[NeObliviscaris]

So its earth hour here, all my lights are off, but my laptop is on, w000!

 

[krmathis]

I'll join in.
Just have to wait another 9 hours, 20 minutes

 

[TheMarchingMule]

Here's to those who don't know what this is about:

Earth Hour - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Earth Hour is an international event that asks households and businesses to turn off their lights and non-essential electrical appliances for one hour on the evening of 29 March at 8 pm local time until 9 pm to promote electricity conservation and thus lower carbon emissions."

 

[Apocalypsee]

I never heard of this before. And Malaysia in not even in the lists! Damn 3rd world mentality

I will shut all my stuff down at 8pm sharp to join this community.

I watch 'Six Degrees Could Change The World' on Discovery last night, it give me goosebumps, I don't want any of that to happen. Furthermore I downclock my PC to reduce power consumption and even lowering voltages (I was an avid overclocker before)

 

[setmenu]

I have been listening to the audio files from the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change :

2008 International Conference on Climate Change * New York City * March 2-4, 2008

Very interesting....






.

 

[jmmtn4aj]

Damn, I had planned to go down to the central business district to see how many companies signed on. A little too late now though =\

 

[fordgtlover]

I heard a comment recently that because power companies can't create power on demand as such, any unused power during these types of initiatives is sent to ground; effectively dumping it. Any idea if this is true?

 

[NiceCans]

A noble effort which hopefully will raise the consciousness level of people about energy.

Unfortunately based on past performance in these type of endeavors I find it unlikely to have any significant impact upon energy usage or consciousness levels. In a few days this too will have been forgotten. Sad.




edit - sorry to be a downer, but my faith in humanity is not what it once was.

 

[BetaLyr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NiceCans /img/forum/go_quote.gif A noble effort which hopefully will raise the consciousness level of people about energy. Unfortunately based on past performance in these type of endeavors I find it unlikely to have any significant impact upon energy usage or consciousness levels. In a few days this too will have been forgotten. Sad.

Quoting from the New York Facebook event:
"On 31 March 2007, 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour - Earth Hour. This massive collective effort reduced Sydney's energy consumption by 10.2% for one hour, which is the equivalent effect of taking 48,000 cars off the road for one hour."

Google even turned their page black for today! Just like blackle.com. Now, if only they could keep it that way forever..

I joined this event on Facebook. It's sad that there are only 555 confirmed guests at this point, and that over 1,000 people declined

Eleven more hours..

 

[tom hankins]

I'm in.
If For no other reason, only good things can come from my wife and I sitting in the dark together.

 

[jmmtn4aj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fordgtlover /img/forum/go_quote.gif I heard a comment recently that because power companies can't create power on demand as such, any unused power during these types of initiatives is sent to ground; effectively dumping it. Any idea if this is true?

When electrical demand on the grid is low, the generators need less fuel to spin at a given frequency because there is less opposing force due to magnetism in the coil. When demand is higher, there is more opposing force in the coil, so the generator needs more fuel to spin at the same number of rotations per second. This is physics, search AC generator..

In an ideal environment when there is zero draw from the coils, i.e circuit is broken, the generator should be able to keep spinning indefinitely even without any fuel being burned. Of course in the real world friction prevents this from happening..

 

[FrederikS|TPU]

This kind of nativity is what keeps the climate debate from reaching any real goals. If only people would realize that these small things do not get us anywhere and spend more time on coming up with real ideas on how to minimize the worlds carbon emissions.

For example: all the Americans could get smaller fuel economic cars, Europe could rearrange its investments so that we get a bigger carbon reduction per dollar (instead of spending it all on windmills), All the governments of the world could unite and make a greater effort to explore the true capabilities of nuclear power and fusion technology.

I am not saying it is a bad initiative, I am merely stating that the we should focus on getting real results instead of just statement acts like this. No thread crapping intended.

 

[jmmtn4aj]

Nuclear power produces a lot of waste too, in the form of spent fuel rods. IMO I think the only real viable alternative energy source is fuel derived from bio sources, ethanol and methane (from decomposition) for example. These sources work on an energy cycle, energy is used to grow sugarcane or corn, plants are used to produce ethanol, whatever's left is put back into the ground, ethanol burned to produce co2 and water. New plants are planted, absorbing the water and co2, and drawing nutrients from the byproducts of plant ethanol production dumped back into the ground. The cycle then repeats. The only problem with ethanol right now is efficiency and yield. Takes too much energy to produced ethanol, IIRC enough to be self sustaining, but not enough to produce enough ethanol to justify the huge amount of land that would be used in a large plant-ethanol field. Also, you get less power combusting ethanol than petroleum, petroleum being a much more concentrated source of energy.

Methane would work in the same way. Grass -> cow -> cow turd -> decomposition -> methane -> combustion -> co2 -> co2 + what's left of cow turd after decomp reabsorbed by new grass -> cycle repeats.

The problem with nuclear and fossil fuel is they all use concentrated energy buried deep beneath the earth that takes a long time to occur naturally. At least with biofuel you can plant more fields to maintain an equilibrium, while you can't compress and heat dead animals and plant matter to turn into crude oil. The problem with wind farms and dams is that wind farms tend to screw up the landscape, and there are very few spots in the world where wind is strong enough to justify it. Much more land is available to corn or sugarcane with the requirements that the place not be too cold, the soil not that dry, and sunlight. Plus you can export ethanol or methane in tankers, you can't do that for electricity that the wind farms would generate, so you'd need really huge cables running to the countries where wind farms aren't viable. Dams.. well, there just aren't enough rivers and valleys to block and flood.

 

[NacMacFeegle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tom hankins /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm in. If For no other reason, only good things can come from my wife and I sitting in the dark together.

Oh that is surely worth a x2!!!!!

Now I just have to find a way to farm out the kids for the night.....

 

[FrederikS|TPU]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NacMacFeegle /img/forum/go_quote.gif Oh that is surely worth a x2!!!!! Now I just have to find a way to farm out the kids for the night.....

Haha somebody is already getting some results out the "Earth Hour"