New Light Standards for Energy Saving

Just like the public telephone, the conventional incandescent bulb’s and the ubiquitous (and ugly) fluorescent tube’s days may be numbered in U.S. New federal standards announced June 29, 2009 sets new national minimum energy standards for the standard bulbs that light our offices, homes, stores, and factories. The standards also phase out conventional incandescent reflector lamps, effectively extending the phase out of inefficient incandescent products initiated by Congress in 2007 to the common cone-shaped bulbs used in recessed light fixtures and track lighting.

According to the Department of Energy (DOE), lighting uses nearly 40% of all electricity used in commercial buildings. The standards announced today affect the more than 500 million fluorescent tube lamps and 265 million reflector lamps sold each year in the United States. About 7% of all energy consumed in the United States is for lighting.

According to DOE, the new standards announced today will save up to 1.2 trillion kilowatt-hours over thirty years, an amount about equal to the total consumption of all homes in the U.S. in one year. Businesses and consumers will gain up to $35 billion in net savings and global warming carbon dioxide emissions will be cut by up to 594 million metric tons, an amount equal to the annual emissions of nearly 110 million cars.

For the past several years the City of Milwaukee has actively tried to reduce energy use in City Hall and other city facilities. Since 2005 or so the Department of Public Works has been installing LED traffic signals throughout the City of Milwaukee. An LED (light emitting diode) traffic light provides as much or more light as a conventional bulb using a quarter of the energy, while lasting much longer. Mayor Barrett was quoted in today’s Milwaukee Journal  Sentinel that street lighting aacounts for well over 50% of the energy used by the city. According to Ann Beier, Director of Environmental Sustainability, the city has been replacing incandescent bulbs with fluorescent lamps and replacing older, less efficient fluorescent lamps with smaller, more efficient bulbs.

With the change of standards it should get easier for the average consumer to make the shift to more efficient light bulbs. No more standing in the store aisle and reading labels to make sure the bulb in your hand is “energy smart”.

A Green Light for Cities

It is said from officials of the shanghai Science and Technology Commission that lights on roads, bridges, tunnels, public transport and governmental buildings will all use environmentally friendly technology in three to five years.

LED (light-emitting diode) lights have a longer lifetime and can use less than half the energy of traditional bulbs. About 20 percent of the city’s electricity is used on lighting.

The development and promotion of LED lighting have been widely embraced by both government and industry.

Shanghai is one of participants in a recent project by the Ministry of Science and Technology to promote LED lights in major cities.

“We have finished a draft on LED adoption and promotion in Shanghai,” said Guo Yansheng, director of the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission’s high-tech industrialization department.

“The 2010 Shanghai World Expo is an excellent opportunity to showcase LED technologies. All landscaping lights in the Expo zone use LED lighting, while road lamps and exhibition halls will mainly use LEDs.”

The exhibition, which will run until Friday at the Shanghai New International Expo Center in the Pudong New Area, also has an LED road-lamp contest. Winners’ designs would be used in the Expo zone and introduced to the government for wider use.

Since the price of LED lights is still higher than traditional products, the city government is studying subsidy policies to help promote them in the market and streamline their public use. Nearly 95 percent of local traffic lights use LED lighting, while the next steps are for road lamps, public transport lighting and government buildings.