The European Commission’s efforts to improve the energy efficiency of lighting in the European Union began last week with a widespread ban on the sale of 100 watt or above light bulbs The ban is the first step in a series of phase-outs and will be extended in September 2011 and 2012 to include lower wattages of clear incandescent bulbs. Frosted bulbs and high-energy halogen lights are also being phased out. By autumn 2012, only energy efficient fluorescent lighting will be available.
These measures have been applauded by many environmental groups and follow on from bans already made in Australia and underway in Canada. By 2020, the European Commission estimates that the measures will save enough energy to power 23 million households every year, roughly the electricity consumption of Belgium. This will reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 32 million tons each year, or about one-tenth of the world’s annual emissions of the greenhouse gas.
Introduced 130 years ago, conventional incandescent light bulbs convert only around 5% of the energy they use into light; the rest is given off as heat. They are far more wasteful than newer devices like compact fluorescents and low-energy halogens or emerging products such as light-emitting diodes. The most efficient lights currently on the European market, fluorescent bulbs use 65-80% less energy than incandescent bulbs. But many consumers have been reluctant to switch to them because of concerns about their cost, health impact and aesthetic quality.
Fluorescent bulbs cost more initially but are cheaper in the end because, besides using less energy, they last much longer. The EU estimates that a household can save at least €50 on electricity bills every year by switching to energy-saving bulbs. Energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs believes consumers will eventually be won over. “Great ideas are sometimes slow to catch on,” he writes in a recent blog post. He predicts the ban will spur more improvements in lighting.
Question marks over true impact of energy-efficient lighting
Despite the European Commissions conviction that energy-saving bulbs are the way forward, some interest groups are concerned that such lighting is not as kind to the environment or human health as was first thought.
A study by the Health Protection Agency in the United Kingdom found that spending too much time in close proximity to a compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) can result in exposure to radiation levels higher than allowed under international guidelines. Meanwhile, CFLs contain mercury and other harmful substances that can be dangerous if the bulb is broken. Consequently, it is also illegal in many countries such as Germany to dispose of these bulbs as normal household waste.
An environmentally-oriented German consumer protection magazine has also come to the conclusion that some of the energy-efficient bulbs on the market are hardly better than their incandescent counterparts. According to the controversial study by Öko Test, many of the bulbs tested take at least a minute before they reach their optimal brightness and many of their life spans are much shorter than indicated by the manufacturers. Furthermore, they are prone to high-frequency flickering, leading to headaches and other complaints, though no concrete proof was offered for this claim.
The new EU regulation covers only non-directional light (light emitted equally in all directions), while similar legislation targeting directional lamps such as spotlights is expected to be adopted during 2010.
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