Thread: Earth Hour

A good cause?

Well from a technical perspective its a total waste of time. The power stations are still burning coal to meet demand as they have no means of storing the electricity.

Does it make people feel good? Probably.
Do some companies, building owners, etc get to bask in the glory of being environmentally sensitive? Yes.
Is it good advertising for the plight of the planet? Yes, it serves the purpose of raising awareness, etc.

So yes, I think its a good cause from an advertising sense. But it does nothing to save the planet in the short term.

IMHO of course

I'm in total agreement with WhiteD3.
I personally view it more as a token thing, a PR exercise really that has no practical basis other than drawing people's attention to the need for change in some areas and making them more aware if they wish to pursue the issue of more information etc.

Of course the more cynical amongst us will say that for those very reasons it is a waste of time.

Earth hour allows non-mathematical people to feel they are "doing their bit". Every hour is earth hour at my place, I have all the trendy light bulbs and don't leave them on needlessly. If the state's power use drop was revealed as a percentage of daily use instead of some eqivalent number of toasters or somesuch rubbish, then people would see that it is just a gesture. A nice gesture I'm sure, but who will go out for a cruise in their car to have a look at the lack of lights? Business as usual for me!

not only are they going to still be making power the excess that we dont use will simply be dumped into dummy load for the hour. so I figure we might as well use it for something productive rather than just senseless heat generation....

If they want to REALLY do something about it then how about offsetting production hours for heavy use industry and having all the malls time share the airconditioning that way the total use over a 24 hour period is the same BUT its at a constant lower level.

A greenie wankfest.

I'll make sure I turn on very light in my house.

Originally Posted by p38arover

A greenie wankfest.

I'll make sure I turn on very light in my house.

So how's that different to every other night then..

the message is god but the idea is wrong the power stations go from a certain demand to say half of that so the supply is not there but then after that hour is up they get a massive overload and struggle to keep up with it,because they have to burn so much coal to get it up to speed,earth hour actually causes more green house gases then normal.so instead of earth hour it should be called "kill earth hour"
and so many people think by just doing this that we will be saved from global warming.hmmmmmm i wonder what sort of replies i will get

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

not only are they going to still be making power the excess that we dont use will simply be dumped into dummy load for the hour. so I figure we might as well use it for something productive rather than just senseless heat generation....

If they want to REALLY do something about it then how about offsetting production hours for heavy use industry and having all the malls time share the airconditioning that way the total use over a 24 hour period is the same BUT its at a constant lower level.

Dummy loads? care to share?

Having worked heavily in the power industry, production industry and power distribution industy, I've never come across a dummy load