Chelmsford "Opt Up" Campaign
What is it?
The simplest thing Chelmsford residents can do to immediately cut their carbon emissions is “opt up” to the “greenest” option in the town’s electricity aggregation program: Chelmsford Choice. This is a program where the town uses its bulk buying power to buy electricity for residents at a discount. It’s kind of like getting your electricity at Costco, except you don’t need to pay for any membership fee. If you’re a Chelmsford resident, you’re already enrolled in Chelmsford Choice, so all you need to do is tell them that you want 100% of your electricity to come from renewable energy sources, rather than most of it coming from fossil fuel sources, which is the default.
What Impact Will It Have?
For the average house in Chelmsford using about 500 KWh of electricity per month, opting-up to the “greenest” option would immediately cut down the household’s CO2 by about 2 tons per year. That’s the equivalent of driving about 4,200 miles less per year in a mid-size car every year! To put it another way, that’s about 20% of an individual’s carbon emissions in Chelmsford! If you want to get more exact numbers for your home, you can check out the Chelmsford Choice calculator page here: https://masspowerchoice.com/chelmsford/calculator.
Does It Cost Anything?
Although it doesn’t cost anything to be part of Chelmsford Choice, “opting-Up” to the “greenest” option will likely increase the “supply” charges of your electric bill by about 30%. But since this part of your bill represents only about half of the charges on your electric bill, you’ll probably see your electric bill go up around 15% overall compared to using the “Basic” option. Here are the three options offered by Chelmsford Choice:
How Do I "Opt UP" To the Greenest Option?
Just click this button, which will bring you to the appropriate page on the Chelmsford Choice website to change your current selection to the “greenest” option: