I’ve posted before on The Truth About Energy-Saving Light Bulbs. It’s clear the battle lines between the manufactures and consumers are being drawn and the situation is changing a bit, so I thought it was time for another post.
Being Lied To
Do you notice how this has changed? Before we were told CFLs were 80% more efficient than ordinary incandescent bulbs. In my earlier post I explained how, even based solely on electricity consumption, this figure was an outright lie. By the time you took into account things like manufacturing and transportation costs, as unlike standard bulbs CFLs are pretty much only made in China, and disposal costs because these bulbs need special handling and transportation due to the toxic materials they contain, it’s unlikely there was any energy savings at all with these bulbs.
Not to mention being told by the manufacturers that it was safe to have mercury in our homes! Can you imagine that, someone else telling us this? Who wants toxic heavy metals in their home in any amount? And for what reason exactly?
Can you believe this, they almost got away with putting toxic materials in nearly every home worldwide? Are people gullible or what?! But this is okay, isn’t it — now we know CFLs are a piece of crap, we can throw them all away and buy the next round of consumer products.
Do you notice they’ve stopped with all the propaganda? At least in the shops here in Amsterdam, they’ve quietly moved the bulbs made from toxic materials to the side in favor of other technologies. They’ve also stopped telling us in such a deceitful way the newer bulbs are so extremely efficient like they used to.
Now it’s more like, here, buy this bulb because it’s the law.
They’ve also quietly stopped telling us the newer bulbs last longer. What they’re now doing is making standard light bulbs that burn out much faster than they did a few years ago. We just discarded a bulb purchased 15 years ago, and have been using daily in a floor lamp for about the last 5 years. How long has it been since we could buy a standard light bulb that lasted 5 years? There’s no reason standard incandescent bulbs can’t be made for a longer life, in fact if you search the Internet with Google you will see a number of places selling these bulbs in countries like China where they’re still legal.
To be very clear on this, there is absolutely no evidence beyond wild claims from from manufacturers that expensive bulbs pay themselves back in energy savings. Remember when cigarette companies used to claim their products were safe and not addicting? As long as no one can come up with absolute proof to the contrary, they can claim whatever they want.
The Demise of the 15w Bulb
Supposedly they started with the phasing out of 100w and 75w bulbs, as well as all frosted bulbs. They also assured us stores would continue to be able to stock older bulbs, and they would continue to be available for a while.
Boy, I haven’t seen any stores stocking older bulbs, have you? If you ran a store, would you want to keep low value stock like that laying around?
It’s this frosted bulb bit that’s the hidden detail. This seems to have a number of unexpected consequences. The first is 15w bulbs have totally disappeared from the stores, apparently because they can’t be made unfrosted.
Well we can all understand, at least from an emotional point of view, why they would ban 100w and 75w bulbs, right? Because they use so much electricity? Why do they need to ban the one incandescent bulb logical for someone who needs a small energy efficient light for a small space? After all, for someone who does want to lower their electric bill, and wants to replace a higher wattage bulb with a more efficient cheap one, a 15w bulb would be the logical way to do it. Is this too much competition for other supposedly energy saving light bulbs?
The Big Consumer Ripoff
Ten years ago light bulbs could be had for 10 or 20 cents, purchased in a package of 20 or so bulbs from a discount retailer.
Especially as the price of oil is going up, the true manufacturing and transportation costs of these new bulbs is really showing itself! These days it’s hard to find a light bulb for less than about €1 (around US$1.35), about a 500% mark-up from a few years ago. These prices are only going to go up if the manufacturers of the newer technologies are given a monopoly on the market.
It’s not acceptable to just lower the price a bit now, and take a loss, maybe put them on sale. Maybe a government subsidy here and there to distribute free or discounted bulbs. As consumers we have the right to access to cheaper technologies, as protection against future prices rises or market manipulations. If the new lighting technologies are so great, let them stand the test of time!
It’s not just incandescent bulbs that are becoming unavailable, it’s fixtures and devices like timers, switches and motion detectors. These are now becoming packaged with newer bulbs and fittings, forcing you to use a particular brand or type of bulb.
