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Monday, August 22, 2011


Wikipedia : Incandescent Light Bulb
The Wikipedia entry for "incandescent light bulb" has recently been updated and is extremely informative:

The incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe makes light by heating a metal filament wire to a high temperature until it glows. The hot filament is protected from air by a glass bulb that is filled with inert gas or evacuated. In a halogen lamp, a chemical process returns metal to the filament, extending its life. The light bulb is supplied with electrical current by feed-through terminals or wires embedded in the glass. Most bulbs are used in a socket which supports the bulb mechanically and connects the current supply to the bulb's electrical terminals.

Incandescent bulbs are produced in a wide range of sizes, light output, and voltage ratings, from 1.5 volts to about 300 volts. They require no external regulating equipment and have a low manufacturing cost and work equally well on either alternating current or direct current. As a result, the incandescent lamp is widely used in household and commercial lighting, for portable lighting such as table lamps, car headlamps, and flashlights, and for decorative and advertising lighting.

Some applications of the incandescent bulb use the heat generated by the filament, such as incubators, brooding boxes for poultry, heat lights for reptile tanks,[1][2] infrared heating for industrial heating and drying processes, and the Easy-Bake Oven toy. This waste heat increases the energy required by a building's air conditioning system.

Incandescent light bulbs are gradually being replaced in many applications by other types of electric lights, such as fluorescent lamps, compact fluorescent lamps, cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL), high-intensity discharge lamps, and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). These newer technologies improve the ratio of visible light to heat generation. Some jurisdictions, such as the European Union, are in the process of phasing out the use of incandescent light bulbs in favor of more energy-efficient lighting.

Read more here...

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Wednesday, February 21, 2007


Why not ban incandescents in the UK... and the EU?
Since launching Ban The Bulb in February 2005 a lot has happened (including Hurricane Katrina, The Stern Review and the launch of the IPCC's 4th Assessment Report).

In fact, the case for taking urgent action to reduce carbon emissions and tackle the threats posed by climate change has become increasingly diverse and compelling... not to mention accepted by both the business community and the public.

It is therefore great to see how the politicians in Cuba (May 06), Venezuela (Nov 06), California (Feb 07), Australia (Feb 07) and Ontario (Feb 07) have gradually initiated and/or proposed light bulb bans.

Being based in the UK, I would obviously like to see my own government joining in the party, and giving this job to themselves rather than to the EU or a future government.

If a trade rule is responsible for preventing, or delaying, a unilateral ban of incandescents in the UK it would be good to know which rule was to blame and to understand why we haven't been able to announce a light bulb ban in the UK yet - given that there is no bigger threat than climate change (Sir David King, June 04), climate change represents the the world's biggest market failure (Sir Nicholas Stern, Oct 06), and the Climate change fight "can't wait" " (Tony Blair, Oct 06).

Much of the necessary legislation (including the Eco-Design and the RoHS Directives) is already in place or in the EU pipeline.

Despite this, it is far from clear that incandescent light bulbs will ever be considered a wasteful technology by all of the EU's 27 member countries.

The European Commission has just announced an interest in cutting EU emissions by between 20% and 30% by 2020, yet it has has failed to outline how this will ever be achieved.

The UK and the EU could announce a phased and responsible ban of incandescent light bulbs tomorrow if they wanted - as an easy first step design to reduce carbon emissions and save money - and one has to question their sincerity if they cannot contemplate this without resorting to vague mumblings about rules...

If there are any trade rules which could prevent this wasteful technology from being banned, perhaps we should take a stand and call for common sense to prevail?

Surely the UK government, the European Commission and others could cut through the red tape, and set a sensible timetable for for action, if they really wanted to get things done?

Many commonly used 60W and 100W light bulbs could be replaced over night... even if other, more niche, designs of light bulb would take longer to phase out.

It is certainly very exciting that things are suddenly moving so fast but much more could be done if our leaders genuinely wanted to show meaningful leadership, ambition and imagination.

Every journey starts with one step, and in BTB's view this energy-efficiency journey is worth starting today.

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