Earth Hour

[DillonFoulds]

Anyone else participating in Earth Hour this year? Got any plans?

http://www.earthhour.org

It's not really a significant difference in the big picture I'm sure, but the girlfriend and I will probably soaking in some candlelight. Doing our tiny part to contribute, for sure!

[AtomSmasher]

I'll probably be driving during earth hour, so I'll make sure to do my part and turn my headlights off.  Every little bit counts.

[danny_galaga]

I'll probably be driving during earth hour, so I'll make sure to do my part and turn my headlights off.  Every little bit counts.

Oh ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, that's incanny. I only just updated my facebook status with a similar comment 

[SNAAKE]

what's earth hour?

I am not turning my lights off. gtfo!

[crashwg]

I wonder about the energy that goes into making the candles, lanterns, battery powered flashlights and or other electronic devices that people will most likely be using when they turn their lights off?

[DillonFoulds]

what's earth hour?

http://www.earthhour.org

-_-

We're turning off everything, flipping power bars off for the tvs, and unplugging and turning off all the computers. Gotta be careful with that vampire energy!

[Vigo]

Hmm. Sitting in the dark...sounds fun......yeah, I think be celebrating a little later tonight. I'll be sure the lights are out when I go to sleep. Heck, I think I can manage 8 hours of eco-responsibility tonight.

[Ginsu Victim]

I'll be turning everything on to make up for what you guys aren't using. Just doing my part.

[Howard_Casto]

I wonder about the energy that goes into making the candles, lanterns, battery powered flashlights and or other electronic devices that people will most likely be using when they turn their lights off?

Well even worse is the fact that people on the west coast have a fairly good chance of getting their electricty from a nuclear or hydro-electric plant which have zero carbon emissions.  Lighting a candle creates a very small cardon footprint.  Guess who generally participate in such events?  That's right, people on the west coast.  So this ill-planned event probably increased the carbon footprint!

[DillonFoulds]

I'm confused, did you mean the West Coast of Australia where the Earth Hour movement was initiated, or do you think USA/North America is the only continent involved?

Although I agree, it is a frivolous exercise on the whole, I do appreciate the gesture behind it. Every year it makes me think about the electricity we use, and do a little bit more each year to try and reduce our power bill. To be honest, before the whole Earth Hour thing started, I could not have cared any less about my power bill. Since I've started the whole Earth Hour thing, once a year I am reminded to go through the house and replace any bulbs that are missing or incandescent (we do near strictly CCFL bulbs everywhere), and also it reminds me to take a second look at all our entertainment centers. We've got 5 TVs in the house, and each year I'll go through everything, remove any unnecessary components, or decide I don't use the desktop enough to merit leaving it running. A couple years ago I condensed my media server and HTPC into a single machine, and this year I'm going to consolidate my desktop hard drives into my HTPC as well, resulting in only having one computer running, where I used to have 3.

In the end, I think that although the idea itself isn't the most effective, it does at least remind a few people to reduce their energy usage, and I think that's a good start for anything.

What have you guys done to help reduce your utilities? Or has everyone just bought more stuff to run up their bills?

[danny_galaga]

I'm confused, did you mean the West Coast of Australia where the Earth Hour movement was initiated, or do you think USA/North America is the only continent involved?

Although I agree, it is a frivolous exercise on the whole, I do appreciate the gesture behind it. Every year it makes me think about the electricity we use, and do a little bit more each year to try and reduce our power bill. To be honest, before the whole Earth Hour thing started, I could not have cared any less about my power bill. Since I've started the whole Earth Hour thing, once a year I am reminded to go through the house and replace any bulbs that are missing or incandescent (we do near strictly CCFL bulbs everywhere), and also it reminds me to take a second look at all our entertainment centers. We've got 5 TVs in the house, and each year I'll go through everything, remove any unnecessary components, or decide I don't use the desktop enough to merit leaving it running. A couple years ago I condensed my media server and HTPC into a single machine, and this year I'm going to consolidate my desktop hard drives into my HTPC as well, resulting in only having one computer running, where I used to have 3.

In the end, I think that although the idea itself isn't the most effective, it does at least remind a few people to reduce their energy usage, and I think that's a good start for anything.

