[article] Boom Boom! Out go the Lights (on March 29th)

mike65

Hi ho

Two Government ministers have given their backing to an international blackout aimed at saving energy by plunging the country into darkness.

Minister for the Environment John Gormley and his junior coalition colleague Noel Ahern are supporting the Earth Hour campaign to stop the waste of power and improve efficiency.

The campaign will see lights across Ireland being turned off for an hour on Saturday, March 29 at 8pm.

The blackout began in Sydney, Australia, last year to raise awareness of the impact an individual can have on energy consumption and 22 major cities across the world have now come on board.

Dublin joined the list in January with the support of Lord Mayor Paddy Bourke and councils in Galway, Limerick, Kildare and Clare have urged local people to support it.

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Friends of the Irish Environment (FOIE) is helping to promote the mass switch-off in Ireland.

"There is a widespread belief that energy conservation is just a temporary phenomenon and that alternative sources of power will enable us to continue just as we are," FOIE director Tony Lowes said.

"In fact, the whole of society is facing an unprecedented change in the world we live in. The longer we wait, the harder - and more expensive - change is going to be."

Green Party leader John Gormley has written to a number of bodies under the authority of the Department for the Environment asking them to consider supporting this initiative.

Mr Ahern, Minister of State responsible for the Office of Public Works, has agreed to turn off the lights in all government buildings under his direct management and control.

"Through one simple action, turning off our lights for an hour, we can deliver a powerful message about the need for action," Lord Mayor Bourke said.

Terry Moseley, spokesman for the Irish Astronomical Association, welcomed the initiative to promote awareness of light pollution and reduce bad and unnecessary lighting.

8 pm saturday - well thats Winning Streak dealt a deadly blow. As for the other consquences, I hate gesture politics but star gazing willl indeed be much improved

Mike.

Del2005

I don't think they will be switching off the street lights. So star gazing still won't work unless out side a city/town.

Althought see how well the UK's energy saving day went, granted without much publicity.

The UK's first Energy Saving Day has ended with no noticeable reduction in the country's electricity usage.

E-Day asked people to switch off electrical devices they did not need over a period of 24 hours, with the National Grid monitoring consumption.

It found that electricity usage was almost exactly what would have been expected without E-Day.

Colder weather than forecast in some regions may have led to higher use of heating, masking any small savings.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7270218.stm

Húrin

Typical lite green obstructionism.

ian_m

Lights across where I live in Wicklow went out at 8pm last Friday. I asked the ESB on the Saturday what the problem was and if it was likely to happen again they told me it was due to high winds in Wicklow and power was to be restored by 1400hrs. It wasn't ideal being without power, regardless of how eco-freindly my mentality is.

If Mr John Gormely thinks its a good idea to pull the plug on the lights in March to educate people he may think again. People living in Sydney have a much greater standard of living compared to people living in Ireland. And, if I remember they turned off the lights on the north shore of Sydney briefly to highlight the amount of energy used. I'd like to add that Sydney is a mini metropolis with many skyscrapers. It looked more like a disappearance of an art exhibition rather than an education on energy consumption.

Comparisons with Sydney and Australia simply cannot be made in these circumstances. I am all for green reformation, but some things need to be given slightly more thought.

It would make more sense just to run more "turn off unnecessary lights!" campaigns.

Red Alert

Many public buildings and others such as shopping centres are unnecessiarly lit to very high levels inside and out. Maybe outdoor building uplighters should be banned as they serve no useful purpose at all.

AngryHippie

Id love to put gormley's lights out for a few hours.

And use it to sign a load of legislation !!!

ian_m

I think that might be the presidents job. I know what you mean though.

I'm not displeased with the Greens in Government so far.

WanderingJew

I shall have my house lit up like a christmas tree on at this time.

Every light will be on, all curtains opened and music blarring.

Voluntary blackouts, just wait a few years when unvoluntary blackouts are introduced for 12/15 hours a day.

NonDrinkersClub

It's only an hour - we'll live! Anything we can do is good but it's businesses that are wasting electricity, not households.

