Earth Hour -- are you doing it?

I'll be babysitting then, so probably not (how would I convince the kids?).

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Sozlet's looking forward to it. There was some angst about missing the Kid's Choice Awards (Nickelodeon, she voted and everything), but then I saw that it's about turning the lights off, not all electricity. I thought she'd be happy about the loophole but no, she prefers to just have everything off and hang out by candlelight. (She's always kind of liked power outages, tho...)

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If they were my kids we'd do it. We'll see how they react. If I can have a movie on, I think they'd go for it.

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8pm is a bit early. I'll turn mine off at 11pm and leave them off for a full 8 hours to make up for it. Wink

lol This is the first I've heard of anyone in the U.S. doing it. It's been in this morning's news about the Aussie's playing along.

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Google (UK) is doing it all day long. Well, I noticed it more than 12 hours ago) ...

... and thought for quite some time that something was wrong with my computer, internet, virus ...

Quote:

Google users in the United Kingdom will notice today that we "turned the lights out" on the Google.co.uk homepage as a gesture to raise awareness of a worldwide energy conservation effort called Earth Hour. As to why we don't do this permanently - it saves no energy; modern displays use the same amount of power regardless of what they display. However, you can do something to reduce the energy consumption of your home PC by joining the Climate Savers Computing Initiative.

On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Earth Hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour - from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in their local time zone. On this day, cities around the world, including Copenhagen, Chicago, Melbourne, Dubai, and Tel Aviv, will hold events to acknowledge their commitment to energy conservation.

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we've been "greenies" - at least the way we see it - ever since we came to canada - and before : small car , small house , control the temperature ... ...
the one hour "lights out" isn't more than a gimmick imo .

read an editorial in PC magazine . the writer said that he lives somewhere in hills above san francisce (or los angeles) . he said when he looks out over the city at night , the sky is just ablaze in light (for no good reason iho) . needless to say , he thinks the one hour "lights out" is a sham .

i wonder if people would go along willingly with some REAL drastic energy saving measures - such as ... ... (you can fill in the details) ; there would be loud howls in the dark imo .
hbg

btw pretty well all our lights are the energy saving type and have been for many years - we didn't need a reminder .

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It's a huge thing here in Toronto.

They're even doing something at the Air Canada Centre. Huge.

There are special sections in all of the papers. I think you'd be a bit embarrassed if you had to say you weren't part of the event. It's a BIG deal here.

The building management for the building I work in has made announcements about their permanent commitment to reduced lighting etc.

Quote:

From just one city - Sydney, Australia - last year it has mushroomed to more than 300 communities around the globe. Canada has leapt in with enthusiasm, with at least 150 taking part. And Ontario leads the provinces, with about 80.

That total puts Ontario ahead of all of Australia, where Sydney and about 70 other cities and towns are involved. No other nation comes close to that level of participation.

Across Canada, more than 4,000 businesses and organizations, large and small, say they'll support Earth Hour. The 1,030 in Toronto include major buildings like the CN Tower and Air Canada Centre, as well as companies that own most downtown highrises.

Many local firms are taking advantage of the Earth Hour buzz to announce plans for long-term cuts in their resource and energy use.

In the GTA, more than 32,000 people have registered on the Earth Hour website.

Earth Hour has grown so big, so fast, that organizers with the World Wildlife Fund report with considerable awe and joy that they've lost control of the event they devised in 2005 as a way to get climate change on Australia's political agenda.

Plenty of officialdom has become involved, as have global corporate heavyweights like McDonald's, Molson Coors and Wal-Mart.

http://www.thestar.com/SpecialSections/EarthHour/article/407094

Guide to local Earth Hour events

http://www.thestar.com/SpecialSections/EarthHour/article/350707

this one made me grin (as much as I hate SB)

Quote:

Starbucks at Yonge St. & Brookdale, north of Lawrence Ave., invites customers to enjoy their beverages by candlelight. They'll also be having guided coffee tastings by the fireplace. Mar. 29 at 8 p.m.

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Personally, I think that the whole idea is silly, but if it makes a person feel better about themselves, so be it!

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sozobe wrote:

Sozlet's looking forward to it. There was some angst about missing the Kid's Choice Awards (Nickelodeon, she voted and everything), but then I saw that it's about turning the lights off, not all electricity. I thought she'd be happy about the loophole but no, she prefers to just have everything off and hang out by candlelight. (She's always kind of liked power outages, tho...)

That's what my daughter said immediately: "What about the Kid's Choice
Awards"???

We'll definitely turn off all lights and we'll see about the TV then.

