AVALON, CATALINA ISLAND - Islanders turned out in large numbers to participate in the Catalina Island Holiday Light Exchange held this past Sunday and Monday (November 22 and 23) at Avalon City Hall.  Sponsored by Southern California Edison (SCE), and held in conjunction with the Catalina Sustainability Action Group (Catalina SAG), the event provided up to five (5) strands of new, multi-color LED holiday lights per household at no cost in exchange for working or non-working incandescent holiday light strands.  Catalina SAG is comprised of the City of Avalon, The Santa Catalina Island Company, The Catalina Island Conservancy, The Catalina Chamber of Commerce and Visitor's Bureau, SCE, USC and Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe's office.

According to Consumer Reports, LED holiday lights have been proven to use far less energy than standard incandescent light strands - consuming 1 to 3 kilowatt hours of energy on average, compared to 12 to 105 kWh.  LEDs also last far longer - enduring nearly twice as long as incandescent holiday light strands. They are less likely to break than glass incandescent lights as LED holiday lights have bulbs made of plastic.  LED holiday lights also run much cooler than incandescent holiday lights, which helps to reduce the risk of fire.

"Based upon the runaway success of the Catalina Island Efficient Lighting Expo held back in October, we knew that there was huge interest and enthusiasm here on Catalina Island for this type of event," said Ben Harvey, SCE's Local Public Affairs Region Manager for Catalina Island.  "We quickly put our heads together to figure out how we could bring another energy efficiency opportunity to our Catalina customers before the end of the year.  We knew we would not be disappointed by the response - as of the end of the day on Sunday (November 22), we were on track to exchange the entire 5,000 strands of LED lights that we brought over to the Island for the event."

SCE and Catalina SAG are committed to reducing the demand for energy on Catalina Island, and will work collaboratively to bring other energy efficiency opportunities to the Island in the future.  For additional information regarding saving energy, please visit http://www.sce.com/ or http://www.energystar.gov/.