Sunday, November 04, 2007

HOW BAD IS A LIGHT BULB?


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[From Be Turtle]

Q - Are traditional light bulbs really that bad? They're so small-- how
much harm can they really do?

A - If we decided to ban traditional light bulbs 5-10% of our power
stations could be turned off. In the case of China, a ban on traditional
light bulbs could mean that the Chinese didn't need to build 25-50 of
the 500 coal power stations they are currently planning to construct
over the next decade, whilst a similar ban in the US could mean that
25-50 of the power stations which already exist could be turned off. . .


At the domestic level, using 70% less electricity to make the same
amount of light also saves approximately L9 ($18) worth of electricity
per bulb per year.

An average, rather small, British house has been estimated to contain
23.5 light bulbs. While a good quality energy saving light bulb from one
of our biggest supermarkets, Tesco, costs as little as 81p.

This means that replacing all of the light bulbs in a typical British
house, at a cost of L19 ($38), with energy saving bulbs which have a 6
years lifetime could in theory allow you to save up to L1,057 ($2114) on
household electricity bills over the lifetime of all the new light
bulbs.

These savings are even greater if you install some of longer lasting
energy saving light bulbs, which have lifetimes of up to 8 - 15 years.

If you still think this is too small a saving to justify they effort,
then I would like to ask for your help with identifying other
politically acceptable measures which would allow us to reduce our
energy imports (whilst experiencing little obvious pain), to save large
amounts of money (at little upfront cost) and to cut our carbon dioxide
emissions by millions of tonnes (within the next couple of years).

[Dr Matt Prescott Director, Ban The Bulb]

http://www.beturtle.com/question/are-traditional-light-bulbs-really-that-bad-
-theyre-so-small---how-much-harm-can-they-really-do



http://www.banthebulb.org

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