Expo lights up savings
- silvereyecomms
- Mar 3, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 17
March 2, 2022
Brianna Stewart
King Country residents are being helped into big energy savings by a partnership between The Lines Company - established by Maru Energy Efficiency Trust and Ecobulb.
The trust held an energy efficiency expo in Te Kuiti last weekend, where it is estimated people from one fifth of Te Kuiti households participated by either getting an energy assessment completed or picking up energy efficient lightbulbs.
The expo came as part of the North King Country energy hardship pilot which began in December last year as a way to educate and assist the community with making money saving choices when it came to electricity.
It runs until the end of the month and is predicted to have already shaved almost $500,000 off energy bills in the King Country.
Funding for the pilot came from both Maru Energy Efficiency Trust and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Development's Support for Energy Education in Communities programme, totalling $150,000 each.
The Lines Company (TLC) said people from 211 homes went through an energy assessment, where they were asked questions about their usual energy consumption habits fom number of lightbulbs on the property to beer fridge use, heatpump habits and frequency of showers.
It is estimated by making the suggested changes, including changing their exsisting lightbulbs to the energy efficient Ecobulb ones being given away at the expo, potential savings from those who completed assessments would total $162,500 a year.
A further 229 households now have five Ecobulb LEDs after the expo.
TLC CEO Sean Horgan said the company was passionate about supporting community through initiatives like the energy hardship pilot.
"There's extremem energy hardship in our area.
"If you look at the deprivation index through Stats NZ, 60% of our customers live in areas of high deprivation and you add on top of that cold winters, old houses, etc.
"So initiatives such as this are key."
Maru had also been providing home insulation in the King Country for a few years, and had completed between 500 and 600 of those.
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