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I have a question about Earth Hour

EMPshockwave82

EMPshockwave82

Diamond Member
Maybe it's just me and my ignorance of how the whole electrical system works but it seems to me that this could cause rolling brownouts when people start flipping the switches back to "on." What are the implications of a million people switching back on their lights all at once to the power grid? It seems to me that it would be like a stress test similar to flushing all the toilets in a new stadium at the same time.


http://seattletimes.nwsource.c...064_trearthhour22.html
Earth Hour: Power down for 60 minutes on March 28

For Earth Hour, citizens of the world will turn off their power for an hour at 8:30 p.m. on March 28, in a move against global warming.

(snip)

For 2009, so far nearly 1,200 cities ? including Chicago, Guatemala City, Vancouver, B.C., Mumbai and Bangkok ? in 80 countries have signed on. Group organizers aim for 1 billion people to flick the switch, an achievement they hope to present at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, to be held in Copenhagen this year.

Some cities and travel businesses are turning the statement into a celebration.

In Seattle, the Fairmont Olympic hotel will host a candlelit dinner in its luxury Georgian restaurant. In Melbourne, the Australian city will host a people-pedal-powered concert. In Athens, a conductor will lead a percussion circle as the Acropolis dims its lights.

Want to join in on the road? Kill the hotel-room lights and TV. Switch from plug to battery at the Internet cafe. Details: www.voteearth2009.org.

Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company
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Originally posted by: slayer202
i thought everyone was over global warming by now
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Ummm.... you don't get 'over' science.

Besides, I support dark skies, so I'd do this regardless of global warming.
 
So I don't really understand time. Time is imaginary right? Its not tangible and its something that we basically made up. I can't go out and buy time...I can't see time...what would we have done if no one ever gave a shit about time?
 
I'm not a tree hugger. I dont give a crap about the "earth hour" or whether or not it proves any points.
Serious question about the power system will react to turning everything back on.
 
All earth hour does is make simple people feel good about themselves because they think they are doing good on the environment for shutting their lights off for an hour. You need to cut demand for electricity permanently to make an impact, they are still producing the power that's not being used for that hour and since a/c can't be stored it is either sold to someone else or lost forever.
 
Earth Hour is a bunch horse crap. So is just about everything else environazis get their rocks off on.

If its trendy and sounds Green, they'll jump in with both feet.
 
Originally posted by: EMPshockwave82
Want to join in on the road? Kill the hotel-room lights and TV. Switch from plug to battery at the Internet cafe.
Click to expand...
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because that isn't at all less efficient


as for the grid, at 8:30 pm on march 28 i'd imagine almost all power is generated by baseline (coal, nuclear, hydro) stations. so i'm not even sure how much fuel would actually be saved anyway. it's not like they stop firing the coal plants for that short a period.
 
As I understand it, incandescent lights draw a very high amount of current as soon as they're switched on, before the filament heats up significantly.
And of course, fluorescent lights briefly draw a lot of power as they ionize the gas within the tube.

Maybe if you could coordinate all lights to turn on at precisely the same time, as well as start up all devices such as refrigerators, air conditioners, and/or space heaters, then you'd stand a chance of tripping some breakers here and there.


 
Stupid crap like this makes me want to make sure I got out of my way to turn on extra lights I don't need. I already did my part by switching to CFLs.
 
Originally posted by: NSFW
So I don't really understand time. Time is imaginary right? Its not tangible and its something that we basically made up. I can't go out and buy time...I can't see time...what would we have done if no one ever gave a shit about time?
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The only aspect of time that is made up is our system of measurement for it. Time itself exists and of course you can measure it. You age don't you?
 
1/100 families will shut off 1/10th of their power usage, realistically.

drop in the bucket.


Although I have heard about power stations having issues when spooling back up from a blackout, with all the loads still on... this is far different.
 
Originally posted by: nakedfrog
Originally posted by: spaceman
leave the lights on.
represent apathy.
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If you were apathetic, you wouldn't have turned the lights on in the first place.
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The switch was already on when it was installed.



Where's your god now?

 
Theoretically if everyone turns off the lights, including city street lights and what not, there will be excessive base load on the grid. Grid operators will have to ask power plants to reduce the output and reroute excesses elsewhere. At extremes, power substation automatic equipment will detect huge imbalance and could knock out the sector or generator off. Then, everyone will urn their lights on, including intarwebz to post on their blogs about how cool they are, and the peak consumption could be even greater than normal at this hour. Grid operators will be flipping out and cursing everyone and their mother, and calling power plants to increase power output. In extreme scenario, right at this moment power generator will be struggling to come up under load and will get knocked out again.

Doom and scenes of apocalypto will commence.
 
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