Leave It Off
When
With the assistance of National Grid, E-day would like to invite the British public to “Leave It Off” from 6pm on Wednesdy 27 February until 6pm on Thursday 28 February, 2008.
What
Everyone who wants to take part in E-Day is being asked:
(1) To leave off household electrical items, which do not need to be on, and
(2) To leave these items off for as long as possible
Items that might be easy to leave off include:
- Lights left on in empty rooms or overnight
- Mobile phone chargers not being used but left plugged in
- Computers or printers left on overnight
- Televisions left on standby
The cumulative effects of millions of small energy saving measures will be shown on the E-Day homepage.
Why
Given the number of non-essential household items that are left on, the widespread uptake of this Leave It Off call to action has the potential to result in a 1-3% drop in the UK’s electricity demand.
If repeated regularly, it has been estimated that leaving off of unnecessary electrical items would equate to permanently turning off a medium-sized (500MW) coal-fired power station or not needing to use approximately 500 (1MW) wind turbines.
If every house in the UK left off just one 100W light bulb each for E-Day four medium-sized (500MW) coal-fired power station could be left off.
Before
Staging E-Day over 24 hours will help to minimise the risks associated with large swings in electricity demand, while allowing time for significant energy savings to be achieved.
The minute-by-minute data available on the E-Day website will allow individuals to judge whether the country succeeds in reducing its demand for electricity over the course of 24 hours, and also allow E-Day to highlight energy saving as a simple and painless way in which everyone can help to tackle climate change.
During
Changes between the country’s predicted “Business-As-Usual” demand for electricity and actual “Energy Saving Day” demand will be used to establish whether the public’s efforts to “Leave It Off” have amounted to anything.
National Grid has agreed to predict demand the day before E-Day happens and to help the public to access this information via the E-Day website.
It will also manage any changes in electricity demand and refine its forecasts, used to determine the effectiveness of E-Day, based on the weather during E-Day, as well as any other unexpected news or television events.
Leave It Off will be staged as a national web-based news event. In addition to the minute-by-minute data which will be covered in detail on the E-Day website, and syndicated to others for free. Summaries of E-Day’s total carbon, money and energy savings will be made available to the press.
Where necessary Energy Saving Day’s homepage could also act as visually compelling backdrop for live television programmes.
After
By showing the cumulative effects of millions of peoples’ energy saving efforts, over a specific time, we hope individuals will decide that it is worth their time and effort to leave off electrical items, and that they can help to make a difference by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and helping to tackle climate change.