Starter Kit. Idea 424 of 500. Cluster 21
LED and efficient-lighting retrofits sold to the factories and the temples
The mechanism, from the book
The sun shines on every roof and the island imports its fuel.
The first step
Count the light fittings in one garment or food factory and one temple, with the permission of the manager and the trustees, and note the type and the hours each one burns. Work out what the bill would fall by with efficient lamps, then offer to fit them at cost and take a share of the saving for a year. The proof is one signed retrofit order.
- Who pays first
- A factory manager who runs lights through long shifts and wants a lower bill without spending capital, paid from the saving itself.
- What leaves today
- Inefficient lighting burns power made from imported fuel; every retrofit cuts a bill that ultimately leaves the island as foreign exchange.
Ask first
- Sustainable Energy Authority. Ask whether any support exists for efficient lighting retrofits.
- Ceylon Electricity Board. Ask how savings on electricity bills can be measured fairly.
Check before you spend
Permission from the manager or the temple trustees, a written agreement on measuring savings, and fitting by a qualified electrician.
Find out these three numbers
- How many fittings burn, and for how many hours?
- What would the bill fall by with efficient lamps?
- What share of savings will they agree?
A comparison from the book
The fuel import bill. Chapter Fourteen
"The realistic goal for the next few years is to cut the fuel import bill, which saves dollars every single year."
Lower bills for factories and temples also mean less imported fuel burned for power.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.