ROCKLAND — The Energy Committee for the City of Rockland has been awarded a $2,000 Spark! Grant by the Island Institute. This effort is in conjunction with the recently adopted Rockland Climate Action Plan to move the city to carbon neutrality by 2045. 

This grant has funded the purchase of a thermal scan camera which will be available for check-out to cardholders of the Rockland Public Library, and more than 2,000 LED lightbulbs are available to be distributed free of charge to the community at the AIO Food Pantry and at the Library on Mondays starting mid December.

The pocked-sized infra-red thermal scanner is a “high sensitivity detector that captures subtle temperature differences and thermal patterns” in order to find and allow correction of leakage of household thermal leakage in the effort to improve energy efficiency. Providing access to this device empowers homeowners and renters to work towards creating tighter, more energy-efficient homes, according to the Library, in a news release.

“Using the thermal camera is straight-forward, and you get an instant visual of your household energy leaks; the images can also be downloaded to your computer for future reference,” said the Library.

According to Efficiency Maine, which partners with local retailers to make low priced LED bulbs available, for every incandescent bulb used 6 hours a day which is replaced by an LED bulb, home-owners save about $17 per year.

The Island Institute is a community development nonprofit based in Rockland.