Comments on: Is your city green? Sierra Club on the hunt to find out http://greenoc.freedomblogging.com/2009/11/11/is-your-city-green-sierra-club-on-the-hunt-to-find-out/15775/ All things green in Orange County. Wed, 19 May 2010 22:46:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Art DeBolt http://greenoc.freedomblogging.com/2009/11/11/is-your-city-green-sierra-club-on-the-hunt-to-find-out/15775/#comment-5487 Art DeBolt Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:05:02 +0000 http://greenoc.freedomblogging.com/?p=15775#comment-5487 Mother was right, turn the lights off when you leave the room. In the case of cities simply turning the lights off at the ballfields tennis courts and other venues when not in use save thousands of KWH. How many times do you see these light poles on with multiple 1000 watt bulbs on in broad daylight (too early) and left on with no one using the fields? Do the math one park with 30 bulbs used for 300 days in a year will waste 9900 KWH (add 10% for the ballasts). At $.15- $.20 per kwh that is about $1500-$2000 per year. For only one field at one park. Given the number of hours field lights are typically on (3-5-) saving 1.5 to 2 hr that translates to a 30%-50% savings. Park and Rec departments in four cities (Los Alamitos, San Dimas, LaVerne and Long Beach) are using a low cost web based lighting control and monitoring service from Wireless Telematics LLC (wirelesstelematics.com) to schedule lights on and off only when needed. This not only reduces energy costs and carbon footprint, but also employee time in not having to send someone to turn lights on and off. Just proves you don't have to spend alot of money (especially taxpayer) to go green. In this case they actually are saving money. Mother was right, turn the lights off when you leave the room. In the case of cities simply turning the lights off at the ballfields tennis courts and other venues when not in use save thousands of KWH.

How many times do you see these light poles on with multiple 1000 watt bulbs on in broad daylight (too early) and left on with no one using the fields? Do the math one park with 30 bulbs used for 300 days in a year will waste 9900 KWH (add 10% for the ballasts). At $.15- $.20 per kwh that is about $1500-$2000 per year. For only one field at one park. Given the number of hours field lights are typically on (3-5-) saving 1.5 to 2 hr that translates to a 30%-50% savings.

Park and Rec departments in four cities (Los Alamitos, San Dimas, LaVerne and Long Beach) are using a low cost web based lighting control and monitoring service from Wireless Telematics LLC (wirelesstelematics.com) to schedule lights on and off only when needed. This not only reduces energy costs and carbon footprint, but also employee time in not having to send someone to turn lights on and off.

Just proves you don’t have to spend alot of money (especially taxpayer) to go green. In this case they actually are saving money.

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