Energy efficient light sources like this compact fluorescent bulb look set to replace the incandescent bulb Down Under, after the Australian Government announced today that the conventional bulbs will be phased out by 2010.
Credit: Wikipedia
SYDNEY: The venerable but rampantly inefficient conventional incandescent light bulb is set to be phased out in Australia by 2010.
The move is expected to reduce Australia's carbon emissions by roughly four million tonnes per year by 2015, when all incandescent bulbs will have been replaced with more energy-efficient options.
"The most effective and immediate way we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions is by using energy more efficiently," said Australian Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull, announcing the new policy earlier today. "Electric lighting is a vital part of our lives … but it is still very inefficient. We have been using incandescent light bulbs for 125 years and up to 90 per cent of the energy each light bulb uses is wasted, mainly as heat."
Emissions can be reduced, said Turnbull, by switching to alternatives like compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs), which use about 80 per cent less energy than conventional incandescent bulbs.
According to the ministry, energy for lighting represents about 12 per cent of greenhouse emissions from households, and 25 per cent from the commercial sector.
Nationwide energy provider EnergyAustralia reports on their website that swapping one conventional bulb for a compact fluorescent can prune up to A$10 from your electricity bill every year.
Traditional incandescent bulbs generate light by forcing electric current along a very thin wire called a filament, usually made of tungsten. The flowing current heats the filament so much that it glows brightly - producing light as a by-product of heat.
In the far more efficient and long-lasting fluorescent bulbs, a small amount of mercury vapour is contained inside a glass tube. Electric discharges inside the tube cause the mercury to emit ultraviolet light, which is invisible to humans. A fluorescent coating on the inside of the tube (which gives fluorescent lights their familiar opaque white colour) absorbs the photons and re-emits them as visible light.
Charlie Stevens, a spokesperson for WWF Australia, notes that, while "energy-efficient bulbs are more expensive than the 60-cent bulbs from the supermarket," consumers will make their money back quickly in electricity bill savings.
WWF has congratulated the new policy, but cautioned that it is not a cure for global warming. "We think it's a great idea. This is a useful first step in transforming to an energy efficient world," said Stevens, "but it is a small first step … a lot of work still needs to be done."
In 2004, Australia emitted about 564 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. The reduction of four million tonnes expected from full replacement of incandescent bulbs with CFLs is equivalent to 1 per cent of the total. Stevens, suggesting that a suitable goal for tackling global warming would be a massive 60 per cent reduction in emissions from current levels by 2050, said that the new policy "was nowhere near enough."
The new move will not affect halogen bulbs like those found in automobile headlamps and track lighting in homes. While halogens work on a similar principle as incandescents, halogen bulbs last longer and are more efficient than their conventional cousins.
Australia is not the first government to propose switching off incandescents; last month, the U.S. state of California proposed a bill that would phase out incandescent light bulbs by 2012 in favour of CFLs.
CFLs are better in most situations
Regarding mercury:
Presumably, when most of us are using compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs), recycling will become more available, and also more economically viable with efficiencies from bulk processing.
Anyway, coal power stations are a major emitter of mercury into the atmosphere - so even in cases where a CFL goes straight to landfill, or is accidentally broken open before reaching the recycler, the mercury released could be less than the atmospheric mercury saved by using less electricity during its working lifetime.
Re dimming:
Some CFLs can be dimmed. It depends on the ballast component. Dimmable CFLs are more expensive. Presumably with economies of scale they will become cheaper.
Re colour matching work:
This is the only disadvantage for me (as a graphic designer). Although some CFLs are rated as "daylight" with a claimed "colour temperature", this is not distributed evenly over the spectrum; it has spikes at certain wavelengths. The result is that two blue objects which look identical in daylight will also look identical under incandescent lighting - but may look different from each other under CFLs, if they were made with a different mix of pigments or dyes.
So although I welcome the environmental effects of a general change to CFLs, I think some professions will need incandescent lighting at work.
Dimming fluoros
I have been involved in the lighting industry for around 15 years and I can assure you that fluoro lamps can be dimmed very efficiently at reasonable cost. It is my understanding that Osram has developed (or is developing) a PLC lamp which will respond to the traditional household dimmer.
I am already using
I am already using fluorescent tubes in most positions. Am I going to be forced to scrap them?
Australia pulls plug on light bulbs
I am confused. Surely Minister Turnbull is a freemarketeer, so why is he pre-empting the development of cheaper, more effective less polluting lighting by opting for ineffectual and expensive bulbs that are difficult to dispose of safely?
