More countries will be doing the same, namingly the United States and China. The latter will start banning 100-watt bulbs in October 2012. Last year over a billion of these bulbs were sold in the People’s Republic.

To Grist : ” The ban will save China 48 billion kilowatt hours of power per year. Which, if I’m doing my math right, is the equivalent of almost 100 nuclear reactors or large coal-fired power plants. “

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I told him that this really wasn’t good for their purse and our common planet. I also reminded him that leaving lights on in empty rooms is just pure waste since nobody benefits from them.

His answer was that since they consume very little energy and this is thus absolutely not a big deal. Is he right ? Or am I ?

Here is some background information :

Five years ago, I was finishing my Master’s thesis for Audencia, and thus my academical education. I was already at that time strongly interested in energy and sustainability issues and thus was writing on the French residential sector and how it could benefit from both efficiency and renewables (see some elements of this thesis there and there)

As I was living like most students with my parents, both of them took a wide interest in my findings and writings.

Further to all this, they switched massively to compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs). They embrassed this technology in such a massive way that nowadays, very few of their lights are incandescent ones.

My work and my blog have made them fully aware of how saving energy can benefit them and all of us immensely. They thus have done many things on efficiency such as switching for a ultra efficient fridge, a large switch for the television and all its related appliances, installed double glazing windows with argon gas and so on.

—

Back to nowadays :

His argument for letting some CFLs on is that since they consume less than 20 Watts, this is absolutely not a big deal and that they sometimes take time to reach their maximum brightness…

Have you had similar experiences with your loved ones, relatives or colleagues ? Do you think this is really not a problem or on the contrary that I am rightfully making a fuss for a few watts ?

If yes, have you found ways to turn those unnecessary lights ? In any case, I really look forward to reading your opinions !

( Many many thanks to my dear dad for inspiring me this post. You’re the best dad I could have got in this solar system…^^)

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Now LEDs are slowly reaching the markets. Consuming up to half the energy of CFLs they come in all shapes and colors. Even if they are still very expensive, they can last 35,000 hours and can lead to substantial savings over their lifetime.

So if further to my post on decreasing your electricity use you are switching off your incandescents, why not choosing directly LEDs ? You will find below a list of the main advantages.

According to Wikipedia:

• Efficiency: LEDs produce more light per watt than incandescent bulbs.

• Color: LEDs can emit light of an intended color without the use of color filters that traditional lighting methods require. This is more efficient and can lower initial costs.

• Size: LEDs can be very small (smaller than 2 mm²) and are easily populated onto printed circuit boards.

• On/Off time: LEDs light up very quickly. A typical red indicator LED will achieve full brightness in microseconds.^[47] LEDs used in communications devices can have even faster response times.

• Cycling: LEDs are ideal for use in applications that are subject to frequent on-off cycling, unlike fluorescent lamps that burn out more quickly when cycled frequently, or HID lamps that require a long time before restarting.

• Dimming: LEDs can very easily be dimmed either by Pulse-width modulation or lowering the forward current.

• Cool light: In contrast to most light sources, LEDs radiate very little heat in the form of IR that can cause damage to sensitive objects or fabrics. Wasted energy is dispersed as heat through the base of the LED.

• Slow failure: LEDs mostly fail by dimming over time, rather than the abrupt burn-out of incandescent bulbs.

• Lifetime: LEDs can have a relatively long useful life. One report estimates 35,000 to 50,000 hours of useful life, though time to complete failure may be longer.^[49] Fluorescent tubes typically are rated at about 10,000 to 15,000 hours, depending partly on the conditions of use, and incandescent light bulbs at 1,000–2,000 hours.

• Shock resistance: LEDs, being solid state components, are difficult to damage with external shock, unlike fluorescent and incandescent bulbs which are fragile.

• Focus: The solid package of the LED can be designed to focus its light. Incandescent and fluorescent sources often require an external reflector to collect light and direct it in a usable manner.

• Toxicity: LEDs do not contain mercury, unlike fluorescent lamps.

Now what is happening to lightning could occur for our multiple appliances. If governments decide to enact stricter energy efficiency standards we could save huge amounts of energy.

Japan is good example of this as Japanese people consume nearly half less energy as Americans do but their GDP per capita is similar. For further details, please check out A model of energy efficiency : Japan

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The country will indeed replace by 2012 400 millions of incandescent light bulbs by CFLs. to TreeHugger, the energy savings and resultant carbon emissions savings will be about 55 million tonnes per year.

This is the occasion for me to present you a website I discovered. India Climate Solutions provides great information on the country’s local initiatives.

First and foremost, let us examine the replacement of the bulbs. To the Indian Press Information Bureau:

Lighting accounts for about 20% of electricity consumption and has a significant potential for reduction of the load without compromising on the lumen output by use of energy efficient lighting in place of incandescent bulbs.

CFLs provide that energy-efficient alternative to the incandescent lamp by using one-fifth as much electricity as an incandescent lamp to provide the same level of illumination. Government’s efforts for promotion of CFLs are having the desired impact on the market with the sales of CFLs in India having grown from about 20 million in 2003 to around 200 million in 2008.

