Okay, listen. I'm all for social justice and a responsible use of the resources we have in this world. I am. I think we have an order from God himself. We're supposed to govern wisely. Be good stewards. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it. But give up my incandescent lights??? Oh, c'MON!!!
Starting Tuesday of this week, the manufacture and import of the standard 100 watt and the frosted light bulb, which is deemed the most wasteful, will be banned in the EU countries. And over the next three years, all incandescent bulbs will be phased out completely. A similar ban is set to begin in the United States in 2012. Eleanor Beardsley quotes the EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs who has tried to reassure Europeans in his blog by telling them, "Much like the car and telephone took time to catch on, you will one day appreciate the new era of lighting."
Oh, no I won't!
I'll use the newfangled things, but I will not like them. There is a time of day that begins to come again in the autumn of the year. It's the time when there is still dinner to put on the table, but it becomes necessary to turn on the lights. It's the time of day when I light candles. And it's the time of day when incandescent light bulbs (that, admittedly, do indeed produce more heat than light) remind me of every late afternoon, waiting for the household Dad to come home. Dinner smells go with that kind of light. Taking your school mess to your room, or setting the table, or putting music on the stereo ... it's that time of day, and I have never seen any alternative to incandescent lighting that can illuminate it properly. I am not happy about this. I must have a drop or two of German blood in my veins.
Consumers in some countries, like Germany, are said to be stockpiling Thomas Edison's old-style bulbs for cost reasons, or even out of nostalgia.I'm thinking of doing the same thing. It's like finding out that a favorite book is now gone from the library shelves - discarded - sold at a book sale, and no way to track the treasure so that I can buy it myself. Or visiting the old neighborhood only to find out that your grandpa's house has been flattened to make room for something really depressing ("like a Baby GAP" - name that movie). Sometimes progress really stinks. Especially if it's not lit properly.
2 comments:
Well said
you might like to read
a comment to Piebalgs blog...
Europeans - and Americans - choose to buy ordinary light bulbs around 9 times out of 10 (global light industry data 2007-8)
Banning what people want gives the supposed savings - no point in banning an impopular product!
If new LED lights -or improved CFLs- are good,
people will buy them - no need to ban ordinary light bulbs (little point).
If they are not good, people will not buy them - no need to ban ordinary light bulbs (no point).
The arrival of the transistor didn't mean that more energy using radio tubes were banned... they were bought less anyway.
As said
(also on http://www.ceolas.net/#li1x onwards) the energy savings are questionable...
But if energy use does fall with light bulb and other proposed efficiency bans and electricity companies make less money,
they will simply push up the electricity bills to compensate:
Energy regulators can hardly deny any such cost covering exercise ;-)
But I love the new eco-type bulbs; they've been the only ones we've used for years now, and some of them we've moved house with twice (over a five-year period)....
I even like what happens at the very end when they're about to give out - they take a while to get to their full glow, and there's something very cosy about that. It reminds me of the old oil lamps we used during power cuts when I was a small child in the 70s. I suppose it's all about associations, isn't it?
Post a Comment