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13 February 2017

Of electricity and buildings

While in London I witnessed from far, the Strata tower or the Razor.  It is a building completed in 2010 and the peculiarity of this 1,000 resident, 408 flats building is that it has 3 wind turbines on top of it.  They were supposed to produce 8% of the power consumption of the buildings usage.  However, am told that it has not been the case since long.  Moreover the noise and disturbance caused has raised a few eyebrows. (Read about some of the drawbacks of most famous buildings in London, here).


However, I liked the idea of a wind turbine atop the building.  Being one of the tallest buildings it would lack no wind at anytime.  But was surprised to hear that it could generate only 8%.  But given the amount of electricity consumption of UK, even that 8% would be much.  Here in practically every part of UK, be it offices or institutions or houses, some parts are lit all through the day and night.  And most often with that eerie yellow light.  The reason is that the climate is so unsteady that it could move from sunny to cloudy in no time.  Street lights come on by 4 pm in winter and stay on almost till 7 in the morning.  Offices and common places or educational institutions have their lights on, all round the clock.

One clever invention is the sensor.  Everytime there is a movement, the light comes on. So there is no need for someone to put on the switch, any movement switches the light on and after a while if no movement is sensed it goes off by itself.  That is some invention.  

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