I found the following on a blog (follow the link for all of it)

Save The World Single-handedly part 2
Published April 6, 2008 Environment , Eyesore , Home , Hong Kong , Norway , Pollution , Travel , patriotism , property
Tags: blatant waste, saving electricity
I’ve just been to Norway and my god those people can use energy. I mean not energy as in running around doing stuff and complaining about how tired they are like we do but the world’s energy.

Take my friend X for example. Or “Eks” as it’s spelt in Norwegian. She lives in an enormous house with lots of rooms. Well lit by huge windows and heated by invisible … heating agents under the floors I presume. When the family left for work they left every single light in the house on.

[From Save The World Single-handedly part 2 « China Droll]

My reply :

You missed a important point. Almost all electricity in Norway come from Hydro (water based) sources, norway has no nuclear, gas or other major energy sources used in the country to generate electricity. It is also a cold country - i.e. you need heating most of the year. If you leave a light on (and have proper temperature controls in the form of thermostats) then leaving a light on just generates more heat (most of the output from a lightbulb is in the form of heat), and in turn the main heating of the house is turned down. If the main heating is oil-based, this makes even more sense, as it means that you use more of the renewable energy (electricity) than of the non-renewable (oil) energy. i.e. you save the worlds energy sources by leaving the bulb on. So while I lived in Norway I left the light on in the part of the year we used to heat the house, but now that I live in the UK I turn the lights off.

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