Wasting precious resources 😾

Perhaps we could dial down the Christmas and Halloween tat while we are at it.

I LOVE the Christmas and Halloween tat, but do agree some lights need switching off in office buildings.

Some reasons. Staff who work in the evenings and through the night, cleaning and maintenance staff, security and security patrols, lighting systems that are complex and costly to power down, emergency regulations that require lighting to be on at all times.

And are they powered from a different city sometimes? So makes things more awkward?

We have some spectacular lit up front garden Christmas decorations round where I live. I admit it brightens up the dark days but the Scrooge in me can't help seeing it as a huge waste of electricity.

PaynesGrey

Some reasons. Staff who work in the evenings and through the night, cleaning and maintenance staff, security and security patrols, lighting systems that are complex and costly to power down, emergency regulations that require lighting to be on at all times.

In which case it might be an idea for the government to be requiring more energy self sufficiency wherever possible in these buildings.

I work in a northern city, in the winter it is dark by 3:30pm, I am part of a global team so I am often still on calls later, we have movement sensors on our lighting often I will be sitting still behind a monitor and I get plunged into darkness and have to wave my arms to get light and our office is a listed building and they were able to install that, so no excuse for new buildings.

We have movement sensors in our office, they are utterly awful.

Working life is not anywhere as near 9am to 5pm as it used to be.

PaynesGrey

Some reasons. Staff who work in the evenings and through the night, cleaning and maintenance staff, security and security patrols, lighting systems that are complex and costly to power down, emergency regulations that require lighting to be on at all times.

Security lighting yes, there are numerous safety lighting systems which active with heat and movement, so nobody would ever be in the dark.

We were looking into office buildings (we were on a high floor with good all round visibility) floor after floor of empty desks, with all lights on.

fancythat

Working life is not anywhere as near 9am to 5pm as it used to be.

Agreed, but London like many other cities is mostly hybrid working and hot desking, very few people are on the office five days/nights a week.

Seb1

I work in a northern city, in the winter it is dark by 3:30pm, I am part of a global team so I am often still on calls later, we have movement sensors on our lighting often I will be sitting still behind a monitor and I get plunged into darkness and have to wave my arms to get light and our office is a listed building and they were able to install that, so no excuse for new buildings.

Sebl well done your company 👏👏👏

fancythat

Working life is not anywhere as near 9am to 5pm as it used to be.

Yep.....that's true for sure.

I was a personal secretary through to clerical work of one type or another. Therefore my hours were 9am-5pm Monday-Friday or very much in the region of....

But there was enormous pressure over the years to extend workhours to earlier at one end of the day, later at the other end of the day and include weekends.

I had quite a fight on my hands personally to stay working normal office hours - as a lot of pressure was put on (eg to swop from an office to a factory called a "call centre"). Yep....same building - but it would have been effectively swopping from office work to factory work as I saw it - and managed to keep that at bay and refuse to do it.

Yep...then there were the cleaners coming in at the end of the "office hours" section of the day...

Galaxy

We have movement sensors in our office, they are utterly awful.

I was once plunged into darkness alone at the end of the day in the disabled toilet, dealing with my “equipment”.

You had to go out into the main washbasin area to make the lights come on again.

In retrospect I was glad I was alone😱🤣🤣🤣

What a nightmare

Hearing reports that data centres use up an awful lot of energy and water.

fancythat

And are they powered from a different city sometimes? So makes things more awkward?

No. They are all powered from the national grid.
There’s this little device called a switch which we all have in our homes. We use them as leaving them all on costs us money.
But, when it’s the taxpayer paying for it nobody gives a ( insert your own word here.

Some public places[dont know how large they have to be] have their power altered by a city many miles away.

Maremia

Hearing reports that data centres use up an awful lot of energy and water.

In 2023 Google used 6 billion gallons of water to cool all its data hubs.
With AI galloping a pace tgey are going to have to come up with a plan B otherwise we will all have to choose between reading GN or having a shower.
For some years there have been towns in the US who literally have to buy bottled water because these hubs.
My plan B would be desalination plants. But hang on, they take an enormous amount of energy. And round and round it goes.

You’d best not visit my area GG……..the number of streetlights illuminated in daylight hours is mind boggling! I know they’re low energy bulbs BUT a considerable number lit up all at once soon bumps up the cost of energy and it means they aren’t lit up at night when they’re needed because they’re on timers!
And I have complained to the county council dozens of times to no avail!
I detest waste in any shape or form and I object most strongly to my council tax being wasted on lighting up streets in daylight hours!

Galaxy

We have movement sensors in our office, they are utterly awful.

Movement sensors are a great thing when they work. Having to wave your arms around when plunged into darkness is a small price to pay. Unfortunately I was plunged into darkness in a publc toilet. I was in a cubicle and waving my arms around had no effect as presumably the sensors were in the main area. There was no natural lightand it was a very scary experience. I'd never used that particular facility before and probably won't again! The timers clearly did not leave the lights on long enough.

Years ago, i wrote to my local MP asking if the (then a Tory government) asking if there could be a policy to stop premises from wasting electricity) the reply was NO. I think large premises should have sensors - we had them in our stationery cupboard.(basically a small office area). They worked fine. I think people would pay more attention to a shop or block of offices which are normally dark suddenly becoming light inside.

GrannyGravy13

The chances are that many people might still be at their desks. Plus cleaning staff and security who might find it difficult to work in the dark!!
.

Maybe the lights have to be kept on to use up all the electricity that Ed Miliband is generating from his wind farms and solar panels