Earth Hour 2009

Our Earth Hour Results & some numbers to ponder upon.

First of all I have to say that taking part in last nights Earth Hour was enlightening. It totally eliminates that whole "I am just one person, or one household - what difference is what I do going to make" excuse, if I were of that mindset to begin with.

Our little households 'Earth Hour' results are in.

There were just 3 of us at home, & in the hour preceding the official start we ran on as usual.
We used 2 units of power.... a cost of about 54 cents.

At 8.30pm everything in the house was turned off at the wall - radio alarm clocks, computers, water heating etc & all lights. What we did leave on was the TV, because we were snuggling up & watching it for an hour, & also the microwave & fridge because we couldn't get to the switches without moving them first.

In the hour that 'almost' everything was off we used 1/10th of a unit - or 2.7 cents.
Ok relatively 'small stuff'.

But think on this:
New Zealand has a population of just 4,302,754. There are approximately 1,600,000 homes/dwellings. If we average out the numbers for the sake of ease - that is 3,000,040 units of power, or a monetary amount of $776,000.00 if every household turned 'almost' everything off for just one hour.
Imagine if all of the offices, businesses & huge buildings turned off all their lights & appliances as well.

For the sake of carbon emissions in New Zealand we probably haven't saved a whole heap during that hour - most of our power is hydro generated.
In the grand scheme of things though, that would be astounding savings.
It has certainly made me more aware .

Of course there is the fact that I just plain old don't like giving the greedy, sneaksy power companies money.