Turn it off: Buildings in Dublin that waste energy

j_cal

Hi,

I'm currently working on a short film project called "Turn It off"
which details the adventures of a number of “light creatures”. The
underlying message of the piece is an ecological one: the creatures
are unhappy with the amount of energy being wasted in Dublin and set
out to make themselves heard.

More information about the project is here: http://turnitoffproject.wordpress.com/about/

We are currently drawing up a list of buildings in Dublin city centre
that waste energy by leaving their lights on overnight.

If you have noticed any let us know, take a photo if you can and email
it to turnitoffproject@gmail.com. We will then put the photo on our
blog...

Thanks!

Tefral

id start at east wall and the ifsc f i were you... loads of buildings around there with the lights on

10-10-20

What about buildings and companies which have green policies? Will you show the opposite side of the debate?
Our place recently centralised the 24x7 teams in a location which suits turning the building AC & lights off at night, leaving these guys unaffected.
We also have a piece of software installed to power down desktops after 8pm.

j_cal

10-10-20 wrote: »

What about buildings and companies which have green policies? Will you show the opposite side of the debate?
Our place recently centralised the 24x7 teams in a location which suits turning the building AC & lights off at night, leaving these guys unaffected.
We also have a piece of software installed to power down desktops after 8pm.

Hi, yes we fully intend to show both sides of the debate.

That is very interesting about your firm's strategy, it is to be applauded...

homer911

10-10-20 wrote: »

What about buildings and companies which have green policies? Will you show the opposite side of the debate?
Our place recently centralised the 24x7 teams in a location which suits turning the building AC & lights off at night, leaving these guys unaffected.
We also have a piece of software installed to power down desktops after 8pm.

Can you tell us what the software is (PM me if preferred). This is something that really bugs me in work - we have to leave our PCs turned on all night for software updates!

homer911

How about starting a "Name and Shame" thread for companies with poor Green polices? Equally we could have a "Green Awards" thread to highlight the good things organisations are doing. Even in these tough times, companies are starting to take CSR very seriously

lostexpectation

some of these companies have problably boast on their website aabout being energy efficient or signed up to some schmee you should chek that out to live if they are living up to their greenwash.

10-10-20

The software is called nightwatchman.
http://www.1e.com/softwareproducts/nightwatchman/index.aspx

Leaving PC's on at night for software updates is a poor excuse.
It's lazy-man's management.
Most new update and management packages allow updates to be postponed for a period of time to allow the user to save/complete work.

shaywest

how about this i have to laugh .
ballyogan recycling center leave their floodlights on allnight long i've counted about about 50 floodlights !

Pgibson

j_cal wrote: »

Hi,

I'm currently working on a short film project called "Turn It off"
which details the adventures of a number of “light creatures”. The
underlying message of the piece is an ecological one: the creatures
are unhappy with the amount of energy being wasted in Dublin and set
out to make themselves heard.!

The tackiest and most tasteless building built anywhere in Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall is being built here in Dublin.

The new Eircom Headquarters will be needlessly lit up in milti-coloured lights all night long.

The colours will change every few minutes just to prove that the tackiness and tastelessness of 1960's Dublin is still alive and well.

(It's "OK" they say because "the bulbs are CFL". God help us.)

Judge for yourself:

http://www.archiseek.com/content/showthread.php?t=7061

.

Alun

Pgibson wrote: »

(It's "OK" they say because "the bulbs are CFL". God help us.)

Unlikely I'd say .. more likely to be LEDs I reckon than CFLs, and therefore lower power consumption. Anyway, despite it possibly not being green, I actually think it looks OK and not at all tacky. Different strokes etc.

Pgibson

Alun wrote: »

Therefore lower power consumption. .

Lower than what?

If the light is not necessary it should be switched off.

(No doubt Eircom want the rats who crawl out of the Liffey at 4am to admire their tacky circus display.)

Nice map of bad lighting,and idiotically wasted energy, here:

http://www.ilpac.eu/


.

j_cal

Check out the new Eircom HQ

homer911

10-10-20 wrote: »

The software is called nightwatchman.
http://www.1e.com/softwareproducts/nightwatchman/index.aspx

Leaving PC's on at night for software updates is a poor excuse.
It's lazy-man's management.
Most new update and management packages allow updates to be postponed for a period of time to allow the user to save/complete work.

Thanks - Our IT department are currently evaluating this software with a view to rolling it out across our entire European platform..

probe

Why limit the focus on leaving lights on at night? On the continent, lights in buildings are switched off in public areas and elsewhere - when a room is not being used - day or night.

examples:

in public toilets people switch the light off when leaving - in more modern toilets they switch off automatically

in corridors in apartment buildings, offices, hotels and similar, most of the lights automatically switch off when motion sensors don't detect the presence of individuals. A few low wattage lamps may remain on to ensure that you don't have total darkness when someone opens a door leading to a darkened corridor.

