Roll Your Own Blackout

[SysOpt]

The point is to send a message, not to actually conserve a whole lot of power.

[Jonty]

I think it was in the year 1984 when Britain was in the grip of the miners strike, or it may have been a few years later in 1992 when most of the coal mines in this country were closed, anyway, to show support for the miners it was decided that at 6pm on a certain day, for everyone to turn all their electrical appliances off so that the power stations would have to quickly do something about this 'loss of power', and to show the government of the day what the ordinary person thought. I seem to remember that the outcome from this action was that the 'switch off' was neglible. Well, thats what was reported anyhow - we probably won't know what actually happened!!

Thought I'd share this with you even though it's a bit off topic!

[GroundZero3]

A friend had this happen to him. His electric company sent out a letter saying to conserve please! So the whole area did and when they got there electric bill it was high. And why? Because the people weren't using a lot of electricity and they charge because they didn't meet a quota! How’s that?

Jason

[This message has been edited by GroundZero3 (edited 06-13-2001).]

[MTAtech]

The best way to protest this administration's stance on energy and the environment is to email the prez. I think the email address is president@whitehouse.gov and to let your US senator know how you feel.

There was an interesting essay in the NY Times a week or so ago by a math professor that proved that attacking our energy problem from the supply side won't work. Since we increase our energy consumption by 5% per year, even if we have a 10,000 year supply at current rates (which we don't - it's more like 100 years) that supply will be gone in 125 years. However, if we just cut the rate of increase by 2-1/2% from 5%, we double the time that the supply is exhausted. Hell, we could get 2-1/2% just by insulating our attics. Given the multitude of ways one can painlessly conserve (compact flourescent bulbs, timers, dimmers, etc.) this seems the most viable.

[SysOpt]

Well, I think the answer is to abandon our reliance on fossil fuels altogether, although conserving them does make sense, since we need time to develop alternatives. Of course, that means something better has to come along. Nuclear energy isn't that great considering the waste. Now if only fusion could be perfected..

[SysOpt]

Anybody here going to do it?

[PhilosopherKing]

Don't really the see point. I'll be in 'Vegas anyway...they don't believe in conserving anything

[HomeYield]

30 megawatts in the scheme of things, isn't all that much, even for a small control area as that. If the temperature goes up about 5 degrees then that's about a 100 megawatt increase (in the summer).

Nuclear energy is the cheapest energy possible. With the deregulation power companies are looking to get quick megawatt's in to the market and so they are building combustion turbine plants (jet engines) that run off of oil or gas. These are the most expensive and these are the one's that are being built most often. People wonder why they pay such high prices. In comparison, nuclear is is about a 1/4 of the price with no emissions. If you compare the energy prices with a control area that has nuclear units with those that don't, then the one's without will pay quite a bit more. I know a nuclear engineer dealing with the waste and he says that its alot safer than just driving on the street (not the waste itself of course, but after they have sealed it off). The waste can be problem but they deal with it in such a way that abosolutely nothing could get hurt. They are also working on ways of recycling the waste so that it can be reused. It doesn't last as long but I've heard that it is be possible.

[This message has been edited by HomeYield (edited 06-14-2001).]

[Raist]

While conservation efforts will help they are not the sole answer. Increasing production is not the answer either and a combination of the two is not the answer. What very few people realize is that fossil fuels are a finite resource and will eventually be depleted totally. Not to mention the enviromental damage that will be done in the process of using them to depletion. Imagine if people realized that we are all members of the human race and could coexist peacefully without war and terrorism. The combined defense budgets of the worlds larger nations would easily be enough to fund the necessary research to move of from a fossil fuel dependant society to one which we are not dependant on a finite resource and damaging the enviroment in the process. Just my $.02... Sorry so philisophical this morning.. My son had me up half the night and lack of sleep make me a little loopy...

[DiscoLando]

I don't think this idea will really do much good, practically or not. Snopes gives a good account of this email that's been going through lately.
http://www.snopes2.com/inboxer/outrage/blackout.htm

Besides, if there is an energy problem, the ulitmate fault at the moment goes to us as consumers, not the president or the government.

[SoopaStar]

Scott-
you want to conserve? Tell ya what, I will buy a Honda Insight for you...if you trade the title to your BMW to me!
Paul

[SysOpt]

Hey, if you want to rip out my bimmer's engine and put in something that conserves more fuel but is just as powerful, I'm all for it... It gets 20-30mpg as it is, not a huge gas guzzler.

[Pablo-Anon]

Yeh.. lets protest against Bush's energy policy... we could have protested clintons except for the fact that he did not have one!
Blame Bush for problem thats been mounting for 10 years... LOL.. go for it dude....

[rahlquist]

Ahh the bigger point would be driven home not if everyone turned off at a certain time, but if everyone turned back on at a certain time. Say everyone shut off everything they can at 5 or 6pm and then at 8pm everyone fire everthing back up and then some.

The resultant swing from low load to extreme high load would send the grid into shock(pun intended).

[SysOpt]

Pablo-Anon:

I never said whether I was for or against this measure - posting news to this site, and asking the question "anybody going to do it?", does not mean that I support the cause. The entire point is to share something interesting and get a discussion going. But thanks for your assumption.