"Earth Hour" & flashaholics?

[Benson]

Go plinking?

J/k, of course -- even if it's "for the earth", I don't think the laws make such exception...

[Bradlee]

...While electricity usage will hopefully be down by 5% again this year there is no guarantee CO2 emission will drop by a similar amount. As everyone with a fireplace knows it is quite difficult to shut down a fire immediately then bring it back to a full blaze an hour later. So the coal fired power plants might simply throttle back the turbines and generators and let the firebox alone. The excess energy is simply dumped into the cooling system heating up rivers, lakes, seas or air. The utility may not even bother to throttle back the generators simply letting the voltage go up. (From 110V to 125V for North American homes. As long as the voltage does not go above 125V the power plants do not have to do anything.)
If Earth Hour is extended to Earth Weekend the power plants will dampen down the fires for economic reasons. But they may not do it for just 1 hour...

Haha, so true. Regardless, I'll take any excuse to play with my lights .

[DaFABRICATA]

I'd like to participate just to show my neighbors how dark the street would be without me; I'm the only house on our cul de sac that leaves their outdoor lights on overnight (a trio of 26w/100w equiv lights), so I basically provide light for the entire area.

There's also a streetlight that's in front of my house - this nicely pours more lumens on top of what's already in my yard, but there's no way to turn it off. I've tried pointing the hotspot of the Stanley HID directly at the photo-switch, but apparently the streetlight manufacturers have done their homework.

Any ideas?

Look for a junction box and snip the wire...

[StarHalo]

Look for a junction box and snip the wire...

Have you seen the size of the bulbs in these streetlights? I won't be bothering those wires..





And there is a junction box just a yard away from the post; I'll bet you anything that there's a nice big breaker switch in there that would simplify things nicely, but the box cover is held in place with a single pentagon-head bolt - I could have it open in a few seconds with the Leatherman, but then it would be clear to any passing authority that it wasn't just some miscreant kid who randomly kicked off the cover..

Ah well, next year I'll plan ahead and put 150-watt HIDs in the house fixtures or something..

[Monocrom]

WOW I had no idea this was such a big deal here in NYC - its happening at 8:30pm here -

Here is a list of participating buildings in NYC: ...

I'm working Saturday night. If a ton of lights over at Manhattan go out, at least I'll know it's not a blackout.

I should probably bring a few extra lights with me. But most likely, I'll just bring along my Novatac 120P to supplement my EDC work light. (A Surefire E2E w/ TLS Q5 LED head).

Shouldn't be surprised that so many parts of NYC are participating in an event of pure symbolism over substance. Once Earth Hour is over, everything will go back to the way it was. Nothing will have changed for the better. But at least two groups of folks will feel better....

Flashaholics, for really getting a chance to use our lights. And everyone else... for feeling better about themselves, despite not actually having done anything regarding energy conservation.

[edc3]

My daughter and I are planning to get some snacks together and play cards by flashlight. Last year we lit some candles, but one of the cats got singed. Burning cat smells really bad.

My daughter will be using her purple E01 and I'll be wearing my new Mako around my neck.

[sygyzy]

We had major blackouts here about 6 months ago due to raging wildfires. I have no shortage of lights but they are meant to be singular beams, not light up a room. Are there any cheap and easy tricks I can use to make flashlights more usable in a dark room? Basically, I want the light to spread all over and be used in a way that nobody ever has to look directly at it. Or if they did, they wouldn't see a blazing LED. I am looking for something more creative that "tailstand"

[StarHalo]

Are there any cheap and easy tricks I can use to make flashlights more usable in a dark room?

Set your lights atop high items like bookshelves and cabinets, pointed towards the ceiling for a nice reflected/ambient effect.

If you need to diffuse a light, wrap a piece of paper into a cone and set it over your tailstanding flashlight (or cone a subscription card from a magazine and just set it on the light). Frosted mugs/glasses/vases work nicely here too.

[NonSenCe]

during earth hour i sat in dark sauna with my tk11 aimed to the ceiling.

*didnt bother to change the bulb today either so took the fenix with me again*

[Benson]

Maybe trying to strap all my regularly used lights on my person isn't such a good idea most of the time, but for Earth Hour, nothing is too silly.

With a Garrity headlamp and a couple wristbanded 1x10440s on full-blast, and two hotwires and at least a half dozen random LED flashlights at the ready (and of course, a Stanley HID over one shoulder), this is turning into a pointless, but inordinately fun exercise in lumen squandrage. I think my kitchen illumination is actually using even more power than it normally does...

Pointless gestures FTW!

[cave dave]

Single compact florescent = 15W

Oh I can beat that easy with flashlights

[bullfrog]

Well, we have a malkoff M60WL on an 18650 bouncing off the ceiling, a glo-toob lithium in the bathroom and the wife is wearing a petzl e+lite while eating pasta (she said this was "fun").

