Welcome to the new home of the Greener Lights? blog, here renamed Greenwashing Lamps.
This site is dedicated to lighting issues in general and CFL issues in particular.
As incandescent bulbs are now being phased out on a global scale, in favour of CFLs primarily, some of us think this is a huge mistake and this blog is one attempt to clarify why and also to inform about alternatives.
Under Categories you will find posts on various light subjects, under Tags more specific issues, followed by links to related articles, blogs and websites.
This is not a commercial site. I’m not selling anything and I am not getting paid for endorsing specific products or product categories. I’m just an idealist with a mission to enlighten.
About me
After working with interior design and finding how essential the right type of light is for the appearance and functionality of any environment, lighting issues have become something of a special interest. With all the lies and exaggerations spread through every available channel by the organised anti-lightbulb campaign, I’ve felt it a duty to do my share in helping to clarify deliberately muddled light issues and informing the misinformed.
ratna said,
September 21, 2010 at 6:00 am
please read this document (URL). your fear regarding CFLs is well founded.
halogenica said,
September 21, 2010 at 8:30 am
Thanks!
Chris Mesnager said,
December 13, 2010 at 5:14 pm
Very interesting website ! I am like you on acrusade to wipe all the Hype around LED. I would like to get in contact with you.
Regards,
Otitismedia di Monaco said,
December 30, 2010 at 9:42 pm
Chris, there’s definitely no croozaid here!
Dan Henderson said,
January 26, 2011 at 6:13 am
Please get in touch with me – I’m doing research on the truth about CFL Lighting for an upcoming public education piece. Any help would be great. dan at 6thsc dot com
Nicholas said,
June 12, 2011 at 12:13 pm
Hello
I am working on a project with incandescent light bulbs for an art library in Paris. In researching the light bulb ban I have yet to get a sense of why the industry has embraced the change. I get the sense that the new light bulbs come from outside the EU. Do you have any information? Specifically what is the economic incentive for the companies to stop incandescent light bulb production.
Thank you,
Nicholas Vargelis
Paris, France
halogenica said,
July 23, 2011 at 3:59 pm
I’ve been away much of this summer and must have missed this request, sorry.
Someone at Philips Lighting actually revealed the reason: incandescent bulbs prices have gone down so much that manufacturers haven’t been able to make a profit on them for many years. See the end of this post: http://greenwashinglamps.wordpress.com/category/incandescent-ban/anti-lightbulb-campaign/
Correct that most CFLs are made in Asia/China, but for European and American leading lamp manufacturers. There are of course also some poorer quality Chinese ‘no brand’ lamps to be sold cheaply in outlet stores, gas stations etc, but the big companies still make a huge profit from their brand CFLs now that the competition from the inexpensive and attractive incandescent lamps is finally out of the way.
As CFL prices are also going down rapidly, manufacturers are in a race against time to sell as many as possible before these too become unprofitable to make. Then they will start to freely admit to the many disadvantages of CFLs and push even harder for LEDs to become the standard home and public lighting. This has already begun but can’t be done on a larger scale until LEDs are good enough to replace CLFs, and they’re not quite there yet. And there is still some profit to be squeezed out of the CFL market now that the 20 year campaign to overcome customer resistance is starting to pay off.
healthrisks said,
July 23, 2011 at 3:32 pm
A few years ago I started a similar blog: http://lowenergylampsinfo.wordpress.com
Please contact me so that we can exchange information!
All the best
halogenica said,
July 23, 2011 at 4:46 pm
Great site, thanks! I’ll add a link to it. Glad to see more people engaging in this issue.
I started mine more as a resource website to post the info I had gathered over the years, and have regrettably not been able to keep it up as a blog as it got too overwhelming to keep up with and fish out the relevant news in the daily flood of garbage articles.
How do I contact you? You can mail me at halogenica (mailthingy) telia.com
Led lysrør said,
September 8, 2011 at 3:48 am
Vores løsninger giver store muligheder for besparelser på jeres elregning. Hvis du vil have en indikation på, hvor stor jeres energibesparelse kan blive, så udfyld vores online beregningsskema og få et hurtigt
Peggy Deras, CKD (ret), CID said,
January 12, 2012 at 12:01 am
Re: Specifically what is the economic incentive for the companies to stop incandescent light bulb production.
I wonder why manufacturers don’t just stop making products if they are not profitable? That’s what we’re seeing in medicines and vaccines now.
halogenica said,
January 17, 2012 at 10:42 am
If they just quit making incandescent bulbs there would be a public outcry since that is the most popular lamp. So they had to take the long way around and get a global ban in order to make people buy the less desirable but more profitable alternatives. Then they can blame it on the politicians instead (even though they’ve spent millions lobbying for a ban). And so they can shut down factories and stop selling bulbs even before the phase-outs start taking effect and come off as green heroes rather than greedy multinationals. Clever, huh?
Nicholas said,
January 17, 2012 at 1:23 pm
Yes ! clever of the big companies ! But has there been any sort of journalistic reports? on the lobbying or on what is described above? I make reference to what is said here for a project but I can for now only cite it as hearsay or rumors…
halogenica said,
January 17, 2012 at 2:49 pm
The world wide anti-lightbulb campaign has been covered in this post (with references): http://wp.me/pLoIW-3
The U.S. bulb plants closing and IKEA stopping sale of incandscents ahead of schedule has been covered here (with links to articles): http://wp.me/pLoIW-6Y
As for the lobbying, I read a sum in an article but finding it again takes searching hundreds of links so let me get back on that one. This article mentions lobbying by NEMA but no exact numbers:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70621.html
Nicholas said,
January 17, 2012 at 3:04 pm
Many thanks for the links and research !
-Nicholas
PS: what country do you live in? I have found for example France and Germany to be drastically different in terms of stocking incandescent light bulbs. Here in France standard incandescent light bulbs are almost completely gone from the mass consumer market. However in Germany at on of the gigantic home/ hardware stores, Hornbach, they have a wide range of incandescent light bulb that are not part of the EU ban and they stock frosted 40, 60, and 100 standard rough service light bulbs that are exempt from the ban because they are made to operate at 240 volts (but can function just as well at 220v). However their packaging is marked “not for household use” or they have a symbol of a house with an X over it !