Electricity use up because of Christmas lights

ian_m

rté news Monday, 17 December 2007

"The number of Christmas lights used in Ireland this year will equate to more than 4,000 transatlantic flights in CO2."

This to me is shocking. I didn't realise the festivities were put at such a high cost to the environment. I love Christmas but I hope people can be encouraged to switch other appliances off and limit the usage of the lights.

BendiBus

ian_m wrote: »

rté news Monday, 17 December 2007

"The number of Christmas lights used in Ireland this year will equate to more than 4,000 transatlantic flights in CO2."

4,000 aircraft or 4,000 seats? Seats surely - about 15 flights.

ircoha

BendiBus wrote: »

4,000 aircraft or 4,000 seats? Seats surely - about 15 flights.

Lets crunch some TOT numbers here for a bit of craic.

They say 2% extra, of what: say of 4000mW

http://www.eirgrid.com/EirgridPortal/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=Weekly%20Peak%20Demand&TreeLinkModID=1875&TreeLinkItemID=246

ie 80mW for 24hrs for 14 days = 26,880 mWh

from memory each mWh is good for 600kg of CO2

so the xmas lights are good for 16,128 tonnes of CO2

these chaps suggest either 1.2 tonnes per return flight per passenger or 3.6, I dont ken the difference
http://www.chooseclimate.org/flying/mf.html

so 16128/1.2 is 13440 passengers

or 4480 passengers and 17 flights if u go with the 3.6

so Id say bendibus is on the money here.

r3nu4l

Those numbers could be reduced further if people used LED Christmas lights instead of regular Christmas lights!

Antenna

r3nu4l wrote: »

Those numbers could be reduced further if people used LED Christmas lights instead of regular Christmas lights!

The vast bulk of that percentage would be caused by outdoor/street Christmas lights, of a brightness which LED technology cannot directly replace (as of now) in many cases. Think of the construction cranes adorned with bulbs - current LED lighting would not have sufficient brightness. Don't suggest CFLs for the cranes, if these break in the wind they release mercury, and the extra weight of CFLs would be a big issue anyway in installation.

If the power consumption of Xmas lights is such a concern, the only feasible steps as of now would be to ask people to limit the hours and switch off Christmas lights at certain times (between 5 and 7pm when electricity generation is at the least efficient?) or simply having less outdoor Christmas lights .

BTW some weeks ago there was a discussion on the Joe Duffy show about "scrooge" traders refusing to contribute to the cost of street Christmas lights, one caller to the show suggested that traders not contributing had environmental/"power-of-one" concerns

AngryHippie

How about stop putting an obscene amount of lights on their ridiculously look-alike houses. Put a light in the front window, some on the tree, and stop trying to be some kind of american. Its only advertising your tiny penis anyway imo.
Bloody wasters:mad:

blackbox

Why doesn't the Government just ban Christmas.

it should be no bother to Gormley - he wants us back in the caves anyway - mind you, we won't last long chasing the smell of dear.

jhegarty

AngryHippie wrote: »

Its only advertising your tiny penis anyway imo.

Do you really think thats why people put up Christmas lights ?

You are using a computer to post on a message board.... think of all the energy you are using... is that something about penis size as well ?

Antenna

There will also be increased demand for electricity in the run up to Christmas due to retail outlets having longer opening hours (some supermarkets going 24 hrs temporarily) - so how much of the increased demand is actually due to Xmas lights is rather debatable

r3nu4l

Antenna wrote: »

The vast bulk of that percentage would be caused by outdoor/street Christmas lights, of a brightness which LED technology cannot directly replace (as of now) in many cases.

Oh I realise that but for anyone who wants to 'do their bit' (as it were) but still wants lights of some sort on their tree, then LED is the best option for them.

Don't forget too that the cold weather in winter will mean that many houses, offices, market stalls and shops will also be running electric heaters too. It's not all lights.

Latchy

Somthing we have to think about ,extra lights means extra electricity ,throw in the extra bedroom tv's lap-top and other electric necessitys ,it all adds up .

Try telling that to a teen /11 year old .They look at you like some werdio :eek:when you try to explain the extra expenditure at christmas time.

my home lights are only going on in the evening now ,my name ?

Scrooge .........Ebenezer Scrooge

Conor108

blackbox wrote: »

Why doesn't the Government just ban Christmas.

Or Winter? Lets just go straight to Spring:D

probe

ircoha wrote: »

Lets crunch some TOT numbers here for a bit of craic.

They say 2% extra, of what: say of 4000mW

http://www.eirgrid.com/EirgridPortal/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=Weekly%20Peak%20Demand&TreeLinkModID=1875&TreeLinkItemID=246

ie 80mW for 24hrs for 14 days = 26,880 mWh

from memory each mWh is good for 600kg of CO2

so the xmas lights are good for 16,128 tonnes of CO2

these chaps suggest either 1.2 tonnes per return flight per passenger or 3.6, I dont ken the difference
http://www.chooseclimate.org/flying/mf.html

so 16128/1.2 is 13440 passengers

or 4480 passengers and 17 flights if u go with the 3.6

so Id say bendibus is on the money here.

SI symbols:

MW = megawatt
mW= milliwatt

While one doesn’t want to be a pedant, one doesn’t want this boards.ie topic to be lowering itself to the level of the gutter press like “The Economist” and one or two Irish newspapers – who completely confuse and mislead their readers by getting the case of SI symbols incorrect. Claiming “house style” to cover their mistakes. mW = one thousandth of a watt; MW = one million watts. A material difference, resting on whether it is upper or lower case.

www.bipm.org

.probe