Winning Household Cuts Electricity Use by 46% in Numazu City Competition

From June to September 2008, an electricity reduction competition for households was held in Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture. To promote energy saving at the household level in order to promote reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, participants competed to see which household could reduce its monthly electricity use the most compared with the same month of the previous year, using information provided in their monthly electricity bills.

One hundred and sixty eight households joined the competition in total, and the winning household reduced electricity consumption by about 46 percent. The average reduction rate was 3.5 percent from June to July and 7.9 percent for the following months.

Participants' examples for saving energy were as follows: creating green curtains of vegetation, getting rid of needless electrical equipment, stopping the use of electric pots, pulling out plugs often, having the entire family stay in a room together, wiping the floor rather than using a vacuum cleaner, closing curtains to enhance the effectiveness of air conditioners, and turning the lights off at least once a day.

Some responses to the city were as follows: "Doing a lot of small things makes a difference", "I have realized we were wasting electricity", and" I will start from what I can do." Households that ranked high in the competition were awarded with eco-friendly products.

Posted: 2008/12/21 06:02:04 AM