Should the old style, cheap light bulb be phased out?

Alex (Mt Eden)
Thursday June 19, 2008 Why dont they ban plastic super market shopping bags just like that then? I will be stockpiling the old bulbs too so that I can continue to make the choice where I use which bulbs . Do any other countries in the world do this? I can think of a million other things they could be doing to save the planet before this . What's going to happen a few years down the track when they realise it was a mistake - down to candles then is it? It really is becoming a case of last one out turn the lights off!

Mark Roxburgh (Tauranga)
Thursday June 19, 2008 I've tried the eco friendly bulbs. they do not fit all light fittings. I have down lights in the ceiling they are less than 2 years old and the eco bulbs don't fit. What am I supposed to do? Replace all the down lights?

John (Wellington City)
Thursday June 19, 2008 No, I think its a good idea. It must be the easiest way to save power and money - although not sure about the money angle as I suspect the power price will simply increase if we use less. The power companies will still have the same overheads and want the same profits. The only problem, and its a very big problem, is the poor quality light output of CFL's at the moment. I purchased 12 R80 equivalents to try and removed them after only a couple of weeks. They were terrible. But this should be only a short term problem. There are much better CFL's available overseas with up to three times the lumen output of what we have available in NZ and a wide awake importer should be getting ready to make a killing. Would do it myself but don't have the business infrastructure.

Alan Ayres (Henderson)
Thursday June 19, 2008 The idea is a good one, I have replaced many of the bulbs in my house with low energy fluorescents. However, you can't safely use one in a fitting with a dimmer so who will pay for new light switches? Also, will the 75w spots in the bathroom and kitchen be banned as there is no low energy alternative. Incidentally these spots are very common and some of the least efficient bulbs around - so who will pay for new fittings?

Tom Foolery (Wellington City)
Thursday June 19, 2008 What a pain in the arse! Roll on the election and hopefully we will be rid of the Greens and Labour both.
Along with improved efficiency comes crap light quality and mercury.
The US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) recommends double bagging these bulbs for disposal because of the mercury. Exposure to the mercury in case of breakage is identified as a critical risk.
Incandescant bulbs have no long term health risks. Personally I would prefer better light and less health risks. Did anyone think this through? I doubt it.
FYI
There is an excellent article on the pro's and con's of Cfl lamps at Wikipedia http:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp

PWB (Waikato/King Country)
Thursday June 19, 2008 We have, say, 3 million households in New Zealand, give or take. Each with, say, 20 bulbs to replace, each at $6 cost, that would be, hang on, ah: $360 million, including approx. $40 million GST (Hellooo, Mr Cullen, wild thing, that makes your heart sing.).
Again: 360,000,000 bucks - to be paid for by us = you and me and him and her. Definitely not by this "government" = bunch of loonies.
The old bulbs, 3 million households times 20 = 60 millions - oh, well, bugger - we just throw them on the rubbish heap, eh?
Of course you know where these marvellous energy saviong things come from, dont'cha? Yep mate. Mainly from China. And they are highly poisonous, containing mercury. They have to be disposed of as hazardous waste.
The entire scheme (and don't we just know, what "scheme" means) s utter rubbish.

Fed Up Taxpayer Ha (Hamilton)
Thursday June 19, 2008 No the government is telling us what sort of lighting we can have in our house, are the people of new zealand not sick and tired of being told what to do all the time, how to raise your children, what to feed them, what dogs you can own, what car you should buy etc etc etc. I for one think the energy saving lightbulbs are incredibly ugly, give out very poor light and I believe they are incredibly dangerous if broken, isn't it time New Zealanders took a stand and told the government to just but out of people's lives. As regard to making them cost more why is it that greenies think that people should pay excesses prices for everything they don't approve of.

Funny Games (Afghanistan)
Thursday June 19, 2008 Toxic mercury and harmful/unpleasant light spectrum are two reasons sufficient to ban the fluorescent bulbs instead.

In this country hydroelectric generators power up our homes, so the claim about curbing millions of tons of CO2 emissions is just plain false.

The country is running out of the spare generation capacity for electricity generation due to artificially maintained economic development via inflated population growth. The cheapest way to address the issue is to spend a few million nz$ on propaganda and new legislation, rather than to build new generators.

Clearly, this is an appalling move. Not only this is tyrannical, it's also blatant example of arrogant and disrespectful state-sponsored deception. It is an example of NZ-grown smaller-scale 'WMDs in Iraq' claims for the sake of economically benefitting the few.

Nodev8 (Bay Of Plenty)
Thursday June 19, 2008 Jesus wept they will be telling us when & what to eat drink and crap next. If this is a democratic society bring on Mugabe.

Kevin O'Brien (Greenacres)
Thursday June 19, 2008 More interference! The lamps don't work as promoted. Their life is no longer in real use. I doubt if there are any savings considering their cost. Their heat output is often useful and saves other heating.
Another green bubble: household fittings will need changing; more mercury in our homes, (in the USA house rooms have been closed off because of a broken lamp); special disposal units are required; most are deficient in red light causing winter depression.

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