Londonderry Launches Community-Wide Energy-Saving Effort

Londonderry, Vermont – Londonderry residents have begun a 10 month-long campaign to “save-a-watt” by reducing energy use in Londonderry and surrounding towns.  The effort aims to lower energy costs for area homes and businesses by helping residents replace 18 thousand incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs).

The “Save-a-Watt” campaign kicked off on Tuesday, February 19th at the town offices in South Londonderry.  During the entire campaign, bulbs will be sold for 0.99 cents at Londonderry Hardware and Clark’s grocery store.  A variety of other events will take place throughout the energy-saving campaign period. The effort is being organized by the Londonderry Energy Committee, a group of resident volunteers.

“Switching to CFL bulbs is a great first step that our community can take to help address a worldwide issue,” says Jim Ameden, Londonderry Select Board Chairman.  Darrell Sherburne, owner of Londonderry Hardware where the bulbs will be sold, says the CFL sales will be great for the State and help lower both our costs as well as those for CVPS.

Phil Bickel of Efficiency Vermont, the statewide energy-efficiency utility, is working with local organizers in the effort. “Londonderry and surrounding towns are a few of the communities in Vermont nearing capacity load on their electric transmission and distribution supply lines. So, their efforts to reduce energy use couldn’t be more timely to help prevent or delay the need for costly new system infrastructure expenditures.”

According to Bickel, replacing traditional light bulbs with CFLs is one of the most cost-effective energy-saving actions a household can take. CFLs use less than a third of the energy and last up to10 times longer than standard incandescent bulbs. Today’s CFLs provide quality light and fit in a wide range of fixtures.