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Voluntary Bulb Ban Initiated
The highest wattage incandescent bulbs will no longer be available on the shelves of some high street stores across the UK from early next year as part of an effort to reduce energy use and 5m tonnes of CO2 emissions (0.9% of UK CO2 emissions).The voluntary initiative is being backed by leading retailers, (ASDA, B&Q, The Co-operative Group, Home Retail Group (Argos and Homebase), IKEA, John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Somerfield, Tesco, Waitrose, Wickes, Woolworths, British Retail Consortium, Association of Convenience Stores and the British Hardware Federation) and energy suppliers as part of their activities through the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT).
“Retailers are committed to reducing their carbon footprint and play an active role in helping consumers reduce their own environmental impact. This is just the latest in a number of initiatives in which retailers are helping to shape consumer habits through the promotion of energy saving products. We look forward to working closely with Government and manufacturers in the lead up to the 2011 deadline to ensure the supply of energy saving light bulbs matches demand, and that they become a viable alternative to conventional light bulbs for consumers of all incomes”The government has proposed, as an illustrative schedule for the phase out of inefficient lamps, that retailers are suggested to follow:
Kevin Hawkins, Director General, British Retail Consortium
“We fully support the idea of phasing out inefficient lighting in favour of energy efficient light-bulbs. In most homes, lighting accounts for 10 – 15% of the electricity bill and UK households currently use £1.8 billion worth of electricity every year on lighting. An energy saving light bulb can last up to 10 times longer than a non-efficient version. Just one energy saving bulb could save up to £7 a year, fit all the lights in your house with energy saving bulbs and you could save around £600 over the lifetime of the bulbs. If everyone in the UK installed three energy saving light bulbs, we would save enough energy to power all the UK’s street lighting for a year.”
Philip Sellwood, Chief Executive, Energy Saving Trust
- By January 2008, cease replacing stock of all inefficient (General Lighting Service, GLS) A-shaped incandescent lamps of energy rating higher than 100W (predominantly 150W lamps).
- By January 2009, cease selling all inefficient GLS A-shaped lamps of energy rating higher than 60W (predominantly 150W lamps, 100W lamps, plus some 75W lamps)
- By January 2010, cease selling all GLS A-shaped lamps of efficacy of energy rating higher than 40W (predominantly 60W lamps)
- By 31 December 2011, cease selling all remaining inefficient GLS A-shaped lamps and 60W "candle" and "golfball" lamps. (predominantly 40W and 25W A-shaped GLS bulbs, and 60W candles and golfballs).
“Britain is leading the way in getting rid of energy-guzzling light bulbs and helping consumers reduce their carbon footprint. Choosing energy saving light bulbs can help tackle climate change, and also cut household bills, with each bulb saving up to £60 over its lifetime. I am delighted that major companies have said they are prepared to help deliver this ambitious timetable and offer products which will help their own customers play their part in combating climate change. But there are many more energy hungry gadgets on sale in shops that waste too much energy. That’s why I want to see today’s initiative widened. I want to see more retailers, manufacturers and service providers taking action to phase out the least efficient products from their ranges, for example, certain set top boxes and TVs, and so help offer greener choices to their customers.”This voluntary initiative will be an effective curb on carbon emissions from the home for the near future, and could potentially lead to an annual reduction of CO2 emissions of 5m tonnes (0.9% of UK CO2 emissions), equivalent to taking 1.8m cars off the roads. The benefits of this will be felt by all parties, with the negative impact being felt only by those who oppose energy efficient bulbs for whatever ideology (Matt Wright explains the most common excuses). There is one important factor to consider for the future and that is the disposal of the bulbs as they contain mercury. They are now covered under WEEE, but educating the public of the need to recycle could be a greater task than having previously asked them to buy energy saving bulbs in the first place.
Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for the Environment
The benefits far outweigh the potential negatives and could not only reduce emissions but improve the quality of life through reduced air pollution, government from the reduced adverse social impacts of power stations will also benefit financially. Energy companies and government will also be able to effectively increase renewable energy rates in percentage points in a short period of time, and as more renewable energy farms are built they will provide a greater proportion of total national usage than they would have previously. It's only a shame they didn't phase it in faster. Goodbye Bulb!
5 comments:
Section9 LED has easily the best prices on efficient low power consumption LED bulbs that replace standard incandescent.
http://led.section9tech.com
I have been searching for the perfect bulb for our shops and every supplier I speak with lets me down when it comes to LEDs. Are they really not that fantastic yet?
On the bikes, if only I could drive on the left!
I didn't know they were being sold in the UK, sounds great.
I am concerned about the continued use of the term “inefficient” when describing standard light bulbs, this relates to the heat generated during their use when compared to so called energy saving light bulbs, there is no consideration given to their energy efficiency in other ways such as the manufacturing process or raw material gathering stage.
