A third shipment recently arrived at the business, which is the program’s official distributor of the lights.
Hamilton, which operates its own electric utility, participates in the Efficiency Smart program, which guarantees it will reduce the city's power-generation needs by at least 9,000 megawatt hours per year.
“We’ve got a limit of eight, just so somebody doesn’t come in and take them and go down to a flea market or something — they’re using them for their personal use,” Pease said.
“People like the LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs better than the CFL (compact fluorescent light), but both packages are a dollar each — the CFL’s are four for $1, and the LED’s are $1 apiece,” he said.
“You can get eight packages, however you want to do it,” Pease said. For example, “You could get two CFL’s and six LED’s. The LED’s come single packed. The LED’s come single-packed. The CFL’s come four to a package.”
The light-bulb sale, available only to city residential electric customers, is just one part of the Efficiency Smart program, for which Hamilton pays $793,000 per year. The program already has helped Hamilton’s schools, library and city government itself save money.
Mike Gurr, the city’s utilities field services superintendent, said city government so far has replaced 945 of its approximately 9,000 streetlights citywide, and those energy savings can be passed along to city utility customers.
Residents “can’t believe it” when they see the deep discounts, Pease said. “But it’s similar to Duke Energy has done some promotions in Cincinnati, promoting light bulbs. In my own house, I get an energy audit, and they sent me a kit, and it included some free light bulbs. Other utilities have done promotions, and the people want to save energy.”
“This is a terrific way to save energy, and get rid of inefficient bulbs, and put efficient bulbs in,” said Pease, whose business is a building-materials dealer, selling a range of products, including doors, windows, kitchen and bathroom items, plus hardware.
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