11,000 Home Assessments Achieve Massive Power Savings

Energy efficiency promoter Ecobulb is celebrating a big milestone this month.

Founder Chris Mardon says the company this week delivered its 11,000th energy assessment and low-cost efficiency savings programme.

Ecobulb delivers free home assessment visits to mostly low-income households, personalised to their circumstances.

The assessment calculates potential savings from energy efficiency – which is using less energy for the same result - and also selects the lowest cost electricity retail plan.

Introduced in May 2021, the programme is made possible by Ministry for Business Innovation and Employment SEEC[1] funding and money from consumer-owned energy trusts, lines companies, and councils.

Chris Mardon says an assessment and follow-up actions can reduce average household power bills by $500 a year.

“The energy efficiency actions undertaken as a result of these 11,000 assessments, have saved households a collective $7.35 million a year on power bills, while reducing New Zealand’s peak load by 2.3 megawatts,” Mardon says.

Ecobulb’s partnership with lines companies includes its recent work with Northpower in Whangarei and Kaipara, which is a finalist in the Community Initiative of the Year Award of the Energy Excellence Awards. The winner is announced August 28.

Northpower’s innovative Home Energy Education programme is delivering more than $2.5 million of potential annual savings, or an average reduction of $763 a year per household.

“Putting in place LEDs and other low-cost energy efficiency measures to 1.5 million homes would save Kiwis $1 billion a year, reduce CO2 equal to taking all cars off New Zealand roads for a year, and cut a Hamilton’s worth of peak load – at an 18:1 benefit to cost ratio,” Mardon says. “Our goal is to save enough electricity to power New Zealand for one year,” Mardon says.

[1] Support for Energy Education in Communities Programme

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