Goodbye to filament lightbulbs - Germany

A TTer asked about this down the pub on Wednesday evening.

It is a staged phase-out, but from September 1, 2009 to 2012 it is goodbye to incandescent bulbs.

The regulations are written so that, in effect, incandescent lightbulbs (the ones you grew up with) will never be able to pass the energy efficiency tests and therefore banned. But CFL (compact fluorescent bulbs), LEDs, and efficient Halogens will all be OK.

See the press release:

Current stocks are legal (if you have some weird desire to stock up) and in fact old stocks will still be legally sellable after 1st September 2009, but very few manufacturers will bother to produce after this date - as they will need to start hitting the new targets (although the dates are staggered).

CFL bulbs get a bad press usually because they are often:

1. Ugly
2. Produce harsh light
3. Not dimmable

All the above are no longer an issue. The latest CFL bulbs have covers to make them look like "traditional" bulbs, the light can be full spectrum and many different shades of white (colour temperature), and they can be dimmable as well. So better quality CFL bulbs will be on the market in future.

This still leaves the issue of mercury content (but all bulbs and manufacturers must adhere to the WEEE disposal regulations) and "electrosmog" - the latter I personally think is just people being daft.

So it is goodbye to these babies:

Too bad, the filament bulb could really last a long time. The longest lasting one is still working and has not been turned off in 108 years in Livermore California.

Yeah but that one is only 4 watts so it's pretty hopeless as a light!!!

p.s. It has been switched off a few times. Was off for a week in 1937!!

http://www.centennialbulb.org/facts.htm

Yes, 4 watts is pretty low. It is clear glass, so it must give off some light. Germans need more or higher lumens to combat the depression of no sun.

I remember my mom using old lightbulbs to darn the holes in our socks.

Ouch! My mum would use wool or cotton thread...

Was that the problem? I thought it was her sewing techniques.

My granny darne our socks the same way..

She said it made light work of it..

Watt a dreadful gag.

I saw a report on German TV the other day comparing the two. They had a shop assistant go on about how the light is full spectrum, they last a load longer and they don't take any time to warm up like before.

Then they did the test.

The new bulbs failed miserably in all areas. Even with the bulbs that said they provide warm light, the spectrum was seriously narrow in comparison to the old types. They did a test for longevity, and although the new type do indeed last longer when they are left on, if they are turned on an off a lot, they die much quicker than the old type. And some bulbs took up to 5 minutes (and none less than 30 seconds) to reach their full brightness.

Further to that, a bulb that was rated to give out the same light as a 60W normal bulb actually gave out slightly less than half that amount of light.

All of these results reflect my experience of these new bulbs perfectly.

I'm still using them because they do use a lot less energy, and that's important. But all this spin that is put on them is a load of crap in my opinion.

I also read an article from Canada saying that depending on the climate switching to the new lightbulbs will make you pay more for the heating and that according to a study they made the province of British Columbia would have a bigger CO2 footprint if everybody would switch to the newer bulbs.

Why will you pay more for the heating?

Because those good old bulbs emit more heat than the new ones.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/20...ight-bulbs.html

That's an interesting point. As you say, most of the energy sucked up by a 100W lightbulb is turned into heat. However, in hot countries, this could be a double plus side for the non-filament bulbs.

Yep definitely. But so far I'm really not convinced with the new bulbs, the light colour is not nice and they take a long time to become bright... I just don't know. They might also be causing headaches because they are supposedly blinking more, not sure where I read that.

Is that a joke? The amount of heat given off by a light bulb will make so little difference to the temperature of a room it's not worth even thinking about.