How much energy would we save?

Question

If everyone in the U.S. switched off their power for one hour a day and ate dinner by candlelight?

Answer 1

Are you asking how much energy would we save if everone turned off 1 light for an hour? I save alomost 1kwh per day just unplugging things when I'm not using them.

Answer 2

But not everyone is going to do that (and saving energy is not something we should even care all that much about, it's only a way to save money).

All that such idiocy would ever accomplish is to make people feel good about doing almost nothing and then they would be perfectly satisfied that they've done their bit to save the planet.

It's just a stupid stunt that shouldn't be bothered with (provided the government doesn't fall for it only those who want inconvenience will have trouble so it's much better than the stupid proposals of making a city car free for a day and then letting people use an already overcrowded public transport system instead that some seem to think a good idea).

Oh and to answer another person's question about how much energy each house could produce with one solar panel, not even close to enough to make a difference, 0.4% with over-optimistic assumptions just isn't going to cut it.

Answer 3

Not all that much

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You would have to have all the industries shut down also

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And government buildings shut down

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More or less every switch in the country would have to be flipped off to even notice a difference

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And even then the power plants would still be putting out electric power to no body for the one hour so

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I'd say in the long run not enough to notice a thing

Sorry but good idea a mass power outage would do just about as much

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endues panic

Answer 4

In the United States, buildings account for 36% of total energy use; 65% of electricity consumption; 30% of greenhouse gas emissions; 30% of raw materials use; 30% of waste output/136 million tons annually and 12% of potable water consumption.  

This said, not switching on power one day is not going to have any significant impact on the planet if there is no change in usage pattern on other days. It will definitely grab headlines though.

What is needed, is thinking out plausible and possible ways to reduce energy consumption.

You could use CFC bulbs, not leave your computer on standby mode;use solar lightening, go for natural lightening during the day etc.

  

Answer 5

I have another good question.If all the USA residents use Solar Energy for lighting.How much energy would we Save?

Answer 6

i think it would make more of an impact if everyone ate one meatless meal per day.

but like the other guy said - then we'd have to get the meat plant to shut down, the grocery store to not sell the meat, people to not turn on the stove, etc etc etc

Answer 7

I think that would help a lot

Answer 8

I don't know how you would measure that. but it does sound romantic, of course that could cause another baby boom.

here is another Idea, how much extra electricity could we produce by every house having one solar panel?