Earth Hour comes to every time zone at 8:30 PM today. Will it make a difference?
Their website says:
On Earth Hour hundreds of millions of people around the world will come together to call for action on climate change by doing something quite simple—turning off their lights for one hour. The movement symbolizes that by working together, each of us can make a positive impact in this fight, protecting our future and that of future generations. Learn more about how Earth Hour began, what we’ve accomplished, and what is in store for 2010.
As many WUWT readers know, I’m all for energy efficiency and conservation when applied in a meaningful way. For example, a few months back, I retrofitted my home with some very cool LED recessed lighting. You can read my About page to see some of my other energy saving projects.
WUWT readers also know that I’m against Catlinesque stunts. Earth Hour, while born of good intentions, is one of those stunts that really doesn’t amount to any long term meaningful energy savings. In fact it doesn’t really even amount to any short term savings.
For example, last year, according to the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), Earth Hour made zero difference to the California power consumption. Zero, zip, nada. Have a look at the graph:
Big Hat tip to Roger Sowell for the graphs:
Some greens were quick to point out “but look the power dropped then”.
Yah, it does that every day about that time:
If there was a big effect from Earth Hour, you’d see a step event as everybody turned off their lights in Califonia. Plus, the greens don’t seem to realize that no power plants get switched off, so there’s really no CO2 savings. The power plants are run based on demand forecast. Short term spikes from well intentioned stunts really don’t make a blip of difference to Co2 emissions.
For WUWT readers that wish to track this year’s California Earth Hour impact in real time, you can visit the CAISO tracker:
http://www.caiso.com/outlook/SystemStatus.html
Have fun. Let us know what you did for Earth Hour.
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UPDATE: Thanks to a commenter challenge, I was obliged to look for some other real-time power monitoring locations, this one in Ontario Canada for example:
http://www.ieso.ca/imoweb/siteShared/demand_price.asp?sid=ic
For a fun project, WUWT readers can find their own local power reporting website and post up results here, and I’ll do a new post showcasing the effects of Earth Hour worldwide.
To post images or screencaps in comments use http://www.tinypic.com/ or a similar service and just paste the full image URL in the comments, no tags needed. – Anthony
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Ian W (08:51:21) :
Ian, you are exactly right. A vast number of greens love this stuff as long as it’s just a little symbolic gesture. It’s like dropping a few bucks in the Sunday offering. A tiny penance.
Yet you will still find them enjoying all the trappings of civilization (like say, heat, on a -10C evening in winter) .
Ok, the power would have to increase OVER the normal increase for that time of day.
A truly brave army of ‘Green’ (i.e. the majority in Iran) have used overload induced blackouts as a form of civil protest:
“Following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s dubious reelection, Iran has seen the largest mass demonstrations since the 1979 revolution. Although demonstrators have fought off tear gas and batons on the streets, they’re also responding with more innocuous weapons at home: toasters and blow dryers. On July 7, as Ahmadinejad gave his first televised speech after the election, defiant Iranians collectively plugged in their household appliances in an attempt to cause electrical blackouts and prevent the president’s message from being heard inside people’s homes. Students behind the tactic plotted through Twitter (surprise!) to coordinate the electrical protest and share the bright news with each other as lights went out in various Iranians towns.”
http://www.newsweek.com/id/208861
I believe that this is difficult for the power companies to deal with, as when stations trip out, it takes a reasonable amount of effort to bring them back online.
Moderators please be so kind and flag this to Anthony
Dear Anhony: I went yesterday to a conference by Prof. Antonio Pou of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) called “Climate Change?” (“¿Cambio Climático?”) and to my surprise he talked, among other things, about the results of your surfacestations project, showing a slide of a station near and air conditioner, about the “circulating emails”, the hockey stick fabrication, he even recommended Andrew Montford’s The Hockey Stick Illusion book.
It was worth the wait of nearly forty years.
I got to know you thru http://antonuriarte.blogspot.com/ since 25 august 2008.
Please take care for your family, yourself, and envoy life, you deserve it.
Thank you very much.
Responder: Muchas gracias por las amables palabras y buenas intenciones. – Anthony
We lose power for several hours, several times a year when thunderstorm season blows thru. I couldn’t care less about some political “Awareness ” stunt.
Once again, time for the annual silliness.
Watch the video from your local news outlet’s late news. It’ll show a couple outdoor lighting displays shut off while all around them the lights remain illuminated.
I won’t be suckered into anyone else’s guilt trip.
@Bill
“It’s not just homes per se causing the peak either; when all of you get home at 6:00 and start flushing toilets all of the sewage lift stations are going to be kicking on too.”
Huh! Don’t people go to the restroom/bathroom/washroom/toilet-whatever during working hours? I’d like to see some statistics on that.
I shall be switching ON all my lights for earth hour.
