Earth Hour March 29, 2008 at 8PM Local Time

[Fushigi]

Link.

On March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m., join millions of people around the world in making a statement about climate change by turning off your lights for Earth Hour, an event created by the World Wildlife Fund.

Earth Hour was created by WWF in Sydney, Australia in 2007, and in one year has grown from an event in one city to a global movement. In 2008, millions of people, businesses, governments and civic organizations in nearly 200 cities around the globe will turn out for Earth Hour. More than 100 cities across North America will participate, including the US flagships–Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco and Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

Nice, simple idea to raise awareness. In Chicago all of the major high rises have joined in. Street lights will remain lit for safety but even some retailers are turning off the lights for an hour. It will be a dark skyline.

My employer has joined the effort and has asked all of our 28,000+ employees world-wide to participate at home. Corporate offices are generally closed but have been reduced to minimal power consumption for the event with just emergency lights, data data centers, and critical systems remaining active. My wife & I shall turn off all lights and most electricity-consuming devices (PCs will go down; refrigerator will stay on).

What to do for an hour? I wonder how many births will be recorded around 12/29/2008.

 

[Stereodude]

I'm going to turn on every light and electronic device I have.

 

[ddrueding]

Good job Stereodude. Someone has to keep the baseload power up, or we'll have issues with the nuclear reactors...

 

[Stereodude]

Well, someone has to keep a level head in the face of all this nonsense. I'm just doing my part.

 

[e_dawg]

LOL... But you know what uses the most power? Probably heating devices like heaters, irons, hair dryers, clothes dryers, kitchen ranges stoves, ovens, and of course air conditioners. Other unofficial "heating devices" would include incandescent lights, laser printers, CRT displays, monster video cars, and of course Intel P4s and other such devices...

To tell you the truth, the first thing that came to my mind was what kind of chaos would this create in the electrical grid? With everyone turning everything off and then turning everything on at obviously different but still roughly the same time, wouldn't this cause massive load swings, current flows, and surges everywhere?

I remember whenever they have massive disruptions to the grid like when they had the Northeast Blackout in the summer of 2003 and in the Ice Storm in Quebec in the winter of 1998. They often talk about instability created in the grid from not being able to respond to quick changes in demand, for example, when a main power line is damaged and causes a imbalance in the rest of the grid, sending surges and power flows rippling across the network.

Anyone thought about this, or am i the only one? jtr, perhaps you and others can speak to some of this?

EDIT: Was writing this post before dd mentioned his concern regarding baseload power.

 

[Stereodude]

I suffered through the blackout in the summer of 2003.

I'm a little more prepared now, at least when it comes to flashlights.

That reminds me I had better go top off charge the SLA in my 100W spotlight.

 

[e_dawg]

A couple memories I have from the blackout (amongst others)...

- I was so damn bored without being able to use my PC, watch TV, or even read without much light. I was single at the time too, so nobody to keep me company or engage in activities with Thankfully I had some batteries and a portable radio. But you can only listen to the same news reports and talk radio over and over again before it drives you up the wall.

- I was quite hungry and thirsty with not much food in the apartment that didn't require cooking / heating and not much bottled water left. I eventually remembered that I had a bunch of frozen treats in the freezer (Oreo Ice Cream cookies), and the freezer was gradually warming up. Naturally, I had to make the sacrifice and save the Oreos, so i finished the box (3 of them left) over the next 6 hours. Let's just say that I truly paid for that transgression, and with the water pressure dropping, it wasn't like you could flush at will. It didn't help that i was lactose intolerant too (I had lactaid tablets, but they can only do so much)...

 

[Stereodude]

I still lived with my parents at the time (post college) and my Uncle and 2 cousins were visiting us at the time. It rained really hard during that so we collected several large garbage cans full of water to use for flushing water.

