Last night we turned out our lights for an hour, in keeping with the Earth Hour mandate. Looking out the window, it didn’t appear that many in Barrington were with us on this, although in a rural area, with street lights and public buildings (well, maybe two of those) with lights still on, it was hard to tell if anyone had joined the campaign or they were just out for Saturday night.

With the early time change, the hour started with a fair amount of light, probably only barely at the point of turning them on in the first place. I played the guitar for half an hour, while Ellen played Sudoku (battery powered, with a light—was that cheating?).

They say the purpose of the “observance” was to raise awareness; certainly it didn’t result in a significant cost saving for electricity (in Ireland they saved 1.5% for the evening), but it did provide some awareness to be sure.

I was most aware that even with the “lights off”– which was all they wanted– we still had a lot of things running. I had the computer and all its paraphernalia shut down, but that was certainly not all. I suppose the right thing to do would have been to go down in the basement and throw the master switch, cutting off all power to the house. The trouble with that is then I’d have to reset all the clocks around the place, which, believe it or not, comes to about seven, counting the microwave, range, thermostat, and VCR. I think the burglar alarm panel would keep its settings on battery power, as would the alarm itself, otherwise we would get a call from the monitoring company. A little more serious than that would be with the power fully off the fan on the furnace wouldn’t run, and I had a wood fire going in it. Not good for the furnace.

As it got darker and I wandered around the house, I could see that the wheel on the electric meter outside must have still been turning at a reasonable speed. It certainly wasn’t quiet in the house. From time to time the fridge and freezer each ran through their cycles, as did the humidifier (I could have shut that off), and the furnace fan. All over the place were little spots of LED lights for this and that– power supplies still plugged in, telephones, dishwasher, appliances. The microwave showed the time, as did all the clocks I would have had to reset. The alarm keypad glowed in the dark and showed the time. Various components of audio equipment still showed glowing LED lights or even the time. Wireless phones glowed in their chargers.

It makes you aware of just how much power we nickel and dime the system with, even when we think we are using nothing much at all. It occurred to me just now that if I did throw the main power switch, the emergency light in the upstairs hall would come on and light the area, reminding me that even with the lights off, that unit is being charged (and emitting a little red light).

We live in a difficult nation, here in the Great White North. I once read a comment from one of the supporters of Al-Qaeda, who, probably standing in sandals in 30 degree temperatures, said that we should not be burning oil in North America for heat. We should only be using it for making things, like plastics, not consuming it in fires. Let him tramp around northern New Brunswick for a few weeks in the winter, let alone some of the Prairie towns, and see if he still felt that way.

I’m amazed how little electricity costs for what we get from it, but we all have to realize that most of it, at least in this province, comes from burning coal or oil. Little by little, we are depleting those resources, and adding to the issues of pollution and climate change. We’re being warned that in the future, the pleasures of the electric age might be harder for society to supply.

We’re like little children who after being fed for days on all the candy we want, are, with what seems like little warning (all right, they’ve been telling us for years), being told that we’re not going to get it any more. Relatively cheap electricity is just another of the many things that we “take for granted”.

“Using” energy is something we’ve always done, and although events like Earth Day might produce awareness of how cavalier we are toward it (and perhaps make some of us pull a few plugs, throw a few switches more often), if we have to cut back on our candy there’s going to be a whole lot of fussing and whining.

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