Most households currently use normal bulbs which produce a lot of heat, this heat contributes in a small but significant way to the ambient temperature of the living space. In the absence of this heat, for example when energy saving bulbs are fitted it is likely that the domestic central heating system will be called upon to make up this small difference to satisfy the comfort of the occupants. Some so called experts have suggested that this contribution is negligible.
I have to disagree entirely with the assertion, I have personally used this method many times to raise the temperature of a cold hotel room which I have been staying in, when the central heating system has not been functioning at the time I required it. I would suggest that this holds true for households throughout the country. If on the other hand, I put on extra clothing instead of turning up the heating, it would therefore follow that this extra layer of clothing will have consumed energy during its manufacture, it would also follow that the purchase of the extra clothing will have added to the wealth of a manufacturer, retailer and distributor all of whom will avail themselves of consumer luxuries which will have used energy in their production.
It would seem that when we are implementing an energy saving measure, the saving may be cancelled out by a myriad of other elements in the process which tend to go unnoticed by almost everyone.
I have noticed that in our extremely “dumbed down” society most people are unaware of the scale of the industrial and manufacturing processes involved in producing the most basic of commodities. Entire mountains are being blown apart to gather the raw ore which is then processed in massive energy consuming factories to produce billets of steel, copper, aluminium, etc. These are then used in the production of the tools and machines that make the tools and machines that help to make more tools and machines that help to make end products such as television sets, fridges, washing machines, aeroplanes, cars etc. etc.
A low energy light bulb has a more complex manufacturing process, it has considerably more glass that an standard light bulb, it contains a substantial amount of plastic, it has a circuit board with components as well as additional chemicals which a standard light bulb does not contain. I would suggest that the energy saved during its use will have actually been spent during the four main stages of its life; 1 pre-manufacturing of all the extra raw materials, 2 actual manufacturing, 3 profitable sales stages and 4 profitable recycling stage. Lets not forget this last stage as if recycling plants do it for love not money, we really must remember the hypothetical “Trevor” who is the managing director of a highly lucrative recycling plant, he has two homes, one of which is a long haul flight away, he has two luxury cars, a wife with expensive taste, two daughters of which one got married recently in a eight thousand pound wedding dress with a twenty five thousand pound reception followed by three weeks in the Maldives. This consumption has a huge knock on effect, and we wont even start to imagine the consumption of the middle management and other employees of the recycling company.
Most of us will have been taught the Law of Conservation of Energy during our school physics days, the law relates to the energy in any system and how it may take on various forms. The law of conservation of energy states that energy may neither be created nor destroyed. Therefore the sum of all the energies in the system is a constant.
I would suggest that this law has implications far beyond the world of physics and may actually be just as relevant in the area of environmentalism. The idea that saving the environment can be successfully achieved via methods such as recycling (in its current form) and fitting energy saving light bulbs may be fundamentally flawed. The concept of carbon foot printing does in almost all cases not take into account the broader implications of an energy saving measure.
We must remember that when Ms Jones came home from her latest eco protest and decided to have little Sophie and Beatress, an entire planets worth of industry started to provide a lifetimes worth of commodities for them. Oops, there goes another mountain of iron ore and a thousand barrels of oil. The problem isn't to do with the number of light bulbs but rather the number of consumers.
In the current movement to “safe the planet” no one dares to mention the obvious, which is, the entire industrial base on our planet exists for one reason only, and that is to cater for the consumptive needs of billions of humans, it would therefore follow that a reduction in human numbers would halt and or diminish the level of industrialisation. Fewer people would mean fewer products with the inevitable closure of many types of industry. This is of course the catch 22, no government would ever actively want their population numbers to fall dramatically, this would mean loss of trillions of Euro, Pounds or Dollars generated through the many taxes which people pay during their existence, especially the purchase taxes on the billions of products which are consumed daily. This is why we are lead blindly down a road of recycling and energy saving, being told that it is effective and we should be proud of ourselves, oh what fools we humans can be.
I Work in a lighting showroom in Birmingham city centre, we now stock a wide variety of LED lights, GU10's, mr16's & much more, you can now get LED halogen lamps that only use 2.3Watts and gives out the equivilent light of a 35Watt... which is obviously a lot better then burning 50Watts Of energy.
I regularly receive 'free' compact fluorescent lamps which are 40W and 60W equivalents. I don't use such dim bulbs anywhere in my house, so they are stored, or even binned...
It would make more sense to
a) distribute 100W (or higher!) equivalents which would be of more use,
or b) divert the cost of these 'free' bulbs into speeding up advances in LED technology, which is clearly the best alternative for the future -more efficient, longer life, dimmable, less toxic and less fragile.
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