Ban The Bulb

PDD

http://www.banthebulb.org/

How can we get normal light bulbs banned in Ireland? Or at least have them taxed to the bejebus to make them the less attractive alternative for bulbs?

meditraitor

Only if the levy on the normal lightbulb is used to subsidise energy efficient bulbs will people take an interest

MorningStar

Sorry without searching the whole website what is the direct benifit of these bulbs when all things are considered. THe CFL use a large plastic element and capacitors so how is that recycled? I get the energy effciency part but that is on continuel use to get the best benifit so many figures used are not true to life.

I personally don't find CFL good due to many different things but the most noticable is colour rendering and warm up times. Ligting is probably the big waste thing in my house when I really think about it but it is mostly due to lighting effects and different light fittings.

Sleipnir

I can see it now......
All the great chandaliers in government buildings, Farmleigh etc which huge CFL's growing out of the top of each light fitting.........

Or my one eight bulb light with these huge obscene looking things sticking out the top.

CFL's are great, but they're not practical for every application.

CJhaughey

FYI
You can get CFL bulbs in a load of different shapes now, Golfball. etc
there is no excuse for not using them in a lot of areas where incandescent bulbs are used.
however as morningstar says there are also instances where halogens would be better, for colour defination etc.
But there is no need to have every last bulb in your abode capable of rendering true colours all the time it just doesn't make sense.
There are also LED and cold cathode bulbs now which are very bright and consume negligible power.
horses for courses.
You want to sit in your armchair and read the paper? use a halogen reading lamp.
For lighting a chandelier use a load of small formfactor CFLs
Downlighters? use LED versions of the GU10 bulbs which only consume 4.4w as opposed to 25 or 50w for a halogen.
Easy to please everyone.

The_Minister

I refuse to use them. The light is dimmer and sicklier. They nearly burnt my house down when one exploded on our landing. They are a fad.

CJhaughey

Firespinner wrote:

I refuse to use them. The light is dimmer and sicklier. They nearly burnt my house down when one exploded on our landing. They are a fad.

Please elaborate....

FX Meister

CJhaughey wrote:

Downlighters? use LED versions of the GU10 bulbs which only consume 4.4w as opposed to 25 or 50w for a halogen.

I've seen many of these and they are all pretty bad. The light from them is terrible.

CJhaughey

I have tested several and some are as you say terrible, however the good ones that I got recently see test above were about midway between the 20w and 35 halogens.
They also had a much whiter light than the halogens.
How many leds did the spots that you saw have?
The ones That I tested were 38 leds and 42 leds respectively.
The cold cathode gives good light too, so much so that you cannot look directly into the bulb.

MorningStar

I am still not quite convinced on the recyling element of the CFL and LED lights. They seem heavily reliant on plastic and I am not sure of this lasting impact or how they are recyled.

CJhaughey

It is not just the recycling cost of one bulb, think how many halogen bulbs will burn out before the LED does?
if the standard GU10 bulb lasts 2000hrs then fails but a LED last 50000hrs then fails that is 10 times as many bulbs used and MANUFACTURED compared to one LED that is recyclable.
It is like someone driving a new car and thinking that they are doing the planet a favour, in fact most of the energy in a cars lifetime is used during the manufacturing process.
Yes all CFL's and LEDs are recyclable just the same as any electronic equipment is recycled, but the energy difference between an led and a halogen is about 200% just in terms of power usage alone.