Hi, My name is Andy Bergman and I am one of the participating organizers for the Lights Out Houston event. I have read some of the comments on this posting referring to Lights Out Houston as a "one-time event". I can tell you that the property owners of the 200+ buildings and 100 Million SF of space that have pledged to this program do not think so. We started this initiative with the hope that we can change behaviors and procedures for building owners, tenants, and service companies. Clearly, anyone who has driven around town on a Saturday or Sunday evening realizes that there is much work that needs to be done regarding the conservation of energy in buildings due to lighting. The savings analyis that we performed (which is contained on our website - www.lightsouthouston.com) is a very conservative estimate and is based on only reducing non-essential lighting in participating buildings by 50%, not 100%. Furthermore, each pledging company clearly understands that this is not a "one-time event" but is meant to be an on-going program designed to change behaviors and reduce energy for the long-term. This is analagous to dieting or quiting smoking. It requires behavioral change - we know that by participating in Lights Out Houston each building may not be able to sustain this initiative. But what if just 50% of the pledging 100 Million SF of buildings do? It will result in an annual savings of over $2 Million dollars in energy cost to building owners and their tenants. This is a big number! We are not representing this as a "silver bullet" to eliminate climate change but one small step of the millions of things that all citizens need to be doing. I would encourage posters that are indeed interested in energy conservation to get involved in a positive way and help spread the word and make suggestions to improve lighting efficiency. One post I read said that during off hours, each time the timer is reset the lights stay on for another hour. Why not make a suggestion for this timer to be web-based whereby the user could control this from their PC? There are millions of ways we could all get involved in suggesting improvements to the facility managers and owners/operators. Sincerely, Andy
