Reference page for the DEMAND Dictionary entry: Keeping The Lights On. For the full dictionary, click here.
1. Hui, A. and Shove, E. (2013) All this talk about lights hides bigger energy challenges. The Conversation.
The rhetoric of “keeping the lights on” is as misleading as it is compelling. Though there are billions of lights in the UK’s homes and in places of work and recreation, these are never on all at the same time. Many are off for a large part of the day and in any case lighting does not account for a very high percentage of energy use.
2. Several authors. (2015) Reflections on the Lancaster power cuts of December 2015.
DEMANDers in Lancaster were able to experience first hand the effects of flooding caused by Storm Desmond the left 55,000 homes without power in December 2015. The power cuts problematise what is ‘normal’ and reveal what is ‘needed’.