Seriously thoughtful 100W incandescent lightbulbs banned in the EU from 1st Sep

[vivaldirules]

I'm shocked that civilization just might exist somewhere. Excellent news!

[taylork1]

Shouldn't it be your decision as to what type of bulb you can buy? If CF are really superior, than the demand for incandescent bulbs will dwindle and manufacturers will stop making them. And if you chose to spend more money operating incandescent bulbs, shouldn't you be able to? I don't believe the government should make those choices for us.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I think this is sometimes a little exaggerated. There is a very small amount of mercury in a fluorescent light.

But I still need to process them differently from the other trash. It must be delivered with the small chemical waste. Which nobody does, because you must bring it to the dump yourself (or maybe, depending on where you live, you can make an appointment when they'll pick it up), whereas the normal waste gets picked up at your house every week. At least, here in the Netherlands.

Originally Posted by HarryT

The ones sold in the UK are no larger than a "standard" lightbulb. Strange that yours are larger!

I have one of these. And the smaller ones (= shorter ones) also have less wattage. And it's in the main lamp of the room, so I need a fairl amount of light (it's not on that often though).

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

I was told that the new Panasonic LED's will be instant-on light.


Stitchawl

We have a few LED lamps (ordinary bulbs) and they turn on instantly... You can only see the difference between a LED bulb and a standard bulb if you look at the text on the bottom of it. Or when you touch it And we also have a few LEDs in the hallway. And as soon as we find LEDs that can be dimmed, we'll replace those incandescents. And we need some small LEDs to replace those hallegen lamps in the bedroom as well (can't find them though...)

[alecE]

This sounds like an excellent idea, but my enthusiasm should be qualified by the observation that I've been using only small fluorescent lights for the last 15 years - these are manufactured as a 'D' tube. I've found them perfectly OK for all indoor activities, and the colour temperature is acceptably 'warm'. I expect a tube to last for at least two years. Long-term, I expect to move over to LED fittings as these become available, but boat fittings tend to lag behind the domestic market.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

But I still need to process them differently from the other trash. It must be delivered with the small chemical waste. Which nobody does, because you must bring it to the dump yourself (or maybe, depending on where you live, you can make an appointment when they'll pick it up), whereas the normal waste gets picked up at your house every week. At least, here in the Netherlands.

here you are supposed to return them to a collection point, usually in a shop that sells them. i take mine back to a nearby hardware store ; they have a huge bin to collect them just inside the front door, before the checkout. but you're right, it's less convenient than putting them in with the regular garbage, which is collected daily.

[Halk]

Perhaps we should be able to put them in our glass bins? We now have 3 bins in my council area; paper, general waste and glass. I suspect the glass bins are sorted through by hand, so things like small electrical appliances, EE bulbs could go in there too.

[Kostas]

Originally Posted by HarryT

They do take a while to "warm up", compared to the "instant" light of incandscents; that's very true.

Originally Posted by Halk

My problem with the bulbs is when I switch on the light I want to see right now, not in a few minutes time when it's warmed up.

Actually, AFAIK, industry's efforts are towards reducing initial delay.
There has been some real progress. I have found some EE bulbs that thurn on almost instantly.
Newer Energy Efficiency bulbs are also smaller (they fit almost everywhere) and produce less white-ish / cold light.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

...it's less convenient than putting them in with the regular garbage, which is collected daily.

- you have daily garbage collections!!!

It's once a fortnight over here. (Apologies for the whiff when there's a westerly blowing across the Channel.)

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

- you have daily garbage collections!!!

It's once a fortnight over here. (Apologies for the whiff when there's a westerly blowing across the Channel.)

fortnightly !!! i don't even want to imagine that. don't forget though, i live in a big city in an appartment building with a lot of other tenants. there's no collection on sunday and frequently the bins are overflowing on monday.

[Kostas]

Originally Posted by taylork1

Shouldn't it be your decision as to what type of bulb you can buy? If CF are really superior, than the demand for incandescent bulbs will dwindle and manufacturers will stop making them. And if you chose to spend more money operating incandescent bulbs, shouldn't you be able to? I don't believe the government should make those choices for us.

It's not a question of spending more money but of consuming more energy!!
Hm, is it your decision as to what are the max allowed emissions of your car?

To shock a little more those that dislike this EU decision, I've read in newspapers that EU is considering to forbid stand-by mode in future electronic devices (including battery powered and ebook readers?) in an effort to reduce energy consumption as studies have established that energy spoiled this way is quite significant in total.
I realised then that I have several electronic devices in stb-by mode that I use only once or twice a year.
But what about our tv set??? Having to leave the couch to turn on????

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

- you have daily garbage collections!!!

It's once a fortnight over here. (Apologies for the whiff when there's a westerly blowing across the Channel.)

Fortnightly!!! I'm in the uK and we get our rubbish collected weekly, every Tuesday morning. I'm in the North though, so we probably need weekly, what with all the blood and broken teeth clogging up the entryways

Back onto the lightbulbs. Me and my friends call these bulbs 'horrorshows' because they flicker like the bulbs in a horror movie when you just know something bad is going to happen

[Halk]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

fortnightly !!! i don't even want to imagine that. don't forget though, i live in a big city in an appartment building with a lot of other tenants. there's no collection on sunday and frequently the bins are overflowing on monday.

I guess you have different bins than we do here then.

We have huge big moulded plastic monsters - "Wheelie-bins" which hold a large amount. But they only get collected every second week.

When councils started introducing it in England there was an outcry. You would think that the world was coming to an end :P

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Kostas

To shock a little more those that dislike this EU decision, I've read in newspapers that EU is considering to forbid stand-by mode in future electronic devices (including battery powered and ebook readers?) in an effort to reduce energy consumption as studies have established that energy spoiled this way is quite significant in total.
I relaised then that I have several electronic devices in stb-by mode that I use only once or twice a year.
But what about our tv set??? Having to leave the couch to turn on????

i think i read that the energy consumed by appliances in standby mode is the equivalent of the entire production of one nuclear generator. i can't remember the exact details, but that's a lot of wasted energy. when i recently got a new stereo, i discovered to my disgust that you can't shut it off completely with the power button, it just goes to standby. presumably that's how it remembers the radio stations you programme. so now when i'm not using it i unplug it at the wall, and just choose the radio manually.

Originally Posted by Moejoe

Back onto the lightbulbs. Me and my friends call these bulbs 'horrorshows' because they flicker like the bulbs in a horror movie when you just know something bad is going to happen

hm, you know, i use these bulbs and i've not noticed them flickering at all. maybe they're not the same kind in the UK as in france.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Halk

I guess you have different bins than we do here then.

We have huge big moulded plastic monsters - "Wheelie-bins" which hold a large amount. But they only get collected every second week.

When councils started introducing it in England there was an outcry. You would think that the world was coming to an end :P

ours are moulded plastic wheelie bins, but often they're pretty small. the ones for my building are probably too small, we should have two of them (we've only got one each for recycling and green waste), but they have to be small to get through the entry hallway out to the street for collection. some larger buildings have really big bins, those are probably like yours, but they are still emptied daily.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

hm, you know, i use these bulbs and i've not noticed them flickering at all. maybe they're not the same kind in the UK as in france.

It's when they're first turned on, depending on which ones I've bought, they can flicker for ages before they actually 'hold the light'.