What have you guys done to help reduce your utilities? Or has everyone just bought more stuff to run up their bills?

I'm pretty sure it started in Sydney, which is the EAST coast. No matter. I think it was a good idea for a once off. 3 or 4 years ago when they first did it, my housemate and I sat by the candlelight for an hour. You are right, it does help you at least THINK about energy waste. However, I don't think it should be made into a ritual. And when I see huge business and government offices turn off all their lights for one hour a year at night, it begs the question 'why don't they do that EVERY night?'...

[Vigo]

How is one suppose to watch Captain Planet with the power out?
 

[RayB]

Screw earth hour. It's a fun little educational excercise to instill some sort of eco-conciousness in kids, but for adults, it's rather silly. Or you can say it is what it is, a symbolic thing.

I got rid of cable. My tv use has gone down a good 80%. I also only turn on major appliances like washer, dryer and dishwasher after "peak" usage time (after 9pm weekdays). I'm always only turning on lights I need. Not sure what more I could do short of installing solar panels.

[Dartful Dodger]

They are selling Earth hour like a diet(do this one hour a year and you’re doing your part), instead of valuable way of life(do this every day and you’re doing your part).

Like rayB said, I already conserve energy.

I think a greener planet is nice, but a greener bank account is nicer.

Instead of pitching: Saving energy = Saving the planet
They should be pitching: Saving energy = Saving money

As far as practice what you preach goes...
How much energy do the lights on those Earth Hour billboard waste?
Where they turned off during Earth Hour?


I didn't spend Earth Hour going around my house turning off lights, because the room I was in was the only room with a light on.

[HaRuMaN]

Best way to conserve resources and be green?  Go dig a hole, sit in the bottom of it, and blow your brains out.

[Nephasth]

Earth hour was the perfect time for me to vent my three old 15lb canisters of R12 into the atmosphere, no one could see what I was doing. It's about time I got rid of those damn CFCs.

[HaRuMaN]

I'll be turning everything on to make up for what you guys aren't using. Just doing my part.

Earth hour was the perfect time for me to vent my three old 15lb canisters of R12 into the atmosphere, no one could see what I was doing. It's about time I got rid of those damn CFCs.

How can I be as awesome as you guys?

Post more

[Nephasth]

I'll be turning everything on to make up for what you guys aren't using. Just doing my part.

Earth hour was the perfect time for me to vent my three old 15lb canisters of R12 into the atmosphere, no one could see what I was doing. It's about time I got rid of those damn CFCs.

How can I be as awesome as you guys?

Wear an even longer leather coat...

[DaOld Man]

I'll be turning everything on to make up for what you guys aren't using. Just doing my part.

Earth hour was the perfect time for me to vent my three old 15lb canisters of R12 into the atmosphere, no one could see what I was doing. It's about time I got rid of those damn CFCs.

How can I be as awesome as you guys?

Wear an even longer leather coat...

You guys dont know who youre messing with.

[BigJon]

This was my first year hearing about "Earth Hour" and read how cities turn off lights in some major buildings...I got to thinking...why only do it for 1 hour a year?  Why do we have to have all these skyscrapers and large office buildings with lights on 24/7?  Particularly thinking about the building my company is in...I can drive by at any time of the night and see lights on.  No one is in the building...so what's the need?

Eh, Earth Hour is nothing more than armchair activism.

[Vigo]

Pretty much all the buildings in my area turn of their lights, at least by midnight. They need to keep dim lighting on for safety/emergency purposes. Most buildings have light on later because of employees working working late, then the cleaning crew must be in there afterwards, plus security needs to sweep the entire building after that. It's probably a major effort to get the lights out by 8:30.

I don't think many buildings will unnecessarily light their building through the night unless they see an advertisement advantage in doing so. It's all about the money.

[eds1275]

I'm a little late for this discussion, but I think I'll contribute anyway.  Earth hour is an hour long guilt trip. An hour isn't going to make much of a difference, but it'll give you time to think about how evil you are for living in a world where people pollute and you have no control over.

What I have done is take my house from an energy rating of 56 to 91. Insulation, new tighter fitting doors, better windows, energy star appliances, a new furnace with heat pump. I am a recycling fiend, though where I live you have to be - we get garbage day 2x a month, and recycling 2x a month... with food waste pick up every week [they recycle our food waste - including paper coffee cups, meat, bones, pizza boxes etc].