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watched TV-ONTARIO last night . BIG SHOW about lights out - so they had several dozen candles burning about the room Crying or Very sad

nobody ever asked the question about the energy required to make and transport those candles AND the amount of pollution the candles give off !

great if you want to burn ONE candle - but several dozen ?

i learned that lesson some years ago . mrs h liked to have two or three candles burning for an hour or two in the evening .
i noticed that our furnace filters were getting quite dirty rather quickly - black sud .
phoned the furnace company - technician arrived - had one look at the filters - "do you burn any candles ?" - "hmm , yea - but just for an hour or two" - "do you have any idea how much pollution that causes ? " - rinsed filtters and black stuff running off - " better tell your wife to stop that !" - "would you mind telling my wife ?" - technician left me with that job Shocked

'nuff said !
hbg

so if you do turn out the lights , do NOT burn any candles or use a flashlight : GO DARK !

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We're having friends over tonight and at 8 pm we will party by candle light. It will be fun!

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Not all candles burn dirty, hbg. Buy the ones that evaporate rather than melt all over everything. The only ones I can think of at the moment are Partylite, but I'm sure there are others. (struggling to remember the ingredients... will have to look it up)

I'm lights out right now and will try to avoid turning them on before going to the movie at 7. Will return around 9 or 9:30, grope around in the dark, stub my toe on cubs shoes, bump my arm on the bannister, hit my forehead on the open laundry room door and fall into bed.

If you don't hear from me by noon Sunday, call 911.

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just imagine what fun there will be when someone blows out the ONE candle that will be burning :wink:

i wonder if the fire departments are prepared for any "candle fires" ?

i also never associated earth-hour wih fun - i asumed it would be a time to ask for forgivenes for our sins against mother earth ?
hbg

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sqinney wrote :

Quote:

Not all candles burn dirty

here is a simple test ;hold a piece of glass or a mirror over the burning candle for several minutes ; if you do not see any smudge marks (sud) , the candle would indeed be burning clean . my uneducated guess is that if the flame gives off any light or heat , something will have to burn and produce sud (pollution) in the process .

we used to do that as kids to produce sud to blacken our faces .
coaloil lamps also produce quite a bit of sud .
we used to have an emergency carbide lamp when i grew up . i don't know if it produced sud - but it sure stank to high heaven when my dad cleaned and refilled it . it did give a very bright light for sure .
hbg

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I did it.....except I turned the TV on 35 minutes into it to watch "Big Love".

Haven't read up on how it went here yet.

What it HAS done...which I suspect is one of the real aims...is get me to be even better re turning lights off unless they are really needed.

Big here and in Asia, it appears.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iWEjNjkf_cEeuCMbeDumW2q75VtwD8VN8TEG0

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/03/29/1206207494904.html

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/29/lights.out.ap/?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail

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ontario hydro shows the power consumption on it's website : yesterday , today , anticipated for next day .
as the graph shows , just after noon the consumption is already falling .
my guess is that around noon many families and restaurants are preparing lunch , hence the increased demand .
seems to me "the dark hour" should have been around noon by serving a cold lunch :wink:

http://www.theimo.com/weather/mkt2/ONDEMAND_Q_0_2128.png

and here is friday's consumption for comparison - a somewhat different picture :

http://www.theimo.com/weather/mkt2/ONDEMAND_Q_-1_2128.png

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There isn't a whole lot more I can do to reduce my consumption of electricity. My electrical bill is on average about $1.05 per day.

I already keep all the lights off except for a small task light to read by and that has one of those mercury bulbs. The lights in the common area pathways around my apartment are bright enough to see by when I keep the shades open.

I already keep the electrical furnance off for the majority of days in the winter weather. The apartment is usually between 55 and 60 degrees inside and I bundle up in layers of clothes. When I can't withstand the cold any further (usually on damp, rainy days) I wrap up in an electric blanket to soothe my joints. Summers I use less electricity by using portable fans instead of the air conditioner and keep the windows open all night before closing them in the morning.

I already shut off all my electronics, TVs and stereos using a power strip to eliminate costs from the "always on" features. I use battery operated clocks around the house except for the alarm clock radio and those batteries are rechargables with charges that seem to last almost a year.

I already use cold water for washing clothes and I have the thermostat on the water heater set at the lowest setting that doesn't require any cold water to make it useable. I also don't use the drying cycle of the dishwasher. (Hot, hot showers I do definitely miss.)

The only areas left are not using the electric stove or oven for cooking, unplugging the refrigerator, reducing the computer useage and not using the clothes dryer when I do my laundry once a week.

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We did it last night.

Actually, it involved turning off the one energy efficiant light we have on during the evening so it wasnt a big impost for us,

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wow Butrflynet, you put us all to shame. Respect, respect!!

I have outside a lot of solar lights and in the near future I'll have solar
power. Can't get any better than that.

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Earth Hour -- are you doing it?

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