Y2Kyoto: SDA Special Events Reminder

Last year when all the lights on the street went out I turned on every light in my house. My neighbors a few doors down had people over and were drinking wine by candlelight on the porch. One of them came down and banged on my door. I guess I kinda ruined the moment for them. She asked me if I knew it was earth hour. I said yes. Then she said ok and left.
In their defense the are very nice folks and apologized the next day. I just managed to tweak them at the right moment.
You know they are going to try and force us to turn out the lights soon. It will be considered a hate crime against the planet to leave them on during Earth Hour.

Enmax runs ads asking people to avoid the electricity rush hour and wait til lower demand periods for dishwashers and laundry. Cleaning the oven while everyone else is playing "I'm smugger than you" has to be the most energy-efficient thing anyone can do all year.

I see CBC is one of the sponsors.My oven will be on at the critical hour.

I am dedicated to finding every possible necessary use of electricity that can be timed to coincide with earth hour. Some one has to ensure that the generators don't need to be shut down causing unnecessary restarting costs.

I predict that the Earth Hour website will be down for the hour, because they will power it off.

Maybe next year they will power it off Jim Hansens's supercomputer-powering solar/wind-turbine complex, and can keep the site up during Earth Hour in a green demonstration of how effective alternate energy sources that will save those Polar Bears can be.

"Sign-up for Earth Hour and you will be entered in draw to win a trip for two to Churchill, Manitoba to see these majestic bears in their natural habitat."

Their natural habitat? You mean the Churchill dump?

Sadly I will be 700+ miles away in Los Angeles at the witching hour. In my defense I will be traveling by commercial jet instead of bicycle. I guess I'll just have to hire someone to drop by and turn the oven to Clean. Long as he's there, maybe I'll have him run a load of laundry.

I see you can win a trip to Churchill, Manitoba to see the effects of climate change while looking for polar bears. (I bet they don't send them in the winter.) I guess the irony is lost on the CO2 crusaders that a winner from say Vancouver will now be going on a completely unplanned (by the traveler) nearly 6000 km round trip. But then, I'm sure someone will be paid for the carbon offsets.

Good time to run the lawnmower at that time as well as clean the oven. Best of all the Lawnboys a 2 stroke.

I kept by Christmas lights up specifically for this occasion.

Wander how the potential winner is going to get there. Maybe, because it is the project of the WWF, it really does not matter:
1. The fuel that is the scourge of mankind will be used to transport the winner and associated hangers on from the bombastic WWF.
2. Poor white bears will be disturbed by the insensitive intrusion into their habitat by well meaning though somewhat flaky personnel from WWF.
3. The vehicles will make tracks in the snow, can nature handle such disturbance?
4. Can this be allowed to go forward?

I don't know, winning a trip to Churchill to visit polar bears in their natural habitat might be fun.

Will there be wine and cheese served? Can we pet them? Since spring is coming would shorts and a Che t-shirt be appropriate wear or should I bring a sweater just in case?

Soon via smart metering + solar + wind we can all appreciate Earth Hour every few days!

I get all warm and fuzzy remembering the rolling blackouts in California while I lived there. I miss the midday 3 hour "enforced extended paid work break" but the owner of the business did not think it was too funny losing a couple hundred thousand an hour.

You're supposed to clean ovens?

Liberals Dionky and STOPIGGY are co-generators of their website: GLEENSH*T.caca.
It's up for only Zero Hour.

Bammer screams:
There is probably a MAOSTLONG: Turn on your lights; now, go to sleep.

An oldie but a goodie - North Korea, where every hour is Earth Hour.

http://www.paulnoll.com/Korea/History/Korean-night.html

Thanks for the heads up - I'll start planning how to maximize my energy use to save the power grid at that time ;-)

Sadly, our oven isn't self-cleaning :-(

A week in Churchill to watch the polar bears romp in the dump.
So whats second prise? Two weeks in Churchill?

time to fire on all 111 bulbs. I forgot the 4 in the garage door openers on my last count.

Last year everything I could find with a switch was on. Never thought of the oven cleaning practical side of it, thanks. I'll be doing that as well as some high power work lamps and some red flashing lights If I can get them. No noise, just bright things.

Perhaps we should switch over to our back up diesel generator for earth hour and skip the grid all together. Ahhhh an hour in the hot tub ... the lights down ... the outdoor fireplace roaring away ... the soothing hum of the generator ... the smell of diesel and woodsmoke in the air ... sipping imported nova scotia beer and BC wine ... I love my chunk of earth.

Sigh. For the second year in a row, I'm so disappointed with the general response here. I'm not going to be turning anything off for this stupid and pointless publicity stunt, but to purposely waste energy? As an engineer, whose entire profession is dedicated to finding ways to do more with less, this is anathema.

