Australia to ban incandescent lamps

[Hero999]

Oh no not more carbon emissions BS, gullible fools .

I wouldn't have a problem with using compact fluorescent lamps other than the fact that most of them won't work with dimmer; you can buy dimmer compatible lamps but they're more expensive.

Let's also not forget the real impact on the environment of disposing of all those fluorescent lamps containing toxic salts in their phosphors and mercury vapour. I suppose recycling is an option but let's not even go into the energy, time and mony spent collecting the dead tubes and processing them and the fact that they take more recources to manufacture in the first place.

 

[HiTech]

And another downside is that age-old joke asking "How many Polocks does it take to screw in a compact flourescent lamp" kind of loses it's edge!

 

[HarveyH42]

here's a novel idea ... in addition to switching out light bulbs, how about banning needless corporate light pollution?

nearly every business in town leaves their lights on 24/7 - huge powerful parking lot lights for an empty lot at 2am. not to mention the floodlights on the signage, and just aimed at walls! sure we need those lights when it gets dark at 3:30pm during the winter season, but we don't need them at 3:30am.

some may claim its for security. that's rubbish - upgrade your cameras to night vision or install a few IR floodlights in key locations.

I tip my hat to the local Burger King, although their drive-through is open till 1am, they turn off most of their lights at 10pm (including the parking lot lights) when their dining room closes.

Sometimes it's not a matter of security cameras. Do the police or people driving by also see infrared, can these be upgrade?

A well lit area around a business or property helps keep the trash out after hours. Punks tend to hide in the shadows.

Liability, even though you are closed for the day, you can still exept some traffic through parking lots at night...

 

[justDIY]

police and people driving by can bring their own lights.

if unsavory people on your property is a concern, hire a security guard to watch the infrared cameras, instead of polluting the earth having tens of kilowatts of floodlights running all night and morning. I think there's deffinately room for compromise here - have a floodlight at all the access points to a building isn't a bad idea - what bugs me is rows of floodlights to illuminate the first 10 stories of a 60 story tech center.

I don't know about your state, but in Michigan, thanks to torte law reform, there's very little personal liability concerns anymore... someone gets hurt on your property, as long as it wasn't due to gross negligence on your part, its not your problem.

 

[HarveyH42]

I understand the landscape lights and accent lights being turned off at a decent hour, but still think some lights are needed.

 

[mneary]

The title of this thread is alarmist and misleading. "Australia to ban incandescent lamps." AFAIK, ONE Australian lawmaker has proposed this. Situation the same in California.

It takes more than this to enact a ban.

The thread might be a lot less interesting if it were truthful: "Lone Australian lawmaker says incandescent lamps are wasteful."

 

[Roff]

The title of this thread is alarmist and misleading. "Australia to ban incandescent lamps." AFAIK, ONE Australian lawmaker has proposed this. Situation the same in California.

It takes more than this to enact a ban.

The thread might be a lot less interesting if it were truthful: "Lone Australian lawmaker says incandescent lamps are wasteful."

Do you Google?
https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6378161.stm
This sounds to me like it's going to happen.

 

[mneary]

It's clear that I overstated my protest. I had seen an earlier article that named only one lawmaker. Didn't know that the environment minister had taken up the cause. It'll be interesting to see how it plays with the rest of the government heads.

AFAIK here in California, so far it's only one legislator.

I happen to prefer the new fluorescent bulbs over incandescent in most places, and I like the way my electric bill inches downward as I replace incandescent with fluorescent. (As well as replacing CRTs with LCD).

One problem I have is a "Torchiere" light with a 150W halogen lamp. Been searching for a couple of years for an equivalent.

 

[RODALCO]

It is interesting how threads and posts are read sometimes and comments are made as by mneary.

In the first post there is a link which still works which explains the status quo in Australia.
We in New Zealand are their neighbours and usually similar events will become law here too, may be a few years later.

Our Mercury Energy POCO had a deal about 3 years ago and sold 5 Philips compact fluro's for NZ$10.00, about US$ 7.00, i bought some as well and put hourmeters on them, just to check the claims of 15,000 hours they make.
Two of them have done 13118 hrs now, which is nearly 1.5 years, continuous burning. These lamps are on about 12 hrs a day via a timeclock and still going fine.
The others in the house have done between 3 and 6000 hours and still going fine.
I was also dubieus about these claims but i admitt they seem to last the hours stated on the wrapper.
Also they work out a lot cheaper consumption wise 20 Watts light used / 100 Watt light output, and as normal incandescent lamps go for about 800 hours, I would have bought 16 x NZ$ 1.00 lamps and spent 16NZ$ in lamps versus NZ$2 for the compact.

These lamps normally trade for about NZ$4 in the shops which will still work out cheaper.

Ok i'm old fashioned too and only use about 8 or 9 of these lamps in my house while the bulk of lamps still the good oll filament lamps or the normal 5 and 6 foot fluro's.

 

[mneary]

OK, I dug deeper. In the February 20 Sydney Morning Herald, it says the "government" (apparently referring to the Environment Minister) "hopes to convince state and territory governments to introduce energy performance standards that would lead to the replacement of standard light bulbs....". (emphasis mine).

I didn't think that the Environment Minister had the personal authority to ban light bulbs. It's interesting how "hopes to convince" is converted into a law in the space of a few column inches.

As I stated, the headline is misleading at best. It may eventually happen, but it hasn't yet.

 

[Hero999]

I think it would be a good idea to subsidise compact fluorescents and tax incandescents so they cost the same amount to purchase.