Escalators and travellators switch off or go into energy saving mode when nobody is standing on them. In Ireland 99% of escalators and travellators needlessly and wastefully keep running all the time. These machines consume large quantities of electricity. The only exception I have come across is the escalators in Cork Airport - where the toilet lights also switch off automatically.

Most hotels force guests to use the elevators by not providing a regular staircase. The only staircases that exist are often behind fire doors with "emergency use only" notices, and are often basic ugly concrete shells, dank and smelling. It is much healthier for people to use the stairs - particularly if they are only travelling up or down a few floors - and it saves energy.

Alun

Pgibson wrote: »

Lower than what?

LED's would have (much) lower power consumption than CFL's, OK? Pretty obvious.

lostexpectation

remeber in earth hour how the custom house was still lit up although most of flood lights were turned off.

Cill25

sounds like good project, interested to hear how the solar powered studio works,

i'm working on initiative (www.culgreen.ie) to make Croke Park carbon neutral, a total of 2.2 million people attended Croke Park last year so quite a footprint,

since launch of Cúl Green in May 2008 there have been various changes at the stadium – switched to a “green electricity” tariff meaning its electricity now comes from a 100% renewable source (wind) which has immediately cut its annual carbon emissions by two thirds, a Park & Ride scheme was introduced with several GAA clubs, recycling initiatives have been developed at the stadium wind monitoring equipment installed at the stadium to help them decide if wind energy from stadium is a realistic option for Croke Park given the wind energy generation technologies currently available.

still long way to go but good intentions and decent progress so far,

Capt'n Midnight

10-10-20 wrote: »

The software is called nightwatchman.
http://www.1e.com/softwareproducts/nightwatchman/index.aspx

Leaving PC's on at night for software updates is a poor excuse.
It's lazy-man's management.
Most new update and management packages allow updates to be postponed for a period of time to allow the user to save/complete work.

why do you need to buy software when the option to put PC's in low power / hibernate / suspend has built into windows and other OS's since the 90's ?

while you could simply remote shutdown PC's at night, if they are set to sleep after 20 mins they will already be asleep

also most PC's have an option to wake up in the morning so to be ready for end users so no delay.

WoL means you can schedule PC's to boot up for updates at night and then power down.

/RANT

I've looked at ecobutton and it is a poor replacement for a keyboard with a sleep button as well as only working when the user is logged in, so I don't trust a lot of eco software which is snake oil.


PS. don't forget you have to factor in the extra heat you use when the PC's aren't on so long, but you might save on cooling in summer.

what we need IMHO are decent master/slave sockets, so when the PC powers down in the master socket all the peripherals in the slave sockets also power down

donaghs

Was waiting for last DART on Saturday night at 11.35pm and the Ulster Bank Centre had lights on in about a fifth of the offices. Other people on the platform were talking about it.

Leaving PCs on overnight is is lazy, or not very well thought out. There's always a way around this. If they're Windows, they will patch themselves automatically/silently during the day with "Windows Updates". If you want more control over the patching, you can pay for SMS/SCCM. You can also use scripting to silently roll-out updates.

kippy

10-10-20 wrote: »

The software is called nightwatchman.
http://www.1e.com/softwareproducts/nightwatchman/index.aspx

Leaving PC's on at night for software updates is a poor excuse.
It's lazy-man's management.
Most new update and management packages allow updates to be postponed for a period of time to allow the user to save/complete work.

This annoys me somewhat (not you but the need for software to do this)
Updates can and are usually delayed till when the user switches on the PC however the user generally moans and gripes that they take ages to get into their work in the morning because of this-sorry this is an aside.
My main problem is the need and overcomplication of doing a relatively simple thing.
There SHOULD be no need for software to automaticilly turn off PC's. The software is already there as part of the operating system (the ShutDown button) Either existing freesoftware should be used for power saving or users should be trained or given some lessons on how to switch their PC off before they go home.
I really cant understand companies that pay money to get this software when they should be more proactive in getting their employees to switch off the power on the PCs when they dont need them.
Kippy


Sorry, just to make my post a bit relevant to the thread, there are many places in the IFSC which leaves the lights on all night.

syklops

It hasn't occurred to any of you that the reason the IFSC and Ulster Bank leave their lights on are for security reasons? If you were going to leave the financial backbone of the country shrouded in darkness, you would need a small army to guard it.

