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German digital signage ban prompts confusion

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Re: German digital signage ban prompts confusion

#141

Post by kmlx »

malermeister wrote: post #83
fzfaa wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's done in the name of energy savings and the only reason that we all have to save energy is so the political elites of the West can play Risk against Russia.

We have to save energy to soften the blow of the climate catastrophe. The Russian imperialist aggression is just an additional selling point.

> We have to save energy to soften the blow of the climate catastrophe.

this is the wrong take. you can have as much energy as you want. you just need better politicians.

so your political actors failed. own up to it and replace them.

Re: German digital signage ban prompts confusion

#142

Post by mytailorisrich »

r_hoods_ghost wrote: post #125
mytailorisrich wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is a widespread belief that advertising serves no purpose to humanity. This is highly political and that 'belief' is indeed often ideological. Free flow of information and awareness of products and services on offer is an important aspect of an open society and free market economics.

And beliefs that an open society, free flow of information and free market economics are good things are of course highly political and strongly ideological. They are just largely uncontested (at least amongst the types of people who read hn)

> They are just largely uncontested

I think this has a lot to do with the fact that the alternatives that have been tried have historically been either failures or catastrophes.

Re: German digital signage ban prompts confusion

#143

Post by andrepd »

moffkalast wrote: post #92
morsch wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Average power usage for a 1 person household in Germany is 1300 kwh/year (roughly, numbers vary, but not to a degree that it matters). That's about 150W sustained. So 1500W for a large sign, that's like 150 high power LED light bulbs, I guess that checks out. Anything that reduces ads in the public sphere is fine by me.

Everyone lauds LEDs for being super energy efficient, but the reality is that they really aren't. It's just that they are being compared to even worse light sources that were so bad at efficiency it's hard to really grasp how much they sucked.

LEDs can light a medium-sized room with <5W. That's incredibly energy efficient.

Re: German digital signage ban prompts confusion

#144

Post by cardanome »

tpmx wrote: post #6

Quoted post unavailable.

The German Green Party was basically founded on anti-nuclear sentiment. The older members see it as their absolute life goal to stop nuclear power. They would rather see everything burn to the ground than change their mind.

As long as they are in government any compromise will be difficult.

Also, the situation in Germany is much worse than people from the outside think. Our best-case scenarios actually plan for pretty brutal energy saving cuts. People will be fully expected to wear multiple layers of clothing in their own homes because apparently having a warm home is now considered a luxury.

Other than hoping for a early peace in Ukraine I don't really anything that could solve the issues. I guess we will just have to tough it out.

Re: German digital signage ban prompts confusion

#145

Post by puchatek »

moffkalast wrote: post #92
morsch wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Average power usage for a 1 person household in Germany is 1300 kwh/year (roughly, numbers vary, but not to a degree that it matters). That's about 150W sustained. So 1500W for a large sign, that's like 150 high power LED light bulbs, I guess that checks out. Anything that reduces ads in the public sphere is fine by me.

Everyone lauds LEDs for being super energy efficient, but the reality is that they really aren't. It's just that they are being compared to even worse light sources that were so bad at efficiency it's hard to really grasp how much they sucked.

If they are so inefficient then where does the wasted energy go?

Re: German digital signage ban prompts confusion

#146

Post by yrgulation »

hnbad wrote: post #22

The headline is a bit confusing. Looking at the article, the regulation was written in Germany but is passed by the EU (suggesting this will not only affect Germany but also other EU member countries that implement it?) and it is not just about "digital signage" but all illuminted displays in public spaces that aren't necessary for regulating traffic. So this would likely also affect neon signs and illuminated non-di…

“suggesting this will not only affect Germany but also other EU member countries that implement it?”

yes, usually germany leverages the eu into pushing other countries in doing what it wants. such is the eu.

Re: German digital signage ban prompts confusion

#147

Post by MauranKilom »

tlocke wrote: post #48
turing_complete wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You cannot power a country with wind power alone. Even if you want to build wind turbines, you need nuclear, gas, or coal to back them up.

If you build enough renewables, then there comes a point when at times you're generating more than is needed immediately. That surplus electricity can be used to make hydrogen gas by electrolysing water. The gas can be stored indefinitely and burned to generate electricity when needed. So with enough renewables, no fossil fuels are needed.

> The gas can be stored indefinitely

Storing hydrogen is far from trivial. It's a bit like trying to store water when you're only allowed to build tanks out of paper.

Re: German digital signage ban prompts confusion

#148

Post by mschuster91 »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #91
mschuster91 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm sorry, but this is hearfelt: the German greens are climate criminals. And they were fully warned of exactly this situation decades ago, so no, they have zero "circumstances forced our hand" defence. The Greens have not been in government for the last sixteen years . It was the conservative governments under Merkel and particularly the environment and later economy minister Altmaier who openly celebrated reducin…

"look at France just how catastrophic nuclear power actually is" I assume you are referring to power plants that has to shut down due to low water levels? If the powerplant is designed with a source of eater in mind, it will have tp shut down when the water is gone. It does not matter if the plant is oil, coal or nuclear. Plenty of nuclear powerplants use seawater for cooling, and none of them had to shutdown.

> I assume you are referring to power plants that has to shut down due to low water levels?

It goes way worse than the drought. For the sake of not spamming around the same text, I consolidated the list of issues here in a sibling comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32605337

> Plenty of nuclear powerplants use seawater for cooling, and none of them had to shutdown.

Plants at the seawater border are vulnerable to floods as a result of extreme weather conditions, we've seen the consequences of that in Fukushima. Additionally, being close to the sea means the plants are vulnerable to the rise of sea water, which is a risk for the future.

Re: German digital signage ban prompts confusion

#149

Post by ivan_gammel »

xxs wrote: post #129
morsch wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Average power usage for a 1 person household in Germany is 1300 kwh/year (roughly, numbers vary, but not to a degree that it matters). That's about 150W sustained. So 1500W for a large sign, that's like 150 high power LED light bulbs, I guess that checks out. Anything that reduces ads in the public sphere is fine by me.

>1300 kwh/year this is extremely, extremely low. No heating, no cooling, no hot water, no car charging. A fridge alone tends to be over 400KW/h. Edit: polycaster listed close to 5kWh/year for 3+ household. 1person being 2k. So, extremely low estimate.

Heating is a separate cost, rarely electric. Cooling - did you know that Germans aren’t big fans of A/C? Hot water - same as heating.

Besides, in Germany we don’t say “Car charging”, we say “eat healthy and ride your bike”.

Re: German digital signage ban prompts confusion

#150

Post by ThalesX »

loonster wrote: post #87
phartenfeller wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course. Same with tobacco and oil companies working against transparency for smoke health risks and climate change.

A large portion of the advertising is to get people to switch brands. A smaller portion is to get new customers. Banning advertisement increases the profits for the already established brands (for at least the short term).

Like higher quality / cheaper prices wouldn't spread by word of mouth... if anything advertising behemots are keeping actually improved products out of the spotlight by selling us whatever pays most in advertising costs, regardless of externalities.
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