Earth Hour.

[Crocus]

We've done our Earth Hour last night between 8.30 and 9.30 local time. Went outside to see how many people remembered, quite a few either forgot, or perhaps didn't know or could perhaps not be bothered.

http://www.earthhour.org/about/

[dragonfly]

I forgot about it Crocus.

[cindy]

I think it is futile. It would make much more sense if all of the government buildings, council offices and business had their lights turned off overnight every night. Then there would be some energy saving

[MrZebra]

I did it.

Cindy: It's not about saving electricity, it's about raising awareness.

[Clunkshift]

I didn't do it.

I appreciate the sentiment but if everybody actually switched off all their lights for an hour and stopped using other electric things for the same time, it would be likely to damage the power generation system. We can barely withstand some sporting events where many viewers switch kettles on at the same time across the country and rely on importing French nuclear electricity to help out our busy times.

Once a turbine is up and spinning, it is powering the generators. I am not aware of any way to disconnect the two devices. It is possible to regulate output to some extent, but we only just cope with national events like football cup finals. So the only way that electricity supply can be controlled for big cuts is to power some generators down, which takes time, and to power them up again for the big surge, which also takes time. If the supply doesn't match the demand, the system will trip out to protect sub-stations.
Any over capacity in electricity supply is simply sent to earth and wasted

I work in oil & gas and have strong views on what energy is "sustainable" and fear that if anarchy becomes a weapon of the consumer, restricted supply will be the counter weapon of the supplier.

Moderation in all things is a good starting point.

[Crocus]

We didn't switch off the fridge or freezer. Just the lights inside and out as it was more an awareness thing than saving of electricity as such.

[Katelb]

Didn't even know about it,but at that time in the evening,there would only have been two lights on in the house anyway and one of them is never ever turned off (our landing has no window so day and night,it is lit by a low strength long life bulb)
As an aside to this thread,a unused school building in Scotland leaves it's lights on at night .....in case anyone breaking in hurts themselves in the dark....... you couldn't make it up could you.

[Crocus]

No you couldn't Kate and if that's not an invitation, then I don't know what is ......

[dragonfly]

And yet some councils want to turn off street lighting. They don't care if people are injured or burgled.

[Clunkshift]

Lighting is one of my big hates at the moment, I really resent the fact that we are being railroaded into buying "energy efficient" lamps by the fact that incandescent lights are being denied to us.

I think that the future of efficient lighting is in clustered LED lighting but right now, it is just not good enough for high power application. There might also be a case for a domestic version of HID lighting (those bright bluish ones on some newer cars) but I really resent being forced to buy miniature fluorescent lamps. In my experience they lamps do not last for the claimsd life span and in that respect are no better than a good incandescent lamp.
I think that this is because a fourescent lamp doesn't like on/off cycles as it has a starter to energise the gas for the lamp to work and starters don't like heavy on/off cycling. This would also be the downside of HID lamps but at least their starters are electronic and seem more robust.
Then there is manufacturing cost and materials used - plastics, neon gas, mercury etc, they are a recycling nightmare unlike an incandescent which is glass, metal and a bit of sealant.

The downside of LEDs are the plastics used but at least they can be made very small.

I think governments should spend money on research to ensure that better products are available - oh and I'm a supporter of incinerating waste before it goes into landfill (after the useful stuff has been recycled)

[Primrose]

Oh! Little Bro

What would I do without you to 'bring me back to earth'?

You are like my own Wikepedia which in turn allows me to think about the topic/subject in more depth.

When you say -

oh and I'm a supporter of incinerating waste before it goes into landfill (after the useful stuff has been recycled)

I totally agree and did a Council in London many, many years ago actually build flats to be heated by a waste incinerator?

I am totally against Wind Turbines in the wrong place. Locally we have 6, higher than Salisbury Cathedral, trying to obtain planning permission. It isn't even windy in that location and it is way down on the map used at the meeting for suitability.