Will you join The Big Power Off?

Nope, won't be doing owt.

Asking my 93 year old FinL to sit for 10 minutes in the dark is a no, and our systems are connected.

I keep on trying to turn the heating off. Now the warmer weather has come this will be easy.
I saw a documentary on TV about fuel poverty which featured a young mother with two small kids. She was complaining she had to choose between food and heating the home. All three were wearing t shirts , no warm layers at all.. Ignorance of practical self and family health and care is a major cause of energy waste.

I think, it should be more like 30 minutes, or at least long enough for the freezer to keep stuff frozen. But, aside from that, I saw something this morning saying that the huge solar flare that has been talked about for weeks is going to happen on Thursday 14th, not sure of exact time and could mean all comms go down, no idea how long for. If that happens don't panic, don't start thinking the world is going to end. There are solar flares often but this ones a 'biggie' supposedly.

Well it’s clearly a daft idea so no I won’t.

No, absolutely not.

LizzieDrip the effect on the energy suppliers will be zilch. It will only affect the National Grid because they own the electricity transmission system and control the balance of power that goes into the system, they are doing this all the time. Wind power is a very unstable form of power, sudden big gusts can send a wind farms production sky high , a sudden languor and production can drop by half. The NG are managing this sort of variation all the time. Gas fired power stations have adapted to having power turned on or off like a light bulb

Have a look at this link gridwatch.co.uk/ and see how power supply varies during the day. Does anyone think anyone will even notice that this planned event is happening.

I cannot see the point of a gesture, when no one at whom it is aimed will even notice it is happening. Classic virtue signalling, makes the participants feel virtuous, but is completely unnoticed by anyone else.

No, I won’t join in.

Second para, take 'because not only ' out of first line

Coco51 This is exactly the point I have tried to make. The only people who will suffer if this campaign is effective will be those customers who are vulnerable, because they relie on medical equipment, because they need supervision or will be terrified by the lights going out, then there are Care hmes and nursing homes, schools and nurseries, shops and businesses.

I do not oppose this scheme because not only because iit is ineffectual but because it will be counter productive, doing most damage to those who will most suffer if there is a power cut and none at all to the energy system in this country, neither National Grid, nor those who supply or sell energy. The National Grid just owns the transmission system, others supply the energy.

And of course, lots of diesel generators will be turned on to provide emergency back up for hospitals and the National Grid will probably be using diesel generation sets to get the Grid working again - and we all know how polluting diesel engines are, whether in cars or generating electricity.

Has anyone considered the effect on those people who rely on electricity for life preserving equipment? It seems pretty childish to manufacture a huge surge which could cause power cuts - ultimately a good deal more inconvenient.

I agree, MOnica and volver, it won’t impact the energy companies or even the government, but I don’t believe that is the point of the action. The aim is the message; the communal voice; the process. Essentially, we are powerless against the energy companies - at least this action conveys a message. It’s not about messing up the national grid etc!

Sometimes doing something is better than doing nothing

Even if it's just the environmental that gets the benefit

I don't think its pointless virtue signalling, I think its about trying to do something important.

But I agree with M0nica in that it won't have the effect they think it will.

When many people speak out, their voices have a powerful effect on receivers. Often movements that appear to start out as ‘virtue signalling’ actually go on to make a difference. IMO.

Pointless virtue signalling, as M0nica says above.

LizzieDrip someone mentioned not clapping for COvid and i just commented on that, which is entirely approriate and within the rules of GN.

Nothing any of us do will cause the National Grid any problem. They have been prepared for instability, surges and the opposite since we began to depend on wind as a source of energy. they have systems in place and run exercises to cover all possibilities.

In the very unlikely event that the number of people making this gesture, led to a bigger loss of power than can happen when there are sudden surges as a result of the natural variation in wind power and there is a grid collapse, the only people to suffer will be the consumer. NG will just automatically put into action all those procedures it has long practised and be prepared for and get the grid up and running again.

As it is, I doubt anyone will notice, or be inconvenienced, least of all the National Grid.

I'd happily do this every day for half an hour, we love an excuse to make hot chocolate, lights some candles and get the board games out

I've already done my big switch-off. Before setting off for a 3 month visit to my family in Australia I switched off my (emptied) fridge/freezer and gas boiler. It should save me quite a bit of cash. I didn't switch off at the mains, as people will be popping in to keep an eye on the place.
I will have to cause my own mini-surge when I get back and switch on. ?

M0nica with the greatest respect and sincere condolences for the tragedy you suffered, but the topic of this thread is not ‘clapping for Covid’, it is the ‘Big Power Off’.

I did not clap for COVID, the doctors not fighting COVID were busy trying to kill my daughter by neglect.

Thank God the Jarrow Marchers of the 1930s didn’t have the defeatist attitude displayed by some here. What if they’d said it was too inconvenient to March from Jarrow to London; won’t make any difference; it’s a ‘futile gesture’?

Despite the initial sense of failure among the marchers, in subsequent years, the Jarrow March became recognised by historians as a defining event of the 1930s. It helped to foster the change in attitudes which prepared the way to social reform measures after the Second World War, which their proponents thought would improve working conditions

History is littered with similar acts of solidarity. What on earth has happened to UK society today?

Nope. next question

I didn't clap for covid either

I have to say though that about 20 years ago in Canada the whole country went on strike for one day just because they put the tax up on cigarettes.

Wales!!! They don't even pay for their prescriptions or for parking in Hospitals so they can use that money to pay for their extra power costs. Joking aside, (and that was a joke) I would do it if I thought the whole country (UK) was doing it and not just bits of it. I cant see what use it will be it there was only a handful of people for just 10 minutes.