Letter to the Governor

[Chocolate Eclair]

Just received an e-mail with a copy of a letter sent to the Governor from a well known Luxor Resident. Many of you may have read it already because I do not know when the letter was written.

The letter loosely explains the fact of the mountains being lit up at night while the people have to suffer in darkness, I must agree, why not turn them off until such time everyone can have their fair share of lightness. Maybe the letter should have also gone on to ask why if the people of Luxor have to suffer, then the people in the Hotels should also have to suffer, whats good for one is good for another, Luxor is not exactly a tourist hot spot at the moment is it? the Tourists can always go on to the sundecks, laced with anti mossie cream, read via a wind up torch, watch butterflies hover past, listen to the frogs chorus, or the crickets giving their rear legs hell. Besides that, we are all told that there are no tourists in Luxor, so why do we have to live these dark ages on the West Bank viewing the East Bank hotels lit up like Christmas Trees and showing no respect to the fact of saving or rationing electricity. 100's of kWh can be saved on a daily basis.
Business's are loosing money, one of my friends has had to lay people off work, because his business relies on a reliable Electricity supply, it will not be long before other business's start laying off too, so well done that person for pointing the savings out by turning the mountain lights off, and may I go as far to say that the dwellers on the West Bank think the same about the Hotels lit up brightly at night while we are in total darkness, hotels that are working on low capacity tourist rates.

[LivinginLuxor]

But it's not just the hotels that are lit - all of Luxor is! And when there are power cuts in Luxor, many of the hotels (those without their own standby generators) are in the dark. It could be argued that to switch off the mountain lights would save some electricity, I guess - but not much in the grand scale of things around here. It would be a populist gesture by the government - "We're all in together" to quote Call Me Dave.

[Hafiz]

I wonder whether the spotlights on the temples and have moved over to LED globes which use much less electricity whilst generating a blinding light. The price for these is plummeting as demand increases. Even a LED torch produces a blinding light dangerous to the eyes.

If they aren't installed the antiquities/Governate/city administration might be sold on the idea by someone with a commercial interest or by some of the well funded western archaeological expeditions. One of the international manufacturers of the LED globes might be attracted by the possibility of a marketing stunt.

Given their energy efficiency they would also be cheaper to run from a generator.

I realize that this is not a solution to outages.

[LivinginLuxor]

The mountains are lit that way (which is why I wrote that turning them off would have a marginal impact) but the temples are lit with sodium lights.

[carrie]

The lights on the mountains on the west bank should be switched off, we should all be doing what we can to save electricity.

[Zooropa]

Ok, can anyone tell me if the Nile palace has a generator?

[Bombay]

Most hotels have generators but not usually big enough for a/c.

[Zooropa]

Thanks Ras, looks like I will have to spend the "down time" in one of your eateries

Its not a stitch up between you and the hotels is it?!?!?

[Who2]

You get it all wrong, When they put the system in I insisted on having control of the dimmer switch, which and let me tell you took a lot of adjustments. So, if you want them turned off send me a cheque for the same amount that the sponsors pay, to have them turned off and I'm sure we can come to some sort of an agreement, personally I like them and personally if the cheque ain't signed, go swivel....
ba humbugs...when I had a floating restaurant in Little Venice I reinstated all the floodlights, who moaned ? the bloody council tenants living in some of the most expensive council flats in london on the dole.

[Chocolate Eclair]

Obviously the working of a dimmer switch passes one by Dr, regarding the amount of electricity it uses.

[Dusak]

I for one agree in saving power but do think, in the grand schema of things, little would be saved by turning them of. I say keep them on as today, they are one of only a couple of 'nice' uncorrupted things to see here in Luxor now. They remind us die hard's why it was worth coming here to live.

[LivinginLuxor]

I'm going to lie down in a darkened room - just found myself agreeing with Dusak!! Must restart taking the tablets, methinks!

[Chocolate Eclair]

So what type of lamp are they using to illuminate the mountains that make them efficient. They obviously have a starting mechanism to strike the lamp, and that puts the PL type out of the question.

I have never bothered to find out what type of lamp they are using, but if they are using an energy efficient lamp to illuminate at the rate they are doing the enclosure of the lamp has to have a magnifying lens to kick out that sort of illumination, similar to stage lighting. I don't think this is the case.....

