Wednesday, March 24, 2010

In keeping with Earth Hour

The place where I work covers environmental education.

Call it "sleeping with the enemy" if you will. They pay me.

On a visit to the ablutions I discovered this sign on the back of the main door to the dunny (it's only a one-holer)

For the life of me I cannot understand why this sign is on the door, or in the room at all. The room is smallish with two fluorescent lights. Everytime you turn the light on it sucks power, if you turn it on and leave it on it runs on the leaked power, so to speak, which keeps those gasses in the tube nice and busy which generates light. (Simplistic, but pretty accurate description, my father explained to me a long time ago how fluoros worked, I asked.) I wish some electrician would tell them of this folly. That's why you use a fluoro in an area where you need lights on for a long period of time, say the kitchen, and incandescents (good luck finding them!), in a room where the light will only be on briefly (like the toilet).

Ok, so dealing with that sign which made me want to shout at someone and shake them and have an electrician explain how un-green-and-save-the-planet-like switching the fluoros off and on all the time (or should that be on and off? oh, who gives a rat's?) is, I entered the single cubicle and shut the door, and saw this doozie.

What? It's a toilet. You get skiddies in the toilet. Sheesh. What are these people, perfect arseholes?

The funniest thing about this sign was the day I went into the dunny and someone hadn't flushed. Yeah. Don't, whatever you do, leave skiddies in the bowl.... but hey, if you pee it's OK not to flush.

Aside from that, the building has terrible acoustics. OK for an opera house or a theatre, but if you pee in the toilet on the first floor everyone in the foyer at reception can hear you. If you have a quiet conversation in your office, everyone in the offices on your side of the building can hear you. It's a pretty building, and new for the campus. But the designer/architect really needs to rethink acoustics.

Off to work!

6 comments:

Egg said...

Ummm... in the past there was concern for workplace safety in confined spaces in Gubmint buildings and so lights were usually permanently left ON... I'll bet e.g. Naval ships don't turn off/on lights in every nook and cranny 'all in the name of Gaia', FFS...

cav said...

I'd make some really big FARTING noises if I were you.

cav said...

Ah, your dad may have misled you Kae..

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=turn-fluorescent-lights-off-when-you-leave-room

"In other words, from a strict energy-conservation standpoint, it's almost always beneficial to shut off fluorescents when leaving the room—the start-up energy is offset by the power saved in even the briefest outages."

I hope you haven't jammed the sign up the bosses, ah, nose yet!

bruce said...

Cav, did you take that smug patronising Sci Am writer's word for it? My experience is that these econuts rarely do their research and instead rely on an innate sense of superiority for reference.

I'll take the wisdom of older folks over the smug enviro revisionists till properly proven otherwise thanks.

In fact what we always said about leaving neon lamps on being energy saving was perhaps based on earlier models, with more recent models requiring less start up energy.

"Since introduction in the 1990s, high frequency ballasts have been used in general lighting fixtures with either rapid start or pre-heat lamps."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorescent_lamp


The new sanctimonious enviro Scientific American with its mix of sectarian opinion pieces can go to hell.

cav said...

Hey Bruce, don't hold back mate.

I just wanted to protect Kae from herself.

No doubt her santimonious enviro boss with his sectarian opinions was the one who put the sign in the loo - I had this vision of Kae shoving the sign up his arse - that's all!

I hope I have stopped Kae from that course of action - we all know what she's like!

ps - I often need to use the brush so I think that sign should stay...

Egg said...

'Excuse Me...'

What a crap'n tirade...