City of Norwalk uses first Bright Idea Grant on community-wide light bulb swap

NORWALK, Conn. – September 28, 2015 – More than 500 Norwalk residents recently participated in the city’s first-ever light bulb swap at Norwalk City Hall, where they exchanged more than 3,000 traditional incandescent light bulbs for high-efficiency LED bulbs, free of charge.

“Our residents and business owners are clearly excited about energy efficiency as a means to cut costs at their home and business,” said Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling. “Community participation is critical to helping our town reach its energy goals, and we hope this is the first of many Bright Idea Grants.”

Norwalk residents, with identification, were able to exchange old incandescent bulbs for five free LED light bulbs. In addition to the light bulb swap, energy experts from Eversource and members of Norwalk’s Energy and Environment Task Force were on-hand to answer questions and provide information about further actions residents can take to save money by making their homes more energy efficient. Additional LED energy saving products such as holiday lights, night lights and specialty bulbs were available for purchase at a discounted rate as well.

A single LED bulb has a life expectancy of 23 years, uses up to 80 percent less energy, and can save homeowners as much as $10 per year versus a traditional incandescent bulb, which has about a 1.5 to 2.5 year lifespan. John Kydes, Councilman and Chairman of the Mayor’s Energy & Environment Task Force praised the light bulb swap, saying “Each Norwalk resident who swapped out their home’s old, inefficient light bulbs is expected to save more than $50 in annual energy costs. Combined, these residents will save $30,880 annually, with a total lifetime savings of $710,240. We are planning to have another light bulb swap before the end of this year.”

The City of Norwalk used a $15,000 Bright Idea Grant for the exchange, earned through their participation in Energize Connecticut’s Clean Energy Communities (CEC) program. In 2014, Mayor Rilling signed the CEC pledge, committing to make efforts to reduce municipal building energy consumption by 20 percent, attain 20 percent of municipal electricity needs from renewable sources, and take other actions to support the deployment of clean energy by 2018.

Residents and businesses that took advantage of Energize Connecticut energy efficiency solutions helped the community earn the grant and reaped the benefits with this LED giveaway.

Norwalk residents and businesses looking to save energy and money should visit EnergizeCT.com or call 877.WISE.USE (877-947-3873).