Earth hour RULES!!!

[edc3]

...this is turning into a pointless, but inordinately fun exercise in lumen squandrage. I think my kitchen illumination is actually using even more power than it normally does...

Lumen squandrage! I like that.

[foxtrot29]

I'd like to participate just to show my neighbors how dark the street would be without me; I'm the only house on our cul de sac that leaves their outdoor lights on overnight (a trio of 26w/100w equiv lights), so I basically provide light for the entire area.

There's also a streetlight that's in front of my house - this nicely pours more lumens on top of what's already in my yard, but there's no way to turn it off. I've tried pointing the hotspot of the Stanley HID directly at the photo-switch, but apparently the streetlight manufacturers have done their homework.

Any ideas?

No legal ideas anyway! hahaha

I'm fortunate in this regard. No street lights where I live, and for the most part it's pitch black outside in my neighbourhood, and definitely on my property. Need flashlights for all outdoor activities here!

[Sub_Umbra]

I'm using flashlights tonight the way I always do. I'm using interior lights tonight the way I always do. My outside light is on. In fact, all of the lights in my block are on. It doesn't seem to be much of an event in my neighborhood.

[foxtrot29]

I'm using flashlights tonight the way I always do. I'm using interior lights tonight the way I always do. My outside light is on. All of the lights in my block are on.

My street was mostly black, as it usually is.

I turned off our upstairs lights as I often do, since we mostly hang out in our basement (which is our main living room!).

[Flying Turtle]

Completely forgot about it. Guess I'll be getting a letter from the eco-patrol. Well, I more than made up for it earlier this week by going a couple days not turning on lights while my wife was out of town.

Geoff

[callmaster]

I was out for dinner during Earth hour. The restaurant didn't switch off the lights. Would have been hard to eat if it did :P

As it is, just a block away there's this consortium of shopping malls, medical centers and hotels, etc that shut down everything cept for their most important hardware,etc so that place was pretty dark. Too bad I missed it though. I had 3 lights on me for dinner.

[zx7dave]

19 Surefires, all bored out and running 18650's, some Milky's, some Malkoff's all tail-standing at various points around the house...I have to say I think it is brighter than when I run my normal lights....definately enjoying my Earth Hour (brought to you by a laptop on battery power and a wireless air card). Enjoy all...

[ackbar]

I was in Starbucks with the guys tonight just before earth hour and some random guy came up to us asked what was the best light to get under 20 bucks

We did walk around the High Park area during earth hour and I personally wasn't that impressed with the turnout. still WAY TOO MANY LIGHTS ON

The actual hike inside High Park was awesome as usual tho.

[Sub_Umbra]

....during earth hour and I personally wasn't that impressed with the turnout. still WAY TOO MANY LIGHTS ON ...

I can only assume that since that post has been up for 11 hours and the poster has not been admonished for injecting his political views...what he said must not be political. Cool. It's good to know where the boundries are.

I think that there were WAY TOO FEW LIGHTS ON last night

[Benson]

I can only assume that since that post has been up for 11 hours and the poster has not been admonished for injecting his political views...what he said must not be political. Cool. It's good to know where the boundries are.

That's not political; that's just common sense. All lights should be out, so our flashlights show up better!

I think that there were WAY TOO FEW LIGHTS ON last night

THAT's not political, either; that's SACRILEGE.

(Seriously, from the context, I think the motivation was cool-chance-to-play-with-flashlights-foiled rather than political. Your comment, otoh, has no obvious motivation... )

[Superdave]

I had my P7 mag on low and in candle mode on my coffee table. was plenty of light.


after an hour the heatsink wasn't even warm.. lol

[LEDninja]

Earth hour was a bust in Hamilton.

So I grabbed my P7 M@g and went for a stroll. Did not need it.

[Monocrom]

Earth hour was a bust in Hamilton...

Not much of a success here in NYC either. Saw a couple of buildings on Manhattan island that were dark. But most were lit up.

[mdocod]

Get a good headlamp and you can have earth hour every hour for as long as you want

[bloke-gear.com]

Was a good chance to drain the remaining life out of some partially used CR123A's. Can't wait for the next one.

[Lightcrazycanuck]

Why would I need my flashlight when every light in the house is on?

[cistallus]

And ... it's here again - March 26, 8:30pm local time (per earthhour.org) - any excuse to play with lights! For a whole hour! :-)

[Monocrom]

Shouldn't be surprised that so many parts of NYC are participating in an event of pure symbolism over substance. Once Earth Hour is over, everything will go back to the way it was. Nothing will have changed for the better. But at least two groups of folks will feel better....

Flashaholics, for really getting a chance to use our lights. And everyone else... for feeling better about themselves, despite not actually having done anything regarding energy conservation.

Just wanted to re-mention all of that.

My opinion hasn't changed from 2 years ago, and never will. I can say that with confidence.