Turning Off Electricity Around The UK | Bang Goes The Theory | Earth Science 

Its about 27 degress here near london im sweating my tits of m8

MaxFist It's more of a commercial and city thing. Places with lots of people or equipment like computers spewing out heat gets to be a big problem even outside of summer time in some cases. For the average house that on average hase fewer people living in it then rooms an no heat intensive equipment outside the kitchen it's not such a problem.

callum hill Ha so summer came late to London, we 'ad 25 last week. Yeah, that's reasonable. I just made a funny, is all.

Its nearly 30 degrees here in the east of england and its bloody humid. That's why we need it in the UK.

30 degrees is nothing.

gollumondrugs If someone makes a buck while saving the planet then who cares?

gollumondrugs this is about grid safety and not about saving the planet. have you actually watched the video or don't you have a brain?

gollumondrugs there is no saving at all - just load distribution. Turn off ac for an hour - means that it will have to work harder to break even and normalize temp after you turn it on - using more energy.

Mauro Tamm Well if you can manage your power consumption efficiently it's a kind of saving. And the AC will have to work harder afterwards but it will be doing it when there is enough energy. I guess when there is a peak of demand they will need to turn on more generators (or import energy from another country if that's an option) and keeping additional generators running or ready or running them for a short period of time is not efficient.

gollumondrugs How do you think we are going to save the planet? By creating economic incentives that's how.

smart grids will give the government and power companies something to lord over the people and make them submit.

Cristi Neagu " AC at home for an hour during mid summer? " This is England. Most homes don't have AC.

***** In any building I've been to, you can turn the heating off for an hour and the temperature won't drop very much. The hot water that flows through the heaters doesn't instantly go cold when you tunt off the heating. It's still a cool way to slightly reduce power load at pek times.

EngeKomkommer I don't have AC in my home either, but what i can tell you is that if you're used to living with AC, turning it off is not pleasant at all, especially if the house you live in wasn't designed to have natural circulation. ***** I will assume that you mean to shut off heating during the winter. And no, this is not equivalent. Because in the winter the sun's rays don't freeze whatever they fall on. During the summer you have a greenhouse effect indoors. What is the equivalent mechanism during winter that cools down a house rapidly, even with the windows closed?

***** _"WHAT??? no insulation is perfect, any house will leak heat during winter"_ How long does it take for a house at normal temperature to cool down to an uncomfortable level in the winter, and how long does it take for the same house to heat up to an uncomfortable level during the summer? Because from my own experience, heat inside a house at winter will last for at least 8 hours, while the same house will heat up to an unbearable level in 1 hour or so. How can you even compare these two scenarios? _" the cost of maintaining equilibrium is always the same - simple thermodynamics."_ It's not the same, actually. You need to take into account the means by which energy is delivered to either heat the house in summer or cool the house in the winter. During the winter all you have is cool air outside, cooling the windows mainly who cool the air inside the house. Also, cool air might be leaking through. This is analogous to the summer, where you have hot air heating the windows and in turn, the air inside. However, during the summer, you also have the sun's radiation creating a greenhouse effect, heating the house much much faster. Heating in the summer occurs much faster than cooling in the winter. _"the energy requirements, again all things being equal, are the same."_ But all things aren't equal, because the sun does not freeze things in the summer. In any case, this whole point is irrelevant. It doesn't matter if you cool the air, or heating it up, or whatever. Office buildings need to be ventilated, no matter the season. You have hundreds of people working in tight quarters, usually a long way away from any windows. If you turn off AC and ventilation, you'll be suffocating those people.

And i am still kinda perplexed why we're arguing about heating and cooling and whatnot, and not discussing the actual issue. The solution these people found has a lot of problems, and it won't work in the long run. Efficiency is the key, both in producing the power and in using it.

starlingrad411 "If"

AshyLarry yeah true, its probly pretty secure too, i live in AUS so gg

***** No it's not, it reduces the energy surplus that is usually wasted to ensure any rapid spikes in demand are met by reducing those spikes.

***** You have to understand that the grid operates in "real time" so to speak. There is hardly any energy storage systems in place to store power for when it's needed therefore if power isn't being used then its wasted. This will reduce costs for now until there is better implementation of energy storage devices e.g. Tesla Powerwall becomes a mainstream technology.

Formulka In the typical sense you are correct, but when it comes to large buildings the air conditioning units are used for heating/cooling, cleaning the air (filtration), air circulation and increasing/decreasing humidity. They units they use are not typical A/C units, they have a different name, cant remember what it is though. Air conditioning generally just refers to something that alters the air in some way.

MrClean417 God forbid we be more efficient.

***** To be fair I did comment before the video had finished however I doubt I would of retained that information regardless

Heres an idea already being tried. Hydroelectric plants that pump up water into reservoirs using grid power during low demand hours. Then during high demand peak load you run the dam in reverse and get lots of power when you need it. No need for batteries.

james m Hope not, you are comparing lovely 25 degrees summers to 45 degrees here.

No, What I meet that Technology can Help people Save power and so we do need spend money burning coal or gas .As for 45 Degrees Summer Days I get you Point

james m I think education and incentives for using minimal power and better ways of doing it. As someone that is studying Computer Networking, I would hate it if the power company accidentally cut my power.

Yes, Get you point. But How many TV get left on Standby power.

Cadde I think the point is that they spread out the usage over time, while they may shut off every air conditioner under this system during extreme peaks not everyone will be under this system, the air conditioners are then turned back on as the peak subsides.

Shhh do not spoil the false fun they are getting. They are like children..

seeindarkness So reduce the wastage then, why is that so bad.

sorry to inform you, but the big bad government already does. they own all the energy companies. time to get out the hamster wheel I think for you

I fully agree. Bring back British Gas and bring back British Electric!

***** We lack the ability to story vast amounts of electrical energy, the only way to deal with energy spikes before was to increase production which when the spike had subsided all that energy gets wasted. This way we can deal with spikes more efficiently (and cheaply). The famous example is people turning on kettles during ad breaks of favourite shows. During the 2002 England Vs Brazil world cup match an extra 2570 MW was needed during half-time. Companies had to predict this and generate more power to meet demand, and it's not as simple as flipping a switch, this is. If this system had been in place we could have instead cut unneeded power elsewhere. It's very a clever idea and a good stop gap in along the way to a more energy efficient future.

lytexotic Pop quiz Who invented electricity?

Matt Hsv Did you actually watch the video or are you just commenting based on the title?

***** To save energy?

***** They explained in the video that it's to allocate the power to other buildings when the grid is under full usage. Not many companies really do that, just take a look at powerfactor.

***** Well I'm also an electrician, but to put it simply, if it saves energy and nobody notices it, why does it matter? We then don't have to change the grid for a longer time as we're being more efficient with our power, sorta like how diversity works.

From the looks of it it's a private company doing it, so it's not really about how much it costs, it's obviously self-sustaining. I understand that we need more energy, but there are companies wasting megawatts of energy on things that make no difference, so that sorta gives us more energy as it's energy we didn't have before.