In my article on shorts for jeans, I wanted to be cynical and point a finger towards a mistake in our legislation. We try to reduce our waste of energy with a singular measure, while an integrated concept is what is actually needed. I will now try to introduce some sincere arguments to prove that this law is really not the optimum. It gives us the impression that we are capable of actively doing something, where in reality it camouflages our powerlessness.
Here comes:
Compared with what kind of energy other sectors, such as air traffic or shipping need, the energy used up for producing artificial light in our lives is minimal. In comparison with our total use of energy, it is also rather insignificant.
There is plenty of waste of electricity going on. Billions of battery-charged devices or transformers are on the net all the time (just think of all those cell phones and telephones). All kinds of electronic devices are on standby around the clock (IT outfit, TV sets, electronic clocks, analogous and digital radios,…). And how many forgotten and scarcely used ice boxes are standing in all our basements? Unnecessary electricity consumers, such as air conditioners are turned on in moderate climate zones, or else used in order to generate heat or warm up water, etc. Many laws would be necessary if we wanted to make a difference in all these sectors. But all that is being forbidden are conventional electric bulbs.
However, our consumption of electricity just for illumination must also be put to the test. How many rooms and landscapes are illuminated at night, making no sense at all? How often do people forget to switch off lights in rooms everybody has left? My company is not the only place where I keep noticing this, and I am truly surprised that nobody is interested.
Besides, there are many instances where energy-saving bulbs are no advantage. If they are switched on and off frequently, they will not last long. As a general rule, the date of expiration given on the package is incorrect. And it is quite likely that using energy-saving bulbs will make people careless as far as economical behaviour is concerned – “after all, it costs next to nothing”.
Some cynically say that the law has been made in order to promote bulb production. This, however, is also a typical mistake. To be sure, the producers of illuminants will enjoy a phase of increased demand, both due to some people storing the old devices and to the new technology. But this effect will not be a lasting one. And as soon as energy gets a rare commodity, the downfall will be so much worse.
As I see it, higher prices for energy and a forceful trade in emission rights would be much more efficient than many individual prohibitive laws. Even today, the trade of these papers renders its first success. Just look at the substitution of energy-consuming refrigerators in developing countries.
After all, higher prices for electricity are more than necessary and justified. Today, the price of electricity still does, for instance, not take into account what the electrifying of coal cost us in the past and will continue to cost us. Nor does it take into consideration the future cost for the disposal of radio-active waste! Simply disposing of it in the salt mines pretending it is a classical (conventional) dump will not turn out to have been a good idea.
And the maintenance work on the electricity network, the state of which in Europe, too, is partly desolate, is not yet included in this price. Not to mention the build-up of a truly electricity-saving high-power co-current network. Huge projects such as Desertec quite aside.
Thus, the law is and remains (not even) “something done by half”, even though it is about time we made a good job of “the whole affair”. Prohibiting conventional electric bulbs is like again “putting the cart before the horse”.
RMD
P.S.
The “Edwinschen Gedanken“ (musings of Edwin) about conventional electric bulbs producing heat and therefore being potentially helpful in winter (when they are switched on most often, anyway) for saving heating costs is something I will dare not even mention.
(Translated by EG)
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