Earth Hour

[Waldorf]

Earth Hour is tonight and Boston is participating in the world wide event. Some of the city's landmarks will go dark for an hour beginning at 8:30. I think the Zakim Bridge, the Citgo Sign, the Custom House Tower, parts of the Rose Kennedy Greenway, and maybe the Pru are to all go 'dark'...well dim at least. It would be cool to see the city a little less bright for the hour. Don't get me wrong, I love the lights!

Oops I posted this in new development so you guys can move it to wherever is belongs.

[Ron Newman]

Will they turn off all the street lights for an hour? That would be awesome to watch.

[jass]

Last year I dont think the city did anything at all.


And no Ron, its non essential lights only.

[PaulC]

This may not be true but I had heard that it takes an hour of electricty to turn anything on.

[kennedy]

Paul, I was under the impression that Earth Hour was more to make a statement rather than to save energy, although shutting off lights in major cities throughout the world is a big energy saver, no doubt.

[Waldorf]

Originally Posted by Ron Newman

Will they turn off all the street lights for an hour? That would be awesome to watch.

Nope, just the non essential lights. Although in the Phillipines they shut off the highway lights for this event.

[Lurker]

Originally Posted by kennedy

Paul, I was under the impression that Earth Hour was more to make a statement rather than to save energy, although shutting off lights in major cities throughout the world is a big energy saver, no doubt.

Shutting off lights doesn't save any energy. The electricity is still produced and placed onto the grid. Since there is no way to store that energy, and it isn't used with all the lights shut off, it simply is exhausted as waste heat. The whole hoopla about smart grids is that power plants could dynamically scale their electricity production to not be overproducing when there isn't sufficient demand.

Earth Hour is a meaningless waste of time better spent actually doing something productive. Like building nuclear power plants, smart grid systems, wind and tidal power stations, and researching more efficient means of storing power during off peak times for later use.

But it lets people feel good about themselves for no particularly justified reason. At least it gives cause whores something to talk about an hour or so later, as their plasma TVs, blue ray players, sound systems, and every light in their homes is on and cranked to 11.

[FrankG]

Originally Posted by Lurker

Shutting off lights doesn't save any energy. The electricity is still produced and placed onto the grid. Since there is no way to store that energy, and it isn't used with all the lights shut off, it simply is exhausted as waste heat.

Just for the sake of geeking out: on the other hand, reduced stress on the distribution network might allow it to operate more efficiently for the hour. An over-capacity system might require more power generated per unit of power delivered than at at-capacity system. That is, if the power lines are normally at 110% of design capacity at 9 PM, and "Earth Hour" brings it down to 100%, there might be a net savings. No idea if this is actually the case, but I suppose it's possible.

[czsz]

Beh, even the organizers say it's just meant to increase awareness.

[underground]

Boston turning all its lights out at 8:30?

Just another sign of how provincial this town is!

[kennedy]

Originally Posted by Lurker

...Earth Hour is a meaningless waste of time better spent actually doing something productive. Like building nuclear power plants, smart grid systems, wind and tidal power stations, and researching more efficient means of storing power during off peak times for later use.

But it lets people feel good about themselves for no particularly justified reason. At least it gives cause whores something to talk about an hour or so later, as their plasma TVs, blue ray players, sound systems, and every light in their homes is on and cranked to 11.

First, can we skip the goddamn nuclear power and focus all of that research money on cold-fusion already? The one (CERN?) built is self-sufficient, and barely producing a surplus. Cold-Fusion is the future of electrical production, no doubt. Yes, we do need a smart grid.

Second, how will anyone do anything if no one knows what's going on? All those cause-whores will shut their lights off, and talk, and learn what you just said and be motivated further to take action. And since they probably have an LCD-tv, it's using far less energy than the old CRT. And when they get their smart meter, it'll be all good-especially when a cold-fusion plant generates neigh limitless energy cheaply.

Should this be moved to the General sub-forum?

[crash575]

At exactly 8:30 the citgo sign went dark. I couldn't see downtown from memorial drive but the towers on the longfellow bridge were dark.

[Justin7]

Originally Posted by PaulC

This may not be true but I had heard that it takes an hour of electricty to turn anything on.

Maybe I misunderstood your statement, but the amount of electricity used when turning on a light is equal to a fraction of a second's worth of the electricity used to leave a light running.

In other words, even if you are leaving a room for five seconds, you will save energy by turning the lights off, then turning them back on when you come back. Not to say it is worth the hassle if you will only be gone for five seconds, but for an hour? Certainly.

[statler]

Las Vagas Strip:

Before:


During:

Photos kindly hosted at Gizmodo.com

[Arch101]

The folks up in NH and Maine had several weeks of "Earth Hour" back in January. Do they get a credit?
BTW, it was observed that all the lighting at Al Gore's manse were on all evening.

[Lrfox]

I was at a hotel in the Dominican Republic for Earth Hour.... early that day they slipped papers under our doors letting us know the resort would be turning off all of the facade lighting and lights on trees (all "non-essential" lights) at 8:30-9:30. Well, we had dinner reservations at 9 and walking to the restaurant (located across the resort) noticed that they hadn't turned anything off. In fact, they had a laser light display on the side of one of the buildings during "earth hour." I asked the concierge about it and he said "oh! we must have forgotten... maybe next year."

Nothing to do with Boston, but I got a little kick out of that.

[unterbau]

Cold fusion, a hee!