Which is more cost effective?

kippy

syklops wrote: »

It hasn't occurred to any of you that the reason the IFSC and Ulster Bank leave their lights on are for security reasons? If you were going to leave the financial backbone of the country shrouded in darkness, you would need a small army to guard it.

Which is more cost effective?

There is feck all "cash" (physical) money in these places. They use security as well.

robtri

kippy wrote: »

There is feck all "cash" (physical) money in these places. They use security as well.

there may be "feck all cash" in these places, but to some people there is a lot more "interesting" items... places like these need the lights on for security... so get over it...

kippy

robtri wrote: »

there may be "feck all cash" in these places, but to some people there is a lot more "interesting" items... places like these need the lights on for security... so get over it...

I wont actually "get over it".
What interesting items are you talking about? PC hardware, TV's etc? The same equipment as you'd find in any office.
They do have alarms fitted and sensor lighting (which comes on when someone enters the room and goes off if there is no one in the room for a set period) that could and should be used by companies which are serious about the environment and their security.

I worked in a section of Commerzbank House in the IFSC for 18 months or so for a bank (surprisingly despite major mortgage deals of €400 million+ per week there was never any cash on the premises ). The particuliar company I worked for had sensor lights in the building. No movement and the lights went off, automatically came on when there was.

Amalgam

Commercial premises count? The travel place beside Waterstones on Dawson Street, Dublin. Annoys the hell out of me, entire ceiling area lit at night. They have a green logo.

syklops

kippy wrote: »

I wont actually "get over it".
What interesting items are you talking about? PC hardware, TV's etc? The same equipment as you'd find in any office.
They do have alarms fitted and sensor lighting (which comes on when someone enters the room and goes off if there is no one in the room for a set period) that could and should be used by companies which are serious about the environment and their security.

I worked in a section of Commerzbank House in the IFSC for 18 months or so for a bank (surprisingly despite major mortgage deals of €400 million+ per week there was never any cash on the premises ). The particuliar company I worked for had sensor lights in the building. No movement and the lights went off, automatically came on when there was.

The physical PC's are worth penny's compared to the money you could make(or take) if you had access to the IFSC.

A small motivated group could steal enough money to buy munster, given the chance. The current security measures in the IFSC are subtle, don't get into a huff over the energy they spend on lighting.

robtri

kippy wrote: »

I wont actually "get over it".
What interesting items are you talking about? PC hardware, TV's etc? The same equipment as you'd find in any office.
They do have alarms fitted and sensor lighting (which comes on when someone enters the room and goes off if there is no one in the room for a set period) that could and should be used by companies which are serious about the environment and their security.

I worked in a section of Commerzbank House in the IFSC for 18 months or so for a bank (surprisingly despite major mortgage deals of €400 million+ per week there was never any cash on the premises ). The particuliar company I worked for had sensor lights in the building. No movement and the lights went off, automatically came on when there was.

well if worked if the IFSC, you should know what would be valuable in that place!!!
like skylops said if you had access to the system you could make a whole lot of money....
for buildings like this I don't see too much an issue with light for security...

kippy

robtri wrote: »

well if worked if the IFSC, you should know what would be valuable in that place!!!
like skylops said if you had access to the system you could make a whole lot of money....
for buildings like this I don't see too much an issue with light for security...

So what exactly is valuable in the IFSC that can be protected by leaving the lights on?
I think you've been watching far too many movies. Even if you had physical access to PC's and physical paper files can you outline how you would make yourself a whole lot of money and get away with it?

(As I said, even if lights were required in a building sensors are the best and most efficient way of actually using them)
Information security was a serious part of SOX compliance where I was. Let me tell you, leaving lights on to secure the building was never a factor......and ever if it were the sensor lights were more than adequate.

CtrlSource

Does this just apply to commercial premises and interior lighting, or are you including architectural floodlighting?

i think there is justification (civic) for lighting certain signature buildings to highlight their architectural merit etc, but this should be all low energy LEDs with minimal use of halogen floods. Also they should be switched off from midnight.

Can't understand empty offices being lit all night, even for security reasons (torches anyone? )

donaghs

robtri wrote: »

there may be "feck all cash" in these places, but to some people there is a lot more "interesting" items... places like these need the lights on for security... so get over it...

Not so sure about that. Especially random lights in random places on 5th and 7th floors. I worked in a large financial services company and lights were never left on. The security guard even did a walk around at night and turned off the lights. Emails occasionally advised people to switch off PCs and lights when they left the office for money saving or "green" reasons. They only got left on if someone was working late and forgot to turn them off. More recently motion sensitive lights were installed.