On January 8th , the Ecological Dedign Management Committee Meeting decided to replace the incandescent lamps with the energy saving one. Incandescent lamps with over 100 have to be out of the market starting from September 2009, while those with over 400w starting from 2010. All should be replaced by 2012.
Piebalgs, the EU Energy commissioner, predicted that the annual electricity bill of each household on th territory of Europe will fall an average of 50 euro. During this period, citizens could still use tho old incandescent lamps at home. However, the shop will be only allowed to sell lamps with power consumption less than 100W from September next year. And it will be gradually replaced by fluorescent, halogen or LED lamps, which can save up to 80 percent of the energy used by the old bulbs.
Incandescent light is considered as a big energy consumer because only 5% of the electricity can be converted to light; while the energy saving lamps with the same luminance consume only 65%-80% of the electricity. Althougth energy saving lamps are more expensive than incandescent lamps, they can survive 6 times longer than incandescent lamps. In a word, it costs less.
Following EU, Australia and California will also implement the phase-out plan of incandescent lamps. According to EU’s goal on greenhouse gas emission, the emission should be reduced by 20%. It’s a significant step for all human beings to replace incandescent lamps with energy-saving ones. It is predicted that 5 to 10 billion euro shall be saved annually after the implementation. Gabriel, Germany Federal Environment Minister said the EU’s decision conveys to consumers that it will save their own money if they use energy-saving products. (Source: Science and Technology Daily)