I think this recycling nonsense has totally overshadowed the other two r's - reducing and reusing. I reuse old computers to make video game machines

The things that should be done are reducing - and not so much on a consumer level. Mainly packaging. For example those plastics that aren't recyclable... why not make them illegal to use for packaging? I imagine there are more serious uses for them so I don't think they should be outlawed entirely but when they're used for packaging it's ridiculous. Everything is over packaged, manufacturers should cut that back. It would probably cut back on their shipping costs and save them $$$ in the long run anyway. Here's another example - my fiance bought a new cell phone the other day, and the box it came in was big enough for my cat to sit in. The phone was really really small.

Sure there are people who don't take this seriously, and although I do I can imagine and understand why some don't. We all have enough crap going on in our lives to worry about without having an hour guilted into us - and we [as consumers/materialistic people in a consumer world] would be doing more overall if we had less stuff to deal with physically - the overwhelming amount of packaging materials.

[Vigo]

I hate all that packaging too, my basement is filled with boxes and packing materials from my purchases, but I have a buddy that is a packaging engineer and I know that packaging methods are very calculated, and making the packaging heavy is actually less wasteful because there is a much smaller chance of the product getting damaged or lost in shipment. The energy, chemicals, and cost that goes into building one cell phone is probably more than what goes into 100 packages.

Also, in reality, the amount of plastic used to make enough Styrofoam to ship a large TV could easily fit in the palm of your hand. Styrofoam is mostly air. Compare that to the amount of plastic in a TV set itself, and the companies are happy make packaging extra secure to ensure that less TVs get trashed. If you want a fun way to get rid of your styrofoam, try dumping styrofoam into a pot of acetone. it melts it right down, you end up with a plastic goo that will harden, and even put in a mold. I used this method to mold replicas of a finishing piece on my motorcycle that kept breaking off.

[BadMouth]

[RayB]

Here's another example - my fiance bought a new cell phone the other day, and the box it came in was big enough for my cat to sit in. The phone was really really small.

http://unrealitymag.com/index.php/2011/03/11/how-dell-ships-65-screws/

There are other egregious examples like that related to lots of other companies.

[Vigo]

Here's another example - my fiance bought a new cell phone the other day, and the box it came in was big enough for my cat to sit in. The phone was really really small.

http://unrealitymag.com/index.php/2011/03/11/how-dell-ships-65-screws/

There are other egregious examples like that related to lots of other companies.

In all fairness, Dell is not a screw supplier, they are a computer supplier, they have a very automated shipping system that has each product pre-barcoded and packaged individually. Since most people would only need to order 1 or 2 screws, this system really makes sense. They are not going to pay someone to stop the automated shipping process to pull each of the 65 screws out of their bags, removing the products from the barcode system at the same time.

[Vigo]

That's just effed up. You either know how to BS in a very creative way, or Dell is lucky to still be in business. Knowing Dell, I am guessing it is the latter.

[Vigo]

100% true.  His story was he was flown over periodically to do all the warranty service on the island, etc etc.

When companies stupidly forget to omit the USVI from their promotions, word gets around pretty darn quick.  Once Dell wised up, everyone was creaming Best Buy on expedited shipping the next year.

I'm sure Dell at the time viewed it as good service, but flying a dude around with a part is just an insane waste of money.  I just don't see how paying a technician for extended hours plus air fare and taxi/ car rental service could ever compare with shipping parts and computers for repair like any other business would do.

I know computers were a bit bigger and more spendy in the 90's, but I'd think they they would end up being more cost effective by just shipping a compete new tower.

[MonMotha]

Earth hour was the perfect time for me to vent my three old 15lb canisters of R12 into the atmosphere, no one could see what I was doing. It's about time I got rid of those damn CFCs.

You do realize how valuable a full 15lb canister of R-12 is to a recycler, right?

[Nephasth]

Earth hour was the perfect time for me to vent my three old 15lb canisters of R12 into the atmosphere, no one could see what I was doing. It's about time I got rid of those damn CFCs.

You do realize how valuable a full 15lb canister of R-12 is, right?

Yes, that was part of the irony.