Ireland to ban the light bulb – incandescent ones anyway

Dave Walker Home Appliances
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Many of us are moving over to energy-saving bulbs these days, but there’s no legal requirement to do so. Although that will be the case very soon in Ireland.

The government has announced plans to ban the sale of incandescent light-bulbs by the year 2009 – the first European country to make such a move. According to John Gormley, the Minister for the Department of the Environment: “The aim of such a move will be to end the use of incandescent light bulbs in Ireland. These bulbs use technology invented during the age of the steam engine. By getting rid of these bulbs we will save 700,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year. It has been estimated that consumers will save €185 million in electricity costs every year as a result of the measure.”

Sounds reasonable. All old incandescent light bulbs will be phased out of the Irish market starting in January 2009.

(Via Inhabitat)

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Dave Walker
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2 comments

  • CFLs make a lot of sense in some places, but none in others. For instance, read the packaging – you’re not supposed to use them in very cold conditions, or hot conditions, or in recessed lighting. I’ve NEVER seen one for the small form factor sockets. With the ballast, there are some places they won’t fit. And in places where you use clear bulbs, they look plain stupid.

    If you REALLY want people to stop using incandescents, tax them to the point where CFLs are cheaper on a single bulb basis. Then, the only people who will buy incandescents are those who actually have an application where they make sense.

  • “Sounds reasonable”? That sounds like a dictatorship to me. Compact Fluorescent bulbs are terrible for your eyes and contain toxic mercury. Drop one bulb and pay thousands for environmental clean up.

    Why don’t all the GW alarmist just plant some trees. There is plenty of fallow farm land in the US alone that could be re-forested. Heck, give me 11 Million dollars and I’ll start a foundation to re-forest America.

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