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Bright idea results in heavy load By Bill Kettler Letter carriers and mail handlers know better than most people how successful Pacific Power�s energy-saving light-bulb promotion has been. About 56 percent of Pacific Power�s 412,000 residential customers in Oregon have requested the bulbs. Thousands of packages carrying two compact fluorescent bulbs have passed through local post offices in recent days, and more will be coming. To get bulbs If you tossed your free-light-bulbs offer from Pacific Power, you can still get the compact fluorescent bulbs. Call 1-888-483-1661 to sign up or visit Pacific Power�s Web site at: www.twofreebulbs.com The Web site has information about other energy-saving products available from Pacific Power. "I think everybody in Medford has gotten them," quipped John Wojtas, a supervisor at Medford�s main post office. Pacific Power sent each residential customer a coupon redeemable for two 20-watt compact fluorescent light bulbs. The offer is part of a $6 million energy-conservation initiative that Oregon�s Public Utility Commission required as a condition of Pacific Power�s merger with Scottish Power. Thousands of the bulbs passed through the Medford post office Monday, as mail sorters and letter carriers moved them to homes across Southern Oregon. "When something�s free, everybody wants one," said Wojtas. Handling the bulbs has been time-consuming, he said. Mail sorters had to open pallets packed with several hundred bulbs and sort them along with regular mail. Letter carriers had to take many of the packages to customers because they don�t fit easily in some letter boxes. "They come in waves," Wojtas said. "Monday we must have had 10 containers, with 300 or 400 in each one." The 20-watt fluorescent bulbs provide illumination comparable to a 75-watt incandescent bulb and use about one-fourth of the energy, said Bekki Gade, a Pacific Power spokeswoman. "We�re hoping to give people a simple, immediate way to save energy and money by mailing these bulbs," Gade said. The bulbs burn far longer than ordinary incandescent light bulbs. A compact fluorescent will operate for seven to 10 years, or about 10 times as long as an incandescent bulb. Gade said each bulb saves about $5 to $6 of electricity over its useful life. If every homeowner installed two bulbs, the energy saved would provide enough power to supply all the electricity for 4,300 homes for one year. Gade said the free bulbs eliminate many of the problems that plagued earlier generations of compact fluorescent bulbs. The first compact fluorescents produced light with a blue cast, and the bulbs sometimes hummed when they were turned on or produced flickering light. The new bulbs make a warmer light, more like the familiar yellow-white of incandescent bulbs. "They�re much improved over the first generation of compact fluorescents," she said. Gade said the idea for the free light bulbs emerged long before the energy shortages that have plagued California during the past few weeks. Inspiration for the program came in a series of meetings in which Pacific Power realized consumers wanted to lower their electric bill and save energy, but didn�t know what to do. Springing the program on the public while rolling blackouts hit California "was good timing," she said. "People�s energy awareness is pretty high right now." Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.