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Micha Berger raised as a possible issue:<br><br>
"7- There is also the issue of causing the power plant to burn more
fuel,<br>
but that is obviously dismissed by anyone who uses Chevrat
haChashmal's<br>
power on Shabbos."<br><br>
I'm an electrical engineer working for the power company here in
Toronto. When I suggested that it's a Psik Raisha (inevitability)
at a lecture being given by Zome, and the best reason for not turning on
something on Shabbat, he effectively rebutted that claim (I forget who
gave the lecture).<br><br>
The reason is that yes, it is true that the power system is always
working in a perfect balance between how much power the generators are
putting out and the instantaneous demand. So if you flip the switch
on an electrical appliance, <u>if the demand from everyone else is
constant</u>, then your action causes more fuel to be burnt at the power
plant (unless it's hydroelectric - then it's just more water flow).
But the key idea is that people on the system are constantly turning on
and off lights and appliances. You can't be sure that at the
instant you turned your light on, someone didn't turn their light off,
and so the net impact would be no impact on the output level of the
generators. So it's not psik raisha.<br><br>
The final conclusion he came to is likely only turning on incandescent
bulbs is a malacha de'oraisa becase of heating the filament to a very
high temperature which is "aish". But in reality,
fluorescent lights, LEDs etc would be OK, but as had been discussed,
initiation of use of electricity on Shabbat has become assured by the
rabbanan so it's a moot point le'chatchila. And a possible sevora
is a kind of a syag - people would get confused - I can turn this on, but
not that - and eventually turn on the wrong thing.<br><br>
Michael Mirsky</body>
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