The high energy filament bulbs are being phased out in order to improve energy efficiency and meet climate change targets.From September 1st the traditional light bulb will no longer be available.

The switchover, which will affect all of the European Union's 500 million citizens, was first ordered at a Brussels summit last year as part of an ambitious energy policy to fight climate change. A meeting of EU energy ministers, including the UK's new secretary of state for energy and climate change Ed Miliband decided to go ahead with the ban.

The move has previously proved controversial.

Traditional light bulbs are around 38p compared to £1.38 for the cheapest low energy models and campaigners have complained about affordability, as well as the cost of having to adapt fittings for the new bulbs.

The fluorescent bulbs generally take time to warm up and there have been complaints the light is too dim and has a tendency to flicker.

There are also worries over how the bulbs will be disposed of. Under new regulations for hazardous waste, councils are obliged to recycle low energy bulbs at considerable cost to the tax payer. Incandescent filament light bulbs use up to five times as much energy as efficient lights such as "compact fluorescent lamps" (CFLs).

Advocates claim that replacing the worst-performing lamps with today's best available technology will reduce domestic energy consumption for lighting by 60 per cent in the EU, equivalent to saving 30 million tons of CO2 pollution every year.

However questions remain over the cost, health impact and aesthetic quality of the new low-energy fluorescent bulbs..............

On the BBC news this morning MP Dan Norris claimed there is a slight risk to health if one of these light bulbs break.They contain mercury and as he claims a minimal amount,but also claims there are plans to make collection points available in the future for disposal of blown bulbs............... What the Hell?!!! Typical Britain, no forward planning.!

all flourescent bulbs contain mercury. even those long tubes

America is banning incandescant bulbs too but I dont remember when

more big brother yeah US is draughting a bill as we speak no mention of india or china doing it though biggest polluters in the world

Ok now, so what will the bulb above our heads change to when we get an idea?

yeah it'll only cut the energy costs for the whole country by about 10%

mmmmmmm roughly $100,000,000

seems like their all concentrating on the wrong end of the ice berg

a low energy one of course just takes a little longer to reach full brightness, good for us blokes

Again!............Like this one; "Brussels bureaucrats proved yesterday what a barmy bunch they are -- by outlawing curved bananas." The European Union had set minimum requirements for size -- 5.5 inches long and 1.1 inch wide -- and was going to ban "abnormally bent" bananas, The Sun reported. "The crazy laws were drawn up by thumb-twiddling E.U. chiefs who spend thousands on a yearlong study," it said.

I think the next thing we are in danger of losing is this........


Minister of silly walks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZlBUglE6Hc

well the french snail farmers were having a hard time a few years back so the government re-assessed snails as (and get this) LAND BASED FISH so they would qualify for EU fisheries grants and guess what they got it

thousands on a buffet with a huge ice sculpture maybe.

i think this is awesome.

i switched my entire house at once, and i literally save about $30 bucks a month in electricity. toss in that you almost neeeever have to change them, and it's definitely worth it.

my neighborhood walmart recycles them, so i'll dump them there when it's time for new ones.

changed everyone in my restaurant but the light was not the same so changed them all back, made the food look awful ????? uhm perhaps it was the food after all

I forgot about that one.

In the U.S. you do not have to change the adapter, the new bulbs go into the old fittings.

Same here....all our flourescents ( I can't spell tonight I have post vodka dyslexia) fit into the old sockets and are even shaped in a form of the old style light bulbs... our house is energy saver flouro's or 15 watt halogens...

What creative thinking you have!

This?

Part of the reason Fluorescent lights flicker in Europe is because of 50Hz power vs the us using 60Hz. The human eye can see the oscillation of the Alternating Current at 50HZ but not 60Hz.

Now for Greenhouse Gas emissions, The Scientists making all the educated claims are nothing more than over educated propeller heads. All of the world industry combined is not farting out anywhere near as much CO2 and Methane as Siberia Alone! Vulcanism is on the rise as well and that is a tremendous contributor. With Siberia thawing out all that frozen and dead plant matter is now rotting and the ground becomes swampy. That is a recipe for Methane and CO2 and considering how frikken big Siberia is!

Now let us address the human pollution issue, let us consider that we have Nuclear waste dumps sporting waste so dangerous that it will remain dangerous for MILLIONS of years. We all have Nuclear power plants and some of them leak radiation badly. There has been a simmering and understated battle over the safety of Nuclear Power Plants in Washington State where worms in Puget Sound near the plant have grown to horrendous size but the Fed is super tight lipped about it and also when people perform independent studies and surveys of the area the DOE comes in and confiscates EVERYTHING!

We are already getting warnings that seafood in general is contaminated with Mercury and I know of someone who ate nothing but sushi until he began having numbness in his hands and feet. Turned out he had mercury poisoning. We have polluted the environment with lead, arsenic, selenium, PCB, DDT, and a host of other industrial wastes and also there is all the trash and plastic waste we imposed on the environment.

Now our leaders are going to force us to use a product that is four to five times as expensive in the name of saving power? Part of it is that Power Plants are being shut down so that the power companies can charge more money for less output. Nothing more. What is worst is that none of the power companies want Co-generation because it takes money away from them.

Fluorescent bulbs also are bulkier and do not fit in the same small space as incandescent bulbs. These "Feel Good" policies make me want to gag.

How about a little population control? There are too frikken many people on this planet as it stands!

Thanks for the info. I didn't know that Walmart did that.

Do they put out enough light?

Wow.