[VAXman(Admin)]

Originally Posted by TheFish

I don't know about this. when I go to bed, the only thing that has power is my microwave(clock) and my fridge. For about 7 - 8 hours every nite and M-F almost all day. I kinda think that covers me and most quite afew of others. If we turned those off the savings would be unmeasureable.

Ever see how much power is wasted at construction site? Multiple 500+ watt halogen lites running 24 hours. Shopping malls? The list goes on. To put this burden on John Q. Public is a tad pretentious.

If we could just power-down Al "I invented the internet" Gore's mansion, the fees on the world's carbon credit card could be vastly reduced.

The biggest offender, IMO, is the automobile; not the electric appliance. The coal and oil fired generation stations -- which are the issue here -- will continue to churn out power. Even if every appliance, device and light powered off of the electric grid was turned off, these power stations would not cut back... at least, not for an hour. The costs to turn them down and power them back up are enormous.

My house is filled with CFLs and the energy saving devices. Yes, the computers and disks spin 24x7 but the entire VAXcave is fed on a single 20A service. I don't commute to work; nor does the Mrs. Sadly, I seem to be chauffeuring my kids to work though. I only hope that won't be for the long run.