If your oven really is dirty, Kathryn's correct - this is by far the best time to clean it. But waste for waste's sake? Just because other people act like idiots by turning off their lights, you're going to act even more idiotically by wasting energy? Does the phrase "cutting off your nose to spite your face" ring a bell?

I'm disappointed. Truly, deeply disappointed.

My balcony lights will shine into the rec center where the do gooders are holding a candle light vigil.

Heh, we have a gas range...self cleaning. If we don't clean the oven it's because we'll be cooking a roast, turkey, chicken or something, not sure if natural gas is on the gaia's 'evil energy consumption' list, but anything else we can do to prevent the green goofs from making a fake show 'look good' and messing with the power grid, well we'll doing our part. AND saving my laundry to do at that hour is not a waste, no one likes smelly dirty clothes!

Oh and by the way, since our move to this location about 10 months ago (south-eastern Ontario), we called to get information on what's allowed in the blue boxes since our first leave outs were not picked up.
They've yet to send the information, so we don't recycle anything now. All but the paper/cardboard goes in the garbage. Paper and cardboard is used to fuel the inside wood stove and the outside fire pit for burning up brush an other such things.
And just a little motor oil really makes any fire 'bark' on start up! ;)

Well, my oven really is dirty so I think I'll get that taken care of. And I have some welding I've been meaning to do - after all, I didn't put in the 220v/50amp line fer nothing!

Remember, Kate's default position is sarcasm.

Very, very effective at pointing out the folly - like a real good satire comedy. (Evan Sayet) There usually is much more than a grain of truth in them - more like a truckload !

Well, my oven is going to need cleaning again, and with all this snow on the ground, it's good time to run the lawn more for an hour to make sure it doesn't need a tune up before the snow is gone.

I need to look in the garage with all those lights on too, I believe that also will take about an hour...

Don't polar bears start thier hibernation in the spring?

I'm a cheap frugal guy so every hour is Earth Hour for me, however I will make an effort to completely forget this hour.

The environuts winning the trip to Churchill to see and pet the magnificent cuddly bears are advised that appropriate seasonal attire would be at most a t-shirt and natural hemp fabric shorts, so as to be kind to the bears' digestive tracts.

Gee thanks Brian....I overlooked the welder...got a little job to do which can wait....
I rigged extra outdoor lights last year for the occasion.....I will be doing baking and laundry...then getting back to the welding...I shall have to time everything right so I don't burn the biscuits....
I did this last year....although the neighbourhood (rural) didn't exhibit much participation, I did hear an off the record report that some "concerned" individuals had called 911 because my lights (including the barn lights) were on....ROTFALMFAO...
It's not waste.....it's "making a statement"...

Actually Kate's default position is hate, anger, and insecurity. Kevin said it best, this event is pointless, by so is intentionally wasting energy to spite it.

Gee thanks Brian....I overlooked the welder...got a little job to do which can wait....
I rigged extra outdoor lights last year for the occasion.....I will be doing baking and laundry...then getting back to the welding...I shall have to time everything right so I don't burn the biscuits....
I did this last year....although the neighbourhood (rural) didn't exhibit much participation, I did hear an off the record report that some "concerned" individuals had called 911 because my lights (including the barn lights) were on....ROTFALMFAO...
Last year most utilities in Ontario could not report any reduction in load....most registered a spike....especially after the event.
It's not waste.....it's "making a statement"...

For a more effective, live YouTube video;

The "winner" will disembark the armored Hummer, walk across the snow and hand the fluffy, cuddly Teddy Bear an ice cold Coca Cola !! And no earth bad man will interfere. Let the nature of things take it's course.

Well I confess I had to repair my gas oven last year, as the igniter switch failed. It took me a little time and I had to read the online repair manual, but managed to get the oven to a toasty self cleaning temperature. The only thing left after cleaning was fly ash.

Burning up the documents of Y2Kyoto! Hey that's what fraud artists do don't they? Never leave a paper trail.

Cheers

Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief

1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group "True North"

Nothing i can do abou this - i've never turned my oven on - ever.

For those of you thinking ahead about dinner plans that day, since the ovens are busy,I strongly recommend a nice barbeque(beef). I'm having beer with mine(imported).

What evidence of Climate change are they going to Show? WTF!

I agree with KevinB - waste for waste's sake is stupid and expensive, which is a far worse, being the cheapskate that I am. But, my oven really does need cleaning (but only because I purposely left it til next Saturday), I'm staying home anyway so that's as good a time as any. If it annoys some of the "grand, futile gesture" crowd, well, that's just icing on the cake.

ddt; "Good time to run the lawnmower at that time as well as clean the oven. Best of all the Lawnboys a 2 stroke. "

You'll be lucky if the lawns not under snow still!

Miss Kate; the wife's vibrator is battery powered, does she need to turn it off? ;)

What's with you people? It's a symbolic gesture, just one hour a year. If you don't want to participate, that's fine, but why go out of your way to antagonize those who do?

