Gov. Sam Brownback shows easy fixes for saving energy to launch Take Charge! Challenge

Take Charge! Challenge kick-off

On Saturday, Jan. 29, the Lawrence and Manhattan Take Charge! Challenge will officially kick-off at a watch party for the Kansas University and Kansas State men’s basketball game. The event will run from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Liberty Hall, 644 Mass.

Launching a state-wide energy challenge that pits Lawrence against Manhattan, Gov. Sam Brownback spoke in terms the cities’ residents were likely to understand: basketball.

“Most homes have enough cracks in them and areas of opening that are about the size of a basketball,” Brownback said holding a basketball to demonstrate his point. “If you saw a hole in your house this big, you would definitely patch it.”

Brownback’s own home, the Governor’s mansion at Cedar Crest, was the site of the kick-off for Take Charge! Challenge, a $1 million program that has 16 cities across the state competing among each other to see whose residents can save the most energy.

Starting on Jan. 29, Lawrence will square off against Manhattan for a $100,000 prize and a basketball signed by the governor.

Brownback referenced the state’s wind turbines, methane gas plants and even Lawrence’s Bowersock Mills and Power Company as ways to meet the state’s energy challenges.

“It’s one of those times where you can try different things and people want to embrace it,” Brownback said. “A lot of it is that you got to show that you can do it and you can do it economically. Part of sustainability is economically sustainable.”

To demonstrate ways residents can have more energy efficient homes, Brownback changed an incandescent lightbulb to a compact fluorescent one and put a draft stopper behind a light switch.

“Aesthetically it’s the same; cost-wise it’s very cheap,” Brownback said as he screwed the light switch panel back onto the wall with a hoard of reporters filming the process.

Lawrence residents should take notes. As part of the Take Charge! Challenge, residents will be asked to keep track of how many light bulbs they switch to compact fluorescent lights. And draft stoppers — pieces of Styrofoam put behind electric outlets and light switches — will be handed out at community events.

“It’s a great way to mitigate the big basketball-size hole that is in everyone’s house,” said Margaret Tran, the local community coordinator for Take Charge! Challenge.