Get Energy Smarter Expo Yields Big Payback
for Local Families

Pittsburgh Field Office reports energy savings will top $28,000

Hundreds of Pittsburgh residents who attended a community event on the Southside this month enjoyed more than a Sunday afternoon of family fun and free popcorn. They took home the key to immediately start saving money on their home electric bills.

Get Energy Smarter Expo, Pittsburgh, PA. October 12, 2008.

The efforts of the HUD Pittsburgh Field Office's Green Team paid big dividends. The Team began planning in January 2008, and recruited partners for the first Get Energy Smarter Expo. With key partners, Conservation Consultants, Inc (CCI)., Duquesne Light, City of Pittsburgh, Sustainable Pittsburgh, Department of Energy, Dominion, Equitable Gas, Baker Engineers, Citizens Bank, First National Bank, Giant Eagle, and Pennsylvania American Water, HUD helped to host a major energy month event.

The result was a street fair on October 12, 2008. Conservation Consultants, Inc. offered demonstrations and workshops aimed at helping families cut their energy use while improving the comfort of their homes. Solar panels powered the music system and popcorn wagon at the event, showing that even on a cool autumn day in Pittsburgh there's plenty of clean energy available from the sun.

Operations Specialist Cindy Haines is MC for Get Energy Smarter Expo. Shown with CCI's Dave DeFide.

Everyone likes getting something free, and the Get Energy Smarter Expo offered a freebie that will pay dividends for years to come: hundreds of power-saving Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) that will save participants more than 216,000 Kilowatt hours of electricity. That works out to about $67 for each local homeowner who traded in old-style incandescent bulbs for the new CFLs at the Expo. At current rates for electric power, the total savings will be more than $28,000.

Content Archived: February 28, 2011