News

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.

Waste Not Want Not Event

22/10/09 – Energy Saving Week
Chesterfield Borough Council

Visitors                        22
Bulbs                           30
Powerdowns                 20
Lifetime CO2                 4435 kg
Lifetime cost saving       £4,639.60

We were able to assist a number of council staff and members of the public with their enquiries on low energy lighting and renewable energy.

Many visitors were interested in a wider range of bulb styles such as candles and spot lights and were very eager to hear about new developments in LED technology.

The Chief Executive, Huw Bowen and the Mayor Adrian Kitch tried out the Energy Bike and were interested to see how this demonstrated the energy saving of the Compact Fluorescent Bulb.