Rockingham Hardware Owner Tommy Wilson said customers have picked up a lot of energy-conserving light bulbs from his store since it began participating with Pee Dee Electric in its energy coupon campaign to save customers money on their power bills.

“It’s been a really popular item,” he said. “I’m sure a lot of it’s due to the price of the bulbs, and the advertising Pee Dee Electric has been doing.”

The cooperative is partnering with seven local hardware stores in its seven county service area, including Rockingham Hardware, Hamlet Hardware and Ellerbe Farm Supply.

It works like this, you walk into the store, fill out a coupon card and get $1 off your purchase of a CFL light bulb that normally cost $3.50 at Rockingham Hardware.

The CFL bulb puts out the same light as a traditional 75-watt bulb, while using less than a third of the electricity, and lasting at least 10 times longer the traditional bulb.

Wilson said Richmond County customers haven’t had trouble picking up this new technology.

“People pretty much know about them already,” he said. “They’re educated on what’s going on with all that green stuff and energy conservation - they know what they’re looking for when they come in.”

Pee Dee Director of Communications Bruce Simmons said an average of about 100 bulbs a month have been sold at the seven hardware stores the electric co-operative has partnered with to bring savings to their customers.

“Our research has told us that if you take the 10 most commonly bulbs used in your house, and replace them with these bulbs, that will save you about $10 a month, which doesn’t sound like much compared to a $150 electric bill,” he said.

Pee Dee Marketing Representative Anne Edwards added the average lifetime of one of the CFL bulbs is about four years.

“So, if you take that lil $10 a month, and at the end of the year I hand you a check for $120, that money starts to mean something,” Simmons said.

Simmons also noted Pee Dee chose local hardware stores to distribute the bulbs for a reason.

“We went about a little different,” he said. “A lot of people asked us, ‘Why not go to Lowe’s or Wal-Mart to do this program?’” he said. “But we decided to go with the local hardware stores, because we’re the coop, and we know that money that’s spent at, say Rockingham Hardware, is going to be spent back into the community, deposited at local banks and used to pay local taxes. That, and the hardware stores have a history of offering service and asking questions that just isn’t there with the big box stores.”

The bulbs are offered at a lower consumer price at these hardware stores than at big box stores, because all 23 electrical coops in North Carolina have banded together to purchase the bulbs, just as they band together to purchase electricity.

Edwards explained the less energy the customer consumes, the cheaper the energy is to purchase.

“One of the biggest misconceptions people have about electricity is that we have a whole bunch of it and we sell it to you,” she said.

“This just isn’t true,” Simmons said. “Electricity has to be made somewhere, and then it has to be moved right then, and used right then.”

Simmons and Edwards also pointed out that while this is a money-saving move right now, it will soon be mandatory. Traditional bulbs will be phased out in 2012, and then the only bulbs you’ll be able to purchase will be the CFL bulbs.

Furthermore, Simmons added, the electricity industry is facing some challenges that might lead to more expensive energy for the companies, and ultimately the consumer, in the next two to three years.

First, the state is mulling over a bill to mandate energy providers add more expensive renewable energy sources to their portfolios. Additionally, the federal government is discussing passing carbon tax legislation as early as the fall, which could mean huge rate jumps for the consumer.

“First and foremost, though, the price of energy is going up because it’s being driven by the price of generating it. In North Carolina, 51 percent of our energy comes from nuclear generation, about 37 percent from coal and another nine from natural gas,” he said. “For nuclear, the price of uranium has shot up 200 percent, monopoly rail lines and government regulation have driven up the price of coal about 140 percent in the past two years and pure speculation has driven the price of natural gas up about 100 percent.”

This fall, Pee Dee will be launching a campaign to provide water heater blankets to better insulate water heaters so they don’t have to run as much.

“Heating water is the second biggest user of energy in the average home, with heating it being the biggest,” Edwards said.

Pee Dee is also developing a program to provide customers with a meter to tell them how much energy they’re using. What’s been called smart-grid technology, like that being developed by Google currently.

“We are about 18 months out from putting a power cost display module in every customer’s home, so they can see how much energy they’re using,” Simmons said. “If not in real time minutes, at least yesterday’s usage.”

“Then, for the people who are living month-to-month and week-to-week, like many people are right now, they could monitor how much energy they’re using, and eventually we could offer pre-paid service,” Edwards said.