No one knows how much actual money was saved locally in last year’s Earth Hour.
But the City of Red Deer has illustrations aplenty for how much energy was saved.
Residents, businesses and the city’s electric, light and power department reduced electricity consumption by 2.5 per cent, saving 8,800 kilowatt hours of juice, by switching off for an hour last year.
That’s enough energy to run four cars for one year, and is equivalent to reducing almost 16 tonnes of carbon dioxide, according to a city news release.
“It is equivalent to 15 average houses being completely turned off for one entire month,” electric, light and power manager Ligong Gang said on Thursday. “That’s quite sizeable.”
Gang speculated that hundreds, if not thousands, of Red Deer residents participated in 2009’s Earth Hour.
He’s hoping more turn off unnecessary lights in this year’s event, scheduled for 8:30-9:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 27.
As Red Deer environmental initiatives co-ordinator Pam Vust points out, however, Earth Hour’s real value lies not in arguably negligible energy reductions, but in education.
“It’s more about getting people to think about power conservation,” Vust said, explaining how the city started participating last year after residents emailed in asking whether Red Deer was on board with Earth Hour.
Earth Hour was started in Sydney, Australia in 2007, when 2.2 million electricity consumers switched off their lights for one hour to raise awareness about climate change. Organized by the World Wildlife Fund, Earth Hour grew into a global movement in 2008.
The city will shut off all non-essential electricity loads. This means lights will go off at City Hall, and at Collicutt Centre except for lights in the front area, hallways and exercise rooms. Bulbs will blink out at the civic yard, too, except for those needed for safety reasons.
It will be business as usual for streetlights and the lights in City Hall Park, which will click on about halfway through Earth Hour given the time of year.
The city recommends playing hide and seek with a flashlight, telling ghost stories or meditating to pass the time when the lights are out.
As a news release on Earth Hour claimed, “Shutting off unnecessary lights (or experiencing a power outage) often makes people realize how dependent we are on electronic entertainment.”
mgauk@www.reddeeradvocate.com