Lights out Houston!

Have you ever looked at our beautiful skyline at night and wondered whether somebody is really working late in all those offices? Truth is, some of the lights around town are on all night even when nobody's there.

This Friday, commercial property owners, managers and tenants are being asked to shut off the lights when they leave for the day.  According to organizers of Lights Out Houston, "by eliminating just 50% of the lights routinely left on overnight and on the weekends, we can save 8.4M KW-Hours annually. That equals to almost $1 million annually."

Astronomers have been trying to get us to shut off the lights for years. We can't see the stars over Houston because of light pollution. From space, it's easy to pick out large cities because of all the lights, many which are aimlessly pointed toward the sky where the light (and energy) is wasted.

No one is asking you to shut off lights that keep your home and neighborhood secure. But look around your office and your house. If you don't need the lights on, shut them off. Didn't your Dad always tell you that?

Comments

[Andy Bergman]

Hi Tim, I am one of the organizers for this event and I appreciate the coverage! We are going to surpass 100 Million SF in building pledges today and are extremely excited about the significant interest level taken in this initiative by building owners. We are looking forward to a darker skyline during non-working hours in the future! Sincerely, Andy

[D E]

I went outside at 10:30pm and couldn't tell a difference (I live right off the Sabine Bridge and have a great vantage point). I'll be interested in seeing what the official compliance rate is. I hope at least some of the building complied and that this will make a difference in the future.

This is a great idea, but also realize we're in Houston, a town not exactly known for it's conservation efforts. It's more than a bit disturbing that we even need to be told to turn the lights out when we leave a room. My parents would have had my hide!

RESPONSE from Tim Heller: While the skyline was not completely dark, downtown was a little darker than normal. We got a lot of calls at ABC13 about Williams Tower being dark. They even turned off the rotating searchlight on top of the building.

[Cole]

Even in The Woodlands a lot of office buildings participated. Over the past decade, with ALL the new growth, there has been a significant increase of light pollution. (I would guess primarily new streetlights) I'm glad to see the conservation effort is working. Also, how many homes could we light for how many years if the Williams Tower just turned off its 7,000 watt beacon for good? It's like we are all supposed to run out and buy CFLs when such HUGE electricity users are wasting. Well, at least this effort is a start. Let's hope it lasts.

[Raj C.]

This was a HUGE event in SF. Made for a fun eveneing at the bar!

[Andy Bergman]

We are in the process of working with Center Point to measure the results of Lights Out Weekend vs similar weekends in the past. I drove out of downtown last Friday at 11:15 and it was noticeably darker. Several buildings such as 4 Houston Center were completely dark with no lights on. There have been several stories coming in from property managers that had to correct a number of items in order to comply with the Lights Out challenge that we know made a difference. Check back to www.lightsouthouston.com where we will be posting updates on our post Lights Out Houston measurement program.