Earth's Visibility Equals Wasted Energy

Discussion in 'General Science & Technology' started by Success_Machine, Jul 16, 2001.

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  1. Success_Machine Impossible? I can do that Registered Senior Member

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    Canada is closer to a 100% renewable electrical infrastructure than almost another other country in the world with 60% of its power supplied by hydroelectric. However to completely eliminate Canada's dependence on coal, diesel & nuclear power by replacing them with wind turbines would be an impossibly expensive proposition. It would require the construction of 740,000 large 600-kilowatt offshore wind turbines at a cost of $1740 Canadian funds per person per year. That is the cost to every man, woman and child in Canada.

    A better solution would be energy efficiency. Simply reducing electrical consumption generally by 40 percent would achieve the same thing. One way to help achieve this is to buy LED lights which are by far the most luminous form of lighting for the amount of power they consume, on the order of 30-times more efficient than the typical incandescent light. Also many light fixtures are purchased based on their attractiveness during the day irrespective of how efficient or functional they are at night. Therefore another way to increase lighting efficiency is to buy reflectors for lights so that all of the light produced is reflected downwards. Otherwise 50 percent or more of the light - and energy - escapes into space!

    Incidentally the following composite photograph of Earth's cities at night is an excellent example of wasted energy. Imagine how far away this "light pollution" can be seen!

    http://www.space.com/cgi-bin/click2wallpaper.pl?picture=/entertainment/downloads /spaceart/images/earthatnight_1280.jpg
     
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  3. Turbine Registered Senior Member

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    Full Power

    Check out an older post of mine in General......
    near the bottom of the first page, called,"Check this Out" (June)
    ********************
    Where does most of your electricity come from? Gas or steam
    turbine generators? Wind ? Hydro?
    ********************
    To your knowledge, is anyone toying with Hot Cell technology?
     
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  5. kmguru Staff Member

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    The link does not work as listed, here it is again:

    http://www.space.com/cgi-bin/click2...nloads//spaceart/images/earthatnight_1280.jpg

    Now, Lights from India is almost same as Easten Europe or Texas. That can not be. Somebody screwed up with their exposure setting.

    Neverthless, if we take conservation to the extreme, we should start using candles like the good old days. That way one candle per room will be one watt per room. We could save 200 times less energy. On the otherhand these lights are from commercial installations such as roads and buildings. If we take out those lights or reduce it drastically, all commerce will stop, crime will be rampant.

    OR we could make a law that everybody has to stay home after dark (like curfew). Then lights will be turned off at all business locations and we can save so much money that it will put us back into the good old days.

    Sometimes conservation, though with good intentions produce diminishing returns to the point of creating burden to the society. That does not mean there are ways to do something. But it has to be taken with the greater context like available of technology and Return on Investment and the societies need for Las Vegas! (which does not show up as bright as I thought)

    We at home use fluoroscent lamps and outside mercury vapor lamps which does save us money. But we spend our savings in airconditioning. Now, here since our AC compressor is outside, we use a softwater mist to get improved efficiency. I agree with SM, that most light based energy is wasted by home/apartment dwellers but not as the picture suggests.
     
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  7. Chagur .Seeker. Registered Senior Member

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    Just as a point of information:

    Many modern buildings have been designed so that the lighting contributes to the heating. You figure.
     
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