Earth Hour … Why I Kept It Burning

Earth Hour … the hour for tree-huggers to switch off the lights and

* Take a photo on the night, upload it to flickr and add it to Earth Hour’s flickr group and tag it with your city and country.
* Make a video of your event, upload it to YouTube and add it to our YouTube group.
* Write a live blog post during the event and tag it with earthhour or voteearth, and your location.
* Update your Twitter on the night and write #earthhour or #voteearth and your #location in your update to tag it.

according to their official Earth Hour website anyway.

I applaud those who did their part in reducing energy consumption, and I think,as a whole, moderate energy consumption is the way to go.

On earth day, I left the lights on;  I prefer to have earth day everyday.  This is my energy footprint:

1. Lights
   – Single fluorescent tube: 80W ~ 100W
2. Ventilation
   – Fan1 – ~45W (60W on max)
   – Fan2 – 85W (100W on max)
3. Computers & others
   – 65W
   – 40W
   – 4W
   – 3.43W

This gives an hourly min total power usage of 322.43Wh or max of 352.43Wh.
Let’s assume that the device power ratings are off by a margin of 10%, so I incur a worse energy footprint, bumping that up to 400Wh.

Air-Conditioners – The Real Power Guzzler

Compare that to say an airconditioner:

(Each value or range corresponds to power consumption for a model)
Non-invertor single-split: 2.62, 3.58, 5.3, 6.6 kW
Non-invertor multi-split: 2.56 – 5.94 kW
Invertor single-split: 1.2 – 3.2, 1.4 – 4.0, 1.5 – 5.9, 1.5 – 6.5, 2.1 – 7.6 kW
Invertor multi-split: 1.52 – 6.90 1.52 – 6.90 1.60 – 8.75 1.60 – 8.80 1.95 – 10.45 kW

Add this to whatever you are already using, and you find that turning off that 100w lamp for one hour is more of a symbolic gesture than anything.

If you really want to save earth, cut down on that airconditioner today and start reducing energy consumption EVERYDAY!

In Reflection

It is perhaps easier to just turn off the lamps for one hour, in that one day, and if the site is still around and remembered, again next year.  It is easier than to do it every day.

In a similar vein, it is easier to go for that one day or one week intensive meditation retreat, than to just do 15 mins or half hour of quiet meditation or reflection daily.  But we should start somewhere, and if the annual retreat is your thing, go for it.

Like Earth Hour, that may flower into a consistent daily regime, a lifestyle that is mindful and calming.
And as someone suggested,
while you turn off the lights, why not meditate? 🙂

References

• How Much Power Does My Laptop Really Use?

• P3 International P4400 Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor

• For air con power ratings, I referred to a common air con manufacturer’s website.  You can google it for more info.