How can we keep the lights on?

[Ray B]

As we head to 2015 our energy situation is going to get worse. Power stations fired by oil and coal are closing earlier than expected and due to the dithering of the government and power company bods over the last ten years we will now rely on imported gas.
As most of the gas will come from Russia and pass through the likes of Germany we find ourselves at the end of the pipeline and this can lead to the gas being tapped off along the route
If a power station was started to be built today it will be five or ten years before it will come on stream.
We are in a fuel crisis.

Ray

[Silver_Shiney]

There is so much waste.

I went past one of the Blockbuster stores last night. It's now closed, all the stock has gone, shelving units are in disarray - but thre are still lights on in the premises.

I've seen electrical shops with TVs running all night.

Haven't people heard of the "off" switch?

[Kendhni]

I worked for an electricity company for many years. Part of my role was 'last hope support' ... ie. if none of the other channels could sort it then it came to me, or one of my colleagues, because we had totally unrestricted access to the database and could interrogate it directly. During that time I saw many money saving tips in relation to energy usage by buying little devices or switching suppliers etc. etc.

That was ALL a total bunch of cr@p ... the best way to save money on energy is to USE LESS and the vast majority of people have a lot of scope to do this. For instance I live in a house of similar size to one of my brothers ... his electricity bill is about £120-140 per month, mine has just gone up to about £45 per month ... and that is despite me being a bit of a gadget freak (and no we don't live in the dark).

If everybody looked at their usage and used less energy then not only would it save them significant amounts of money but it might help alleviate the problem.

[Ray B]

It is good to turn off things that are not being used and thus save a bit of energy at home, but then to see all the office blocks and shopping malls at midnight with most of the lights on and just a few night workers inside to service them is a bit of a let down

Ray

[Quizzical Bob]

It may not be the case today, but fluorescent lights used to be left on in order to compensate for heavy machinery by correcting the power factor of the supply and ensure that the voltage and current were in phase. The other consideration iChat power stations need to run with some sort of ballast load at nighttime.

[Jacknian]

I work for a major retailer, and far from being wasteful with energy , we have targets to meet every month to save energy. Our store is open 24 hours but after 9pm half of our lights go off on the shop floor ,all of our back room areas have motion sensors so that if no one is in that area the lights go off ( sometimes inconvenient if I'm sitting still as after a few minutes I will be in darkness so I have to wave my arms around ! ) we have less heating in our staff areas at night, we all wear fleeces or jackets in the evening, also our store recycles all cardboard, plastic and paper, and there are reminders on all of our taps to turn off the water as soon as we're finished with it. So some stores are trying to do their bit but of course all shops need to do the same to make a big difference.

[Mervyn and Trish]

A lot of this problem seems to be another pile of EU poo! It's an EU directive that says we have to turn off our old power stations too soon. My solution would be simple. Put two fingers up to the EU, get on with building new power stations and turn the old ones off when the job's done, not before. Can you see the French or Germans letting their lights go out because we told them to!

On the energy saving front I have some sympathy with what Ken says - it seems our monthly bill is similar to his. However I believe that government ministers are in cloud cuckoo land when they tell us that in spite of soaring energy costs we will spend less because of improved insulation and efficiency.

My house already has double glazing, cavity wall insulation and more than the recommended amount of roof insulation. We have a modern energy efficient boiler, a fancy programmable thermostat that enables us to set a lower temperature during the day when we are active than when we are dossing around at night, thermostats on individual radiators, low energy bulbs in every fitting and other energy saving gizmos.

So what is left for me to do to compensate each time the energy companies whack 10% on the price?