As part of the plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming the EU wants to get rid of the traditional light bulbs. Last October, the Energy Council has invited the Commission to present a “draft Regulation that will launch a gradual process of phasing out until incandescent lamps and all the worst-performing lights are banned.” Hence, the European Commission put forward ecodesign regulation setting new energy efficiency functionality and product information requirements that households’ lamps (incandescent bulbs, halogen lamps and compact fluorescent lamps) need to fulfil to be placed on the EU market. Thus, lamps that do not meet minimum energy efficiency and durability requirements will be progressively phased out from the EU market starting now, 1 September, and finishing in September 2012. The manufacture or importing of traditional light bulbs will be therefore forbidden.
Such measures come within the framework of the 2005 EcoDesign Directive which introduced rules establishing ecodesign requirements for energy-using products. The Commission sets environmental requirements for energy-using appliances adopting implementing measures through the comitology procedure.
Last December, the Ecodesign Regulatory Committee, comprising EU Member States experts, endorsed the European Commission's proposal for improving the energy efficiency of household lamps. Since the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers have not opposed to the measure, last March, the Commission formally adopted a regulation on non-directional household lamps, ending, in this way, the comitology procedure.
According to the Commission, consumers will be able to choose between long-life compact fluorescent lamps that presently amount the highest energy savings, or efficient halogen lamps which could provide between 25% and 50% of energy savings. The Commission believes that the EU citizens will save around 40TWh by 2020 by switching to energy saving bulbs. The Commission has also estimated that EU households would reduce their electricity bill between € 25 and € 50 per year.
From today, 1 September, 100-watt incandescent bulbs will be banned in all EU Member States. Shoppers have been therefore stockpiled traditional 100-watt and above light bulbs ahead of the ban, before they disappear from shops.
Brussels ban will continue with 60W incandescent bulbs in September 2011 and 40 and 25W incandescent bulbs in September 2012. The aim is to have all traditional light bulbs removed entirely from the shelves by 2016.
The low energy light bulbs cost more than the traditional light bulbs and do not last as long as it has been claimed. They take time to warm up and the light is too dim. The low energy light bulbs might help us to save energy. However there are concerns over the health impact of the energy saving bulbs as they can cause headaches and rashes.
According to Spectrum, a group of charities which works with people with health conditions involving light sensitivity, such as lupus, the genetic disorder Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP), people with light sensitivity suffer severe and painful reactions to fluorescent low-energy light bulbs. Hence, if a ban on incandescent bulbs takes place these people “will be unable to use electric light in their homes and will be unable to go anywhere else where electric light is in use.”
Do we really need a ban on traditional light bulbs? People should be able to make their choice. In fact, as Spectrum said “People with sensitivity conditions must be able to continue to purchase incandescent bulbs for their homes.”
Consumer Associations such as ANEC and BEUC welcomed the move but they call on the European Commission "(…) to take immediate measures to ensure that people who rely on incandescent light bulbs will be able to buy these bulbs until suitable alternative lighting technologies are available."
