Bless them... 9pm update

A rather sad little footnote has appeared at the bottom of the E-Day.


"E-Day did not succeed in cutting the UK's electricity demand. The drop in temperature between Wed 27 Feb and Thurs 28 Feb days probably caused this, as a result of more lights and heating being left on than were originally predicted. The National Grid refined their assessments, based on actual weather data, during Thursday afternoon but I am afraid that E-Day did not achieve the scale of public awareness or participation needed to have a measurable effect. I will do my best to learn the relevant lessons for next time. Thank you to everyone who helped me or left something off specially as their contribution to E-Day, and this Leave It Off experiment. Please enjoy E-Day's solution, video and science sections which all worked well. Warmest regards, Matt"


The BBC seem to have neglected to update their coverage at all.

Bless them... (6pm update)

As we near 6pm, the excitement is almost tangible. Will Dr Prescott prove to be as big a success with E-Day as his namesake was with just about everything? Has Dr Prescott got a better right jab than John? Can he play a better round of croquet?

Less than a minute to go now...


Well World Clock says it's 6pm but for some reason the E-Day counter keeps running. Maybe the counter is just behind real-time, although was there a delay at 6pm yesterday when it started? Maybe I'm being too scientific, maybe I should learn to feel more than think, my empathy levels must be reduced - probably the fault of "climate change".


The graphs are almost complete, this is very exciting; we could be near the end of the first E-Day.....


The final results:

Normal day - 1,042,714MWh
E-Day - 1,043,324MWh

All that hard work and 0.1% more electricity has been used.


Now how will Dr Prescott and the BBC spin this one?




Take a look at E-Day's thank you page, it quite brings a tear to my eye; all that hard work ending in failure.

Some of those credits were of interest to the BBC observer:
"Jon Plowman
Nothing would have been possible without Jon Plowman's vision, determination and courage. Jon did his best for Planet Relief within the BBC and stuck by me after his baby was cancelled. Thank you Jon!

BBC Comedy
Jon’s team in BBC Comedy, Justin Davies and Julia Cottrell, were also wonderful to work with and made my time with them fantastically productive and enjoyable."


Now I believe Jon Plowman left the BBC last summer, are the other two still employed by the BBC? Are licence payers paying people to work on "son of Planet Relief"?


Other credits that tickled my fancy were:

"Dave Waters
Dave Waters was also the person who suggested that Energy Saving Day should be abbreviated to E-Day"

The man's a genius, wow how did he come up with that abbreviation?


"DEFRA
Paul Chambers and Bryony Worthington were extremely helpful and reliable facilitators within the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). In particular, I am grateful for their assistance with accessing so many knowledgable and motivated people within the government's most relevant departments, specialist units and agencies."

If there are "knowledgable and motivated people" working in DEFRA, "we should have them stuffed".
It's just a shame that Dr Prescott knowledge doesn't extend to how to spell "knowledgeable".

and from the list of many many others why am I not surprised to find:

George Monbiot (Campaign Against Climate Change)

Bless them...

Remember the BBC's "Planet Relief" day? I blogged about this planned environmental brainwashing festival summer and then it was cancelled, or was it. It seems that it was re-born as E-Day, a day to show how "the small things in life can make a big difference". E-Day started at yesterday at 6pm and for 24 hours "Starting at 6pm on Wednesday 27 Feb everyone in the UK is being asked:

(a) To leave off electrical items which are not in use, and

(b) To leave these items off for as long as possible.

Items which could be left off for E-Day might include:

- Lights left on in empty rooms or overnight

- Televisions left on standby overnight

- Mobile phone chargers left plugged in or

- Computers or printers left on overnight

Over the following 24 hours, E-Day will endeavour to show how even small energy saving measures can be made to add up, and potentially play a part in tackling climate change. "

Isn't this exciting, especially as "E-Day will finish at 6pm on Thurs 28 Feb.

The total savings of money, energy and carbon associated with E-Day will then be calculated and made available in time of the evening news bulletins."


The "Total savings so far" section is explained thus "Total savings - This meter shows E-Day's total electricity consumption and compares this with the normal 'business as usual' figure. The latest percentage energy saving for E-Day has been calculated."

There appears to be just one slight flaw in the plan, as at 5:43pm with just 17 minutes to go, the total savings made on E-Day are NEGATIVE, yes more energy has been consumed today than on a normal day. It's only a small increase at present but somehow I don't think this will be the lead item on the news.


You may want to show your appreciation for his hard work by emailing Dr Prescott (no relation to John, so far as I can tell) at matt.prescott@gmail.com



Thanks to Mr Eugenides for the spot.