Light touch helps cut energy waste

WITH the traditional lightbulb on its way out perhaps it is time to stock up on candles.

European legislation last year banned the manufacture and import of the traditional 100W incandescent lightbulb and in the next couple of years most other sizes will have disappeared forever to reduce the energy consumed by lighting.

So where does that leave us?

Compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) are usually described in the shops as energy saving lights and, fortunately, they have improved hugely since the earliest versions.

The days of waiting for energy-saving CFLs to warm up, and then just flicker enough to be annoying are mostly gone.

However, first a few facts:

CFLs are more expensive than traditional lightbulbs but the longer lifespan and lower running costs are intended to outweigh this - but, buy a budget brand and it may well stop working early, which defeats the object.

Remember you always get what you pay for.

As a guide, a CFL requires only about a quarter of the energy compared with a traditional lightbulb to give the same amount of light, so a 15W CFL should give you the brightness of a traditional 60W bulb.

Users may discover a problem in very hot or cold weather as CFLs are designed to provide maximum light output at 25C and if hotter or colder than that, the brightness can be reduced.

You can get different "colour temperature" CFLs and this is sometimes marked on the packaging as Warm white, Soft white, Daylight and such like as they produce a subtly different tone.

On the negative side, studies show that CFLs can get 20% dimmer over time. They also contain a small amount of mercury so it is vital that they are disposed of properly.

As incandescent lamps are phased out, CFLs are not the only lighting choice and Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are starting to become much more popular. These are the tiny "bulbs" you see in little wind-up torches which consume very little energy and can last for an amazing 100,000 hours.

If you can run these directly from, say, a battery (preferably charged with some photovoltaic solar panels) then we are talking "super efficient" energy use.
Alternatively, you can start saving energy and money straight away by just turning out lights when not in use.

Earth Day

Each year in April is Earth Day - this year is the 40th anniversary and it falls on April 22.

Why not participate this year and just keep your lights off for this one evening. Get out a few candles, open a bottle of wine and enjoy the change.