Wasting precious resources 😾

StripeyGran

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

Absolutely! I am horrified by the total rubbish that is on sale at this time of year.

I think the 'Christmas lights' on now are for Diwali a Festival of Lights. That is why we have had fireworks going off all over the place too. I have LED bulbs in all the lamps and ceiling lights in my house as they take up a lot less electricity. I still like to turn them off when not in use though. Maybe the office lights are LED?
I have solar lights in the garden but it is time to bring them in now as there is not enough sunlight. My poor husband has the job of taking all the rechargeable batteries out and charging them up for the battery operated Christmas lights indoors.
We do put Christmas lights outside which are mains operated but again they are LEDs and we have then on a timer. They reckon heating elements take up more electricity than LED lights. I only ever use my tumble dryer for towels. Everything else gets dried on clothes horses in the utility room if wet outside.
Instead of putting the large electric oven on I use my Ninja airfryer if only cooking for the two of us. I have a gas hob and a microwave.
I think my Steam generator iron probably uses quite a lot of energy.
I try to wash at lower temperatures and use Dettol laundry cleaner in the rinse.
We have a movement sensor on the outside security lights. Not sure what else I can do.

Maremia

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

Just maintaining emails across the UK takes 2.5% of all power used, so if just WE all cleared out old emails we could be helping reduce that.

A data centre also accounts for 360K litres of water a day for cooling.

No matter how nice the lChristmas lights are I agree they could cut down especially the Blackpool lights.

welshgirl2017

StripeyGran

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

Absolutely! The awful proliferation of so called 'halloween' tat is a danger to wildlife - birds and insects get caught up in this 'tat' or try to eat it and die, not to mention the increase in plastic rubbish.

Thank You! It's awful. A few years ago we were worrying about the disposal of yoghurt pots, now nobody cares.

I agree about Christmas lights. They are often switched on halfway through November. A lot of energy and council tax could be saved by not switching on until the first of December. Surely that's soon enough?

StripeyGran

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

Absolutely! The awful proliferation of so called 'halloween' tat is a danger to wildlife - birds and insects get caught up in this 'tat' or try to eat it and die, not to mention the increase in plastic rubbish.

I totally agree, we lived for a while in Durham city and you could clearly see all the rows of desks empty ! Yes, maybe the odd person may be working but honestly can't image anyone being around at midnight ? If people do need to work past say 6 or 7 pm then surely they could organise a 'night floor' to be lit or some sort of system. In this day and age there's no need to be so wasteful of our energy.

I worked nights for 16 years, in fact there was almost a full office

Magenta8

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.

You mean right now ?! In October?

Even if there are staff working in a building at night, surely the entire building is not manned and thus does not need to be lit up.

Lights ought to be turned off when people leave a room, either by the last person to leave (some hope, nobody below retirement age has been taught this), by a time switch or by a sensor.

Were people are working sitting at a desk or a machine their lamps should not be coupled to the sensors, but be on a time switch that the user of the desk can control.

Passage and stair lights, emergency exits and the like, should have low voltage lights.

Any government that says "Do as I say, not as I do," is as unworthy of respect as parents or teachers were, in the days when they commonly behaved as if they lived by that motto.

I have a very small very bright LED torch which I try and remember to keep in my handbag. In case of being plunged into darkenss in a loo or the Tube.
Also one on my bedside table. It is dazzlingly bright but effective.

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

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!!
.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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

What a nightmare

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😱🤣🤣🤣

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...

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 👏👏👏