However, the penetration of Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) in household sector remains low at about 5% -10% largely due to the high price of the CFLs, which is 8-10 times the cost of incandescent bulbs. The Bachat Lamp Yojana focuses on this first cost barrier to reduce the cost of CFLs to that of incandescent bulbs.

The scheme was launched today by the Union Minister of Power, Shri Sushilkumar Shinde in New Delhi. The Bachat Lamp Yojana promotes replacement of inefficient bulbs with Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) by leveraging the sale of Certified Emission Rights (CERs) under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol.

The scheme provides a unique platform for a robust public-private partnership between the Government of India, Private sector CFL suppliers and State level Electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOMs) and provides a the framework to distribute high quality CFLs at about Rs.15 per piece to the households of the country.

Under the scheme only 60 Watt and 100 Watt incandescent Lamps have to be replaced with 11 to 15 Watt and 20 -25 Watt CFLs respectively.

—

A recent article by Thomas Friedman, the famous Op-Ed columnist of the New York Times – and author of Hot, Flat and Crowded – enabled me to discover a most interesting initiative.

India Climate Solutions‘ goal is to enable us to discover  the green initiatives via a road trip of two youngsters done in an electric car.

As Ecogeek noted:

The students were driving a Reva electric car that had been souped up – the original battery was replaced with one could deliver more kwh; combined with the solar panels installed on the roof, this gave the vehicle a range of 150 km (12kwh) per 6 hour charge.

(…) Freeplay has come out with two devices – an LED lamp and a radio – which can be powered by a hand crank. A minute of cranking yields an hour of LED light from the lamp and an hour of music on the radio.

(…) a development in Bangalore which is building homes with the goal of zero emissions. The houses are built out of local, sustainable materials, and they all include power meters which allow the residents to monitor their energy consumption.

To conclude, I would like to call on my Indian readers I would be glad to read out more on local iniatives. So, if you have blogs or websites addresses – or even articles – don’t hesitate to send them to me ! Thanks in advance !

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This is important as the EU and its 27 members accounts for nearly half a billion inhabitants. This law is due to cut by sixty percent the amount of energy used for lightning.

The WWF did more calculations on the projected savings induced by such a move toward sustainability and energy conservation.

Here are some extracts of their press release :

EU Energy Ministers decided in Luxembourg last week to ban incandescent light bulbs in Europe as of 2010. The move comes just a few days before the lifting of EU import duties on energy-saving lamps from China, which will help bring down retail prices of the most efficient light bulbs.

(…) Incandescent bulbs consume three to five times more than efficient lights, such as integrated compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). The replacement of the worst-performing lamps with today’s best available technology will contribute to the reduction of domestic energy consumption for lighting by 60 per cent in the EU, equivalent to some 30 million tons of CO2 annually.

The massive switchover, which will affect all of the European Union’s 500 million citizens, was first ordered at a Brussels summit last year as part of an ambitious energy policy to fight climate change.

Support for the new bulbs has proved controversial in the past as they are considerably more expensive. However, more efficient lights will be cheaper in the long run as they use significantly less energy and last longer. The ban of energy-intensive lamps will also increase demand for more efficient products such as CFLs and light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

To EcoGeek, European CO2 emissions are of 4 billion tons per annum. So, this initiative would cut by less than a percent our total emissions. This is tiny, but as they note “This energy savings isn’t dramatic, but it’s still progress in the right direction. ”

To continue, I would like to quote EcoGeek :

(…) While I support the EU’s decision, and without getting into any arguments about CFLs and the issues of mercury/harsh lighting/higher cost that have been beaten to death, I do have to bring up this previous post.  We shouldn’t get hung up on CFLs as the only lighting or energy saving solution.

CFLs are a good alternative to incandescent bulbs now, but we have to keep pushing towards better technology, whether it’s improved LEDs or something we haven’t even discovered yet.

I hope that these government bans won’t contribute to a complacency in lighting technology and will instead inspire the world’s great minds to think even bigger.

Indeed, light bulbs should be only a beginning. Major emitting sectors like transport or housing should be targeted next.

To infer this article, I would like to note that I have been using CFLs for two years now and am very satisfied of them. So, if you still haven’t switched, why not doing so now ?

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This sends you to a page featuring a great video by the Common Craft Show. This company didn’t stop right there and did the same thing to explain CFL light bulbs in plain English.

In three minutes, those of you who still haven’t switched to these marvels will be convinced to take this first step towards decreasing your bills and CO2 emissions.

Without further ado, here is the video :

Click here to view the embedded video.

• US electricity is indeed made out of 50 percent coal. Many countries in the world share this percentage : Germany, Australia, China… This is a real problem as coal emits around one kilogram of carbon dioxide per kilo watt per hour.

• CFL cut the consumption by a factor five and not by four. In any case, you got the picture, it makes a huge difference on your energy bills.

• Replacing the light bulbs is quite an icon for the energy efficient and conservation movement. But it is only a small step as they are many others things you can do to decrease your utility bills.

• Common Craft does a GREAT job explaining technical stuff in a convenient and cool way. If you are not convinced visit their website.

• Subtitled versions of this video exists in 13 languages including Portuguese (special message for Alexandre at Blog do Planeta ), Arabic, Chinese, German, Spanish… So there is no reason this message doesn’t cross borders !

I just send the creators an e-mail to thank them for such a great video…

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