S$25 vouchers for one- and two-room HDB households in North East District to buy LED lights

SINGAPORE – In an effort to encourage the use of more energy-efficient lights, all one- and two-room households in Housing Development Board (HDB) flats in the North East District will get a S$25 voucher to buy LED lights.

More than 13,000 households in the district are eligible for the “Switch and Save – Use LED” (SSUL) vouchers, the National Environment Agency (NEA) and North East Community Development Council (CDC) said in a joint release on Saturday (Aug 18).

If all these households switch to LED lights, they could potentially save about 360,000 kWh collectively in a year – equivalent to more than S$70,000 in energy savings – and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 150 tonnes per annum, the NEA and North East CDC said.

An LED bulb uses about 80 per cent less electricity compared to an incandescent bulb, and LED lights also generally last five times longer than incandescent lights. According to NEA and North East CDC, households can reap both energy and cost savings if they replace their incandescent or compact fluorescent lights with LED lights.

LED lights are generally more energy-efficient than compact fluorescent and incandescent lamps. But in a study conducted by NEA last year, only 28 per cent of households in one- and two-room public housing flats use LED lights. This is the lowest adoption rate of LED lights among household size types.

The study also revealed that lights were one of the top five electricity-consuming appliances in a home, accounting for about six per cent of total electricity consumption of an average household.

Over the last decade, Singapore’s total household electricity consumption has gone up by about 17 per cent due to population growth.

Mr Ronnie Tay, NEA's chief executive officer said: “By choosing energy-saving appliances, households can not only save energy and reduce their utility bills, but also reduce carbon emissions.

“Taking care of the environment can be done though simple ways,” he added. “Switching to LED lights is a simple first step all can take.”

The NEA said it is looking into progressively rolling-out this SSUL programme – which caters for all one- and two-room HDB households – to other districts as well.

The SSUL @ North East programme was launched on Saturday at Punggol North by Guest of Honour and Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, Mr Masagos Zulkifli, together with Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and Adviser to Pasir Ris-Punggol Grassroots Organisations (GROs), Mr Ng Chee Meng, and Mayor of North East District and Assistant Secretary-General of NTUC, Mr Desmond Choo.

All eligible households in the North East District will be notified via mail to collect their vouchers from designated collection points, such as their nearest community centre. The S$25 voucher can be used at all Home-Fix, Selffix and Sheng Siong stores across Singapore, Philips Light Lab, as well as roadshows organised by NEA and North East CDC. More details can be found at www.cgs.sg/switchandsave.