Turn Off You Home Theaters Tomorrow to Observe Earth Hour

[admin]

Tomorrow marks the second annual Earth Hour event where major cities around the world will be turning off their power for a full hour. For home theater buffs, perhaps now is a good opportunity to buy a power conditioner with battery backup such as an APC AV S15 or S20, so you can enjoy your theater system interruption free while still being green. It would be cool to see how many fellow Audioholics participate in this event so please comment in our forums and let us know if you turned off your home theater systems during this event or switch to an alternative energy source.

Discuss "Turn Off You Home Theaters Tomorrow to Observe Earth Hour" here. Read the article.

 

[Audioholics]

I'm going to turn on all my lights and my car - and maybe start a bonfire in my back yard to celebrate. Break out the Christmas lights!

It'll be awesome cause they'll see me from outer space!

 

[stratman]

Major cities turning off their power? Is this selective? Hospitals, traffic lights?? All tied to grid. Or is it they'll be encouraging individuals in major cities to not use electricity for a full hour?

 

[Jack Hammer]

I turn almost all my stuff off daily when I leave for much more than an hour. I just hit the power button on the power center and... wahlah, its all off. Never really about it in green terms, just trying to cut electric use.

Jack

 

[stratman]

I turn almost all my stuff off daily when I leave for much more than an hour. I just hit the power button on the power center and... wahlah, its all off. Never really about it in green terms, just trying to cut electric use.

Jack

Yup with me it's the green in my wallet that I try to save, I always turn off lights and equipment when not in use, my wife on the other hand...Grrrrr!

 

[gene]

its more of an ideal to get people to be more conscious about their power usage. Hey I've been out of the country for over a week and in my absence my home has used very little power. Of course I totally defeated my C02 emission contribution for the week by flying internationally on an airplane

 

[birdonthebeach]

exercising restraint on this....

 

[Davemcc]

I'm curious how the major electrical generation companies will respond to this hour. My understanding is that electricity is not stored, but generated as it is used. Will the power generators burn less coal for this particular hour? I doubt it. It would seem to me that it is much easier to regulate power generation at a nuclear station. I would expect that when the demand is cut, the coal-fired generating stations will operate as normal and the nuclear stations will reduce their contibution accordingly. If this is true, Earth Hour will have absolutely no effect on emissions, rendering it just another symbolic act without practical effect.

 

[Halon451]

Power stations are not going to be largely affected by this. I'll comment more later, I have to run for now.

 

[jeffsg4mac]

I'm going to turn on all my lights and my car - and maybe start a bonfire in my back yard to celebrate. Break out the Christmas lights!

It'll be awesome cause they'll see me from outer space!

I am with Clint on this one. I am also going to turn on all the TVs in the house, put the stove in self-cleaning mode, turn on all the lights inside and out, start up my grill, start the riding mower up, light a fire in the wood stove, run my microwave, turn my heat full blast and start up all my cars and let them run for an hour with the lights on. It's all a crock anyway.

 

[Seth=L]

I am with Clint on this one. I am also going to turn on all the TVs in the house, put the stove in self-cleaning mode, turn on all the lights inside and out, start up my grill, start the riding mower up, light a fire in the wood stove, run my microwave, turn my heat full blast and start up all my cars and let them run for an hour with the lights on. It's all a crock anyway.

Reverse psychology, the old tricks are the best tricks.

 

[Rickster71]

Yup with me it's the green in my wallet that I try to save, I always turn off lights and equipment when not in use, my wife on the other hand...Grrrrr!

Your wife must know my wife!

 

[majorloser]

Like That's Gonna Happen...

My power consumption is as low as I want it to be.

My only consession has been installing fluoresent and LED lighting throughout my home. The theater is my last hold out.

 

[Halon451]

Honestly, this is as ridiculous as that internet circulation about boycotting Exxon by not buying anymore gas from them to force a price war in order to lower dollars per gallon. Why don't we just buy some of those carbon credits while we're at it and ship all the money to Al Gore.

As I stated, in response to Dave - power plants aren't going to do a single thing, other than keep on churning, making steam and spinning the turbines, producing power, which is going to be consumed at or near the same rate it is any other day, hour or minute. This is just a big dog and pony show, nothing more.

I'll be watching 3:10 to Yuma on my HT system tonight, with the sound as high as it can go, and I might even attach some of those big spotlights to the roof of my house to advertise my non-participation..

 

[Dezoris]

Honestly, this is as ridiculous as that internet circulation about boycotting Exxon by not buying anymore gas from them to force a price war in order to lower dollars per gallon. Why don't we just buy some of those carbon credits while we're at it and ship all the money to Al Gore.

As I stated, in response to Dave - power plants aren't going to do a single thing, other than keep on churning, making steam and spinning the turbines, producing power, which is going to be consumed at or near the same rate it is any other day, hour or minute. This is just a big dog and pony show, nothing more.

I'll be watching 3:10 to Yuma on my HT system tonight, with the sound as high as it can go, and I might even attach some of those big spotlights to the roof of my house to advertise my non-participation..

Its the act of doing something, or being aware. It's a symbolic gesture and generates interest in possibly changing our habits. In the world we are in now, most people will only change when forced to.

Our lifestyle we have come to love has caused great evils to the planet and people around us. Being aware of it and trying to change some of these things is a very important long term goal.

Not hugging trees but to make an individual change and to be responsible even if it is minor.

I flipped my master breaker off for the hour and took a walk outside, and it was a nice experience.

 

[stratman]

I set off a 50 Megaton nuclear device I had stashed under my cave for years, found it one afternoon rumaging through some caves in Nevada, funny thing though everything has a green glow tonight, why is that? Halon? You're the nuke guy. I guess I'll be spotted from outer space like Clint too.

 

[Grantc79]

For any of you that are interested I will be listing some carbon credits in the classified section of the forums.

Happy composting!

 

[stratman]

For any of you that are interested I will be listing some carbon credits in the classified section of the forums.

Happy composting!

How much are you asking? And how many can I get? Will they fit in my cave??

 

[gene]

Looks like there was some global participation after all. Nice symbolic gesture...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080330/ap_on_re_eu/world_lights_out

 

[chemrat]

Thanks for calling attention to Earth Hour

For those who wish to know more about Earth Hour, which started in Australia last year and went world-wide this year, there are web sites for the various continents. See www5.earthhourus.org/ for the Earth Hour link for North America.

Joking around is fine, but conservation is also serious business for all of us and the environment. Sometimes, symbolic acts can help educate people. I hope that is the case with Earth Hour. If you are turning off your lights, systems, etc., you are doing the right thing. Now, we just need to go in for solar theaters or wind theaters! No, not to pin your ears back with big speakers, but to power your homes and mine.

Speaking of which, wind and solar power are much more easily regulated than coal, for example. I don't know the facts about nuclear (read 'em and forgot). With the interconnectedness of the grid and the rolling, time-zone based and voluntary nature of the Earth Hour, I imagine that power will not go wasted- hopefully, much less of it will be wasted than normal.

Saving money is part of the whole equation. See greenchemistry.wordpress.com/2008/01/08/solar-power-now-cheaper-than-coal/ : panels made from the latest technology are cheaper than coal for generating electricity. So, as Germany has done and is doing, let's hope that we can ramp up solar power use all over the world. Let's also hope that the pollution in China from traditional polycrystalline silicon solar cells will cease! See greenchemistry.wordpress.com/2008/03/11/when-light-is-dark-waste-from-key-solar-cell-ingredient-damages-chinese-environment/

(no HD anything yet, but good 2-channel sound and a separate, modest TV/receiver system)