[From] Saturday [September 1], it will be illegal to import or produce traditional incandescent light bulbs in EU member states. The move has upset consumers and many environmentalists, but it serves to highlight the EU’s democratic deficiencies.
From the front, the item the defendants dragged into the courtroom looked like an ordinary mobile heater: a vertical, slightly ribbed metal plate with a power cable. Only when seen from the back did the device reveal itself to be a battery of interconnected 100-watt light bulbs. Packed closely together, the bulbs heat the metal plate, which in turn radiates heat into a room.
This was the way the “Electric Resistance Society” was trying to circumvent European Union bans and bring traditional incandescent light bulbs back to Europe. It argued that there could be no legal objection to selling them as miniature heating units for homes.
But the judges at the administrative court in the western German city of Aachen were not impressed by Siegfried Rotthäuser and Rudolf Hannot’s attempt to outsmart the system. The judges prohibited the sale of 40,000 “Heatballs” seized by customs authorities that the two engineers had had made in China. In fact, the “Heatballs” were nothing but ordinary tungsten light bulbs. And that makes them hot goods since the European Commission issued Regulation No. 244/2009. The regulation calls for a gradual ban on sales of all traditional incandescent light bulbs. The first to go were 100-watt bulbs, on Sept. 1, 2009, and it will cover all remaining bulbs as of Sept. 1, 2012.
The reason is that incandescent light bulbs waste 95 percent of the energy they consume. If the EU’s climate objectives are to be met, the reasoning goes, Europeans can no longer afford to use such energy-gobbling devices. As a result, the classic — and popular — light bulbs have been gradually disappearing from store shelves in the EU.
The Reindeer was less ridiculous in the horrid Miracle on 34th street remake. On trial for smuggling light bulbs.
Anyone remember the EPA most wanted list?
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/277517/epa-s-most-wanted-list-hans-von-spakovsky
When I was working in a gas analysis laboratory we had several custom-made gas chromatographs for quality control purposes. In order to maintain the constant temperature needed by the instruments we used 40-watt incandescent lamps on thermostatically-controlled circuits. The set-up was simple, reliable, and well-behaved in the engineering sense.
I should mention that this was a US Government laboratory.
As mentioned in a similar earlier post,
Energy saving is not the only reason to choose a light bulb you want to use!
Besides, whatever the Household savings- it is Society savings that might be relevant to legislators, not “what light bulb Johnny uses in his bedroom”!
As it happens, the society savings are next-to-nothing,:
http://tonn.ie/p/deception-behind-banning-light-bulbs.html#energy
Small Society Savings
Cambridge university Network, Scientific Alliance:
” The total reduction in EU energy use 0.54 x 0.8 x 0.76% = 0.33%
This figure is almost certainly an overestimate…
Which begs the question: is it really worth it?
The problem is that legislators are unable to tackle the big issues of
energy use effectively, so go for the soft target of a high profile
domestic use of energy …this is gesture politics.”
Cambridge University Network under Sir Alec Broers, Chairman of the
House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, the Scientific
Alliance newsletter, involving Physics dept professors etc
Similar figures from other EU sources, and for that matter the US Dept
of Energy, grid electricity data breakdown (they use 4 categories),
again as linked.above.
Also, the fact that surplus electricity production at night (eg from coal) means that it does not matter much what bulb you use at such times of low demand,
also the fact of major manufacturers with new patents seeking and welcoming a ban on patent expired “generic” cheap bulbs etc – as referenced and linked via the same site.
Another problem is the presumption that energy is being saved. Electric energy Use peeks at about 4pm in the hot summer months and baseline power plants generate power based on this high demand need. Incadescent light bulbs get used mostly at night after 6 pm, in Winter months – a time when most ultilities are overgenerating, and throwing the power away anyway. If you switch to less energy intensive bulbs – you might save a bit on your electric bill, but it only means the Utilities which are overgenerating anyway, will just have to throw out that much more power.
Folks seem to have the idea that Utlities operate like car engines and they can just throttle up and down power at will. That is not the case at all. It takes weeks to turn on and off large energy plants.