"If you don't want to participate, that's fine, but why go out of your way to antagonize those who do?"

Fools need to be mocked.

Mainly because it's symbolic of the greatest fraud perpetrated against human kind ever. I am however worried about the oven, I've been saving it for a while and the build up might be enough to have a fairly large grease fire in the bottom. As for the posters complaining that it is wastefull. Energy is used purely for entertainment purposes all the time, ever been to a concert. If some people find this entertaining, then that's their business. It's not my cup of tea, but I'm not the fun police, and neither are any of you.

I'm in. No snow on the turf in Victoria. Lawn is showing signs of life, so, it's time to fire up the 5.0 Craftsman Mower and get 'er goin!

Earth hour, here we come!

The noise will get the neighbourhood's attention.....as will all the lights on.

And for those like Terry, go ahead, turn your lights, heat, and everything else off, and go for a warm and fuzzy walk and kiss Gaia!

It's a protest against the "not settled" theory of climate change/ global warming or whatever the heck it's called now.

I will also be turning on all the lights. My kids will be embarrassed ("Mom, why can't you be like everyone else??"). But then that's what parents are for. To embarrass their kids. And teach them about critical thinking.

If we have an "International Wash Your Dishes" hour, maybe that'll motivate me to finally get around to it (landlord doesn't allow dishwashers)...

Anyway, lights don't use up much energy, actually, even incandescent bulbs. I can tell by analyzing my electric bill which doesn't include heat and hot water (covered in the rent). I find the monthly usage amount, without heat/hot water to be, including everything, just five to seven bucks worth, about 70-90 KwH.

Worrying about lightbulbs won't do a bloody thing. Their use is negligent compared to a lot of stuff, like the oven, which I find causes my usage to skyrocket, seeing as the highest-usage months were the ones in which I put stuff in the oven.

Speaking of lightbulbs, one can now get LED lightbulbs to screw into one's regular, same-old lamps. I actually have one, though it's a one-watter, red (I only found colored ones so far) and really not very bright, but if I don't need a lot of brightness, which is most of the time, I can have the LED light on all night and not care about cost, which is like nothing.

Greenhouse gases? I don't worry about them. They're natural and essential to life, so it's ridiculous to claim that they're going to destroy the world. I'd think that if they were dangerous, we'd be seeing the effects already, but... I see none. None whatsoever. It's all B.S.

We should, of course, conspicuously conserve when convenient and continue to improve efficiency via technology, but only for the purpose of saving money and lessening, hopefully ending, dependence on Islamofascist/Putinist/Chavezian oil. I consider this the conservative approach to conservation.

This will be an excellent chance to check out the accuracy of my Black and Decker power monitor that I have installed on my power meter. It is a nifty little unit that monitors the rotation of the spinning disk in the meter and wirelessly transmits the data to a display unit which shows instantaneous power consumption and total power consumption. Already it's shown me that I don't need as large an emergency generator as I thought since my power consumption is only 1-3 KW/hour most of the time with the 6 computers I have at home accounting for the bulk of power consumption.

I do have a workshop with a large electric heater of unknown wattage and what better a time to measure its power consumption as well as measuring the power consumption of all of the lights in the house.

As far as ovens go, I too was unaware that one cleaned ovens.

So KevinB.As an engineer,or whatever,are you making sure that whatever town or city you live in,are shutting off all their lights?No nasty cops,or paramedics,or firefighters around either,burning all that awful oil getting to your place to save your sorry butt?Talk about hypocrits!!!And BTW,I don't expect to see you on a computer again..gotta save the planet!Or please send pics of your giant fan generating the power to run your computer.The term useless idiot comes to mind for you.

I agree with Kevin B, except that my wife and I will turn off all of our lights as we did last year. A symbolic gesture to be sure (not "stupid and pointless"), since we would normally only have one low-wattage fixture on at that time. Our diet is mostly raw vegan, so our oven never needs cleaning.

Don't get me wrong, I am not being smug or "holier-than-thou", it's just a fact. We are actually conscientious about not wasting electricity every day of the year, just because it make sense.

We can see Calgary's lights on the horizon from our balcony and last year I was somewhat disappointed that there was no noticeable dimming. I can't recall, did consumption actually go up? This year I guess I know what to expect.

Brian,

One engineer to another...it's called load balancing. The thing about large scale power generation is that you can't be cycling a thermal, or even hydro generating plant. The sheer amount of waste energy involved, not to mention thermal/mechanical stresses on the equipment are not insignificant. Likewise, the power spikes associated with this kind of exercise (eco-guilt hour) can have particularly deleterious consequences for aging electrical infrastructures in large urban areas. I suppose though, that if Toronto blew a couple of substations and had to live without the TTC, electric steetcars and lattes for a couple of weeks it wouldn't be all bad...