Lighter Bills with NIE Bulbs

01/03/2007

Northern Ireland Electricity has helped make for a brighter future here in Northern Ireland. The company has revealed that in the last year alone, it has given away 85,000 free energy saving light bulbs to customers.  
 
The bulbs have been given away through community groups and other charitable organisations as well as to householders on benefits. Whilst the company wouldn’t say who had the bright idea, it has certainly proved a popular move by the many thousands of recipients across Northern Ireland.  
 
NIE’s Claire McCambridge said: “NIE is keen to help people use less electricity and reduce bills. One simple way to do this is replace traditional light bulbs with energy saving ones. An energy saving bulb uses a fifth of the electricity of a traditional bulb. Also, each bulb when put in a frequently used light, can save up to £10 a year off your electricity bill.  
 
“It used to be that energy saving bulbs were bigger than traditional bulbs and either didn’t fit or poked out the top of lamp shade. That’s not the case anymore,” said Claire. “You can now get energy saving bulb equivalents of nearly every shape of bulb you might need.”  
 
The 85,000 energy saving bulbs will save 1,826 tonnes of carbon per year from going into the atmosphere, 28,239 tonnes of carbon over the lifetime of the bulbs, reducing Northern Ireland’s contribution of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, thus reducing our contribution to climate change. Climate change is a result of the increasing imbalance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  
 
If you are interested in looking at how to reduce your energy bills, you can get free and impartial energy efficiency advice by calling the Energy Saving Trust Advice Centre on freephone 0800 512 012 or go to www.est.org.uk.  

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