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Earth Hour Tonight

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agro

Joined
20 December 2007
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I might as well contribute my bit to the earth and my own savings in electricity


anyone else participating?
 
I did even better: turned all that stuff off for about 8 hours between midnight and 8am.

GP
 
Heard a chap from the VIC electricity generating mob this morning, warning that when everything gets switched back on tonight at the same times, there is the possibility of blackouts occuring due to temporary overload.

Also that they will have to try and "soak up" the sudden drop in generation demand (do they have big resistance loads?) to try and decrease the expected load fluctuations. So maybe the hoped for reduction in generation emissions might not be so great?

Good topic for Smurf to comment on!


AJ
 

never really thought about that but who says everything will be switched on all at 9pm?

never the less, would b interesting to c the number of babies born comes months after this ocassion
 
couple of funny comments on ABC ...
There's a footy match in Goulburn or somewhere - the options include
a) dim the lights only, or
b) have them all running around with battery powered miner's helmets
 
Reading somewhere that last year Sydneysiders managed to cut electricity consumption in the hour by 10.2%. Fair effort that. I expect a bigger reduction this year. I won't be home at 8pm tonight, but I will switch everything off before I go out.

Someone also said to look at the skyline at 8pm and you should notice a marked difference.

I know here in Melb Fed Square will be switching off lights, parliament house is another and the harbour bridge in Syd.
 

yes which was equivalent to the yearly pollution output of 50,000 cars

i am no greenie but with the funny weather of late i think every bit counts
 
I won't be doing anything any differently. Even the organisers have conceded it is a symbolic event.
 
Yes there is some possibility of blackouts if there is a sudden large increase in load at 9pm. Other than hydro and gas turbines (not gas-fired steam turbines) the power stations can't ramp up too quickly in response to a very sudden increase in load.

As for the "soak up" bit, what they mean is one of two things:

1. Boilers have a minimum fuel throughput below which they can not reliably operate. This varies but is 20 - 65% of maximum rating depending on the boiler design and fuel being used. If you need to run generation below that level then you just keep burning fuel and let the excess steam out (ie total waste of the fuel).

Hydro turbines can run anywhere from 0 to 100% load without technical problems BUT they do lose efficiency at either low or very high load. For most schemes, peak efficiency is at 60 to 90% of full load. Running at low efficiency reduces total annual output since the water volume is limited - coal or gas plants will thus run more to make up for this loss.

2. Some loads are able to be switched on in order to keep demand up. Remote switched off-peak hot water in Qld and NSW and water pumping in various locations are most of that load.

That said, I'd be surprised if total load fell more than 1% at the most which can be easily accommodated.

...

I will post some figures for total load in Qld, NSW/ACT, Vic, Tas and SA so you can see for yourself if it had any impact. Times will be 19:30, 20:30 and 21:30 local time. Earth Hour runs 20:00 - 21:00.

I will also post figures from 2 weeks earlier (not using last week as it was easter which has a significant impact on load) so you can see the normal variation in power demand between those times on a Saturday night.
 
I'm guessing that it's sure to be only a symbolic gesture
- heck the kids will have such fun lighting candles they'll probably more than compensate in a negative sense
- having said that, the message will hopefully get into their little heads that energy comes at a price
- or reinforce that concept if it's not already there
- and they'll take that with em through to adulthood
- and that surely can't be a bad thing

PS I suspect kids get a fair bit of this sort of grilling at school these days anyways.
 
It will be interesting to see who posts on ASF during that time.
 
smurf said:
I will post some figures for total load in Qld, NSW/ACT, Vic, Tas and SA so you can see for yourself if it had any impact. Times will be 19:30, 20:30 and 21:30 local time. Earth Hour runs 20:00 - 21:00.
Click to expand...
thanks smurf
I was gonna ask how you'd check the 20:30 value without turning on your computer - in line with wysiwyg's post.
btw (off topic) but how do you check the level of Eucumbine btw. ? thanks in advance.

Wysiwyg said:
It will be interesting to see who posts on ASF during that time.
Click to expand...
heck wys, you never know, Joe might nail his green credentials to the mast and close down the site for an hour
 
2020hindsight said:
heck wys, you never know, Joe might nail his green credentials to the mast and close down the site for an hour
Click to expand...
then again, given the number of Kiwis round here, from 8pm Auckland to 9pm Perth is 5 hours I guess. (or 3 hours Syd - Perth)
 
:iagree:

Yeh, I will participate. I have the beeswax candle ready.

I think it is more than symbolic as it gets people thinking about how they use electricity each day.

Has spread quickly and this year many countries are participating after starting in Sydney last year.




A great Aussie idea similar to Clean Up day which has spread worldwide.


:walker:
 
I'm a little concerned that all you big city people will become disorientated in the dark.

What with seeing the night sky for possibly the first time and then maybe knockover some candles.

You might inadvertently set fire to your houses or units.

Maybe you should have a dry run and just close your eyes for 60 minutes and stay awake during the experience, then if things get out of hand you can open your eyes.

But then living in a big city you may not want to open your eyes.

Better to turn the lights off.

I will be watching TV and leaving my lights on.

gg
 
beeswax - gee whiz mm - you da boss

The missus says she's either
a) watching , or
b) videoing
the swimming and that's that! - and taking the hour "later" -
(maybe to coincide with London ? - just a jest )

So I've conceded, you might as well watch then - because to video it (record) then playback is probably twice (or three times) the energy.

PS maybe the TV channels should close down
 
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