We filled a lot of thing with water from the faucet early on since we figured the water would stop working eventually so we didn't run out of water to drink. We barbecued some stuff over charcoal and used a propane camping stove for cooking. We started cooking and eating through the food in the freezer and fridge. I remember using a work laptop and dial up to get online a little here and there during the time since the landlines still worked.

We survived...

My house has a gas stove, so the wife and I can cook to our hearts content, but we won't have hot water very long in a similar situation. We have a gas hot water heater, but it's a high efficiency model which uses a powered fan for the exhaust, and no power = it not running.

 

[ddrueding]

My sister and brother-in-law live in the country near Ithaca. They have been trying to figure ways to power the blower in their pellet stove without electricity for years. We experimented with generators that used gravity and the exhaust heat, but that thing sucks a LOT of power.

 

[LunarMist]

Nothing much is happening, though I'm not in the city.

 

[ddrueding]

My mere chance, I wasn't using any power. I was asleep.

I suspect they would have a much higher acceptance rate if they did this during the day.

 

[timwhit]

I turned off my lights and my electric heat, but I left my computer on.

I'm on the 9th floor, so I have a pretty good view of other buildings in the city. Considering Chicago was supposed to be the flagship city in the US, it didn't seem like that many people turned their lights off. I think it would have made a much bigger difference if all the street lights were off.

 

[Fushigi]

The anticipated 5% drop in power consumption was achieved. No power plants died. Media attention was given. Overall a successful event.

 

[timwhit]

The anticipated 5% drop in power consumption was achieved. No power plants died. Media attention was given. Overall a successful event.

Was that 5% for the hour or for the day?

 

[Fushigi]

For the hour compared to the same hour the prior week. Which is what both the WWF & ComEd predicted and what ComEd observed (as reported by NBC Channel 5 in Chicago). Five percent may not seem like a lot but this was an awareness campaign and not a "let's radically cut electricity usage for an hour" event. That some people/businesses turned off devices other than lights was nice but considered secondary.

 

[Stereodude]

Not so successful... link

 

[Fushigi]

So you call a 1000 megawatt reduction - the amount reported in your link - for the period not a success? WTF would qualify? That's almost enough to power this!

Seriously, some people traded home electric consumption for gas consumption - driving to an observation point. Those folks didn't quite understand the spirit of the event.

From the article, all three graphs showed a power falloff around 20:00. Keep in mind some folks may have shut things off early & left them off all night. We shut things off just before 8PM but basically left everything off until Sunday morning.

It seems the reporter has a bad case of sour grapes. As did the commenters who, like you, saw fit to intentionally waste power during that time.

 

[Stereodude]

So you call a 1000 megawatt reduction - the amount reported in your link - for the period not a success? WTF would qualify? That's almost enough to power this!

That wasn't in the article when I posted the link (assuming you're referring to update 8 ). There were no updates then.

 

[Bozo]

Unfortunately, lighting is a very small part of overall electrical use. That is why some utilities offer discounts for electrical rates at night.

Bozo :joker:

 

[Fushigi]

Bozo - That's true. Especially in commercial settings where fluorescent lighting is already the norm. But if people start thinking about cutting power consumption, maybe it'll lead them to turning off the TV when not in use, adjusting their thermostats to reduce heating/cooling demands, and adding energy consumption to the list of desired features when purchasing new devices and appliances.

For instance, when our clothes washer broke a couple of years back we got a model similar to this one. It uses less water & electricity to wash the clothes and because of an improved spin cycle the clothes contain less water when done so drying times are also reduced. It's also quiet; a nice bonus. Energy consumption will be a factor we consider when we replace our dishwasher later this year.

I consider it not only for a reduced environmental impact but also the reduced consumption reduces my operating costs. Over the life of the appliance we should save money even if the more efficient options cost more up front.

