Incandescent light bulb ban in U.K. could reduce CO2 emissions up to 3 million tons annually

Sunday, June 17, 2007 by: M. T. Whitney
Tags: incandescent lights, incandescent bulbs, lighting technology

(NewsTarget) Just as Australia has banned incandescent light bulbs for 2009, England maybe moving towards similar steps, according to The Guardian newspaper.

Jump directly to: conventional view | alternative view | bottom line

What you need to know - Conventional View

• Fluorescent bulbs use only 20 percent of the energy that incandescent bulbs use, making them much more efficient. LED lights use even less -- only one-tenth the electricity of incandescents.

• If a complete ban on incandescent light bulbs is accomplished, the U.K. could reduce its CO2 emissions by 2 to 3 million tons annually, Dr. Matt Prescott, who has campaigned to ban incandescent bulbs in the U.K., told The Guardian.

• The British government says it wants to encourage fluorescent light bulb use by offering a tax break on the more expensive bulbs, but European Union rules prevent it from offering this kind of promotion.

• "Lighting accounts for about 15 percent of the average home's electricity bill," Prescott said to The Guardian. A long-lasting fluorescent bulb saves nearly $300 in energy costs during its lifetime.

• Some companies in the lighting industry might even push for promoting fluorescent lighting, which is harder to reproduce, to stave off competition from Chinese light bulb makers that have flooded the market.

• "The main thing is that 99 percent of conventional bulbs are switched and the barriers to action are addressed sensibly and pragmatically," Prescott told The Guardian.

What you need to know - Alternative View

Statements and opinions by Mike Adams

• As countries are banning inefficient incandescent lighting and promoting greener, more efficient lighting solutions, they are making a mistake promoting fluorescent lights due to their toxic mercury content. Only LED lights are environmentally sound. They use far less electricity, have far fewer throwaway materials and last virtually a lifetime in most applications. (Full disclosure: Mike Adams is the founder of www.EcoLEDs.com, an LED lighting company that sells energy-efficient LED lights to businesses and consumers.)

Bottom line

There are complications to banning incandescent bulbs in the U.K., but progress is being made there to outlaw inefficient incandescent lighting.