The lights of incandescent bulbs won’t be completely out come January 2012, but they will be dimmer.
While Ottawa announced in April 2007 it would ban the sale of inefficient light bulbs by 2012, don’t expect to find store shelves stripped of all incandescents any time soon, says Donald Dodge of Conserve Nova Scotia.
What will come into effect Jan. 1, 2012, Dodge said, are minimum energy-performance standards that all light bulbs must adhere to.
“While that will certainly mean that some incandescent bulbs will disappear from the market, it doesn’t eliminate them completely,” he said.
The packaging of those incandescent bulbs still on store shelves come Jan. 1, however, likely won’t look familiar, nor will their advertised wattage.
Bulbs will no longer be rated as 60 watts or 100 watts, but will instead be rated for its brightness in lumens.
“It’s going to require a real change of thinking for people. And because of that, a lot of the work that’s been going on behind the scenes on this is on labelling and packaging,” he said.
For example, a 60 watt light bulb will be labeled as being a bulb generating 1600 lumens. He said while incandescent bulbs will likely still be available in the lower wattages, anyone looking for something as bright as a 100-watt bulb, may be limited to a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL) only.
Dodge said since Ottawa announced the ban, light bulb manufacturers have argued against it saying they are on the verge of creating incandescent bulbs that meet the energy efficiency standards the federal government requires.
As a result, Dodge said, Ottawa has agreed to set a lumens to watt standard that the industry has to meet in whatever bulb they introduce into the market.
However, Dodge said the public have already overwhelmingly adopted the use of CFLs in their daily lives.
“And of course the price has dropped so dramatically in the last couple of years, so people are buying them anyhow because they are relatively inexpensive, and they really do save you money,” Dodge said.
The manager of the Rona store in Bayers Lake said when his store first opened they had a 16-foot long display of various incandescent light bulbs. Today, incandescents take up only about four feet, with CFLs and halogen bulbs taking up as much as 24 feet of retail space.
“That’s because the majority of customers no longer buy incandescents. The demand has definitely diminished,” said Jamie Aucoin.
AuCoin agrees the price drop over the years has encouraged more people to buy the greener bulb, especially since they last much longer than traditional bulbs.
Dodge said new lighting is being developed all the time, and expects the incandescent to disappear entirely over the next decade, but suggests there’s no reason to go out and stock up on them now.
As for disposal issues with CFLs, which contain a trace amount of mercury, Dodge said programs will likely be introduced for recycling them.
Many retail outlets, like Rona, already have a CFL recycling bin in their stores for customers.
kmoar@hfxnews.ca