Currently there are many uses that cannot be met by those bulbs. My friend's ceiling mounted bathroom heater uses an incandescent bulb. In cool weather, I use incandescent bulbs to warm small areas while providing ample light for my needs. If I could find energy efficient bulbs that provided adequate light and fitted my lighting units, I might use them in summer. Since these bulbs do not like being turned on and off, there are many areas where they are of little use given the cost of either replacing them within a short time or running them continuously when not not needed.
energy efficient light bulbs
The majority of the light bulbs in my house are screw fittings. I don't know if they make them but I haven't seen any. I also have several chandeliers and they will look pretty strange in them. I have tried the high efficiency bulbs in the few conventional fittings that I have but find that they are too long and the lens of the light won't fit back on.
I know I sound like a moaning old fashioned fuddie duddie but they don't seem to work for me.
energy efficient light bulbs
You can buy screw in globesat K Mart and they now come in compact sizes so that you can fit you light shade over them.
CFLs are really versertile nowadays with improved technology
Yes they sell screw on CFLs. As for chandeliers, There are CFLS that are in the shape of "candles". They have a pine shaped covering around the bent tubes. As for the problem with it being too long, they have new CFLS with twisted tubes in a relatively flat packages. Follow this link and it has a few examples. From what I know , some general hardware shops (bunnings) do not have these specialist products. Try specialist lighting shops(eg beacon lighting*).
Candle http://www.megamanuk.com/products/product.php?sid=3
Long tube problem http://www.sustainablelighting.com.au/Content.asp?menu=1&Display=Lamps
There are even CFLs that can be used to replace 240V halogen downlights (GU10 socket)and track lighting although you'll have to remove the transformer and get an inexpensive conversion kit if you are converting from low voltage downlights (12V).
*I assume you are in Australia
CFL's are available in screw
CFL's are available in screw fittings, I work for a light retailer, they are our higest seller. You can get candle shaped CFL's which will look fine in your chandeliers, but you may want to stick with the warm white ones to keep the warm yellow glow, and maximise their sparkle.
Also available is a mini twist fluruo which are a smaller compact fluruo and will fit in a higher number of light fittings.
Replacement tubes
I am using CFL's for some time (where appropriate!!!). Once I bought CFL in which tube can be removed from bottom fitting (transformer?) and replaced when tube stop working. Unfortunately, those replacement tubes are not available any more.
Other problem I have with CFL's: how much more energy is needed in their production than in production of incadescent bulb? Where all those figures of savings are comming from? I suppose they are very rough estimates and should be treated as such.
CFL Light Bulbs
Whats wrong with this idea, nothing in concept, it is the right approach just the wrong product. CFL is an old technology, more effcicent than incand, yes. The downside, it contains nasties, cadmium, mercury etc. In fact it may even be impossible to import them as the contents may conflict with environmental laws in place now or in the future. What is the future
POWER LEDS (recent press release from Cree Inc in the US)
Cree Announces Lighting-Class Performance for Warm White XLamp® LEDs
DURHAM, NC, MARCH 21, 2007 — Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE), a market leader in LED solid-state lighting components, today announced that it is shipping warm white XLamp LEDs that produce up to 124 lumens at a correlated color temperature (CCT) of 3,000 K when driven at 700 mA. Unlike most warm white power LEDs, XLamp LEDs are qualified to run at up to 700 mA. With this announcement, XLamp LED lighting-class brightness and efficiency is now available in warm white from Cree.
The availability of high-performance LEDs across a full range of color temperatures can allow lighting manufacturers to build cost-effective LED fixtures for many indoor home and office applications, helping meet the need for energy-efficient, environmentally friendly lighting. The new warm white is available in both the XLamp XR-E and XR-C power LED families that are binned to the proposed ANSI standard, allowing manufacturers to select LEDs the same way they select bulbs today.
“The LED industry has struggled to boost the brightness and efficiency of warm white LEDs, which have historically offered significantly lower performance than cool white LEDs,” stated Norbert Hiller, Cree Lighting general manager and vice president. “The new XLamp warm white LEDs hold a stable color point and offer lighting designers and architects the first lighting-class warm white LED light source for general illumination applications that have traditionally been lit with incandescent light sources.”
These are more efficent, they are silicon chips, so no nasties. Do some research, you will be fascinated
Cheers
WeLight