LIGHTS on. Lights off.

After the Formula One pit building was last used during the SingTel Singapore Grand Prix in September, The New Paper noticed that the lights on the side facing the city were always left on through the night.

This was for all three floors of that side of the building.

While the building has hosted some events like sales bazaars and sports-related events, they were conducted in the day.

The F1-related infrastructure, like furniture and even carpeting, was stripped out after last year's race.

But following the F1 race - in December and last month - we observed the F1 pit building at different times of the night, from 11pm until around 4am, and noticed that the situation had not changed.

There are the usual security needs, since there is a small group of security guards on duty every night. But was there a need to leave all the lights on?

Especially since there has been an effort to get Singaporeans and companies to save electricity?

The picture you see above - taken on 13 Jan - is what we observed in the past few months.

On 27 Jan, a day before normal office hours resumed after the Chinese New Year holidays, The New Paper e-mailed the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) to check on this.

While awaiting STB's reply, The New Paper observed a reduction in lighting usage.

Switched off

Only on the top floor of the F1 pit building, were the lights left fully on through the night.

The second floor's lights were switched off. And the first floor had only minimal spot lighting this time round. They have been this way since.

See the picture below taken on 10 Feb for the reduced lighting usage.

Last week - three weeks after we sent our questions about the possible wastage of electricity to STB - the following reply was sent by Leong Yue Kheong, STB's Director of the F1 Project.

It read: 'The Pit Building requires an appropriate level of lighting at night for security reasons.

'Energy-saving lights are switched on from 7pm to 7am daily. This constitutes less than 20 per cent of the external building lights.'