Ban on Incandescent Light Bulbs Looms

Ban on incandescent light bulbs looms

by Taylor Lamb, Regional Reporter

As the federal ban on the century-old incandescent light bulb looms, the brightest bulb in most American homes is slowly fading into darkness.

To encourage energy efficiency, former President George W. Bush in 2007 signed an energy bill which contained provisions requiring traditional light bulbs to be 30 percent more efficient than the standard 100-watt incandescent by Jan. 1, 2012. According to a statement made last week by U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, the standards do not ban traditional incandescent light bulbs.

However, the technology in traditional incandescent light bulbs does not meet the goals of the 2007 energy pact, so the law will prohibit its production. The 100-watt bulbs, in particular, wastes most of the electricity that fuels them, turning it into heat.

Australia led the way with its own incandescent light bulb ban back in 2007, while Europe began its ban on Sept. 1 of this year.

“Starting in January the phase-out of incandescent light bulbs begins,” said Rodney Heller, lead designer and managing partner of McFarland-based Energy Performance Lighting. “The 100-watt light bulbs will get phased-out starting on Jan. 1, 2012 and then the 75-watt bulbs will follow on Jan. 1, 2013. The 60 and 40-watt bulbs will get phased-out on Jan. 1, 2014.

“The federal government is doing it this way because the most common bulb used is a 60-watt bulb,” Heller continued. “So removing the 100-watt light bulbs will not be as painful, but there will be a lot of people with complaints.”

While standard light bulbs cost about 50 cents per bulb, the energy efficient spiral compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs sell for about $3 per bulb, advocates argue the CFL bulbs will last five years longer and uses roughly 75 percent less energy.

“The biggest advantage of this phase-out is going from a 100-watt light bulb to a 20 or 25-watt compact florescent replacement. People will save 75 to 80 percent on their light bills,” Heller said. “Right now, people only see the upfront costs associated with the change and they don’t look at their energy costs as it goes down.”

According to Energy Star, a CFL bulb can save more than $40 in electricity costs during its lifetime.

With everyone from Al Gore to Wal-Mart pushing for CFLs, some consumers are uneasy about the presence of small amounts of mercury, a neurotoxin. CFLs, like their tubular fluorescent precursors, contain a small amount of mercury - typically around five milligrams, according to a recent report by General Electric. Mercury allows CFL bulbs the ability to emit light; no other element has proved as efficient.

Heller said the fears most consumers have about the possibility of mercury poisoning are greatly exaggerated.

“If you break a compact florescent bulb you can clean it up and then sit down and eat a tuna fish sandwich and get about 40 times more mercury from the tuna fish than from the compact florescent bulb,” he said. “Also, if you follow the USDA recommended diet you will get 400 times more mercury naturally occurring in your body. These fears about mercury are a lot of fear-mongering.

“A coal power plant powering an incandescent light bulb instead of a CFL will release more mercury into the air than is actually contained in a CFL itself,” Heller continued.

To date, companies dealing with the manufacturing of CFLs as well as the federal government have not come up with effective ways to get Americans to recycle them.

If you break a CFL bulb, the Environmental Protection Agency recommends the following:

• Do not inhale the vapor;
• Do not use a vacuum for cleanup;
• Sweep the pieces together with a brush or broom -- not with your hand and;
• Clean up glass with a wet rag or towel and place the towel, along with the pieces, into a sealed plastic bag.

In the end, Heller said the relatively brief lifespan of incandescent light bulbs means more energy and raw materials being uses for production and transportation purposes. The new generation of lighting could lead to technological leaps in the field of health care.

“One hundred years ago we had two sources of light. We had fire and daylight. Now look at all the sources we have today. Our world has changed because of these new lighting platforms, and we are only now starting to learn how light affects our health and psychology.”

Halogen lighting: the answer to incandescent bulbs?

Halogen bulbs are a variation on incandescent bulb technology, which offers precise dimming and crisp lighting.

“One thing that no one is talking about is that there is a halogen replacement,” Heller said. “Halogen lighting is very similar to incandescent lighting, but with halogens you get more lumens per watt. An incandescent bulb only has about 20 lumens per watt, and a compact florescent bulb will have about 45 lumens per watt, and then the halogen bulbs produce about 62 lumens per watt. So a 72-watt halogen will replace a 100-watt incandescent bulb and look exactly the same. The color will be a bit off, but the bulb lasts longer and creates greater energy savings.”

Heller went on to explain that halogen bulbs use the same incandescent principles Thomas Edison patented more than 100 years ago, but they are filled with halogen - a gas that permits the lamps to burn hotter and emit more lumens per watt.

While the higher efficiency results in lower operating costs, the halogen replacement generally costs two to three times as much as a 100-watt incandescent.

Other state-of-the-art lighting technology, such as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and liquid light-emitting diodes (LEDs), will hit the market during the next year. Their development could bring a new approach to residential lighting.

“In the future liquid LEDs will work like printing ink,” Heller said. “In theory, you could put it on wallpaper and then stick the wallpaper up around your house and that will be your light source.”

In closing, Heller said he expects the transition away from incandescent light bulbs to be a difficult, but worthwhile process.

“The biggest negative to the phase-out is change itself,” he said. “People are accustomed to going in to a store and buying a light bulb and then going home and screwing it in. We have one color. Now, we have multiple colors, and over the last 10 years, research has found out these different colors affect you differently.”