Reminder: If You Live in an HDB Flat, You’d Now Have $300 Vouchers to Buy Eco-Friendly Appliances

Do your parents always scold you for taking hour-long showers and wasting water?

Send them this article because they may be eligible for $300 vouchers to help reduce your household’s water and electricity bill.

Climate Friendly Households Programme

Lest you didn’t know, under the Climate Friendly Households Programme (CFHP), every HDB household will receive $300 in Climate Vouchers to purchase energy- and water-efficient products.

Launched on 28 November 2020, CFHP is a joint initiative by the National Environment Agency (NEA) and the Public Utilities Board (PUB) which aims to encourage households to take climate actions to be more efficient in their energy and water consumption, while saving on utility bills in the long run.

Reader: 2020? Then why am I hearing about this only now?

You see, the programme was recently expanded to include more households.

Previously, the programme was only open to one- to three-room HDB flats. Those eligible could receive $225 worth of vouchers to be used for three types of products. At the time, the voucher amount was also fixed for each category:

• $150 in vouchers for energy-saving refrigerators;
• $25 in vouchers for LED lights; and
• $50 in vouchers for water-saving shower fittings.

With the new expansion of the programme, all 1.1 million HDB households currently, as well as new flat owners who receive their keys by 2027, will be eligible for $300 in Climate Vouchers from 15 April 2024.

You can watch this video for more information:

The vouchers will be in denominations of $2, $5, $10, and $50, and there will be no restrictions on the amount usable for any appliance.

Additionally, these vouchers can be used on 10 types of products, up from the previous three. This includes air-conditioners, basin taps, and heat pump water heaters, which were not included in the previous programme.

Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Amy Khor said the 10 types of products under the expanded programme contribute to around 60% of an average household’s electricity consumption and around 90% of water consumption.

The initial set of vouchers expired last March, but households that have already used the first set of vouchers can still use the new ones, which will expire on 31 December 2027.

How To Claim Climate Vouchers

Households whose registered address is an eligible HDB flat will be provided with one set of $300 digital Climate Vouchers which can be claimed by logging in to RedeemSG via Singpass.

Yes, Climate Vouchers can be claimed in the same way as CDC vouchers.

Don’t press wrong and try to use your Climate Vouchers to buy chicken rice ah.

Each eligible household will be entitled to one set of Climate Vouchers for its valid registered address during the programme period.

So, no, you won’t get $1,500 for having five people in your household. You’ll just have to share the $300.

How To Use Climate Vouchers

Climate Vouchers are only valid for the purchase of

• Eligible products that carry NEA’s energy label and/or PUB’s water efficiency label; or
• LED lights, direct current fans, and heat pump water heaters approved under the programme.

These vouchers can be redeemed at participating retailers’ stores:

• Audio House
• Bathroom Warehouse
• Best Denki
• Chuan Heng Hardware Trading
• Cold Storage
• Courts
• FairPrice
• Gain City
• Giant
• Harvey Norman
• Mega Discount Store
• Sheng Siong
• T.S. Yong Trading
• Woodlands Domestic Electrical

The full list of eligible products can be found here.

The government hopes to enlist more outlets to participate. Retailers which want to join the programme need to meet certain criteria, such as having a physical point-of-sale system that is integrated with the RedeemSG digital voucher system and is able to scan QR codes.

Dr Khor has said the government will assist interested companies.

The voucher holder should present his or her personal identification document that shows his or her HDB residential address (e.g. NRIC, utilities bill etc) to allow the participating retailer to verify that the HDB address indicated on the Climate Voucher corresponds with the address on the voucher holder’s personal identification document.

Do note that multiple Climate Vouchers from different households cannot be used for a single transaction. Climate Vouchers are also not refundable, resaleable, or exchangeable for cash, store credit, cash voucher, gift voucher, gift card, or otherwise.

For the full list of T&Cs, read this.

Why The Scheme Is Being Expanded

The CFHP is being expanded to include all HDB households, instead of only one- to three room HDB flats, due to the scheme’s low take-up rate.

Roughly 300,000 households live in one- to three-room flats, meaning that about 900,000 e-vouchers could be redeemed in total until December 2023 under the previous programme.

However, by May 2022, only about 23,000 vouchers (25.5%) had been used.

CFHP was originally supposed to run until 31 December 2023, but it was extended from three more months until 20 March 2024 to give households more time to redeem and use their $225 vouchers.

By January 2024, Dr Khor said more than 141,000 households had registered for the vouchers, and about 54,000 vouchers had been used.

NEA said that of those 54,000, about 25000 of the vouchers were used for refrigerators, 16,600 for LED lights, and 11,500 for shower fittings.

With more households eligible for Climate Vouchers now, as well as the dropping of restrictions on fixed voucher amounts for each category, participating outlets stand to see higher customer traffic and sales in the next three years.

Ways to Conserve Power and Save Money

For those of you who don’t live in HDB flats and are thus ineligible for the Climate Vouchers, fret not as there are still many ways you can conserve power and save money while using household appliances.

Fans and Air-conditioners

Turning on the fan and air-conditioner at the same time is an efficient practice that helps enhance the cooling effect and hence save electricity.

LED Lights

You don’t need Climate Vouchers to buy LED lights. While they’re more expensive, they are the more economical option in the long run because they often last longer than non-LED lights.

Reader: #Girlmath.

No lah, not girl math. Just simple, logical math.

Reduce Standby Power

Appliances continue to use power whenever they are in standby mode, even if you don’t notice it.

Switching devices such as computers, microwave ovens, and TVs at the power socket when they are not in use can save you an average of $22 a year, according to NEA.

Shorter Showers

Shortening your showers can help reduce costs significantly too. No one’s stopping you from having a one-hour karaoke session in the shower, just do it when your water isn’t running.

After all who can hear your terribl- I mean, beautiful voice when the water is running, right?

Water Heaters

Is your sibling hogging the shower?

If so, this tip is for you.

Leaving the water heater switched on for extended periods of time can add to costs.

If your sibling is taking too long in the shower even after saying they only need “five more minutes”, switch the water heater off!

Your sibling will be forced out of the shower (unless they’re the type that enjoys cold showers) and you can just say you’re “helping daddy and mummy cut costs”.