Campsite Lights

[alant1980]

Long time lurker, first post. My 5th Glasto this year and I only just noticed they leave the lights around the campsites on 24/7. Surely, if they switched them off during the day it would help reduce the festival's carbon footprint, considering Glasto is supposed to be a "green" festival.

Just a thought...

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

Long time lurker, first post. My 5th Glasto this year and I only just noticed they leave the lights around the campsites on 24/7. Surely, if they switched them off during the day it would help reduce the festival's carbon footprint, considering Glasto is supposed to be a "green" festival.

Just a thought...

I don't know why but I never noticed this. If you are right then yes it's a good point - why don't they turn them off during the day? I suppose there might be a technical reason such as they are running power supplies along with the lighting supply and so can't turn them off as they'd also be turning off the power supply to outlying areas, buildings, catering stalls, etc etc

[UEF]

They're strung up like christmas tree lights from the 80s - one out, all out!

[Samhodson95]

i also noticed this.. being an electrician n all tha... its easy to put an inline photocell which would flick each set on when its dark and off when light... its a simple thing thatd save a whole lot of power use!

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

I'd be really interested to know why this constantly on lighting situation exists. Surely GFL haven't overlooked this. Hopefully someone will come along and tell us the reason why. In the meantime I'm going to be a nerdy pain in the arse and email the Glasto office to see if they can tell us.

[Splatt]

Sure it's been said before that it uses more energy to turn them on again than keep them on all time - i.e more environmentally friendly to leave them on! However not sure this makes any sense thinking about it.

[Samhodson95]

the only ones that this would apply for would really be the floodlights which where turned off in daylight... yet the strings of general lightbulbs along every path were on 24/7

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

I've emailed the Glasto office. Hopefully they'll be able to throw some light onto this issue. Well, somebody had to say it!

[frostypaw]

This has come up a few times

They leave them on because if they turn them on and off each day the risk of one blowing is massively increased and finding it becomes a nightmare operation with cherry pickers trundling around campsites while the festival is on just when everyone's pissed up and going places at night

So it all goes on, gets tested and working well then left safe and happy!

[stuartbert two hats]

This has come up a few times

They leave them on because if they turn them on and off each day the risk of one blowing is massively increased and finding it becomes a nightmare operation with cherry pickers trundling around campsites while the festival is on just when everyone's pissed up and going places at night

So it all goes on, gets tested and working well then left safe and happy!

That makes a lot of sense. It's certainly not the old thing about turning the lights of and on using up more power. That applied the most to fluorescent lights and it only uses up 7 minutes of power to switch them off. Can pretty much be filed under urban myth.

The real question is what about lights in Baileys? Admittedly, the sun was usually up when I got back to camp, but it was pitch black on Friday night.

[frostypaw]

Must have had one blow there I guess. I remember black areas of campsite before - i used to always carry a torch, but not so much anymore and I thought that was mostly down to them having the lighting working more consistently but nighttime memories are a bit woozy

I had to laugh after how long i spent getting my solar powered beacon working when i only came home while it was still on once, daylight every time - get in

[lucyginger]

The lights by us were out one night, we were over the other side of the hedge from Arcadia in pennards. It was noticeably very dark!

[Swine_Glasto2014]

Few big 220w panels even in cloud cover would supply enough juice to keep all camp site lights running in darkness. Generators should be back up only nowadays

[stuartbert two hats]

As for torches, the flashlight app on most phones is far brighter than any incandescent torch I've owned before, apart from the really massive ones. The modern LED ones may be better still, but I'm happy enough with my phone.

[frostypaw]

Few big 220w panels even in cloud cover would supply enough juice to keep all camp site lights running in darkness. Generators should be back up only nowadays

I'm slightly surprised each year they haven't switched to all led running off solar or biomass. It's a nice predictable load unlike stages and much of the greenfields manage it just fine

[Swine_Glasto2014]

I'm slightly surprised each year they haven't switched to all led running off solar or biomass. It's a nice predictable load unlike stages and much of the greenfields manage it just fine

led technology is ridiculously advanced nowadays. By using led spots and solar they woukd cut thousands of watts of consumption. A friend of mine has a LED light on his van that consumes about ten watt,and it's almost as bright as a proper high power hunting halogen spot torch.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

I hadn't realised those facts. It does seem a bit odd for the festival which has always heralded it's green credentials. Maybe the price of renewal is exorbitant. Just a thought.

[fur_q]

I'd guess it comes down to cost, the festoon lighting they use is 110v and is mainly deployed inside on building sites where there are existing mains supplies and solar wouldn't really be a good option. It's would be a great idea to have led festoons running on solar but I'd guess any hire firm would only be able to make any money from them during the 3months of the festival season and they wouldn't really have any use outside that.

[Swine_Glasto2014]

Very good point indeed!

[frostypaw]

There are quite a few companies pushing their eco lighting credentials though, gotta be one wanting to show off for a discrete logo on a page talking about the energy savings available through such tech

Controversial as that is we know the festival likes it

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

I received this response from GFL today about the lighting being on 24 hours a day issue - see below;

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you. In answer to the question about the lighting we would like to say that the Festival is working hard to ensure that generators are used as efficiently as possible. Most generators on site are running many other services as well as the lighting, so when you see lighting that is still on in the day it is being powered by a generator that is running other loads so the generator would be running anyway and a big generator runs more efficiently and burns less fuel when the load is larger. It also means that they don’t have to be switched on again in the evening which in itself can mean more journeys to generators and more fuel used.

A lot of work is going into improving the sustainability of the festival and we understand that when people see the lights on in the day it gives off the wrong impression.

[LondonTom]

Makes sense, with stuff a lot of stuff like leaving the lights on etc I'd imagine the interest in saving money /the environment is a pretty close agenda.

[Pinhead]

Bring back the wind turbine that they had in 1994 / 1995 I say...

[stuartbert two hats]

I think it's quite telling that they said it gave the wrong impression, not that it was actually a significant waste. When I think about all the screens, sound systems, lasers and other gizmos around the festival (including non-campsite lights), I'd be surprised if the electricity used to power the campsite lights amounted to much more than a rounding error.

Still, impressions do matter, I'm glad they're thinking about it.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

When I think about all the screens, sound systems, lasers and other gizmos around the festival (including non-campsite lights), I'd be surprised if the electricity used to power the campsite lights amounted to much more than a rounding error.

That's a good point. However, my understanding of the green ethos heralded at the Glastonbury festival is that we should all be making strides to be green no matter how minimal those strides are individually, because as a collective they become more tangible.