RockyRoad :@ur momisugly (08:52:57) : wrote:
“I believe if EVERYBODY turned off ALL their lights at the same time, it could cause havoc to the electrical grid. A sudden drop in electrical load enmass followed an hour later by a sudden spike in electrical load cannot be good.”
Indeed, shouldn’t the voltage rise uncontrollably & blow everyone elses lights out ?
While energy companies used to anticipate demand based on the intervals and the end of big TV events such as Superbowl and those long gone Miss World contests, I wonder how much of a surge they’re preparing for at the end of Earth Hour – when everyone’s gasping for a cuppa at the same time.
These events, if they have any effect, just introduce perturbations that if anything increase power generation.
Isn’t this whole thing about perception though ? (or post modern reality as it were – where objective reality doesn’t get a look in).
I heard a WWF shill on local radio this morning. She acknowledged that earth hour won’t make any difference to the grid, but that the idea is to “send a message to governments that they should take climate change seriously, and blah, blah, blah…Zzz zzzz”. That’s rich, since local governments seem to be buying in to this nonsense and switching off lights in government (i.e. taxpayer owned) buildings tonight – perhaps more so than the taxpaying public themselves.
A few years ago, after leaving all my lights on on Earth Day, my house was vandalized! Balloons full of latex paint. I was able to hose/scrub it off. I knew which kids did it, but had no proof. Then when my campaign sign disappeared last election, I got another, and rubbed poison ivy all over it. The neighbor’s kid, and the kid down the street, both got a good case! Getting even was fun!
Lights will be on again this evening!
“Throw another log on the fire”
“STOP Global WHINING”
Electric load drops off in every time zone as most US commercial stores close at 9:00 PM.
Facts are indeed stubborn things; even if many blissfully ignorant greenies ignore them.
Having said the above, let me stipulate that I’m on the same page, WRT Anthony’s comment about supporting energy efficiency and conservation:
I switched over to CF bulbs for most indoor uses years ago; my house is very well insulated; and I’m ready to make the jump to LED lights when the price comes down a bit. . .
“Mikael Lönnroth (09:14:07) :
[…]
Turning off the lights is demonstrating that people care about their planet and are ready to accept some changes in order to protect it..”
If people are so willing to go without electricity -you say they show how ready they are to accept some changes, i.e. receive orders- then why is the AGW/CO2 crowd hell bent on subsidizing “green” energy? Wouldn’t it be much easier to switch off more lights -if that makes such a big difference; just order it- instead of producing MORE electricity?
Why not just submit to orders?
I think the point is to make people aware. By publishing this article you may be helping their cause.
REPLY: Perhaps, but my little mention is but a drop in the bucket compared to their ad campaigns. – Anthony
WOOHOO! … Earth Hour Again!
I’m so excited! My house looks so pretty all brightly lit and sparkly during Earth Hours!
I’m bringing out the BIG lights this year!
Let the games begin…!
Rolling demand on the UK Grid – updated every few minutes – is available here:
http://www.bmreports.com/bsp/bsp.php#rolling_demand
Full range of Grid data graphs and tables from here:
http://www.bmreports.com/bsp/bsp_home.htm
I will be turning all my lights ON for an hour in protest at this green stupidity!
Methow Ken (09:59:51) : wrote:
“I switched over to CF bulbs for most indoor uses years ago; my house is very well insulated; and I’m ready to make the jump to LED lights when the price comes down a bit. . .
”
Well, i’m afraid my old house doesn’t lend itself well to insulation – 2ft thick stone walls living in the loft space.
So while everyone else is being taken in by this short term warming blip I’m having to burn coal all the harder to stave off the next ice age.
Here’s a site which reports power consumption in England, Wales and Scotland. It’s the UK National Grid site.
http://www.nationalgrid.com/uk/Electricity/Data/Realtime/
Yes Don, and I am now aware, thanks to WUWT! If it weren’t for Anthony and WUWT, I probably would have missed this joyous occasion and my house would have remained dim and non-festive, but, because I have now been made “aware”, I can continue with my Earth Day protest and light my property brightly in defiance of this eco-terroristic nonsensical garbage!
If these folks really wanted to try and make a difference they would shut off their main breaker for an hour. Lighting, on average, is about 15% of consumption for residential.
But… BUT… then food might go bad in the fridge and they’d have to reset all their clocks that went blinky on 12:00. We can’t do that!!!
/sarcoff
Most people don’t realise how the electricity supply works. They think wind farms are “green”, not realising that all wind farms have to be backed up 24/7 by operating conventional power stations and thus they don’t save any CO2 emissions.
D. Antonio su español es excelente..
Sorry for “Anhony” instead of “Anthony” and “envoy” instead of “enjoy”.
I wonder if the lights will be off in Tenerife?
CLIMATE MEPS LIVE IT UP IN TENERIFE
http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/165474
Decency dictates that I do not comment further