it will have any actual benefit, after all what is 1 hour going to achieve given that they may be lucky to get a fraction of people to whom it may apply involved. In the grand scheme of things this is a drop in the ocean, but may have an impact on the way people think. It is probably the best they can hope for.

I admire the objectives of the organisers.

Btw, is it me or is the site slow?

Dave
 

beenthere

Joined Apr 20, 2004
15,819
It does seem to be a slow loading site.

Probably more symbolic that practical in the execution. I live in a rural area. There are one or more dusk-to-dawn (critter) lights in almost every yard. You could get every house to douse its lights and never see the difference.

That may sound cynical, but a better approach to public and outdoor lighting with lots of pressure to adopt it would seem to have more potential impact. I am really tired of mercury and HP sodium lighting.
 

Salgat

Joined Dec 23, 2006
218
All you'd do is probably piss off a bunch of Utility operators who have to compensate for no load only to have to return everything back to normal an hour later. I see no good from this. My guess is that most utility companies, if a good amount of people did participate, would still run their generators at normal, in the end wasting energy.
 

recca02

Joined Apr 2, 2007
1,212
"more power wasted because of the surge when all lights were turned back on"
More than normal might be the case..Not more than saved in an hour I think..
"power plants produce the same output all all hours of the day regardless of consumption. So turning off all the lights, though it may bring more attention to an issue, will save absolutely nothing by itself."
A generator can not supply more than what is demanded,it supplies only what is demanded by load....A generator never produces 210 MW when the load is only 100 MW...When the load drops down by a large quantity the generator will only speed up and to prevent going out of synchronism the hydraulic/electro hydraulic governors regulate the amount of steam supplied to turbines.
Thus later by pressure control system combustion in boilers/reaction in reactors is reduced to produce only required MW...and all this happens automatically by control system set points etc,etc.

An hour of electricity may not look much...but AFAIK this small contribution not only saves excess burning of fuel but(for a country where there is a difference in demand and capacity) also may allow a energy deficient region get electricity.

A country like Canada which has most of its power generated by hydro projects might not find the Idea helpful(If only there were international grids!)...
Also there is a little lesser efficiency when running aat lower loads for a plant designed for larger capacity but it may still save the life of auxiliaries and turbogenerators,boilers etc the maintenance of which alone costs millions.
 

rwmoekoe

Joined Mar 1, 2007
172
thanks recca02.
i got the idea now.
i thought also that the statement "more power wasted" and "will save absolutely nothing" is somewhat frightening, and i need to believe that it's not true.
thanks.
 

thingmaker3

Joined May 16, 2005
5,083
I estimate it will save about one penny per participant. Lighting just doesn't take that much power.

I also don't get the bit about "delivering a powerful message about the need for action on global warming" by sitting in the dark for an hour. Wouldn't holding hands in a circle around the equator be more profound? Or simultaneously singing Kum Ba Ya for an hour?
 

lightingman

Joined Apr 19, 2007
374
Hi,

In some cases, it is dificult to turn off and save energy..
We are running a show this afternoon, and the lighting is burning an average of 130Kw.
It can't be a case of just unpluging a few lamps, as they were all programmed for specific areas yesterday, which took 5 hours....

Daniel.
 

lightingman

Joined Apr 19, 2007
374
Mmmm,

Just as a follow-up. My collegue has just pointed out that if we have a audience of 420 in the house, plus 140 in the cast.
They will not be at home watching the T.V, using the computer, boiling the kettle or cooking.
Therefore if you average it out at about 500 watts per person, that's 280Kw (saving 150Kw).

I don't feel quite so guilty now !!!

Daniel.
 

Dave

Joined Nov 17, 2003
6,969
Mmmm,

Just as a follow-up. My collegue has just pointed out that if we have a audience of 420 in the house, plus 140 in the cast.
They will not be at home watching the T.V, using the computer, boiling the kettle or cooking.
Therefore if you average it out at about 500 watts per person, that's 280Kw (saving 150Kw).

I don't feel quite so guilty now !!!

Daniel.
That's the same argument for as to why everyone should watch the football down the pub! (Ok, so we transfer the problem from the environment onto the NHS, but still).

Dave
 

mik3ca

Joined Feb 11, 2007
189
Can people start celebrating earth hour some more?

My room was completely DARK! with nothing electronic running.
It was fairly dim in my room. I'm surprised I wasn't in pitch blackness :p
 

rwmoekoe

Joined Mar 1, 2007
172
i have a dream of building an electric company run from fitness apparatus turn into electric generators, charging large capacity battery cells and a high efficiency large inverter. even if it cannot profit from selling electricity (more income from club membership), at least people don't burn calories for nothing ;).

i also have a dream of making electric powered vehicles with brakes made of inverter-overloaded generators, so that every brakes we make while driving, is very efficiently turned back into electric power.

the use of high power led (with efficient switching current regulator) to replace common light bulb and fluorescent light, should also be encouraged, as the energy wasted in the light spectra human eyes can't see, can be avoided using leds.

nuclear power plants to replace every fossil fuel power plants all over the world.

i believe there are so many other things we could do with our talents here in the forum to help conserve the planet.
 
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