Visitors: approx 200
Bulbs distributed: 350
TV PowerDowns distributed: 120
Insulation referrals: 5
CO2 saved (lifetime): 80,672 kg
Retained economic benefit (lifetime): £40,487
This was a busy sunny day in South Derbyshire at the Rosliston Forestry Centre. There were lots of activities for children and we were inundated with requests to use the energy bike. At one point there was a crowd of twenty children all waiting and competing on the bike to see who could light up the six low energy light bulbs. We even got caught up in a debate with a nine year old boy about what was better for the environment, watching TV or making paper aeroplanes.
There was lots of interest in the alternative bulbs that are now available and plenty of willingness to change over remaining non low energy bulbs. We spent a lot of time also discussing the most appropriate renewable technologies for homes in the area – there seems to be a great deal of interest especially in solar photovoltaics. One in depth discussion revealed that a family were spending £115 per week on LPG to heat their home. Suitable alternatives such as heat from wood or solar hot water were discussed and installers recommended.
We also had interest in insulation for homes. Five families signed up straight away and another four took contact details for the future.
Nottinghamshire County Council
Carbon Foot-print Stall
20/3/10
This was one of about 20 stalls at a Greening Campaign launch in West Bridgeford. Overall event was very busy. Did nine footprints over the three hours of the event. We took the lightbulb library along and this proved popular with lots of questions about halogens and LEDs: spoke with 30 or so people.
Gedling BC
Renewables Workshop
19/03/10
For 12 officers at Gedling BC, most of them from Planning. They found the activity around how to install renewables in different areas of a borough useful.
Light Fantastic, Green Up, Chesterfield
12/03/2010
Chesterfield Borough Council
Visitors: approx 75
Bulbs distributed: 88
CO2 saved (lifetime): 12,569.92kg
Retained economic benefit (lifetime): £3636.16
The Light Fantastic in Chesterfield on Friday was part of a larger event called Green Up: we were one of about 15 stalls.
The weather was against us from the start so it wasn’t as busy as it might have been but there was a slow, steady flow throughout the day.
In addition to giving away 88 bulbs to 44 people I spoke to around another 30 who didn't want the bulbs as they already have lots from energy company or from '5 for 10p offers' at Morrisons! Probably confirmation that we're doing the right thing in moving to Fantastic Homes later this year.
I used our Light bulb Library as a way to talk about moving onto other kinds of energy saving lightbulbs and this worked well: most people were unaware of the range of bulbs available. The three most common queries (the most common being first) were:
Lots of people were complaining about how often the have to change their halogens and I was able to show them our lower wattage halogens and our LEDs. The LEDs will last longer and both will use less energy.
The 25 watt (150 watt equivalent) daylight bulbs were popular too: I had quite a lot of older people with bad eyesight come to the stall and complain about low energy bulbs. I explained that although the packaging on our free bulbs says that an 18 watt bulb is 100 watt equivalent, they could replace a 100 watt bulb with one of the 25 watt ones: this would still give them a decent energy saving and it would give them more and better light (these bulbs are designed to emulate daylight). Several people found this information useful.
Some people asked about dimmer switches and I was able to show them the options in our library.
I gave out fact sheets on low energy lightbulbs and pointed out the listings of websites which sell more unusual and hard-to-find energy saving bulbs.
There were a couple of enquiries about insulation and renewables, but I would imagine that most people who had this kind of enquiry went to one of the other stalls dedicated to these products.