If they were really serious about saving electricity they could introduce a charge for businesses for energy consumed at night (i.e. when computers are left on overnight). I use my work comuter for 8 hrs a day and switch it off at night. That saves 16hrs of electricity per day!

mike65

Bump! This is still going ahead tomorrow.

Mike.

Orion

NonDrinkersClub wrote: »

It's only an hour - we'll live! Anything we can do is good but it's businesses that are wasting electricity, not households.

Not quite true - it's both. How many house lights are on in rooms you're not in? In most houses - plenty. It all adds up.

NonDrinkersClub wrote: »

If they were really serious about saving electricity they could introduce a charge for businesses for energy consumed at night (i.e. when computers are left on overnight). I use my work comuter for 8 hrs a day and switch it off at night. That saves 16hrs of electricity per day!

That's very true. In my job we are told in no uncertain terms that all PCs must be left ON overnight- EVERY NIGHT. For a very select few such as myself we need to leave the PCs on so that we can remote to them in the middle of the night if there's a tech fault but for 480 of the 500 staff it's completely unnecessary yet all 500 pcs are on overnight! I would fully support a wasted power charge for unnecessary night usage by businesses such as the one I work for.

mike65

What does PC on standy-by use?

Mike.

Xavi6

Lights off for me in 2 mins. See you in an hour!

Orion

mike65 wrote: »

What does PC on standy-by use?

Mike.

Depends on make and model. We use HPs which use about 20% on power saving mode. Monitors on the other hand still use about 50% iirc on standby. I always turn mine off but the vast majority are left on. One thing that really gets my goat is the way a lot of LCD TVs have no OFF button - just a standby one. Mine is like that - and my DVD player is the same. So I got a power strip with a switch and power that off every night

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.eirgrid.com/EirgridPortal/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=System%20Demand&TreeLinkModID=2314&TreeLinkItemID=57

can't find the graph but looking at the numbers shows no change in the background level

02:00      2844 	10:00      3458 	18:00      3613
02:15      2805 	10:15      3494 	18:15      3605
02:30      2756 	10:30      3535 	18:30      3622
02:45      2708 	10:45      3564 	18:45      3645
03:00      2665 	11:00      3573 	19:00      3731
03:15      2643 	11:15      3610 	19:15      3843
03:30      2626 	11:30      3617 	19:30      3905
03:45      2618 	11:45      3625 	19:45      3893
04:00      2575 	12:00      3655 	[B]20:00      3866[/B]
04:15      2564 	12:15      3647 	[B]20:15      3834[/B]
04:30      2534 	12:30      3647 	[B]20:30      3793[/B]
04:45      2524 	12:45      3641 	[B]20:45      3733[/B]
05:00      2527 	13:00      3619 	[B]21:00      3709[/B]
05:15      2522 	13:15      3613 	21:15      3661
05:30      2510 	13:30      3592 	21:30      3581
05:45      2523 	13:45      3528 	21:45      3501
06:00      2504 	14:00      3479 	22:00      3415
06:15      2508 	14:15      3460 	22:15      3346

Black Swan

Well, I had read somewhere that when New York had its last unexpected power failure, when its grid when down for awhile, roughly nine or so months later there was a short spike in New York newborns. Hummmmmm? What were those New Yorker's doing when the lights went out?;)

mike65

RTE reporting a fall of 1.5%!

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0330/environment.html

Earth Hour' in Ireland is being heralded as a success after analysis released by EirGrid shows a reduction in electricity use of about 1.5% yesterday evening.

*cough*

Mike.

Blue_Lagoon

Blue_Lagoon wrote: »

Well, I had read somewhere that when New York had its last unexpected power failure, when its grid when down for awhile, roughly nine or so months later there was a short spike in New York newborns. Hummmmmm? What were those New Yorker's doing when the lights went out?;)

I read a report once that said a TV in the bedroom will decrease the amount of sex a couple will have! Maybe its along the same vein!

Nukem

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

can't find the graph but looking at the numbers shows no change in the background level

Did a check this morn in work versus last weekend at the same time and the difference was barely noticeable looking at the graphs but checked teh tally and I get a few percent change.