The Cost of Light

[nbcrusader]

Mirrors to Banish Town's Winter Darkness

The sun has stopped shining in Rattenberg. But with the aid of a few mirrors, the winter darkness that grips this small town could soon be brightened up with pockets of sunshine.

That's because sun is plentiful less than 10 minutes' walk from the town and from Rat Mountain, the 3,000-foot hill that blocks its sunlight between November and February each year.

The solution: 30 heliostats, essentially rotating mirrors, mounted on a hillside to grab sunshine off reflectors from the neighboring village of Kramsach.

and

The town 25 miles east of Innsbruck is Austria's smallest_ and getting smaller. Its population has dropped by about 20 percent to 440 in the last two decades, and both Peskoller and Mayor Franz Wurzenrainer attribute that at least in part to lack of sunshine.

The best investment of $2.4 Million?

 

[verte76]

Mirrors to Banish Town's Winter Darkness



and



The best investment of $2.4 Million?

I'd like it if I lived there. My psychiatrist specifically told me to get sunlight for its anti-depressant qualities, and he told me darkness causes depression. I'll bet this makes the workers more productive and there are other benefits as well.

 

[anitram]

Maybe it's up to the people of that region or the taxpayers to decide what the best way to spend their own money is.

 

[For Honor]

Sunshine is very important.... but..... I don't really know about this . I'd take a ten minute walk to get some son, though, rather than pay more taxes.

 

[yolland]

I'd like it if I lived there. My psychiatrist specifically told me to get sunlight for its anti-depressant qualities, and he told me darkness causes depression. I'll bet this makes the workers more productive and there are other benefits as well.

I have seasonal affective disorder also. SAD is a quantifiable neurochemical disorder whose existence is not in question, and while only a minority experience serious problems because of it, most researchers in this area agree that *some* compromising of emotional and mental health in the absence of sunlight (the neurochemical imbalances characteristic of clinical depression also affect cognitive skills) is a nearly universal phemonenon. For example, suicide rates are significantly higher worldwide in areas with low sunlight for much of the year, particlularly the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, as are alcoholism and various other behavioral disorders.

Perhaps making full-spectrum fluorescent light panels (typically several hundred dollars each) available at drastically reduced cost to all who want them would have been a cheaper alternative. However, as research has found and as I can attest from personal experience, these are nowhere near as beneficial as increased exposure to real sunlight.

 

[Irvine511]

^ this must be why no one in California seems much bothered by anything, really. all that sunshine ...

 

[nbcrusader]

Maybe it's up to the people of that region or the taxpayers to decide what the best way to spend their own money is.

Half is EU money.




And we get plenty of threads that question how much, where and when money is spent and on what.

 

[verte76]

Half is EU money.




And we get plenty of threads that question how much, where and when money is spent and on what.

Oh, OK. I still like the idea but of course I am not a resident of an EU country, and there's no way they could put this to a EU plebicite anyway. And yes, we've had plenty of debates about funding issues in this forum.

 

[melon]

The best investment of $2.4 Million?

That's a rather small sum of money when it comes to government. Aren't we spending $230 million on a bridge in Alaska to serve 30 people? Gotta love Republican logic.

Melon

 

[nbcrusader]

Re: Re: The Cost of Light

That's a rather small sum of money when it comes to government. Aren't we spending $230 million on a bridge in Alaska to serve 30 people? Gotta love Republican logic.

Melon

I know our own budget is filled with pork - a sad history in its own right. Fortunately, the Alaskan "bridge to nowhere" got defunded.

Funny, how we ignore government spending items (even our own spending habits), then decry that half the population lives on $2/month.

 

[deep]

The best investment of $2.4 Million?

Money has been spent on creating light for quite some time now.

This sounds like a more efficient way to achieve that goal
than using fossil fuels.

 

[A_Wanderer]

It really doesnt, the efficiency of the electric light bulb is superior to that of the mirror which does not have ideal reflectivity, and the light bulb can work at night as well.

 

[anitram]

Artificial lighting does not achieve the same biological effects as sunlight, you know that, A_W.

 

[A_Wanderer]

But isn't light light? If I had an emiter that gave off all the wavelengths that reach the earths surface in the right ratios and had the intensity set at the right level it would be physically indistinguishable.

A regular light bulb of course is just a hot filament and does not do this.

 

[melon]

But isn't light light? If I had an emiter that gave off all the wavelengths that reach the earths surface in the right ratios and had the intensity set at the right level it would be physically indistinguishable.

The Sun emits far more than just "visible light," which makes me think that there's something more to affecting SAD than just putting someone underneath a lamp. Even plants grow differently when grown with artificial light versus the real thing.

Melon

 

[A_Wanderer]

Yes, but the difference between light on the visible spectrum and that outside is it's wavelength - it is still light. And I specified that if the light being emited exactly matched that here on the surface of the earth in ratio and intensity.

"Artificial Light" is still photons, it is physiically identical to the wave/particles that arrive to the surface of the earth from outer space.

 

[Angela Harlem]

For anyone to deny the importance of sunlight to anything living is ludicrous. Light is life. A friend who is European was telling me that there the sun rises around 9am in winter and is set by 4 or 4pm. To me, who experiences sunrise at 5am and sunset at around 8pm (granted, in summer), this was (still) insane. You dont need a condition to understand the importance if sunlight to a healthy mind, nor a science or medical degree. Anyone who wants to argue this, go lock a houseplant in a cupboard for a few weeks and see how it thrives! Of course, the folk of Rattenberg aren't plants, but they are living. And all living things need light. Like water.

 

[hiphop]

Half is EU money.




And we get plenty of threads that question how much, where and when money is spent and on what.

If half of that is EU money, it is a good investment, trust me.

Also, 2.4 million is ridiculous compared to what my country wants to spend on Eurofighters (about thousand times as much). people here are against it, not against mirrors for sushine or alternative energy forms or, you name it.

Personally I think the concept is a little weird, because it tries to create "artificial" sunlight.. living in Austria, I have nothing against this little town near Innsbruck. Let them have their sun.

 

[hiphop]

You know what? This thread inspires me to go out and watch the sun rise today. It´s 07:20... soon come..

Only thing being its fucking cold outside.

 

[indra]

I like it!

What a great campaign slogan -- Franz Wurzenrainer, bringing sunshine to Rattenberg!

Honestly, how many politicians can claim that?