Judging by the illumination I imagine they have used tungsten lighting, similar to the ones the people use in the UK to illuminate their gardens, or use as security lights. They have high capacity usage, and the ones on the mountains could range anywhere between 500W up to 3000W, 3000W is the same power use as the average UK Immersion Heater or average 3kW Kettle, so if you imagine say 50 of these lights at 3000kW the power used would be 150,000kW the equivalent of 1500, 100W Household Lightbulbs.

You can also say that 1kW of lighting takes approx. 4.2amps, so 150,000kW would consume 632,000 amps,

[LivinginLuxor]

Although as yet I haven't found much information except a press release when the installation was inaugurated - there are 922 white light energy efficient systems, I've noticed that the tomb lighting is probably sodium lighting, as when the lights come on they glow greenish for a while, gradually getting more and more orange - like the street lighting. The actual white lights seem to rise in brightness over a period of several minutes. Whether this helps Choc in his theories, I'm not sure though!

[Chocolate Eclair]

Stan, if lights take time to warm up, it proves they are working on a starting system, and are not all that energy efficient. The energy efficient lamps are normally of the PL type and they have not yet come up with a lamp capable of giving out the amount of light as tungsten or sodium. Both Tunsten and sodium lamps need starting gear, an example of this is when we install street light in the UK, at the base of the lampost is an opening containing the starter, capacitor, cut out and fuse, these lights must have a similar set up otherwise they will not strike and illuminate.

When you look at these mountains lit up, Stan is correct there is a mixture of sodium and tungsten, this type of lighting is very high output but not very efficient at all. But I suppose some may argue the fact that the amount of light they give out must be energy efficient, well lets put it this way, with Electricity being as rare as Rocking Horse C--p, they should be cut off until the supplies improve. The argument that they put off clefties does not ring true, there are plenty of military staff up there, and all it does is move the clefties to peoples homes.

[Who2]

Ba Humbug, someone should go round and cut off all the illegal electricity tap-ins that's the problem with power cuts here not the mountain, we had cuts before the lights were ever introduced and obviously not installed by the local population and that's a guarantee for sure, else none would still be operating....

[BBLUX]

Having examined the lighting system up close and personal as it was installed I can tell you that each block of lights consists of 10 x 400 watt HID flood lamps like these http://www.right-light.co.uk/400-watt-s ... 3godQUkAVg. There are at least 40 of these blocks of lights so that equates to 160,000 watts of lighting. That is 160 Kilowatts which would supply a complete village. I have not included the interior tomb lights in these figures.
I'm not sure where anyone got the idea that they are LED lights but they are certainly not.

[Chocolate Eclair]

Thats right Barry, so you can see now the amount of electric they use 160.000kW at 4 amps per Kilowatt = 640,000 Amps, you could light up half of Luxor for this,

Plus you can bet they have their own Transformer taking even more electricity. . Notice the letter has done some good, they were on last night!! so maybe they are not interested in saving electricity, and it is like everything else, live today, when tomorrow comes if there are any problems we will live them then, and so on and so on. Then nothing gets done.....

For those looking how to find their consumption

V = volts
I = Current
R - Resistance

Volts = Resistance x Amps
Amps = Volts divided by Resistance
Resistance = Volts divided by Amps

Every kW takes around 4 amps for ease of calculation therefore a 3kW kettle takes 12 amps to boil for a cuppa.
Those wanting to work out Horse Power to kilowatts for AC calculation 1hp is = to approx .85 kW therefore a 1.5kW AC unit is equiv of 1.25kW which will draw approx 5 amps from the grid continuously. But its the initial start of and AC unit that wil pull up to 15amps on starting and that's when the problems start for those with low power.

[Dusak]

But for you Choc we would all be in the dark concerning consumption with your AMPle knowledge. I will put your name forwards as the inspector of power, WATtage do you say? And given the CURRENT interest you could work from OHM. I do not think that you will meet any RESISTANCE with the FREQUENCY of your reports as that POWER will be in your hands, But please, do not blow a FUSE if the topic gets SWITCHED to another. As it could BRAKER your heart.

[LovelyLadyLux]

VOLTS dat you say?

Just trying to Amp up the discussion