Lest people think I'm some kind of eco-freak, well, I'm not. I look for efficiency where I can but also consume more than I need to or probably should in other areas. For instance, I do run PCs dedicated to Folding. From a strict environmental standpoint I should abandon that. However, I value the potential for improvements to the human condition so I let them continue and instead focus on efficiency improvements to my Folding systems. Quad core machines, for instance, generate more results per watt compared to the older systems. New builds will get laptop or solid state hard drives for their reduced power draw. The machines are in my basement, a naturally cool environment, so their cooling needs are more easily met and there's little or no demand on my home's HVAC. I've moved to flat panels for all PCs and will recycle my old CRTs eventually.

Its about choices and tradeoffs. When 'going green' is a no brainer, I do it (Earth Hour participation falls in this category). When two options are similar enough I will try to opt for the more enviro-friendly choice (Q9300 is now the CPU of choice v. the Q6600). But when it isn't reasonable, I'm not going to have remorse over a product that consumes more resources than I'd prefer (I'm pretty sure my next car will have a V6 instead of an I4).

For business, there's money to be made as well as saved. For CFOs, Green Is the Color of Money.

...executives are moving away from a defensive posture, based on mitigating environmental cleanup, legal, and reputational risks, and taking the offensive, said several CFOs who addressed the topic at an industry meeting...

and

In 2007, Jones Lang LaSalle saved clients an aggregate $40 million in energy costs from the programs put in place to capitalize on the greening of the real estate industry. The added green revenue, which Martin categorizes as a "growth" area, has improved the business case for sustainability programs.

 

[Howell]

(I'm pretty sure my next car will have a V6 instead of an I4).

Have you looked at the turbo 4s and turbo 5s?

I've seen a couple of Volvo C30s and they look very cool.

http://www.volvocars.com/us/models/c30/Pages/default.aspx

 

[Fushigi]

Volvo is owned by Ford. Been there, done that, ain't goin' back anytime soon. Least reliable car I've ever owned. Once I've owned, experienced, or otherwise eliminated all of the other manufacturers for the segment I'm in at purchase-time, I may reconsider. But Ford & the various Ford brands are off the table until then.

That said, I've nothing against a good turbo 4. A Lancer Evo or WRX STi would be fun.

 

[ddrueding]

The new STI seems highly practical (wagon).

 

[e_dawg]

Drove my buddy's WRX the other day and he drove my 328i. I found the WRX a blast to drive. The steering is tight and lively, the handling is surefooted, the grip impeccable. The boost is a lot of fun. The only problems being the lack of power when the rpms are low and the boost is gone, and the clutch/gas combination is difficult to modulate. The gas pedal is so non-linear, it's ridiculous. It goes from 0% to 50% throttle in the span of 1 cm. The clutch throw is very short and somewhat mushy, but it's easier to get used to than the gas pedal.

 

[Howell]

Volvo is owned by Ford. Been there, done that, ain't goin' back anytime soon. Least reliable car I've ever owned. Once I've owned, experienced, or otherwise eliminated all of the other manufacturers for the segment I'm in at purchase-time, I may reconsider. But Ford & the various Ford brands are off the table until then.

That said, I've nothing against a good turbo 4. A Lancer Evo or WRX STi would be fun.

I can understand that tack if it helps you narrow down the field; but it is a bit simplistic. Jaguar was a dog before it was purchased by Ford and Saab was decent before it was bought by GM. What do the quality rags say?

 

[Fushigi]

Frankly it doesn't matter what the rags say. Ford burned me badly & earned my disloyalty. I cannot in good faith do anything that would add to their bottom line. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I don't feel like being shamed.

I don't doubt that the various brands within FoMoCo are making far better cars than the POS I wound up with, but then so are the other manufacturers. Unless they too do something to get on my 'avoid' list, they have a much higher chance of earning my business.

 

[Howell]

Frankly it doesn't matter what the rags say. Ford burned me badly & earned my disloyalty. I cannot in good faith do anything that would add to their bottom line. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I don't feel like being shamed.

I can see your perspective.