Plan to go for a walk outside (or any other activity that doesn't require the lights to be on) on Saturday at 8pm Central. Earth hour is a simple way you can conserve even a tiny bit of energy. Turn off your lights. Turn off the TV. Turn off your computer. Maybe you can even turn down your electric furnace for the hour.
Find out more at EarthHourUS.org.
2 comments:
I've seen this campaign promoted in email chains and Facebook groups before.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this campaign will not conserve a single kilowatt-hour . . . electricity generation does not change minute-to-minute. (You turning on a light does not instantaneously cause some additional marginal amount of coal to be fed into the generator.) Power utilities must generate electricity for the maximum demand, based on forecasts. Even if EVERYONE in the United States were to turn out the lights for the same hour, coal would still be burned and nuclear power plants would still run . . . from an energy/environmental standpoint, nothing would be saved.
Second, if a significant number of people do this, utilities might actually have to forecast (and generate) more power to accommodate the spike that occurs when people start turning their lights back on. While this may seem counter-intuitive, hear me out . . . We know that most materials become more resistive as they heat up and that household voltage is constant. So, let's take the case of your simple lightbulb and Ohm's law. V=IR. In this case, voltage is constant and R grows with time, so I must start very large (and shrinks with time). P=IV. Once again, voltage is constant, so the power consumed starts out very large. All that is to say that, if you have a lot of people turning their lights back on at the same time, this could cause a significant spike in power required and demand for electricity would spike.
At best, this campaign is a symbolic statement . . . at worst, it will have the effect of causing utilities to generate MORE power (causing more pollution, etc, etc.) for one evening.
Instead of shutting off your lights for an hour to make a statement, why not make a point to shut off lights when you're not using them ALL the time . . .or get some compact fluorescent light bulbs . . . or improve your home to be more energy efficient?
Aaron, thanks for the response.
Yes, I agree with you, generated electricity is generated, whether you use it or not. We can't just make a pile of the extra electricity that we save by turning off the light and use it later. The grid doesn't have that level of storage capability.
You mention that at best, this is symbolic. That's exactly what it is. However, it could have lingering effects. As they say, "you gotta be in it to win it". Getting people to conserve for an hour is the start. You need an event to get through to many folks. Maybe they have a good time doing whatever they do without using electricity. Maybe they begin doing that more and more and the overall energy need trends down.
I also had these items in the original post but then cut them for flow. Take this hour to conserve elsewhere. Go clean out your car so you are carrying around less weight. Inflate your tires to the proper amount. Clean/replace your furnace filter. Do some pushups and put on long sleeves to be a little warmer. Talk to a friend about how to conserve energy. Maybe you can carpool once a month.
Post a Comment