Old-style light bulbs banned in EU

[joeblow]

Old-style light bulbs banned in EU

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/ ... h_sl.shtml



The traditional incandescent light bulb, first put on the market by Thomas Edison in 1879, could be on its way out.

From today, the manufacture and import of 100 watt bulbs and all frosted bulbs will be banned in the European Union.

The new rules mean that consumers will be able to buy only the more efficient long life fluorescent or halogen lamps.

However, there has been something of a backlash against the ban.

In Britain, supermarkets reported a massive run on the traditional type, while one newspaper gave away 25,000 incandescent light bulbs in "outrage at further European intervention in British affairs".

The European Commission claims the ban on inefficient bulbs will save about 40 terawatt hours of energy a year, enough to power a small country.

Matt Prescott is the founder of the Ban the Bulb campaign.

First broadcast 1 September 2009

[Free Truth]

The new ones contain Mercury and emit UV light. Great...

[abduLMaria]

once i was cleaning the bedroom and broke one of those circular fluorescents.

what a mess !  vacuuming the insides of one of those - forget it, you need a gas mask !

i use the CFL's in locations where i'm not likely to break them.

but in the bedroom, incandescents.

[jai_mann]

The new ones contain Mercury and emit UV light. Great...

That's exactly what I was thinking. The other problem is that they use inductors which could create a number of problems in any given area. A big one is that they create fields which can be detected by military equipment. Iraqi insurgents hiding locations have been found by using field detectors tuned for these devices. Don't stick any of these in a cache.


And no they don't save you any money. It's an issue with the units that power company's use to charge you. And while the bulb may use 17watts of real power it's going to use more of reactive power which is actually what the power company is charging you on. It's one big fake advertising scam.

[sullivan]

The new ones contain Mercury and emit UV light. Great...

That's exactly what I was thinking. The other problem is that they use inductors which could create a number of problems in any given area. A big one is that they create fields which can be detected by military equipment. Iraqi insurgents hiding locations have been found by using field detectors tuned for these devices. Don't stick any of these in a cache.

You don't need equipment 'tuned' for fluorescents. The interference they emit is very broad spectrum.

[sullivan]

The new ones contain Mercury and emit UV light. Great...

And while the bulb may use 17watts of real power it's going to use more of reactive power which is actually what the power company is charging you on. It's one big fake advertising scam.

If your power company is charging you kVAh (kilo Volt Amp Hours), yes, you'll pay more. Most electricity providers charge kWh (kilowatt hours) to all except heavy industry. What an increase in reactive load means is that the electricity companies will have to install more or thicker cabling to carry the increased current and they will probably pass this charge on in the form of increased standing charges.