By David Grossman

During a press conference held Tuesday, the Green Community Task Force, in partnership with Unitil, unveiled a new green program which will help residents measure how many kilowatts their home appliances use.

The press conference was held at the Lunenburg Public Library. 

Lunenburg Green Community Task Force member, Joanne McQuaid was responsible for setting up a meeting with Unitil’s Municipal and Community Services Manager, John DiNapoli, to explain how utility customers will be able to keep track of how many kilowatts each home appliance uses at their residence. 

Lunenburg residents will be able to check out, through the Lunenburg Library, a CUT the CARBON kit, which includes Kill-A-Watt Meter: Earthmate energy efficient soft white bulb; instruction sheet; energy tips brochure; and a survey. The meter will allow residents to monitor how much electricity they are using for a specific appliances, such as light fixtures, air conditioners and televisions.

There will be 12 kits available for free at the Library, which can be checked out for three weeks at a time. 

“Generally appliances that are older than 14 years should be replaced,” said DiNapoli.

DiNapoli said that refrigerators generally use a lot of power because they are on twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.  He also stressed that the large plasma television sets also soak up a lot of juice. 

Each kit will come with an instruction sheet that divides home usage into fixed and variable loads.  The CUT the CARBON device is simple to use and there is a worksheet that a homeowner can use to figure out the monthly electricity charge.

According to DiNapoli, this program is widespread throughout New Hampshire and available to all of Unitil's’ New Hampshire residents.  This is a state funded program and the “Kill a Watt Energy Detector” is now similarly available at several New Hampshire libraries.  Lunenburg, however, is the first town in Massachusetts to have these kits available.

DiNapoli said that if the program works in Lunenburg then he will expand the program to Ashby, Townsend and Fitchburg.

Now may be a good time for homeowners to update appliances, as there are incentives available which are specific to each town.  The Web site is Masssave.com