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Where does the power go when I save it?
Perry Mowbray:
I'd like to know where the power goes when I save it, say by using energy efficient light bulbs, or reducing my usage (e.g. Earth Hour)?
On March 31 2007, for one hour, Sydney made a powerful statement about the greatest contributor to global warming – coal-fired electricity – by turning off its lights. Over 2.2 million Sydney residents and over 2,100 businesses switched off, leading to a 10.2% energy reduction across the city. What began as one city taking a stand against global warming caught the attention of the world.-Earth Hour
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OK, assuming that the figures are right, what happened to that 10.2% of electricity?
I pretty sure that we don't have storage devices to cope with that amount of power (in New Zealand I think they use the excess power, say at night, to pump water up hill to produce hydro power later on), so I would have thought that the power is either wasted before it gets into the grid or it's wasted at the other end?
For power not to be wasted would mean that the power would have to not be produced in the first place. I'm not sure what sort of lead time they'd need to adjust the production on that scale??
Anybody got any clues?
lanux128:
AFAIK, all power that is generated - whether they are from hydroelectric or fossil fuel (diesel, coal, etc) - goes waste unless it is kept in a 'reserve' pack aka batteries. the amount of reserve varies from country to country from 20% to 40%. no one actually knows how much is needed, it's all estimates. that's we have brown-outs, when demand outstrips supply temporarily. of course, all these i came to know only from the newspapers because our monolithic power company is raising their tariff beginning this July. >:(
tomos:
cant really answer your questions
I suspect it would be a slow change - but if consumption were reduced they would follow cause of wasted costs.
I've heard that if everyone in Germany regularly turned off all appliances instead of leaving them on standby, we'd need one less nuclear powerstation -
I presume that's an estimate but makes you [me!] think
lanux128:
btw, also check out this website. 8)
• Saving Electricity and Power Consumption.
Perry Mowbray:
Thanks Lanux: just searched Google for something like you mentioned in Aus: not a lot :(
Tomos: I've been looking at where my power disappears to lately, and I was a little shocked to find out that my computer uses 11W even when it is turned off and powered down!! Not sure when the term Vampire Power was crated, but I was shocked to find some lurking in my home! But one whole power plant seems a lot?? I now turn my stuff off at the wall.
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