i agree with ceridwen that turning everything off and living without any electricty for an hour once a year would be a very powefull symbolic act, and actually could be very enjoyable, think of the happy hours spent camping, when forced to sit around and play traditional games and chat to each other by torchlight…

and ceridwen keep up your good work on MSE

helen

I mostly read by windup head torch for the hour and did some gardening jobs, some yoga, and tidied up our room. I also took a stroll a few blocks around mainstreet Hamilton Bermuda. There did seem to be quite a lot of lights off but not nearly enough. I appreciate the statement of solidarity with those fighting to deal with climate change but Earth Hour should provoke change.

Myself, I intend to be more careful about turning off power strips, and thus all the devices attached to them. I already read by windup headtorch most nights and will continue to. I never use the tumble dryer as we have very high quality solar drying potential here in Bermuda, though I never used it in the UK where we had somewhat lower quality solar resources. So today I hung out my clothes in the warm breeze. Later, I’ll be walking the hour or so it takes to get to my friends house for dinner and a film.

But what would it take to go further? I like this idea found on Living the Frugal Life.
http://livingthefrugallife.blogspot.com/

“Some of the blogs I read that deal with preparing for life after peak oil, or the next great depression, or political collapse strongly suggest turning off the electricity at the junction box for a weekend or a week, just to see how well you can function without it, and to see in what areas you’d like to be better prepared or equipped. I’ve never done this. But having just turned off the lights for an hour and a half last night, I can see that some sort of light other than oil lamps would sure be nice, if it came to that. Perhaps solar lanterns, or some hand-cranked battery powered lighting. Reading by oil lamps would probably ruin my eyesight sooner rather than later. It took less than an hour with the lights turned off to learn this.”

As we are staying in a guest house I won’t be able to do this but it is similar to the Free From Power days I did when we lived in Sheffield. Here’s more on those;
http://sustliving.blogspot.com/2008/09/report-on-first-free-from-power-day-by.html
http://sustliving.blogspot.com/2008/10/2nd-free-from-power-day-report-by-robb.html
http://sustliving.blogspot.com/2008/11/3rd-free-from-power-day.html

Thanks to Cliffird Wirth over at Surviving Peak Oil for the heads up on that Frugal Living site.
http://survivingpeakoil.blogspot.com/2009/03/peak-oil-financial-planning-living.html

I think if it’s done in the way Rob describes though, it can be great. It reminds me of a week-long power cut we had in my village many years ago, when me and my family spent each evening gathered around the fire in the living room rather than scattered ’round the house watching many TVs, and it felt really special.

http://www.thewatt.com/node/175

Mercury:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/05/ask_treehugger_14.php

(I suspect mercury fillings in ones mouth 24/7 are much worse!)

Anyway – I’m distracting from the message of your post and the game of Uno!

See: http://www.stubbornmule.net/2009/03/burning-candles/ for the details.

As for lighting the fire – well that’s a real disaster!

See: http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=3526&page=1

Glad you all had a nice evening nonetheless!