GE Explains (Almost) All about the Future of Incandescent
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03.20.07
We have not been kind to GE since it announced its new improved incandescent bulb plans that will possibly yield a bulb with the efficiency of CFLs at some point in the future. We thought the timing of the announcement was designed to undercut the launch of 18seconds.org. and that it was an attempt to cut replacement programs like Mr. Luna's Bright Idea off at the knees. We thought that it would give an excuse to a lot of people to wait three years to change their bulbs when should be doing so now.
We were invited to talk to a few senior people at GE about this and listened to Earl Jones, a senior counsel for General Electric who deals with government relations. He said that GE is not trying to undercut demand for CFL's as they are one of the biggest manufacturers and sell millions of them. Their press release was a response to the California legislation proposed to ban the incandescent by 2012. According to Jones :"to promote innovation you need a standard that is technology neutral rather than a technology ban."
Kim Freeman of GE had previously said “We don’t normally come out and talk about technology this far in advance, but we want to get involved in this debate” - the international movement to outlaw traditional incandescent bulbs. Banning any specific technology is absolutely unnecessary,” she continued, “GE supports national policy that will drive improved energy standards for all lighting products, regardless of the technologies.”
Mr. Jones said that GE supported and was a member of the European Lamp Companies Federation, which has proposed "public incentives to encourage consumers to purchase more efficient products and setting performance standards that will eliminate the least efficient products from the market." He also said that even in Australia they are considering changing the focus to minimum efficiency standards instead of a total ban.
Joe Howley, Manager Environmental Marketing for Lighting, pointed out that GE did not just jump into this new bulb, but that GE has never stopped developing more efficient bulbs.
At TreeHugger we love innovation and look forward to using GE's new improved incandescent bulbs. However we are sorry to see anything that slows down the momentum for change, and know that while their point was not to stop people from buying CFLs, (particularly GE's) it will be used by many as an excuse.
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- CFLs Could Curb Global Lighting Demand by 40% - and At What Cost?
- Weird Looking LED Bulbs Hitting US Market
- Eva: Wood, CFLs-Only Lamp from Argentina
- GE Backs Plug-in Hybrids to the Tune of $55 Million
"At TreeHugger we love innovation and look forward to using GE's new improved incandescent bulbs."
One question... why??? Seems like you are backing down from this battle against a failing goliath. We're at the tipping point of a lighting revolution, don't stop now and bow out to these powerful lobbyists.
Its the right move, lefty. The problem is not incandescents, its their efficiency. If GE can bring up the efficiency to something at least close to CFL's, the new bulbs will have their place, if they can fill the holes that CFL's have problems with (dimming, extreme cold, areas that need instant full brightness, motion sensor controlled lighting).
It doesn't sound like any momentum will be lost, either. Australia and California are just shifting the focus to the standards, not the technology.
doug, GE was talking of doubling incan's efficiency in 3-5 years! and that's from a measly 5% to a still measly 10%. seems like in those 5 years we can easily be developing more efficient CFLs that would work better with dimmers (and those other scenarios you mention) and still be 6 to 7 times as efficient as 'future' incans. i believe this technology's time has come. if the incans efficiency weren't so dismal we could have thrown it a bone, but, it's just done.
Lefty, it is so important to remember that one technology will never work in every situation. Example--the Toyota Prius is great but we will never ban a Ford F350 truck--because some people neet those (contractors, farmers, etc).
The same is true for light bulbs. CFL's work great in many, many applications. I use them in my apartment and specified them (a lot) in my commercial lighting design work. There are applications, however, where yo u really can save energy by using incandescents--REALLY, ITS TRUE.!!!
If all lighting was the standard table lamp, I would agree with you, but when buildings require all different shapes and sizes of light fixtures, different shapes and sizes rooms and different lighting effects needed your most efficient system is sometimes incandescent.
A much bigger problem with energy efficiency is that we have a terrible habit of overlighting our spaces. An example is we have a 5 head chandelier light at the entry lobby to our condo building. It currently has (5) 13W CFL's in it. One day I unscrewed all but one--guess what--where was more than enough light in all areas of that lobby.
I didn't try it, but I bet one 60W incandescent woudl provide just enough light in that room. One 60W incandescent still uses less energy than (5) 13 W fluorescents.
Other options. take 5 40w incandescents and dim them down so each is drawing 13W and you now hav e a lightbulb that will last nearly forever.
Of course, just having a fixture with one 13W CFL would be good, but better would be (2) 7W, in case one burns out.
There probably would be enough light if we put 5 -3W bulbs in. That would be even better (but the life woldn't touch the 40W incandescents dimmed to 20%
How about a motion sensor and a photocell to turn the lights off when the lobby is empty and during the day (when huge amounts of light pour in the windows)?
My point is that there are lots of ways to be efficient and we can do so much more good for the environment by just thinking about our lighting design instead of just throwing the most efficient light bulb up there in a shotgun approach.
Stupid designs are still stupid, even if they use the newest technology--a good design using old technology is much better and a good design using new technology can be amazing. The key is not the technology, though , it is the good design!. I would pick a thoughtful incandescent design than bad CFL design (and there are lots of ludicrous CFL designs out there.
I never tire of talking about good lighting design
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