The European Commission’s regulatory committee of the eco-design directive will meet on Monday to give its opinion on the new energy efficiency requirements for household light bulbs that may lead to the phasing out of incandescent light bulbs.
On Monday the European Comission want to publish a 6 step plan to ban energy wasting lighting bulbs between 2009 and 2016.
The EU was set on Monday to fix dates for the gradual banning of traditional household light bulbs in favour of new energy-saving models which use a fraction of the electricity.
At the moment, around 85 percent of household lights are considered to use too much electricity.
EU nations have agreed to make 20-percent cuts in energy use by 2020 as part of a wider climate change package.
New technology light bulbs, such as compact florescent lights (CFL) can save up to 80 percent of the energy used by the worst old-style lights in homes.
The new rules would place progressive bans on bulbs based on the number of watts of electricity they use and their energy efficiency class. The Commission is estimating savings for European consumers of €5 billion to €8 billion ($7.7 billion to $12.4 billion).
The plan starts at 1. September 2009 at this time the 100 Watt light bulbs are banned. The next step is the 1. September 2010 at this time the selling from 75 Watt light bulbs are disallowed. 1. September 2011 60 Watt, 1 September 2010 all over 25 Watt.
Incandescent lightbulbs have been labeled “climate killers” in Europe because much of the energy they consume is transformed into wasted heat rather than light. It may have the side benefit of making a room warmer, but it’s an expensive and inefficient way of producing heat.
Last year, Australia became the first country to announce it would ban the use of incandescent bulbs by 2010. California is planning a phase-out by 2018. And on Tuesday, New Zealand said it would join the fray, ending the use of traditional lightbulbs starting in October 2009.
The way is free for Oled lighting
And the main companies focus on OLED lighting:
BASF and Osram Opto Semiconductors have developed a highly efficient white organic light-emitting diode (OLED): for the first time an OLED not only is able to achieve a light yield of over 60 lumens per watt (lm/W), but also, at the same time, meets the international Energy Star SSL Standard with regard to color requirements.
GE Consumers & Industrial and GE Global Research have suspended the development of the high-efficiency incandescent lamp (HEI) to place greater focus and investment on what we believe will be the ultimate in energy efficient lighting — light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).
OLED lamps
