If you like evening kickoffs...enjoy tomorrow.

[Bristol Rob]

16 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2022/08/30/efl-considering-early-kick-off-times-avoid-energy-crisis-disaster/

It's only a consideration at this stage but it's clearly on the table- as we get towards Autumn and Winter there is certainly up for discussion the idea of earlier kick off times to limit use of floodlights etc.

I speculated on The Cost Of Living thread that this might happen. Hopefully it won't, but clubs who are locked in to a good energy contract will be at an advantage.

Staying on this theme, am I right in thinking we have solar panels on some of the stands?

[Eddie Hitler]

11 minutes ago, Bristol Rob said:

I speculated on The Cost Of Living thread that this might happen. Hopefully it won't, but clubs who are locked in to a good energy contract will be at an advantage.

Staying on this theme, am I right in thinking we have solar panels on some of the stands?

 

Assuming that Google Maps is up to date there are 460 panels in four groups of 23 x 5.  These typically generate 250W each so that would be 115kW at peak in the middle of a sunny day in June and July; the typical large domestic system is 16 panels / 4kW.

These are both relatively high amounts and very unlikely to be fully used at peak so hopefully the stadium array is registered as a generator with the local distriribution network operator, I would guess Western Power Distribution, so that the club receives an income on the metered excess production supplied to the grid.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4399257,-2.6209852,167m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en

 

[Bristol Rob]

5 minutes ago, Eddie Hitler said:

 

Assuming that Google Maps is up to date there are 460 panels in four groups of 23 x 5.  These typically generate 250W each so that would be 115kW at peak in the middle of a sunny day in June and July; the typical large domestic system is 16 panels / 4kW.

These are both relatively high amounts and very unlikely to be fully used at peak so hopefully the stadium array is registered as a generator with the local distriribution network operator, I would guess Western Power Distribution, so that the club receives an income on the metered excess production supplied to the grid.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4399257,-2.6209852,167m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en

 

'Yes' would have done!

Seriously though, it's good to hear that as a building, Ashton Gate is reasonably well covered.

[jj77]

Why not just put solar panels on the rooves of stands?

[exAtyeoMax]

Get the players to wear head torches?

 

[Eddie Hitler]

The club could buy one of these for the winter evening games.

https://noxton.com/glow-football_en.html

[Red Skin]

Maybe they could finally switch the lights off in the stands.  How I ever managed to find my seat in the past without having a serious accident is beyond me!! 

[bcfc01]

17 hours ago, Dr Balls said:

Talking of evening kick offs and floodlights, have to say this quiz is pretty tough (only scored 8/20):

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/aug/30/football-quiz-name-the-team-from-the-floodlights
 

 

6/20

We're not saying you're dim but you need to be more observant

[nebristolred]

16/20, and I'm not even sure how I got most of them. More worried than impressed 

[phantom]

[ralphindevon]

12/20 there a few tiny clues in some of them, some are so hard they’d be guesses unless you took the photo

[Crackers Corner]

As an idea why doesn't the government scrap the clock change this year, it means that every one has an extra hour on an afternoon before they have to turm on their lights including football teams. with people also going to bed an hour earlier in the winter in terms of darkness saving heating money too?

 

[Eddie Hitler]

1 minute ago, Crackers Corner said:

As an idea why doesn't the government scrap the clock change this year, it means that every one has an extra hour on an afternoon before they have to turm on their lights including football teams. with people also going to bed an hour earlier in the winter in terms of darkness saving heating money too?

 

 

The US has passed the first stage of the legislation to bring this in in 2023 so I suspect that it's now just a mattter of time for us; given that most western governments seem to copy each others' homework theses days (Covid lockdowns, electric cars, banning fracking, money printing, ultra low interest rates).

 

WASHINGTON, March 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed legislation that would make daylight saving time permanent starting in 2023, ending the twice-annual changing of clocks in a move promoted by supporters advocating brighter afternoons and more economic activity.

The Senate approved the measure, called the Sunshine Protection Act, unanimously by voice vote. The House of Representatives, which has held a committee hearing on the matter, must still pass the bill before it can go to President Joe Biden to sign.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-approves-bill-that-would-make-daylight-savings-time-permanent-2023-2022-03-15/

[Crackers Corner]

2 minutes ago, Eddie Hitler said:

 

The US has passed the first stage of the legislation to bring this in in 2023 so I suspect that it's now just a mattter of time for us; given that most western governments seem to copy each others' homework theses days (Covid lockdowns, electric cars, banning fracking, money printing, ultra low interest rates).

 

WASHINGTON, March 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed legislation that would make daylight saving time permanent starting in 2023, ending the twice-annual changing of clocks in a move promoted by supporters advocating brighter afternoons and more economic activity.

The Senate approved the measure, called the Sunshine Protection Act, unanimously by voice vote. The House of Representatives, which has held a committee hearing on the matter, must still pass the bill before it can go to President Joe Biden to sign.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-approves-bill-that-would-make-daylight-savings-time-permanent-2023-2022-03-15/

it makes sense in terms of health (kids can play out when home from school) and money saving for all even if its a small saving 1 hours per day lighting and heating for coldest months lets say 100 days/hours will add up to a large saving for many with current crazy prices, very cheep to implement too i would imagine .  im not saying that this is the answer to the current crisis and the government need to do a LOT more but it would save millions in money.

