#standby to switch off...for Earth Hour

Earth Hour

We talked with the children about what we might do to mark Earth Hour this year which falls on Saturday 19^th March at 8.30 pm.  Last year we looked at issues around the potential over-consumption of chocolate and we ran the campaign to sign up to abstain from eating chocolate for a few weeks.  This year, the children came up with a great idea.  They had been researching ways in which we currently waste energy and, therefore, the ways in which we can save energy.  One of the things which none of us had really thought about was the way we tend to leave our devices on ‘standby’.  The children quickly unearthed some worrying pieces of information.  For example:

Did you know?

We waste the equivalent of around two power stations' worth of electricity each year by leaving TV sets and other gadgets on standby. That means if we leave electrical equipment in sleep mode it emitted around 800,000 tonnes of carbon into our air.

The number of TVs in the UK is estimated to reach 74 million by 2020, meaning that there will be more televisions than people to watch them and most of them are left on standby!  And the amount of electricity being consumed by all the new TV sets will also go up.

Did you know?  

It has been calculated that the CO2 emissions from electrical equipment being left on standby are equivalent to 1.4 million long-haul flights.  To put it another way, the entire population of Glasgow could fly to New York and back again and the emissions from the plane would still be less than the emissions from electrical devices left in sleep mode or standby.

Of all the electricity used in this country in houses, 15% of it is just for electric items on standby. 

Many people leave electrical items on standby even when they are on holiday as they forget to turn them off.  So the whole time they are away, electricity is being used in the house.

So how can we make changes?

This is a really message to say it is absolutely worth turning your appliances off at the plug, there is no point allowing them to sit in standby mode.  Time for our next Earth Hour Campaign which I shared with the children in our assembly.  We are encouraging our children and their families to join many of us in school, by pledging to switch off standby on least one of the electrical items in your house – STANDBY TO SWITCH OFF.  We hope too that the children will persuade other friends and relatives to join our campaign too. 

Earth Hour 2016

“Standby to Switch Off”

We………………………………………………………………….

pledge to switch off……………………………………….