Greening up Curtis Park
SCNA board adopts anti-global warming challenge  

By Kathy Les
Viewpoint Staff Writer

By now you've seen An Inconvenient Truth and you're wondering what you can do to help stem the threat of global warming. And if you haven't seen the movie that's rocking the nation awake to the adverse effects of damaging green house gases on the earth's temperature and climate, you may still be wondering how you can make a difference.

Look no further than your own neighborhood and your own home. At the June meeting of SCNA, the SCNA board endorsed a challenge for Curtis Park to become a model neighborhood for energy conservation. Working in partnership with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District - our provider for electricity in Curtis Park - we will be able to keep tabs on monthly, neighborhood wide electricity usage. Our goal: To see a 10-20% reduction each month.

Using SCNA's address data base of nearly 2,000 households in the neighborhood, SMUD was able to aggregate energy usage for Curtis Park over the last year. Computing energy use for a single neighborhood is a first time ever undertaking for SMUD. Each month, SMUD will report on the 2006 monthly electric usage in Curtis Park for a comparison of this year and last year.

"I think it's great that Curtis Park is taking a progressive stance on energy and environmental issues," said Jim Parks, program manager for energy efficiency and customer research and development with SMUD. Parks made a presentation to the SMUD board in May detailing the opportunity to work with Curtis Park on energy conservation. Genevieve Shiroma, SMUD board president and Curtis Park resident, is especially proud to see Curtis Park step forward as a model for neighborhood conservation.

Can we really help make a dent in global warming? Absolutely, if every household in Curtis Park does its part.

"Each of us is the cause of global warming and each of us can take the steps to change it," said Al Gore, speaking in An Inconvenient Truth.

Last month, Viewpoint reported on several ways to help save energy at home and in auto use. If you missed that issue, Click here.

As reported last month, SMUD has made available a free DVD for all Curtis Park residents that demonstrates how to identify energy waste in your home and make corrections to save energy and money. The High Bill Caper DVD is available free for the asking at the Sierra 2 office.

This month SMUD is offering an opportunity and a challenge to Curtis Park for those that sign up for SMUD's Greenergy program. (See separate story.) If just 18 neighbors sign up to spend a little more each month to help SMUD generate power through sustainable sources, we will achieve the equivalent of planting 18 acres of trees, or creating a forest equal to the size of the park in the center of our neighborhood. Show SMUD and fellow Sacramento residents that Curtis Park can do it!

This month, Curtis Park neighbors are being encouraged to save energy by swapping out their energy-guzzling incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescents. While you've been relying on the old style light bulb of the last 100 years, there's been a revolution in lighting capability through compact fluorescents, or CFLs as they are also known.

Traditional light bulbs typically last about 1,000 hours and waste about 90 percent of their energy gathering heat, according to SMUD's Web site. CFLs on the other hand, use up to 67 percent less energy with no light loss, last 10 times longer and deliver up to seven years of good light.

While CFLs cost more up front, over their lifetime, the cost per bulb and for energy usage is actually less. A 75-watt traditional bulb replaced by a 20-25-watt CFL, will generate the equivalent light, will save you over $75 during the life of the bulb and will generate about 1,000 pounds less of carbon dioxide or CO2, the pollution causing toxic leading to global warming and climate change.

CFLs are now easy to find at local stores and at cost-effective prices.

Several years ago, primarily hardware, home improvement and specialty lighting stores sold CFLS's, but now Walgreen's, Raleys, Target and any other store that sells incandescent lights offers a variety of CFL's. The drop in price and reliability factor has also driven the marketplace and moved the product into mass-market appeal.

Switching just two traditional bulbs to CFLs will save more than a ton of CO2 over the life of the bulbs. That's significant.

Environmental Defense, the nationwide organization that has made global warming awareness its primary mission, has issued a challenge to residents in the U.S. to swap out 1 million bulbs to CFLs in the next year. Visit www.environmentaldefense.org to take their pledge and help meet the nationwide goal.

Here in Curtis Park, the goal is to convert 4,000 bulbs to CFLs. To make your local neighborhood pledge to swap light bulbs, send an e-mail to green@sierra2.org stating the number of bulbs you will swap out.

For a look at how Curtis Park fares on electricity usage month-by-month, see the adjacent table. Please do your part to make Curtis Park's 2006 kilowatt usage decline and stem the tide of global warming. Help with the greening of Curtis Park.

This month's energy conservation tips for Greening Up Curtis Park

Swap out at least two traditional light bulbs for compact fluorescents (CFLs) to eliminate over 350 lbs. of CO2 annually or one ton over the life of the bulbs. Report your light bulb changes to green@sierra2.org.

Suffer the heat a bit more by turning your thermostat up to reduce air conditioning use.

Close off one room to AC use to minimize energy draw.

Use ceiling fans to help circulate AC-cooled air more efficiently.

Track your own household electric use by noting this-year and last-year comparison on your SMUD bill.

Click here for more energy saving tips and info.

For more information on energy-saving light bulbs and conducting a home energy audit visit SMUD at: www.smud.org.

For more information on global warming problems and solutions, including information on CFLs, visit Environmental Defense at: www.environmentaldefense.org.

Sometimes it's hard to believe saving energy on an individual or household basis really makes a difference. But looking at the Curtis Park neighborhood as a whole, demonstrates the impact of working collectively to cut back on energy use. The table above compares neighborhood wide electricity use for 2005 and 2006 - in actual KWH and factored for weather differences. Help Curtis Park show even bigger energy savings by doing your part to conserve energy. And watch monthly in Viewpoint to see how progress unfolds.

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