[Lanterne Rouge]

About turning the floodlights off when the game finishes don`t the ground staff get out there to do their repairs?

[BTRFTG]

Folks are also forgetting that in the good old days when TV rarely covered matches and dictated how and when games were played, football continued to be played in very gloomy conditions. When the lights did eventually come on (usually late in the game,) it took them about 10 minutes to warm up. Nobody moaned about safety around the ground or any of the other BS that does the rounds as to why there must be ultra bright lights and loads of them. 

Then again I survived 3 of the coldest winters on record and not once did any doomsayer forecast I'd die as a result of not putting the central heating on, for simple reason nobody knew what central heating was let alone had it installed. 

 

 

 

[Mr Popodopolous]

Little bit more on this though I assume the logistics of moving midweek games would outweigh the costs at this stage, might be weekend games initially.

https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/efl-games-kick-off-1pm-floodlight-costs-crippling-energy-crisis-1856844

Could be a bit case by case too.

Edited September 16, 2022 by Mr Popodopolous

[Rocking Red Cyril]

On 30/08/2022 at 16:24, INCRED said:

Yes, I was about 8 then and went on a city coach 2pm kick off on a Wednesday if I recall correctly 

Bunked off school. Mates dad drove us . What a day 

[PHILINFRANCE]

On 30/08/2022 at 17:24, INCRED said:

Yes, I was about 8 then and went on a city coach 2pm kick off on a Wednesday if I recall correctly 

It was definitely a Tuesday - I remember we had 'Games' in the afternoon and, for a reason I cannot for the life of me remember, I managed to get out of school on the Tuesday morning.

On 30/08/2022 at 17:30, Sheltons Army said:

Yes , I was lucky enough to be there , ( thanks Dad) 

Thanks Beryl Fudge RIP, for arranging both tickets and City coach travel.

46 minutes ago, Rocking Red Cyril said:

Bunked off school. Mates dad drove us . What a day 

Indeed, what a day.

[Slippin cider]

Could become a thing of the past …EFL to meet to discuss earlier KO times to save money .

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/english-football-clubs-consider-lunchtime-28056912.amp

[Eddie Hitler]

They are still going to have evening games though unless the leagues are going to be made smaller to ensure that every game can be played on a Saturday; which would hit revenue.

Unless they're proposing playing daytime games during the week with one man and his dog in attendance.

There would be some limited savings from starting Saturday games at 1pm in the winter but that's going to cause problems for any fans who have to work on Saturday mornings.

[Super]

It does make sense especially in these difficult times.

[Davefevs]

Just get 20 Invacars around the pitch with their headlights on!

[phantom]

54 minutes ago, Super said:

It does make sense especially in these difficult times.

I wonder how much the attendances would be impacted?

Obviously ST money wouldn't change, but I would imagine clubs could have problems if they suddenly made fixtures impossible to attend

[spudski]

According to Dale Vince who's looked into this.

It costs approx £100 a game to put the lights on. He's just tweeted about it.

Doesn't seem worth it in the big picture.

[Steve Watts]

27 minutes ago, spudski said:

According to Dale Vince who's looked into this.

It costs approx £100 a game to put the lights on. He's just tweeted about it.

Doesn't seem worth it in the big picture.

I'd imagine it doesn't cost much for him, but then this is the standard of floodlight they have, not to mention solar panels which will take some of the cost down. Clubs with grounds more suited to league football I'm sure would cost an awful lot more.

[Steve Watts]

3 hours ago, Eddie Hitler said:

They are still going to have evening games though unless the leagues are going to be made smaller to ensure that every game can be played on a Saturday; which would hit revenue.

Unless they're proposing playing daytime games during the week with one man and his dog in attendance.

There would be some limited savings from starting Saturday games at 1pm in the winter but that's going to cause problems for any fans who have to work on Saturday mornings.

It seems that this is what is being considered.  You would imagine the attendance hit would eat into some of the savings.  Kids would miss out on home matches due to school and anyone who can't get time off will be missing as well.  I'd imagine it would have an impact on season ticket sales.

[spudski]

7 minutes ago, Steve Watts said:

I'd imagine it doesn't cost much for him, but then this is the standard of floodlight they have, not to mention solar panels which will take some of the cost down. Clubs with grounds more suited to league football I'm sure would cost an awful lot more.

Yes...reading through the replies, you realise it depends on what type of bulbs you have,expense of replacing them etc etc.

It's not just match day, evening training for many smaller clubs require lights. 

As do the thousands of pitches used in the evening for the public to play sport on. The costs will multiply and that will be passed onto the public, who for many, won't be able to afford the increase. 

The implications will affect all walks of life that we often just take for granted. 

 

[Robbored]

42 minutes ago, spudski said:

According to Dale Vince who's looked into this.

It costs approx £100 a game to put the lights on. He's just tweeted about it.

Doesn't seem worth it in the big picture.

The Lawn has solar panels installed which would help reduce the floodlight costs. Plus the ground is relatively small with a capacity of around 5k so a grand per floodlit match is small beer compared to other stadiums. I imagine it costs City at least x10 times that of the Lawn, probably more. 

[GrahamC]

5 minutes ago, Robbored said:

The Lawn has solar panels installed which would help reduce the floodlight costs. 

So do we.

For what it’s worth I think this is far more likely to be an issue for lower league clubs than Championship ones, so would not be surprised to see games at L1 or L2 kicking off at midday on the weekend this winter.