Giveaway To Help Eagle Rock Residents Save Money

LOS ANGELES, CA — The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has a bright idea to help you conserve electricity and save money this summer. The public utility company will deliver millions of free LED light bulbs to homes across the county, a move designed to dramatically reduce electricity usage over time.

"Not only will this simple change help save the environment, it will also put money back in our customers' pocketbooks," DWP General Manager David H. Wright said in a statement. "The LED household distribution program is a cost-effective way to deliver energy efficiency directly to all of LADWP's residential customers, both in single-family as well as multi-family homes."

In all, the public utility plans to deliver 2.8 million free LED light bulbs to residential customers by the end of July. Each week, several crews will be deployed to distribute reusable bags containing two 12-watt LED bulbs to nearly 125,000 homes, according to the agency.

The cost to deliver the LED bulbs to customers is about $7.9 million, and if all residential customers switch to the product, DWP estimates 4,410 gigawatt hours of energy could be saved, equivalent to taking 330,000 vehicles off the road annually.

The bulbs will be distributed by DWP contractor PowerDirect, and employees will wear identification and yellow vests when dropping off light bulbs.

"If LADWP customers replace two 75-watt incandescent bulbs with the two 12-watt LED bulbs, they can expect to save a combined 138 kilowatt-hours annually for the life of the bulbs, estimated to last nearly 23 years," according to DWP.

The utility estimates the bulbs could save its residential customers $666.4 million over the life of the LED bulbs.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.