Europe Bans the Bulb
Long the symbol of a good idea, tungsten (also known as wolfram – but that’s another story) light bulbs have been deemed a bad idea by the European Union.
As of today the EU has officially banned the sale of frosted tungsten light bulbs with the idea of moving to more energy efficient lighting. Also, clear bulbs over 100W must be transitioned to more efficient types by 2012.
Now the question becomes: how long before the truly efficient, long-lasting solid state LEDs (light emitting diode) dominate?
A mainstay in the electronics industry, LEDs have already emerged as the solution for traffic signals and many car tail lights – and we are beginning to see some high-end cars using LEDs for their front car lights as well. And, LEDs are considered a better environmental choice than compact fluorescent light bulbs because of the mercury content in CFLs. So, isn’t it just a matter of time before LEDs and their close cousins, OLEDs, begin to shine and show their true net-worth in lowering the world’s energy light bill. Stay tuned.
Popular Posts
ABOUT THE BLOG
Popular Terms
FIND US ON †
Comments
LED allow poor country to have light
I recently to a poor country where electricity is not reliable. LED combination with solar panel is a wonderful way to lid the hall. Small solar panel does not provide much power for many big old light bulb.....however, it's plenty for many LED lights that lid the hall way. Preventing them from turning on their Diesel Power Generator. I thought this would be the greenest thing they could do. And the guy told me those LED made in China is cheap and last forever.
Maybe bulbs are not so bad.
When CFLs came into vogue, I quickly filled my house with them, but soon found they fell short of the advertized values of longivity, color temperature, and luminous output, and no mention of a mercury problem. I also question the cost savings claims which are based on the idea that most of the power radiated from an incandesant bulb is in the IR and is therefore wasted. If you live in a northen cold climate as I do, then for most of the year the bulb is really an secondary heater which cuts back on your heating oil bill. During one storm when the furnace failed, I was able to keep the pipes from freezing for over a week by keeping all the lights on! For those in the south, the opposite is true if you run an air conditioner and the lights together.
LEDs may be great, but they fundementally emit in only limited portions of the spectrum through narrow angles. There are ways to engineer around these problems to some degree, but I hope that LEDs will be marketed with more honesty than CFL have been.
I really do love new technology, but there are times as I listen to music from a high quality vacuum tube amp, reading a paper book illuminated with an incandesant light, I wounder what we are losing.
Mostly likely there were
Mostly likely there were people with similar thoughts as your own, living in colder climates, when the electric lamp and the motorized carriage first came onto the scene. 'Why should I live in a square home and use electric lights when I can see by the light of a fire and I am warm in my igloo?' You mention the necessity to keep all of your lights on so that your pipes do not freeze; have you mistakenly overlooked the fact that you have running water in your home? What has the world lost by converting to water-in/waste-out and at a conversion ratio that Nature cannot keep up with? You are trying to make a point but the scope of your argument is too narrow.
Consider that for the first time advancement in technology is looking to undo the problems that the industrial revolution has created and just maybe had human kind not been so quick to populate every nook of the planet forcefully then perhaps your home comforts would not come at the expense of the environment around you.
new bulbs falling short -
I also started to switch to the new more energy efficient bulbs but found that their failure rate was preclusive of any saving I might see. Also,the bulbs contain much more material (consider both the appearance and the heft of the thing) which indicates to me the extra use of energy/materials to manufacture such items and the impact of millions of these things in the already overburdened landfills (mercury is not good for living things). I have switched back to the old bulbs and await technological improvements.
Great bulbs
In my store i love to have great lighting but would perfer that i wouldn't have to pay a high light bill or be bothered with light bulbs that only last a few weeks. But i'm not really sure that i can find a lighting supply store that can offer both long lasting bulbs at a great reasonable price. Is there anyone out there that knows of such a supplier?
Low energy versus Tungsten....
Low energy lamps do save power, I know I have been using them in my house for years, but they do not have some of the attributes of tungsten lamps. The biggest problem is the time taken for them to switch on, and also most take up to a few minutes to reach their maximum brightness. At the top of the stairs in my house I will retain a tungsten lamp, because the transition time from switching on and a usable light is dangerous.
Bulb turn on time
I am familiar with the turn on time for some bulb types. The slow bulbs are fluorescent, now commonly called CFL or Compact Fluorescent Lamps. In fact, I have a set of those in my garage and they do take a moment or two to reach appropriate brightness. Another type of lamp, LED, does not have that characteristic. In fact, I have read that one of the reasons automobile manufacturers have switched to red colored High Brightness LED tail lamps is because they take less time to reach full brightness. And this is true for any color HBLED. When you couple the fast turn on of an LED with the elimination of the mercury in a CFL, you have a great new light source.
Post new comment